meterman

Baba Sissoko is from Mali, his daughter is singing in French and they recorded their album in Italy. On an analogue tape machine. And it’s a belter.

I’m surprised nobody has posted this yet: I’ve never been a Led Zeppelin fan at all but the drums, and the production, on “When The Levee Breaks” is as good as it gets, IMVHO. It’s the only Zep tune I can listen to, I just zone in on the echoed drumming and the distorted harmonica playing. Superb.

Bobby Byrd and the J.B’s - “Hot Pants” is an old school funk classic. Drums by Jabo Starks, I think? The original is classic 1970s JB’s funk, but the 80s remix that just featured the drums, tambourine and vocal became the backbone of tons of other records. Hello Stone Roses, Madonna, Big Daddy Kane, Run DMC, Gang Starr, A Guy Called Gerald, etc. Even Spice Girls and Erasure nicked it. The original: And the remix for “Fools Gold” fans:

Actually, no, two more. “Cold, Cold, Cold” by Little Feat. When Richie Hayward comes in off the chugging drum machine intro, his fill that kicks off the track is ace. His playing throughout the whole song is pretty special tbh, and his drum sound is one of my all time favourites: And Paul Humphrey playing with Thijs Van Leer on “Street Rondo” is a great example of a rock solid break, but at a slower tempo that is hard to maintain unless you’re a real pro. The subtle hi-hat lifts and bass drum upbeats are class. (Warning: funk, prog and flute are involved 😂 )

Couple of favourite vintage Bernard Purdie breaks come to mind. He played on some Pucho & The Latin Soul Brothers tunes in the 60s and when he lets loose here at 1:16 it’s wild. The congas on the intro are great as well. He recorded with Mongo Santamaria a few times, and his playing on the cover of James Brown’s “Cold Sweat” is brutal. The intro is standard funky Latin and everyone is holding back slightly but the solo drums at 4:36 are hard as nails. Miles away from all the slick, polished stuff he did in the 70s with Steely Dan and Aretha Franklin etc. Wild snare and tom tom accents, plus some brilliant ‘across the bar’ fills that were rare at the time but later you’d hear them on Zeppelin tunes, or Sly & The Family Stone or whoever. Love it. I could post favourite breaks all day long (my main instrument is percussion) but I’ll save them for when BreaksChat is up and running

Didn’t know Allen Woody was Oct 3rd. Almost bought one of his signature Epiphone basses but it was too burgundy for me. Massive sounding bass though.

Josh Klinghoffer might be the closest to a bassist on my birthday. Well, he’s played bass, not sure if that counts? Otherwise, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lindsey Buckingham, Eddie Cochran, Chubby Checker, Steve Reich and Gwen Stefani.

I’d have gone to buy something, I still play records because I am an old git, but the nearest record shop is a 90 minute drive away and we’ve not got a car. Might have a look online after the weekend to see if any shops have any of the RSD stuff left that I wanted.

I can’t vouch for what Fender Custom Shop gear is like now, but I played and sold plenty of CS basses and guitars when I did time in Denmark Street, although admittedly that’s about 15 years ago now. A fair number of them looked and played great, but plenty of them were overly expensive ‘meh’ instruments that sold probably just because they were Custom Shop. I remember a lot of the Fender Road Worn stuff blew the Custom Shop gear away, and given CS prices, that shouldn’t happen. Mind, I own a Hofner and a Tanglewood and a Squier so wtf would I know? 😂

The Doors should have had only the same four musicians onstage as on the records, no extra hired hands allowed. Verboten. Also they should have all worn the same outfits onstage that they wore when they recorded their albums. And they should have been forced to eat three meals a day, every day, at the same time each day. A bit more discipline and adherence to the rules and they might have been more successful, who knows? And definitely 100% when Jim Morrison died the rest of the band should have replaced him with Elvis Presley. Personally I can’t stand Elvis but I think it would have been funny as f*** to hear him singing “L.A. Woman” or “Break On Through” or whatever. These painkillers are unusually strong, by the way.

Luca Nieri Suzanne Vallie Allah Las The Budos Band Pachyman Misha Panfilov Sound Combo Pierre Daven-Keller Sven Wunder Frank Maston Our Solar System The Babe Rainbow Gospelbeach Nev Cottee Mariee Sioux and if John Compton ever does anything else I’d buy it on pre-release Loads more, but that’ll do for now.

