Bilbo

Ellington wrote his own book, Strayhorn, Mulligan, Parker/Gillespie, Mingus etc etc. All the best artists mostly write their own stuff whilst most of the chessy dross is factory produced. Gotta tell you something. (To be frank; I love composing etc so much I can't see why people wouldn't want to do it. More to the point, I am not very good at it but it's not the kill, it's the thrill of the chase!! They more I try, the better the tunes get. I don't think it is any harder than learning to play the bass; you jsut have to keep practising).

I had his Criminal Record and I think my brother had the others you have listed (I have certainly heard them a lot somewhere). Rock/Prog Music was a lot more interesting then than it has been 'post Punk'. I like what Punk stood for but the music it spawned has been 'kin terrible I haven't really looked at the Spock's Beard/modern Prog bands so maybe I should. There is just so much good jazz out there.

I bought my Wal Custom fretless in 1986 for £749 and could sell it today for about £2,500 or even more? But I wouldn't. http://basschat.co.uk/topic/21583-1986-wal-custom-fretless/

So what you are saying is that tunes that people don't know go down well even though they don't know them? I have to say that is my experience too. I see no reason to play other people's stuff other than as a path to quick gigging without having to write anything. If musos across the board worked as hard on the craft of composition/song writing as they seem to do on 'stagecraft', costunes and Swedish chuffin' accents, they may have material that is as good as or even better than the covers they play. And they can get royalties! I've got a go now; I have a gig.

I regularly perform songs I don't know without any rehearsal and no charts; just 'one, two, three, four... it's in G'. Its amazing how much you can pick up in real time if you keep your ears open; including stops, arrangement etc. I guess it depends on whether you need the performances to be accurate to the nth degree or whether 'good enough' is good enough. Watching the guitar players hands (unless he is playing a cavaquino which is not tuned like a guitar and confuses the ass off me) often prevents any major trainwrecks. I find most songs are 'of a type' and you kind of get a feel for things over the years. Which Rush tune? Some are easy, other really difficult.

[quote name='mep' timestamp='1346933656' post='1794964'] We quiet often do covers of covers, so what does that make us? [/quote] Factory workers...

Arse - elbow. You just know.

Paul Harwood - Mahagoany Rush The monster that is Kenneth "Spider" Sinnaeve (Kim Mitchell, Red Rider) Mike Tilka - Max Webster Dave Myles - also Max Webster Joel Quarrington is also Canadian (classical double bass player)

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1346842713' post='1793855'] " life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" William Shakespeare, Macbeth [/quote] I thought that was Manhattan Transfer....

I refuse to be goaded

Who's stressing? There was a report recently that said popular music is getting more homogenous. Talking about it makes sure alternatives are considered, that's all. No stress involved (I don't do this for a living and no-one is waiting for my next Opus to appear!!).

I don't think anyone is suggesting force feeding any art form to people. All we suggest is that leaving things to market forces seems to result in everyone looking to the common denominator and everything getting blander and blander (like cable/satelite TV - 800+ channels of fluff rather than infinite variation). I know so many people who aren't catered for by mainstream arts/entertainment provision because everyone is trying to corner the same section of the market; namely young people out on the piss trying to get laid.

I get that but how many tribute bands are reproducing anything that really amounts to pushing the envelope. An AC/DC or Thin Lizzy tribute band isn't going to push any bass player very much. What is interesting about 'young bands honing their craft' is reflected in the experiences of older musos in places like Boston and LA. I am told that the students who are 'honing their asses off' are tying up all the gigs because they do it for beer money and bring all their mates and the established players don't get a look in. Great for club owners, great for the kids but not so good for the future of the music. The gigs are full of amateurs havign a go whilst the better players are at home teaching more students to take their gigs off them. It's all a bit mad!

Its always a tough one, isn't it? I saw a 5-string Parker Fly bass the other week for £1200 and have a Gibson ES175 and Adamus steel string acoutic worth, together, well over £2K. I thought about it but always come back to not wanting to regret having sold such great instruments. In truth, the guitars rarely come off the wall. Every guitart I ever bought was hard won and selling them on always feels like a retrograde step.

Can't help but have you thought about meeting somewhere half way on a train station? Actually, we should get all double bass players here to turn up at the same place with their basses and cause chaos. Bet it would make the press!!

