R.I.P Trevor Bolder

gweimer · May 22, 2013, 08:24:15 PM

Quote from: Hörnisse on May 22, 2013, 07:32:23 PM
The opening bass line always gets me on this one.

I still think he jumps the chord change early on, and they decided to just leave it in.

Psycho Bass Guy · May 23, 2013, 02:34:09 AM

I like his comment about previous trumpet players who end up bassists that play melodically. Flea is a good example (even if it's countermelody). I used to play trumpet too, and have always been a pain the ass to guitar players.

Few people in pop culture recognize or acknowledge that Bowie's greatest talent has always been to surround himself with stellar musicians.

gweimer · May 23, 2013, 04:08:04 AM

Quote from: Psycho Bass Guy on May 23, 2013, 02:34:09 AM
Few people in pop culture recognize or acknowledge that Bowie's greatest talent has always been to surround himself with stellar musicians.

I think once he found Mick Ronson, he realized the value in having exceptional guitarists as a foil. He's also been adept at finding new and unknown talent before anyone else. A lot of people forget that he had a yet unknown Stevie Ray Vaughn on Let's Dance.

uwe · May 23, 2013, 08:32:45 AM

And Earl Slick, Carlos Alomar, Adrian Belew, Nile Rodgers, Peter Frampton and Reeves Gabriel. Bowie has an ear for special guitarists, whatever their core style may be.

Ironically though, my favorite Bowie album (though Station to Station with Slick and Alomar is very close) is still Diamond Dogs where he plays this apocalyptic, forlorn, stripped down and raw lead guitar all by himself - it defines the album and no technically more adept guitarist could have emulated that sound.

Hörnisse · May 23, 2013, 06:33:52 PM

I've always loved Bowie's guitar on "Rebel Rebel".

uwe · May 24, 2013, 06:38:13 AM

So do I and it's obviously something only an amateurish guitarist would come up with, seasoned players even have difficulty replicating it. The whole Diamond Dogs album had me captivated when I first heard it on a hissy C 90 in the mid-seventies. It triggered a movie before my eyes. I still get goose bumps when I hear that introductory yell: "This ain't rock'n'roll, this is genocide!!!" and then that slightly atonal, mutant Stones riff of Diamond Dogs begins to wail ...

godofthunder · May 24, 2013, 03:18:42 PM

Diamond Dogs is my favorite Bowie album almost a tie with Ziggy.

uwe · May 26, 2013, 12:27:48 PM

What has DD winning for me is that ZS is in my ears and with the benefit of hindsight a bit over-orchestral-arranged. Bowie was a T. Rex nut at the time and wanted Tony Visconti (also the mastermind behind the T. Rex sound) to replicate that sound for him. With all the instrumentation on just a few tracks, ZS sounds too compressed these days. And of course DD has that stylish moribund decadence.