The Last Bass Outpost

Main Forums => The Bass Zone => Topic started by: Hörnisse on September 14, 2014, 10:37:54 AM

Title: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Hörnisse on September 14, 2014, 10:37:54 AM
 :sad:

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/john-gustafson-dies/
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: lowend1 on September 14, 2014, 11:52:58 AM
Damn, that guy could sing.
Vaya con dios...

(with Ian Gillan at the end - great bass line too)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghWUnZe1CVY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KwxCXZUDk
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Highlander on September 14, 2014, 02:48:41 PM
I remember visiting Kingsway Recorders in the late seventies and seeing IG's Decca gold disc for the JCSS recording on the wall; it was shortly after taking this picture of John at the Marquee with IGB...

RIP, John... rip...

(http://i655.photobucket.com/albums/uu280/kjrstewart/random%20stuff/IGB4.jpg)

None of us is getting any younger... :sad:
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: nofi on September 14, 2014, 07:15:04 PM
no quatermass fans here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFy4liIpREQ
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Hörnisse on September 14, 2014, 09:12:33 PM
My first exposure to him was this cool bass line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE49NdNnBxA
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Pekka on September 15, 2014, 01:19:43 PM
Very sad news. Big Gus fan here, both his bass playing and singing. Love the Quatermass album and some of my fav sessions he did include
Roxy Music: Country Life & Siren
Shawn Phillips: Furthermore
Ablution: s/t
Ian Hunter: Lounge Lizard (off "Ian Hunter")

Has anyone heard the The Big Three album from the early 70's called "Resurrection"?
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: uwe on September 16, 2014, 02:21:49 PM
That is soooooooo unsettling ... I just visited this thread for the first time and you know what blared on my office stereo? The Ian Gillan Band's Poor Boy Hero from Scarabus, with John Gustafson on bass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ulyhXZi6JU

And I was thinking, Uwe you're getting older, you can't be the credible hard rocker much longer, you should consider playing music like the Ian Gillan Band did (I just had dinner with the keyboarder of our band who wants to leave and take me with him for something new).

What can I say ... John Gustafson is among the top 10, possibly even top 5 of my favourite bassists, I loved his work with Quatermass (you're not alone, Nofi!), Roxy Music and of course the Ian Gillan Band. Not to mention the Merseybeats, Hard Stuff, Gordon Giltrap, Rick Wakeman, The Pirates - he was quite a journeyman. So sad. Huge influence. To this day, when I pretend to funk, most of the licks are ripped off him.

He wrote (and played) that bass run here and you actually see him in the vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF2OnLuH2WY

I think this song fits perfectly right now, him and Ian Gillan exchanging vocal lines on this poignant ballad fron IGB's debut:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmjQoBUq_E8

A pick player (like me), he was always a little ahead of the beat (like me!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQR9BY2nVyY


 
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: uwe on September 16, 2014, 03:51:04 PM
With Roxy buddy Eddie Jobson (violin and cheekbones) and a couple of other luminaries (Eddie Hardin, Ray Fenwick, Les Binks, Mo Foster, Jon Lord etc) at the vanity project of some "one hit wonder" (quoted after the Rock and Roll Hall of Shame) bass player (in silly blue hippie vest) whose name I have miraculously forgotten ... Roger Simper-Hughes, right!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhiHrtRl1bo

That is the great Mo Foster on fretless on that track!
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Highlander on September 16, 2014, 04:09:46 PM
I didn't get the reference to the blue top at first... irony... :mrgreen:
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: uwe on September 16, 2014, 04:44:24 PM
A lasting affliction with me.
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: gweimer on September 16, 2014, 07:27:02 PM
What I remember most is the stuff he laid down on Country Life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F4GkOEef2M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpvfQZQi71I

Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: uwe on September 17, 2014, 05:54:58 AM
 I thought you yanks weren't allowed to see that cover for fear of getting carried away ...  :mrgreen: Two fine German girls btw.
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: gearHed289 on September 17, 2014, 08:21:46 AM
With Roxy buddy Eddie Jobson (violin and cheekbones) and a couple of other luminaries (Eddie Hardin, Ray Fenwick, Les Binks, Mo Foster, Jon Lord etc) at the vanity project of some "one hit wonder" (quoted after the Rock and Roll Hall of Shame) bass player (in silly blue hippie vest) whose name I have miraculously forgotten ... Roger Simper-Hughes, right!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhiHrtRl1bo

That is the great Mo Foster on fretless on that track!