I spelled rotten wrong. Actually, I [i]typed[/i] rotten wrong.

I'm going to write a tribute novel.... 'In a hole in the ground there lived a Boggit. Not a rotton, muddy, wet hole full of the ends of caterpillars and a mouldy smell, nor yet a arid, empty, dusty hole with nothing in it to lie down on or to drink: This was a Boggit hole and that means luxury. It had a square door like a cupboard, painted yellow, with a shiny, green copper knob on the side. THe door opened onto a wide, long hallway with half-panelled walls and floorboards provided with sturdy chairs and one peg for the Boggit's hat and coat - the Boggit hated visitors'. You wouldn't would you?

[quote name='Bassman62' timestamp='1346783779' post='1793233'] ..... even down to Swedish accents. [/quote] Oh, FFS!!!

Watching people doing tribute bands, however well they do it, is not so much good or bad, in my eyes, it's just pointless Actually, its not. It can be an earner (although a Floyd tribute band I know are breaking up as they are not earning anything because of the high overheads) and I have to agree that there is no shame in that. I guess what I am saying is that, from my perspective (which is only one and no more or less valid for that), the tribute band concept does not provide me with what I look for in a band either as a player or listener. End of. I acknowledge that those of you who go down that route are not second class citizens or vermin or anything and I wish you good luck (really - I am not being ironic now)

Of course, its all bullocks, Skank. Because the debate we are having has no purpose other than filling up basschat time. I still won't go see a tribute band and you still won't give a s*** about that fact I have tickets to see Uli Jon Roth this Sunday in a pub in Ipswich. Go me!

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1346772286' post='1792993'] Depends which weddings and which churches you've been to. My experience to both has been 98% the other way. (I'm in the 2% btw as I can neither sing nor dance.) [/quote] Welsh Methodist in the 1970s and the annual family wedding since then. 'Mmmmm nnn ggggth emmmm ggu mmmunnnner'

My wife and I told the band at my wedding, 'don't play anything they can dance to'. And they didn't. And when people came up and asked 'can you play something we can dance to?', they said 'No'. I had a great time I find dancing at weddings to be a bit like singing in church; 98% of the people there doin't want to do it and only do it because they are forced to by threats or coercion.

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1346770587' post='1792965'] Quick point here but how many originals bands play weddings and functions [/quote] Interesting point. How many people go to weddings to see a band they want to see/hear? How many can leave early without offending the bride/groom? How many sit at the back going 'FFS, not Mustang Sally AGAIN'!!'

[quote name='Dr.Dave' timestamp='1346768327' post='1792921'] ......... it doesn't half seem to matter to you ! [/quote] I don't exactly lie awake worrying about it, Doc... Every good thing I have ever gained in life has been a consequence of my looking at experience A (a book, a film, a piece of music, a restaurant) and then, through reading, experience, discussion etc, moving on to experience B and C and D and so on. Over my nearly 50 years, people have said to me 'have you heard Jaco/Dave Holland/Gary Karr?'? Did you see that movie? Have you read 'Watchmen/I Robot/The LIfe Of Pi/The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime'? and, by listening to these suggestions, I have enjoyed a great deal of new and interesting experiences and developed all sorts of insights, some of greater value than others. The buzz is in the journey not the destination. When I challenge people about their approach to it all, I don't actually [i]care[/i] whether they accept my suggestions/perspectives (although many here do as they have told me so). When I say 'tribute bands are blah, blah, blah', anyone reading it is entirely free to ignore my comments as most do. I'd like to think that some people would think about them before they dismiss them and maybe others will agree. What matters is the debate not the outcome. I am not right or wrong, I just am. If anyone here goes to see a Pink Floyd tribute band tonight, I can't see them having their night ruined by a nagging voice in the back of their head saying 'I want to like this but can't because Bilbo said...'. If someone is sitting there before going out thinking 'Pink Floyd tribute again or band I've never seen before?' my comments may make a difference and 'The Pink Floyd Perspective' can sue me for loss of earnings. I don't care what people watch/listen to, its their choice. And I certainly don't care if people like what I like. I just like the idea that people think about what they are consuming and don't just accept what they are given.

Eevrything is acceptable if people are being entertained. Now the question is: am I being ironic?