The Last Bass Outpost

Comparatively recently on a modern Gibson one (not that he shuns away from Epis either when he plays live) with the Vinnie Moore UFO line up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHE3-FOrDkw&feature=related

In halcyon daze (1978) wiff Herr Schenker on a Bicentennial***:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9U3u-FIoJU&feature=related

***There is a newspaper clipping in the booklet of the recent UFO Obsession remaster where Pete Way says that he used an EB-1 to record that particular track on Obsession, calling it a "Gibson violin bass". If he did, it must have been a fifties model or a later one with different pups, can't imagine he used a mudbucker for that sound. Or that Ron Nevison, who isn't known for bass-heavy production work, would have let him!   

http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/News/?Index=2&Path=/en-us/Lifestyle/News/fergie-and-slash-play-sweet-ch





Also, conclusive and final proof for what I've always said: Axel sings like an - ill-tempered  -woman. Fergie's tone is much nicer as is her butt.

Quite a stunning Barracuda rendition too.




Uwe

May I rise on the Uncoolometer again? I like the new Chicago album "Stone of Sisyphus"  which is really from the early nineties and only saw official release on Rhino now. In the early nineties it actually led to Chicago parting ways with their then record company (Warner Bros I think) because the record company thought the album too little AOR and too much off-the-wall horn work while Chicago would not budge after years of outside writer ballad albums and the carrot being dangled before their face: "Yes, you can do a horn rock album again, after you've finished this one with the ballads that is." 



Mind you, that album still has a bit too much late eighties/early nineties production sheen to it, some synths could have been left away and there is (group penned) ballads and AOR'ish melodies on it too, but the horns are really up front (not tucked away on "special horn mixes" on single B sides as in the latter Cetera years) and inventive, played with reckless enthusiasm. Unleashed so to to say.

And there is a beautiful ballad on it written by Peter Cetera replacement Jason Scheff for his father who played bass with Elvis. It's called "Bigger than Elvis" and tells how Jason as a boy admired and missed his father on those long Elvis tours. And he even got his father to play bass on that song with the vocals muted out, so his dad wouldn't know about the lyrical content until he finally heard the completed song which had the old man sob ... now where's my hankerchief, I'm a hopeless romantic ...

Uwe

.. look at me now ...

I saw Herr Young (Neil Y. to be exact) in Oberhausen (a six thousand seater hall he had sold out) yesterday. A first time for me. 5 to 6 hour drive both ways, but it was worth it. He sure is old, but he doesn't lack passion and his voice sounds as it always did, cutting through the sonic melée at any given time with ease.

I marvel at his ability to still play guitar with the rawness and childlike wonder of someone who just picked that instrument up a year ago. He is constantly soloing, bum notes, risque timing and missed strings and all, in the electric part of his two hour set which has all the songs stretch out endlessly. But he makes you watch him because he is taking chances and his playing has Jack White of the White Stripes sound polished in comparison.

The contrast between his raw electric guitar playing (he plays it like Bob Dylan plays harp  , while Young's own harp playing is very accurate) and his disciplined acoustic guitar and organ playing, his pitch-perfect singing and the smooth harmonies of his (competent if nothing else) backing band really struck me.

And I admire his guts for playing Lennon's "A day in the life" as the (solitary but wholly satisfying) encore. He pulled that song (which is rarely played by anyone) off with all the grandeur it deserves ("Got up, got out of bed ..." part and the grand finale included). And as he stood there at the end, his guitar unstrapped, shaking and knocking it about wildly for feedback and general mayhem while at the same singing the fading vocal lines of "A day in the life" sweetly into the microphone, I couldn't help but think that I was watching the last of a dying breed and that Herr Lennon would have been touched and proud.

Uwe

"Squeezing a racquetball is tremendous for hand and finger strength---Every bassist should always have a few "close at hand"."

 
http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Lifestyle/Lessons/InstrumentLessons/Essential%20Insights%20For%20The%20Bas/

Come back Jeff Berlin, all is forgiven!!!