Cool vid. Big Jobson fan. Geez, he was only 20 years old here! What is this from?
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: uwe on September 17, 2014, 09:35:17 AM
Roger Glover's first solo album post DP-resignation: The Butterfly Ball & the Grasshopper's Feast (a children's illustrated book that was supposed to be turned into an animated movie, it was basically a soundtrack work).

(http://covers1.img-themusic-world.info/000/20/20653.jpg)

He delved back deeply into his Beatles background for the music.

The financing went awry and a live concert was staged (with Vincent Price as the narrator) with lots of Purplelites (even from the then new Burn line-up, Roger was graceful enough) and assorted Brit rock stars. But that didn't garner the necessary financial interest for the project either though the concert was well-visited (it was also Ian Gillan's return to the stage after his departure from DP, he deputized for Ronnie Dio who had sung on the album, but Blackmore - by then his boss in Rainbow - didn't allow him to do the concert with Roger).

The studio album is still readily available in remastered form, but the live gig (which was recorded and turned into a concert movie at the time) has all kinds of publishing rights hassles affiliated to it, a VHS that came out ages ago was quickly injuncted from the market. Since then Roger has talked again and again about remixing it properly and bringing it out again, but I think he has given up by now, it's just too difficult. I'm surprised the stuff is on Youtube, I've never seen it before myself and I'm the resident Purp Nerd!

The project even spawned two reasonable single hits, the Dio-sung Beatles spoof "Love is All (you need)" ( a pun on All You Need is Love), note how the cheap animation in it has nothing to do with the intricate drawings in the book

(http://www.debutart.com//media/19447/large/debutart_alan-aldridge_14203.jpg)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m-095okyQY

and the John Lawton sung Little Chalk Blue (a blueprint for many Uriah Heep ballads he would sing when he joined that band in part on the strength of that particular gig which gave him visibility in the UK, he lived in Germany at the time)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bIqka5VNkI

The album is full of little gems of people singing out of their mold, here is the boy from Redcar long before he became entangled with C movie American actrices who would crawl on Jaguar hoods...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpxsea9XXA4


Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Pekka on September 17, 2014, 12:28:53 PM
John penned two tracks for this session, one being this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWO64DJz9Wc

He could have been a great singer for some heavy metal band:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-swt7qgA84

I believe he played also with Al Jarreau, don't know if he is on any of his albums 'though. Uwe?

Any Shawn Phillips fans? His 1974 album "Furthermore" features John and Peter Robinson and some great playing from both gentlemen.
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Pekka on September 17, 2014, 12:40:40 PM
This is one of my fav IGB tracks and John's bass is really pushing the track forward. His backing vocals very prominent too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGJk6Y3GKJA

Does anybody have his solo album "Goose Grease"?
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: gearHed289 on September 18, 2014, 07:37:02 AM
Cool. Would be great to see the concert make it to DVD some day.

That "Love is All" video... Holy 70s! Funny to hear Dio sing something like that too.
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: uwe on September 18, 2014, 09:50:54 AM
Dio was such a variable singer before Blackers got him in his medieval claws and turned him into this hard rock/heavy metal swords & scorcery (diminutive) behemoth. Of course he did that well too, but at the price of everything else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7vOgPIXfiU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zABqvT9BP-Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-c_0-ufRtk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9MKHXgt5pg

Sure I have Goose Grease, Pekka, wasn't aware of the Al Jarreau connection though.
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Highlander on September 19, 2014, 05:03:58 PM
John live with IGB and another interpretation of that "standard"...

