Mars Cowling RIP

Started by lowend1, March 21, 2018, 01:34:52 PM

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lowend1

March 21, 2018, 01:34:52 PM
Bummed. A great one - and a huge influence on my own playing. The rhythm section he built with Tommy Aldridge was one for the ages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6jwHOl77s8&list=RDgnvjKRZNH3k&index=4&ab_channel=Worrell057
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uwe

#1
March 21, 2018, 05:57:46 PM
I really liked those early Pat Travers albums, there is a reasonably priced and well-remastered (Cowling's bass comes out a lot better) box set available with eight of his Polydor albums on four CDs. That's enough Pat Travers for most average
households.  :mrgreen:



https://www.amazon.com/Feelin-Right-Pat-Travers/dp/B00M7IRDEO

I liked Cowling's playing too, not just a root note thumper.

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gearHed289

#2
March 22, 2018, 08:38:59 AM
Oh F*CK! Man, he was a great player. Learning that live album really got my finger-style playing up to speed (I started with a pick). Rest in peace Mars.

lowend1

#3
March 22, 2018, 08:39:43 AM
Quote from: uwe on March 21, 2018, 05:57:46 PM
I liked Cowling's playing too, not just a root note thumper.
A master at making the solid foundation sound flashy.
People talk about "underrated" players all the time. Mars was certainly not underrated - anyone who took the time to listen knew how good he was - but for all the guitar hero praise that was attached to PT for those few years between Page and EVH, Mars got very little recognition. He might just be the benchmark for unheralded rock bassists.
If you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter

lowend1

#4
March 22, 2018, 08:49:41 AM
Quote from: gearHed289 on March 22, 2018, 08:38:59 AM
Oh F*CK! Man, he was a great player. Learning that live album really got my finger-style playing up to speed (I started with a pick). Rest in peace Mars.

Same here. He was SO tight with Aldridge. I began looking at the bass and drums as extensions of one another, and less as individual instruments.
If you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter

FrankieTbird

#5
March 22, 2018, 03:15:41 PM

I got to see the Pat Travers band around 1990 with Mars & Jerry Riggs.  Small club in NJ, what a fantastic show that was, they really ripped it up.  RIP.

Highlander

#6
March 23, 2018, 01:21:31 PM Last Edit: March 26, 2018, 12:05:27 PM by Highlander
One of my fave players... saw him a few times... with Nicko and the Thrall/Aldridge era... rip Pete... :sad:

Pic of him one time I saw him... not a great shot... Hammersmith Odeon...

Pat Travers and Mars Cowling FB pic
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Pekka

#7
March 25, 2018, 09:32:41 AM
My favs too, I learned a lot from him when I first bough "Makin' Magic" in the early 90's and subsequently bought more. He was tight with every drummer Pat had (Roy Dyke, Nicko McBrain, Clive Edwards, Tommy Aldridge, Sandy Gennaro etc.) and I especially love his work with Nicko.

He played with the Gentle Giant-ish prog band Gnidrolog in the early seventies and right before he joinen PT he was a member of famous British (free)jazz drummer John Stevens' Away and played on his 1975 album. That album's lineup sans Stevens played on Amalgam's "Another Time" (1976).

I've never heard anyone not liking Mars' playing. He was mainly a P-bass player but sometimes used a Dan Armstrong plexiglass bass (it's heard on Traver's 1977 BBC gig w/ Edwards on drums and Mick Dyche on rhythm gtr) and on the back cover of "Crash 'n' Burn" he is shown with a maple necked Jazz w/pearloid block markers, or at least the neck is from Jazz Bass.
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