Cataldo 12 string three pickup Nonreverse Thunderbird.

[godofthunder]

  Btw thie bass was originally commissioned  by Todd Hines and cycled through several owners. I purchased it from Joe Mendozza.

[uwe]

"This bass has limited applications ..."

You've said it, Scott, that sums up 12-String basses. They are a wonder to play and hear for a song or two, but after a while the ultra-stiffness (No bending! How can someone like you of all people come to grips with that!  ) gets to you. They don't lend themselves to expressive, nuanced playing. And you're not really maneuverable with those things either, it's a bit like flying a P-38! 



Beautiful and impressive-looking plane, yet a bitch to fly and not dog-fight flexible at all.

But I'm happy you found one for yourself. It looks nice (for a Non-Rev!).


PS: So the fearsome Scott of Thunder is a closet folkie. The mind tongue boggles ...

[westen44]

Not only could I never get a grasp of folk (with the exception of Dylan,) I also could never relate to gospel.  My mother said as a pre-schooler I hated gospel so much, that whenever it was played, tears would come to my eyes and I would beg for it to stop. 

[uwe]

My (fully agnostic) mom liked Mahalia Jackson, so I grew up with it. She was still popular in Germany when her star had faded in the US. My wife likes gospel or anything with a gospel influence too - she's a great fan of black women singers.






How can you not like this? 

[westen44]

I do like "Oh Happy Day."  In fact, when George Harrison was falsely accused of plagiarizing on "My Sweet Lord, I think he said it was "Oh Happy Day" that had influenced him, not "He's So Fine."

What I don't like is most traditional Southern gospel music.  I won't even try to list the examples.  There are many.  But especially as  a child I didn't like it and I doubt if anything could have been done about it.  Also, most of what I'm talking about is gospel music by white people, not necessarily black.  I've got a cousin whose favorite genre is Southern gospel.  Which goes to show upbringing and genetics may have not have much to do with this.

As I got a little older, my favorite music was mostly Little Richard. My father was an engineer at a radio station and brought back the discarded records they didn't need.  That's mostly how I got so much exposure to it.  I'm sure Little Richard must have been influenced by gospel, but that isn't the point. 

[uwe]

Well, didn't he turn out to be a reverend after having served as the high priest of a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom?

[westen44]

Well, didn't he turn out to be a reverend after having served as the high priest of a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom?

I've mentioned this in other posts.  The drummer from our first band somehow ended up going on tour as the band opening for Little Richard.  He has told stories I wouldn't repeat anywhere under any condition.  I would have doubts about Little Richard.  But that doesn't take away from his music which I thoroughly liked.  Also, at some point it really is possible he turned over a new leaf.

[morrow]

Bette Midler said Little Richard’s autobiography was so hot it popped the curlers right off her head .
So I bought it .

[uwe]

Given the wonderful, but histrionic music he made, I'd be severely disappointed if he had led a dull private life. I never thought he might be Bill Haley.

And there would have been no Prince without him.

[westen44]

Now they have banging guitar and no bass and call it rock, but that's not what I call rock--

Little Richard

[Granny Gremlin]

I'm still laughing that anyone is trying to 'get' the Ramones and Lemmy. 

All you need to know about The Ramones is within the (subtly genius) lyrics of Rockaway Beach

Chewing out a rhythm on my bubble gum
The sun is high, and I want some
It's not hard not far to reach
We can head to Rockaway Beach
Up on the roof, out on the street
Down in the playground the hot concrete
Bus ride is too slow
They blast out the disco on the radio

Strangely, it seems there is an adament agreement across the decades between Dee Dee here (who wrote all their best lyrics - and continued to do so after he left the band) and Lizzo - it's all about the tempo (though granted, the Lizzo track is ironically slow, esp compared to anything by the Ramones, but perhaps that was to be demonstrative of the thesis as seems to be visually suggested in the video).



Anyway, that's a cool ass bass and a righteously knarley sound with the MArshall, Scott.  I am surprised Uwe isn't more into it because that's definately one angry ass piano, but I'll cut him some slack on account of getting old (pulling out the ELO; it'll be muzak next ;P).

[Dave W]

I posted this once before, Specialty Records owner Art Rupe discusses the discovery of Little Richard.

Art is apparently still with us at age 104.

[uwe]

Sigh ..., let me tell you something, Simba Jake:

I left the "angry piano sound" behind long ago! I woke up one day and was tired of it after having loved it for about two decades or so. I always wanted my bass to sound like this here:



No, not like the bass guitar in that song, I wanted it to sound like the Hohner Clavinet D6 that comes in at 00:44!  I only realized sometime in the late 80ies that that adorable sound came from a keyboard and that my quest had been futile.  Mind you, I still love that sound, but I now play with keyboarders and leave it in their capable hands, always urging them to "play some more clavinet".

Now, in the sunset of my bass playing days, I guess my dream bass sound is more like this here:



Now don't tell me that is a keyboard too!!! 

[uwe]

I'm still laughing that anyone is trying to 'get' the Ramones and Lemmy. 

All you need to know about The Ramones is within the (subtly genius) lyrics of Rockaway Beach

Chewing out a rhythm on my bubble gum
The sun is high, and I want some
It's not hard not far to reach
We can head to Rockaway Beach
Up on the roof, out on the street
Down in the playground the hot concrete
Bus ride is too slow
They blast out the disco on the radio

In 1988 I surprised all my working colleagues in Midtown Manhattan with my desire  to "go to Rockaway Beach". They went: "Are you serious, no one goes there anymore. It's not really safe either." Well, I did, "up on the roof, out in the street". And loved the morbid atmosphere of it all, it was like walking an entertainment graveyard (and I love cemeteries). But the inspiration came from the Ramones, no doubt. Ric Ocasek homaged it too:



Thinking about it, there are definitely parallels - visually and vocally - between Joey R and Ric O. I wonder what they thought about each other.

[4stringer77]

Everyone should definitely love Oh Happy Day. Mahalia is a national treasure who should be appreciated in her home country as much if not more than she is in Germany. The Quincy Jones version of Oh Happy Day is hip. I think Ray Brown played electric bass on this.



Gospel is the soul of American music. There would be no rock if not for the wellspring of Gospel which is Ironic I suppose. Son House battled with the dichotomy of playing the Devil's music versus serving the Lord. Elvis ,The King of Rock was an unabashed Gospel fan. In my opinion the band Stuff wouldn't have amounted to much if not for Richard Tee's gospel drenched piano playing.



Hard to understand how people can stray so far off the path. Whitney Houston was rooted in the church and ended up astray. Even though he faltered , Elvis still gives me inspiration with songs like this.