The Last Bass Outpost
Main Forums => The Bass Zone => Topic started by: Garrett on April 03, 2011, 05:20:22 AM
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Happy Birthday to Mel Schacher!
(http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p60/gallofino/dark%20art/dsc_0062.jpg)
April 3, 1951
Mel is best known as the bassist for Grand Funk Railroad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyF5J7au1jE
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyF5J7au1jE) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW3nPqPPBDw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW3nPqPPBDw)
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I really like what Mel did, especially while GFR was still a 3-piece band. If the bass were this loud in all bands, the world would be a better place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZM25ZG6ZZU
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Happy Birthday Mel, sorry for the crapy drunk cell phone picture!
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r48/cm18/mel.jpg)
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Hate to stop the celebration, but Mel's birthday is April 8 according to the GFRR Bio Page (http://www.grandfunkrailroad.com/bios/melbio.htm).
OTOH he'll be turning 60 so maybe a five-day celebration is in order. :)
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Yeah Dave...I seen that after the fact.....I should have double checked my source, I have caught them being wrong before. But your right ;D we will just start Mel`s party early!
Great pic Heavy Chevy!
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"Best-known"? Is he known for anything except being the Grand Funk bass player? That and his white-boy 'fro!
Don't anybody mention Flint now. He was NOT known for that and btw Flint were just Grand Funk minus Mark Farner. Nice album though with the piano taking pretty much the role of the guitar as the lead instrument.
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Mark Farner really wasn't known too much for his guitar playing. However, I do admire his songwriting and singing (although he didn't write some of their songs.) Compared to Hendrix and Cream, Grand Funk was just a 3-piece garage band, but they made their mark for a moment in history. I loved doing Grand Funk covers in my first band. I lost interest in them after they became a 4-piece band.
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Mel is one of my reasons for being a bass player. My friend played me "Into The Sun" from the Live Album and after hearing that I knew I wanted to play bass! One of my favorites is this one from E Pluribus Funk. The bass solo just kills. Starts at around 3:25,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-m2YMBoH80
Happy Birthday Mel!!
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i guess he is second best known as the grand funk bassplayer who sells exotic cars.
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Didn't 3/4's of Grand Funk play in Bob Segar's backup band in the 80's?
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Didn't 3/4's of Grand Funk play in Bob Segar's backup band in the 80's?
Just 1/2 did. I saw Bob on both The Distance and American Storm tours and he had Don and Craig with him.
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Big fan, loved and still love his playing. Happy birthday!
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I really like what Mel did, especially while GFR was still a 3-piece band. If the bass were this loud in all bands, the world would be a better place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZM25ZG6ZZU
This tune, Mel and this album cover inspired me to buy my first Fender at 18 years old, of course I didn't know it was a J bass and especially didn't know he had a big ol humbucker right near the neck. I bought a new sunburst P bass in 71. I loved his sound, all those guys who used fuzz boxes like Tim Bogart, Ron Wood, Jack Bruce, Jack Casady and many many more.
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That's an iconic cover.
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"Best-known"? Is he known for anything except being the Grand Funk bass player? That and his white-boy 'fro!
Don't anybody mention Flint now. He was NOT known for that and btw Flint were just Grand Funk minus Mark Farner. Nice album though with the piano taking pretty much the role of the guitar as the lead instrument.
I didn't know it until fairly recently, but Mel Schacher played bass for Question Mark and the Mysterians. According to Wikepedia, at age 16 he was touring with them, promoting their bizarre hit "96 Tears." I don't know enough about his biography to elaborate on that, though.
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Actually, I think that Grand Funk were severely underrated as a band. From their raw beginnings which were more charming than musical, the band developed quickly both songwriting and groove-wise. Plus they had characteristic, non-anodyne vocals. Mark Farner was no Blackmore, but then he needn't be. For the hard rock field, he was a relatively sparse and tasteful lead guitarist. (Let's just shroud that godawful, disjointed solo in Locomotion in silence, ok?) Their Motown influence came more and more to the front as they matured. And I think Craig Frost joining them on organ did loads for the musicality of their sound.
