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Ever met a bass hero?


J.A.

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At my last job at a recording studio, I met many great players, most unheard of, who were playing their asses off, enjoying themselves, and getting paid. That's your hero, right there.

 

"Names" I've met, partied with, worked for, whatever:

Jack Bruce was very cool, a nice guy. Bought us all lunch. He let me take his basses to his hotel by myself. Sweet.

 

Eddie Palmieri might be the nicest "celebrity" I have met. Without fail, pleasant and thoughtful.

 

Dunn from Mr Bungle, one of my favorite players. Met him after a show, saw him after another show a couple years later-he remembered me. A talker, IIRC.

 

P-nut from 311 was also nice. Met him way back on the "Music" tour. He kind of seemed overwhelmed at the attention the band was starting to get.

 

The Strokes were actually much nicer than I had been led to believe they would be. Really.

 

Toots and The Maytals-really, unbelievably sweet people. I helped Toots find, uh, something green.

 

Burning Spear likewise, but he/they were pretty quiet, kept to themselves mostly.

 

Not bass players, but Jack Black seemed both quiet and rushed when I met him, and Harold Ramis seemed preoccupied.

 

As has been said, bass "stars" are just like the rest of us. They pull their pants on one leg at a time. The only difference is, when they're done, they make gold records.

 

Peace,

 

wraub

 

I'm a lot more like I am now than I was when I got here.

 

 

 

 

 

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I didn't meet these guys, but two members of my now-defunct band had a couple of good stories, so I thought I'd share with the class.

 

The guitar player met Dirk Lance (formerly of Incubus) during the S.C.I.E.N.C.E. tour, and Dirk took off his own shoe, signed it with his real name "Alex", and gave it to him.

 

My drummer met Flea a couple years back in a hotel in OKC, and without mentioning anything about music, said "You were great in 'The Big Lebowski.'" He was. :)

Ah, nice marmot.
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Peter Albin, from Big Brother in the Holding Company. What a sweet, kind man. Janis really should have stuck with him!

A WOP BOP A LU BOP, A LOP BAM BOOM!

 

"There is nothing I regret so much as my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?" -Henry David Thoreau

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Not particularly a musical hero of mine, but I've had a few beers with Jean Jaques Burnell of The Stranglers. He was very good company.

 

I once shared a (very large) dressing room with Ian Dury's band, including the suberb bassist Norman Watt Roy, who played the great line on "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick". As with Jean Jaques, this was in my pre bass-playing days and I'm ashamed to say I wasn't much interested in Norman and didn't do much more than exchange hellos.

 

I haven't met any famous bass-players since switching to bass, but I did meet James Brown, who as the virtual inventor of funk and discoverer of Bootsy probably did more for bassplaying than 99% of bassists. He was a very gracious and friendly guy, the time I met him at least. ;)

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Originally posted by Scoot:

Originally posted by Bumpcity:

Jeff Ahment

, . Bump, as your punishment for misspelling Mr. Ament's name, you must write "anyhoo" on the chalkboard 100 times.
Dammit all to hell. That's the last time I use Google to spell check someone's name. It actually doesn't bother me that I misspelled his name. The guy is an a-hole.

 

This is going to kill me:

 

Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo. Anyhoo.

 

I feel all dirty. I need to have a shower.

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Not a bass hero.....but a groove hero. I met Bernard Purdie in Minneapolis. It was just as I expected. He was very nice but not short on self appreciation. I was totally starstruck,unfortunately. He is one of my favorite drummers ever.
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Anybody here ever met McCartney?

 

I haven't, but...

 

I was acquainted with a music biz guy who had some dealings with him. He had even been to his home on one occasion. From what he said, McCartney was very friendly but was also very much aware that he needed to "be Paul McCartney" for his guests/fans. He made a point to do photos with the people he was with and spend time interacting with folks.

 

I always figured that skit he did with Chris Farley pretty accurately reflected the way he would interact with strangers and acquaintances. Ploite, reasonably accomodating, but still a bit distant. It's got to be tough to develop true friendships and interact with strangers when you're living in a world like his.

Mudcat's music on Soundclick

 

"Work hard. Rock hard. Eat hard. Sleep hard. Grow big. Wear glasses if you need 'em."-The Webb Wilder Credo-

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Originally posted by Scoot:

 

My drummer met Flea a couple years back in a hotel in OKC, and without mentioning anything about music, said "You were great in 'The Big Lebowski.'" He was. :)

That's awesome, Flea was quite good in "The Chase" too. It'd be funny to meet someone famous and act like you think they're someone else. At a Ryan Adams show, a guy yelled "Play 'Summer of 69'" (the Bryan Adams song)and Ryan Adams got pissed off and said he wouldn't play anymore until the guy left. So the guy left. I don't know about the rest of you, but that makes Ryan Adams a d*ck. If someone pays money to see me play, I don't care if he thinks I'm Kenny Rogers.
Insert inaccurate quote here
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On friday in my adeventures at warped tour i managed 2 meet 2 of my personal bass heros, jay bentley from bad religion and geoff kresge, the URB player from tiger army who not only plays his bass, but also rides it! http://tigerarmy.com/images/LIVE%20SETS/Warped%201/09.JPG

 

I had very short meetings with both of them pretty much like a handshake-thanks-for-the-great-show kind of thing but both of theem seeme dlike very nice people, i didnt really talk with geoff because he was sort of crowded by crazed, autograph wanting fans at the time but i managed to catch mister bentley at a time when he wasnt too crowded. He seems very much like a people person, not snobby in any way shape or form, very down to earth kind of guy. when i told him i almost passed out in the bad religion mosh pit he replied with "well its a damn good thing you didnt dude!". he also seemed to be very humble about his talent, when i told him i played bass and he was one of my favourite players and he inspired my playing alot he said, half joking i believe "wow thanks kid, i always thought i was too shitty to inspire anyone's bass playing!" after that was some laughter and an exchange of "nice to meet yous" and i was off. I think its great that someone in a band like bad religion, who i think its safe to say are punk rock legends by now, can be so humble and down to earth about his whole situation, he didnt seem like "the bassist from bad religion" he wa smore like a nice guy who happens to play bass for bad religion. it was cool.