Hurry, this stuff is getting rarer and rarer, havn't seen a pre-CBS mudbucker in a long time ...

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-GIBSON-GUITAR-BASS-PICKUP-PRE-CBS-WITH-CONTROLS_W0QQitemZ290241473509QQihZ019QQcategoryZ2384QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Of course, the lawyer in me could argue that it is not inherently a wrong statement as CBS - now in the guise of Sony - could still launch a corporate attack on Gibson today and then ...

The Fender stuff from the Kalamazoo plant is great too. Much better than what they manufactured in that California dump.


 

... well maybe not the best, but 2 hours of splendid entertainment courtesy of Messrs Stanley, Simmons, Thayer and Singer yesterday night in Mannheim.

I, like my 13 year old son who was with me, had never been to a Kiss spectacle (and a spectacle it was) before, but I was expecting a barrage of dry ice, platforms to and fro the ceiling, explosions, confetti bombs, blood, firebreathing, flames erupting from myriads of speakers, people hanging in midair etc. Yet what I saw was not just a barrage, but an avalanche of these effects. Pleasantly overwhelming.

They played their first Alive album in full - not more than half of those songs have aged anything near gracefully, some of those minimalist compositions should be committed to the eternal vaults for good. Plus Shout it out loud, Detroit Rock City, Love Gun, I was made for loving you, I love it loud and Lick it up (interpolating a little of The Who's Won't get fooled again) as encores.

Stanley's gyrations aren't as smooth as they used to be and his - still bare chested - body is well-trained, but it's the trained body of an old man which is drained of the fatty tissue in the right places that are associated with eternal youth - that goes especially for all four of his cheeks!  Vocally, his raspy screech sounds sometimes brittle these days and they should do him the favor of tuning down I was made for loving you a halfstep or two, it was painful to hear him sing it as one of the encores, maybe he can still do it earlier in the set.

People always compare Simmons' appearance unfavorably to Stanley's, but I actually found him younger looking, the leathery appearance goes well with the dragon costume and he hasn't dieted himself down to Paul's long face. His voice has also held up better. Never really a singer, he can still do his trademark bellowing and hit the notes (albeit lower ones than Paul has to screech).

Thayer and Singer are at least a decade younger and look outright cherubic underneath their makeup plus have young men's agility. While they emulate Frehley's and Criss' styles and trademarks, they are both much better players. Thayer is less angular in his playing than his role model (and carefully soloing as if Eddie van Halen had never happened) and Singer drums altogether beefier with some technical flash showing (very) occasionally what he could do if they would let him. He sings the Peter Criss songs well enough, though Peter has more warmth in his voice. The youthful energy and enthusiasm of the hired hands complements Stanley's and Simmon's road weary veterans look and attitude well.

It always brings a smile to my face how much an old-style rock'n'roll player Gene really is.

Of all the effects, I found this one the best (Kiss Army grunts have probably seen it a hundred times). During the encore, Paul starts massaging "the people back in the hall", taunting them to "call my name and I will come over and play for you". So they do and some hookstyle contraption descends fron the hall ceiling into which Paul steps with one foot/platformsole to then grab the rod of the contraption and be pulled over the audience hanging in midair onto a smaller stage at the back of the hall where he is let off and commences to play Love Gun by himself with the other guys backing him from the main stage. Cute.

The last two concerts I have recently seen were Roger Waters in The Netherlands and Bon Jovi just a week ago in Frankfurt. Both had certainly many more musical moments and/or surprises (Bon Jovi did a great motwonish version of Duffy's current "Mercy" hit), but Kiss left neither my son  ("Kiss is not even a real rock band, dad!" he had moaned before, disappointed that he would not be able to see Judas Priest as he's on vacation when they play here in two weeks) nor me unentertained or dissatisfied.

Uwe

Never seen that with the tiger stripe maple/vintage sunburst combo before:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1993-Gibson-Les-Paul-Deluxe-Bass-Guitar-USA-Bartolini_W0QQitemZ280231733512QQihZ018QQcategoryZ64402QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem





Even the most fervent black hardware haters will have to admit this looks good.