I always regarded critics knocking Grand Funk as unmusical as a typical case of people nurturing their preconceptions as opposed to really listening to what went on on those later albums. Bad Time - an immediate Motown Classic had a black vocal group recorded it - was miles away from their Blue Cheerish beginnings. I guess it would have helped had Mark Farner worn a shirt on stage, but you can't have it all.
Giv'em some credit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsDMxWgPQcg
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I just really liked Mark Farner's vocals a lot. It's true I didn't like some of the Grand Funk songs as time went on (such as Locomotion,) but it isn't uncommon for a band to change musical direction as it puts out more and more albums.
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i didn't like farner's band much or his christian/right wing politics. nugent lite? and i will forever think he was the weakest guitarist at that time working in a major band, no matter how politely uwe spins it.
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I think Grand Funk's Locomotion beats both the original and the later version of the blond Aussie soap-opera star! Judging from the solo in the Grand Funk version, it was very, errrm, spirited session and that shows in a good way. I don't think they were entirely serious about the song, but they nailed its goodtime-feel. And just like with "Some kind of wonderful", I think as Detroit (Flint) boys their argument was credible that this was music they grew up with and liked. Nascent Grand Funk already had the Motown influence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIgXsIBioLI&feature=related
I think that Farner's convictions only developed over time (alienating him from his bandmates in the process, his liner comments on their three CD anthology are achingly "world conspiracy" nutcase), I can't hear a pro-Vietnam-intervention stance in "I'm your Captain/Closer to my home" though and I never found "We're an American Band" mindless in its good-natured patriotism. Hey, they even name-checked Bill Clinton's birthplace several decades ahead of his presidency! :mrgreen:
By the time Farner wrote lines like "the only way to keep America number one is for every brother to have a gun!" (on a Frank Zappa produced album!), I winced (not only about the leaden rhyme, pun intended!). But the world is full of musicians who don't exactly share my political beliefs, nor do they have to: Bryan Ferry, Alice Cooper, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Peart (in his Ayn Rand phase he claims to have left behind) etc being among them. I think it's perfectly fine to do that unless you become an inane rambling idiot like Ted Nugent who wouldn't be any better if he was advocating communism.
Another euphemism: I found Farner's guitar playing always muscular and organic. Not a metal axe hero at all. The Jim Dandy/Black Oak Arkansas look just pigeon holed him.
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Have to agree w/Uwe about GFR and being in a band back then their stuff was pretty easy to cop. Todd Rundgren produced "Locomotion", could account for the solo, lol. I also liked "Can You Do It" that Zappa produced off the Good Singin Good Playin LP.
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Actually, I think that Grand Funk were severely underrated as a band. From their raw beginnings which were more charming than musical, the band developed quickly both songwriting and groove-wise. Plus they had characteristic, non-anodyne vocals. Mark Farner was no Blackmore, but then he needn't be. For the hard rock field, he was a relatively sparse and tasteful lead guitarist. (Let's just shroud that godawful, disjointed solo in Locomotion in silence, ok?) Their Motown influence came more and more to the front as they matured. And I think Craig Frost joining them on organ did loads for the musicality of their sound.
I always regarded critics knocking Grand Funk as unmusical as a typical case of people nurturing their preconceptions as opposed to really listening to what went on on those later albums. Bad Time - an immediate Motown Classic had a black vocal group recorded it - was miles away from their Blue Cheerish beginnings. I guess it would have helped had Mark Farner worn a shirt on stage, but you can't have it all.
Giv'em some credit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsDMxWgPQcg
I have always loved GFR in large part to Mel's contribution. His place in the mix is right where the bass should be, his tone on this track in particular is fantastic. It sounds like the bass has two tracks, one clean the other slightly dirty, however he did it it sounds great.
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I didn't know it until fairly recently, but Mel Schacher played bass for Question Mark and the Mysterians. According to Wikepedia, at age 16 he was touring with them, promoting their bizarre hit "96 Tears." I don't know enough about his biography to elaborate on that, though.