Found the whole recording...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFdaqfM7BnA
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Pekka on April 07, 2016, 12:08:43 PM
Found this tribute from Gordon Giltrap's site:
http://www.giltrap.co.uk/news/f/General_News/4657 (http://www.giltrap.co.uk/news/f/General_News/4657)

Also this warm tribute:
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/whitstable/news/friends-and-family-pay-last-24138/ (http://www.kentonline.co.uk/whitstable/news/friends-and-family-pay-last-24138/)
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: uwe on April 07, 2016, 02:15:48 PM
Pekka goes about resurrecting the dead!

(http://p5.focus.de/img/fotos/origs4587063/0648518377-w630-h472-o-q75-p5/urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-150402-99-02668-large-4-3.jpg)

But John G. deserves it.
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Highlander on April 07, 2016, 02:21:46 PM
Where's the like button...? :mrgreen:
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Alanko on April 08, 2016, 04:13:59 AM
I really like what he did with Quatermass. They don't seem to get a lot of love, but I see them as a sort of hard rock ELP. I really like their track "Post War, Saturday Echo", which has some cool lead bass breaks in it recorded on what sounds like an 8 string.

Love their album cover.

(http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/770/cover_523022982009.jpg)
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: nofi on April 08, 2016, 06:07:28 AM
they get no love because most of the great unwashed never heard of them. i bought this record new and still listen to it on occasion. great band. also liked jg's work with shawn philips. before you jump uwe, just because its old does not make it classis rock imo.
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Alanko on April 08, 2016, 08:37:38 AM
Rainbow of course covered Black Sheep of the Family....  :rolleyes:

I've spent a productive day re-listening to Quatermass's album. It is definitely a studio work, with lots of piano and organ overdubbing that I guess wouldn't work out live without more musicians. There is also a proggy element with synths and ringmods and other elements.
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Pekka on April 08, 2016, 09:38:57 AM
I really like what he did with Quatermass. They don't seem to get a lot of love, but I see them as a sort of hard rock ELP. I really like their track "Post War, Saturday Echo", which has some cool lead bass breaks in it recorded on what sounds like an 8 string.

Love their album cover.

(http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/770/cover_523022982009.jpg)
It has an octave divider, Peter Robinson says so in the Esoteric reissue liner notes.
Great album that gets lots of love within the prog circles.
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Pete-C on April 11, 2016, 09:59:26 AM
He was a talented guy
I seem to remember that him along with percy jones , Entwistle and a couple of others were involved in the early wal bass designing and refinements ,the first run of basses were named Wal JG models after him before the pro a d custom models.
R.i.P.
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: uwe on April 13, 2016, 05:47:25 AM
they get no love because most of the great unwashed never heard of them. i bought this record new and still listen to it on occasion. great band. also liked jg's work with shawn philips. before you jump uwe, just because its old does not make it classis rock imo.

Too uncommercial and musicians' music to be classic rock, I'm with you. Prog rock in the positive sense of the word, a little on the obscure side. Like the album too, a lavish remaster with even a 5.1 mix came out a few years ago, worth looking out for.

The keyboard guy later on became a Phil Collins sideman.
Title: Quatermass footage!
Post by: Pekka on September 19, 2016, 10:41:43 AM
Finally some! Their last single which reminds me of Purple's "Smooth Dancer" (oddly released few years later...).
Johnny sporting a Fender Jazz and Sonja Kristina hair. Great stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWyIoBzaPAg
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: uwe on September 20, 2016, 10:02:38 AM
Wow - that is rare footage. For a non-guitar band, they really rocked.
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: amptech on September 20, 2016, 10:32:39 PM
Way cool!
Title: Re: R.I.P. John Gustafson
Post by: Alanko on September 21, 2016, 01:35:04 AM
I know of some potentially live colour footage of Quatermass that was included in the German TV show.

Screenshots here: http://www.carolhynson.co.uk/quatermass/live.htm (http://www.carolhynson.co.uk/quatermass/live.htm)

Somebody must have a copy?!