Many different and interesting opinions here, as I’d expect. For instance personally I wouldn’t re-decal a Squier as a Fender, I’d rather just play the Squier as it is. I’ve had Squier Mustangs and Precisions and it’s never occurred to me to slap a Fender logo on them. My number one gigging instrument for almost 30 years was a Fender ‘partscaster’ Tele (burn the witch, etc...) made from bits of two 60’s Fenders. But it was starting to get worn out and a bit unreliable so I bought a cheap Squier to use as a backup. But the Squier was nicer to play and sounded better, so on the last European tour I did, I used the £150 Squier the whole time and nobody batted an eyelid. To be fair I was also on keys duties so I was semi hidden behind a pair of keyboards, so not many people would have seen what brand of guitar I was using anyway and it was fine. However I have played with a ‘known’ bassist who has toured internationally and played on hundreds of records with major artists etc, and he has a Squier 70s Jazz with a Fender logo that he takes out on certain gigs where he doesn’t want to risk his vintage 60s Precision or 60s or 70s Jazzes. He’d had a vintage Fender bass ‘lost’ by an airline company in the past I think, so his reasoning was “Why should I risk taking a £3000+ bass just to fly to Europe or the US when I’m only getting paid £250, or maybe less, for a one-off festival date” or whatever. His Squier always sounded great because he’s great. But he plays with higher profile artists than I ever will, so he can do what he likes, I don’t mind. But if folks such as Dinosaur Jr, Tame Impala, George Harrison, The Cribs, Iron Maiden, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Biffy Clyro, Chuck Prophet, John Mayall etc, can play Squiers without rebadging them as Fenders then I certainly can. I’m not fussy about gear though. As long as it works, I’m happy. If other folk want to stick Fender logos on their copies, I’m not gonna get all offended by it.

Syd Barrett’s first post-Floyd album “The Madcap Laughs” has mistakes left in almost all the way through, but that’s part of it’s charm for me. The tunes where he has The Soft Machine backing him and they’re barely keeping up with the twists and turns of his songs is cliff-edge stuff. Plus, the false starts and all the studio chatter. The first time I heard it I couldn’t believe it was all left in. Still a favourite album though.

Fantastic!

Those ltd edition silver sparkle Squier Mustangs with the humbucker were excellent, they should do a reissue of them 👍

Thank you 🙏🏻 I appreciate it. I’m not sure how feasible a post Brexit move will be at the moment, but rules and legislation hopefully could change someday soon. One piece of legit advice I can give you is, don’t expect to automatically get EU residency as a musician now unless you actually are earning truckloads of money. Like, Coldplay level or something. In France I had to become a ‘micro entrepreneur’ (small business owner) to get my residency accepted. Tons of forms and red tape to go through, but now I’m legally a record label owner and can work in the EU. I’ll see what happens, pandemic permitting. Worst case scenario, I’ll just retire and busk for euro centimes in the village square 😂

Very interesting read, that. For years, two thirds of my income came from playing in Europe and DJ-ing there. I moved to a European country last year to try and keep my earnings flowing. It’s too early to know if it will all work out, but I hope it does, not just for me obviously but for all UK musicians sakes. Hope things can get smoothed out.

@Fishfacefour I bought a hollow body Hofner Violin Bass for very similar reasons, an old shoulder injury was making me struggle with a 34” scale instrument. The great thing about the Hofner is the weight, or lack of it. The tone controls take a few minutes getting used to, but it’s a joy to play. However, if Ibanez had still been making their AGBV200A semi hollow short scale in vintage antique burst I might have gone for one of those instead. I’ve seen used examples on Reverb and might still get one. The couple I played in Denmark Street back in the day were great, serious tone 👍 08A5309A-1B1C-4F2B-A9F2-97A74935603F.webp

I love the aesthetics but I’m not sure I’d go the full price on it. I used to have a short scale Commodore bass years ago, but I think it was a rebadged MIJ Aria from the 70’s. It didn’t look as cool as the one in the ad though

Definitely had great customer service from Strings Direct many times. Fast shipping times as standard, plus they were always quick to respond to email enquiries. And they always had a great choice of strings on offer. Consistently decent in my experience 👍

I wanted black tapewounds for my acoustic bass, like on the old Eko fretless acoustics, but couldn’t find any at the time so I settled for a set of D’Addario chromes. They felt and sounded great, waaaayyy better than the bronze strings that came with the bass. Although my acoustic bass was just a sub-£99 cheapie it recorded brilliantly once I’d changed to Chromes on it. Can recommend 👍

I don’t have Sky but I’ll see if I can track that episode down. Jimmy Webb wrote so many great songs, everyone usually remembers the hits but there’s so much more to him than the hits. Bacharach and David were another pair who often wrote really affecting songs. Big hits but with some quite complex arrangements and melodic and rhythmic twists and turns. “A House Is Not A Home”, “Message To Michael”, “I Say A Little Prayer” etc. Love that grand style of pop songwriting.

@barrycreed I think the La Bella’s on my tiny little short scale Tanglewood (25.5”) are 043 - 104, but on 30” scale Mustangs I used to go a little heavier. Might have had D’Addario Chromes once, I think 50-105? They were good for the price as well. Whenever I had anything lighter they tended to sound a bit twangier, not as much bottom end.

A guy I play live sessions for recorded Wichita Lineman on one of his albums so we’d often play it live. Maybe there’s something about the melodic or harmonic construction (don’t know for sure, I’m self taught) but often I’d find it really hit me emotionally when we’d play it. He’s from Wichita so maybe he put an extra bit of push into it, I don’t know? Beautifully composed song though.