 

Unfortunately i didnt get to meet anyone from anti-flag, i think they werent hanging out because of the fact that their lead singer/ guitarist Justin Sane is highly allergic to any kind of smoke and the sheer amount of people smoking would've given him a bad alergic reaction if he went any closer than stage level, i guess the other guys satyed with him because they like to hang out as a band? i dunno, maybe they were meeting people somewhere and i didnt see them but anyway, i did get to see their set which was incredible. Anti-flag are probably the most peaceful people around, the only people they hate are the government :D . it was quite a fun show to be at, instead of doing the devil horns thing they made everyone in the crowd put up peace signs!

 

anyway i'm getting a little off topic for this thread, the point is i met one of my bass heros and he was cool.

 

peace

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Unfortunately i didnt get to meet anyone from anti-flag
I met Pat (the drummer) from Anti Flag when they played a show in Seattle about a year ago. The show was sold out so we approached him outside and he put us on the guestlist.

 

Warped tour kinda sucks for meeting band members, but there is a club in Seattle where it seems like the bands always just stand around outside after their sets. Down there I have met alot of punk bands (Anti Flag, Bounsing Souls, Flogging Molly, Against Me.....) there but no bassists I would describe as my idols.

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Originally posted by PickPunk:

geoff kresge, the URB player from tiger army who not only plays his bass, but also rides it!

http://tigerarmy.com/images/LIVE%20SETS/Warped%201/09.JPG

That's insane! Is the bass propped up solidly, or is he balancing it with his weight?
All your bass are belong to us!
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What's insane? Not the bass antics.

 

It's the band that's totally committing, and the audience sitting there politely...how'd THAT happen?

 

We have more action than that in the old folks home with the bluegrass band.

Yep. I'm the other voice in the head of davebrownbass.
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Discombobulation: i think he tips it over so it balanced with the edge of the body and the bass's stand (correct terminology?) and then he keeps it down with his weight. He only did this during one song at the show i saw, one of the easier songs basswise i think, occasionally he also like to turn his bass upside down and spin it around on its head stock :D , so all you URB players, its not just an instrument, its a prop as well! ;)

 

dave: yea i thought that picture looked kind of strange but then i realized that tiger army's music is a lot less "hardcore" then most of the other bands at warped tour, when i was in the tiger army pit i did notice that it was alot more mellow than say..anti-flag's pit, people were grooving more than moshing for tiger army, which was a nice break from getting squished against 6'5" dudes all day.

 

peace

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This is dating me at least two generations back, but my most inspiring meeting was with Felix Pappalardi behind the stage after a Mountain set in Staten Island, NY back in 1970. We were both pretty drunk but he shared a lot about his insights into listening and playing music, not just on a technical level but on a intellectual and spiritual level as well. I know people who knew him much more than I and can tell you way more about him, but that night and that moment illustrated the Buddhist concept of the teacher appearing when the student was ready.

 

My meetings with Jack Bruce and Jaco Pastorius were less memorable: Jack just walked away when I offered my hand, and Jaco was about to speak to me when a small kid handed him a basketball and he ran off to join a street game in progress. I figured I could meet up with him another time, but that was about two months before his fatal beating in Florida.

 

Before I forget, there was Ron Carter. over 6 feet tall, he played a great set with his quartet, then a waiter came over to our table to tell me and my friend it was reserved for the band. Ron overhead that, told the waiter it was OK, and everyone sat down together; naturally, Ron sat down next to me. I was a bit blown away (not chemically but emotionally) after seeing what he could do) but he urged me to talk and I enjoyed another conversation with a bass hero.

 

Not every musician has the time and the "coolness" to sit down with the average fan to shoot the breeze, but when that moment happens to you, it more than makes up for the times a "star" just breezes by you. I hope you all get the chance to have a moment like that for yourselves.

:cool:

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I met Alain Caron while in tour with his Le Band project, featuring also Dave Garibaldi on drums,

both extremely nice guys.

When they came to play in the club I used to work in, we drove them to a restaurant after the sound check, and Dave was so happy with the food that he asked for the cook to come to the table where the band was eating, and asked him an autograph!

Really amazing. :D:D

 

:wave:

www.myspace.com/fabrizioruggiero

www.myspace.com/vanalientribute

 

Who are we? People.

Where do we come from? Home.

Where are we going to? Home.

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I met Geddy Lee at an Atlanta Braves baseball game a couple of weeks ago. Then when we returned to our hotel he was there in the lounge with a few of his peeps. The only table available was right next to the guy & the next thing I know I'm in a big conversation with him about baseball. BTW he's a big Cub fan. Really a cool dude & just an average conversation in a bar with someone who happens to be famous.
"I'm not a monkey anymore..."
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I took lessons from Chuck Rainey also. I shook for 45 minutes of every hour. It was like taking lessons from Paul, Flea, John Paul, Geezer, Will,...all in one. I was amazed also how down-to-earth he was. He doesn't care who you are, where you've been etc...He treats everybody with respect and love. I'm still in contact with him...and he is still super cool!

Vince

 

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." ~ Pablo Picasso

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