He toured with them toward the end of their original existence, well after 96 Tears was off the charts. I suppose it's accurate to say they were promoting it since it was their big hit and only one or two other singles ever charted.
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He toured with them toward the end of their original existence, well after 96 Tears was off the charts. I suppose it's accurate to say they were promoting it since it was their big hit and only one or two other singles ever charted.
It wasn't clear to me from what I read what the time frame on that was. I was assuming, though, that Mel probably did not actually play on the recording of "96 Tears."
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He discussed it when he did the interview with Vintage Guitar magazine about 15 years ago. Unfortunately I don't have the issue anymore.
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He discussed it when he did the interview with Vintage Guitar magazine about 15 years ago. Unfortunately I don't have the issue anymore.
I think that would be a much more accurate source than Wikipedia that I was reading.
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a garage band that happened to write some catchy tunes....
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Sounds like a Ripper on Bad Time, certainly not like a single coil Jazz.
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Sounds like a Ripper on Bad Time, certainly not like a single coil Jazz.
I agree Uwe. The live LP Caught In The Act which was released right after All The Girls In The World Beware has photo's of Mel with both a LPB Precision Bass and a Natural Ripper.
(http://i51.tinypic.com/2d2bqx4.jpg)
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nice threads, mel. :puke:
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Sounds like a Ripper on Bad Time, certainly not like a single coil Jazz.
Could be, but don't forget that he installed a mudbucker in the Jazz as soon as he got it.
nice threads, mel. :puke:
It was the 70s.
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Sounds like a Ripper on Bad Time, certainly not like a single coil Jazz.
During at least part of the 1970s, Mel played a black P-Bass with a mirror guard. Coulda been that...
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a garage band that happened to write some catchy tunes....
A garage band that sells out Shea Stadium faster than The Beatles - is hard to call a garage band.
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A garage band that sells out Shea Stadium faster than The Beatles - is hard to call a garage band.
I wouldn't mind being in a garage band like that at all. Sign me up.
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Herr Farner with a bunch of musical retirees, a Liverpool drummer, a Canadian rhythm guitarist who ain't seen nothing yet and a late bass player among them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkYvfam4TzQ
Noteworthy for three things:
- He still sings well.
- He still plays minor scales over major harmonies :o - there goes that job with Lynyrd Skynyrd, they expect you to know the difference there! :mrgreen:
- Compared to that awful mullet, his bare chest appearances were fashion nirvana.
Must be a Detroit thing, because generally US guitarists are more major-scale prone than their British counterparts. Playing minor over major, the Nuge would do it too (though less sorely standing out than Herr Farner). Just read an interview with Doug Aldrich, the current Whitesnake guitarist, about his early eighties audition with Kiss - Creatures of the Night era. All went well until Gene Simmons asked him: "Do you only play in minor?" And poor Doug had no idea what Gene was talking about.
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Mark Farner is no Little Eva. But you're right, he still sings well.
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Worst. Hair. Ever.
That said, there's something rather mesmerizing about watching two drummers.
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you sure that's not woody harrelson playing mark farner.
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He could actually play him should Grand Funk ever be awarded the honor of a biopic (probably a good story to tell too with Terry Knight as their svengali). The likeness is unsettling, I thought as much when I saw the clip too.
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I was going to mention this one but Ray beat me to it...
(jump to 4.00)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LZMmB2VZO4
and maybe something vintage...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7IdTFDO2HQ&feature=related
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I was going to mention this one but Ray beat me to it...
(jump to 4.00)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LZMmB2VZO4
and maybe something vintage...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7IdTFDO2HQ&feature=related
I really enjoyed Good Singing, Good Playing.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v104/Fenderbird/Musicians/FZ_GFR.jpg)
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Ironically, that last album, though commercially a disaster, also had the best reviews in the rock press. The fact that Zappa lent his hands to their production made people rethink their pre-conceptions about the Flint boys. Even the NME was gracious with it.