Nail Soup

That is brilliant. Does Mrs Riva have another suggestion?

I don't want to rock myself, but I'm willing to salute those who are about to.

A band is only as good as their bass player. Oh, hang on............ that might have been about drummers😉.

The Woodentops album "Giant", after getting a promo e-mail for their gig at local venue. Didn't know they were (still?) active. Got gig ticket, then listened to album thinking hope I still like it. I do - here's a track :

He did spring to mind and I went through the same thoughts............., but I finally put him as a good singer with an unusual voice, and therefore not for this thread.

And Jamerson only needed one. Finger that is.

In an in interview with Jah Wobble, he was explaining how he came up with some of the Public Image Ltd basslines. He said he made some up without playing the bass, and choosing notes that made a good pattern on the fretboard. Quote: "If it looks good it's probably gonna sound good".

The name that springs to mind is James Brown. But I suppose that proves your point really.... he moved away from soul to a funk/groove bandleader doing shouts and yelps etc.

Good point. The music I mainly like usually benefit from a characterful non-singer, and would sound worse with a 'good' singer. But yes, when I do jump over for a bit of soul......... I go for good singers. Yet there is a version of this concept even in the soul world. You have to clear quite a high bar to sing soul, but once over the bar it is the ones who can put the feeling in rather than the best technical performances which are best. Need I cite "I will always Love You" compared to say Uretha?

I don't know the entirety of NY's output well enough to comment , but like what I have heard well enough. It's a good sign for an artist that a case can be made for multiple eras or styles of your work to be considered 'the best'.

How about Richard from Subhumans? He let a good amount of his Wiltshire(?) accent through..... see Mickey Mouse is Dead:

Great, I noticed a lot of great stuff on Sky Arts but could not watch until now!

And good the the bass player had the most rock and roll trousers!

I feel your pain.... I try not to do it in most songs. For example there is one song I recorded (aiming for own accent) and I accidentally sing one word with a mid-Atlantic "T". to make it worse somehow, the song in question has that line repeated as the next line, and in that I do my own pronunciation of "T". I didn't notice until after the track was fully mixed down etc. I still cringe a bit every time I hear it 😖.

The debut album from The Undertones..... was played out in full on Steve Lamaq show on 6music, with some band interviews. Brilliant. Here's the opening track

Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground. And Nico for that matter. Here's one of each.

Good example - I'm not a massive Roses fan, but even a neutral can see that he is: Bad singer OK vocalist Great frontman

Got loads. Dylan, John Lydon, Poly Styrene to name but three. But the best of all is Mark E Smith of the Fall. Prefer singers with character. Being able to sing is a side issue.

Liked that. Good that they are still making great music ...………. bad that it is still as relevant .

Modern folk band "Stick in the Wheel" sing in authentic London accent to very good effect:

@lozkerr I'll IM you after work. If any money is to change hands maybe we could compromise on a donation of some kind?

I'd never heard that parable before. Just googled it - very good! Thanks.

Thanks! No, I never thought of my stuff having any commercial value or even being wanted for free! Happy for anyone to have a copy for nowt, I'd love folk to get a copy but don't know how to distribute.

The recent thread from @wateroftyne was looking for songs about specific bass players.................and it reminded me of a song I wrote/recorded over lockdown about being a bass player. In particular about bass players who didn't choose bass, but had it pushed on them. It's inspired by quite a few stories I read on BC and elsewhere saying that the rest of the band 'put them on bass' and especially the story of Spandau Ballet - the manager told Gary Kemp to get Martin (who didn't play bass) in as bassist (even though they already had a bassist) because they needed a 'pin-up' in the band. The song is called "You're Gonna Play Bass"... here's the Soundcloud: (I normally record solo, but to get into the whole lockdown sprit got some remote guests on this one: Terry: Lead Guitar, Chris: Bass)

Similar to @lozkerr i learn the bits and then draw a chart of how they fit together. In this case I do BVs. sometime it is lead vocal, but then only hints - say one key word per line. Interesting to see another such sheet. The rest of my band don't use them! First learn the bits, then learn to do it with the sheet, then learn to play it without the sheet.