arthurhenry

Do you ever find yourself inclined to perform a lick or stage move heavily inspired by one of your favourite players, but avoid doing so due to an irrational fear that someone in the audience will be familiar with said player and accuse you of copying them? For example: You'd really like to put your foot on the monitor, but you'd better not, in case someone in the tiny village hall you're playing is a big Steve Harris fan. You could sneak some licks from Teen Town into your solo, but avoid it, in case someone in the working man's club you're playing is familiar with the works of Jaco. That lick from A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers would work really well in the song you're playing, but you'd better not, in case someone at the wedding is a big Van Der Graaf Generator fan, who recognises all their bass parts.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1480719135' post='3186781'] What bothers me on You Really Got Me is the undampened drums boinging and the awful guitar solo. Still a great number though. [/quote] Yes, floor tom ringing at a different pitch to the instruments stands out to me.

Of course Kaye played with a pick, whereas Jamerson used a finger, so isolated bass tracks might offer up some points of interest/more confusion. Imagine if ordinary, non musician music fans knew that these types of discussion take place!

Allan Slutsky's View: May 1995[color=#000000] In light of half-a-dozen magazine articles by Carol Kaye in the last few years and the distress they caused the Jamerson family, I find it necessary to state the following information about the ongoing debate. I've remained silent for the last five years but I think it's time to step forward with some hard facts. I hope it helps to clear up the issue. [/color] Allan (Dr. Licks) Slutsky "Who Played "I Was Made to Love" Her? The Carol Kaye-James Jamerson Enigma" [color=#000000]He was dead, buried, and forgotten. Even 99% of the bass players in the world had no idea who he was. But in the last seven years, his life and music have been center stage amidst an explosion of newspaper and magazine articles (more than 350 worldwide), a long overdue biography, and an upcoming film documentary. The Fender custom shop has made a signature bass in his name, flatwound strings have begun selling again, and in the last two years, the recording company that had employed him for a decade and a half finally gave him official recognition in the liner notes of 3 recent historical CD box sets. [/color] [color=#000000]After three decades of obscurity, musicians and music lovers throughout the world were discovering the holy grail of the bass world-James Jamerson, the tormented genius whose earthquake-heavy bass lines fueled the Motown hit machine through the '60s and early '70s. Even though it was posthumous, he was finally getting his long overdue recognition. [/color] [color=#000000]And everyone lived happily ever after, right? Not exactly. As Jamerson rose in prominence, his reputation was given a serious challenge through the media by another icon of the bass, Carol Kaye. Well aware of her claims through the years about her recording sessions with the Supremes, Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, and other stars in Berry Gordy's stable, I contacted her in 1987 when I first began my research for STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson. This was done out of the highest regard for Carol's monumental achievements and contributions to the bass, and popular music in general. My intention was to find out first-hand what she had played on so I could avoid stepping on her toes. [/color] [color=#000000]I had expected her to name a few significant hits but was floored when she laid claim to "Bernadette", "Reach Out", "Baby Love", "I Was Made to Love Her", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "Dancing In the Streets", "Can't Help Myself", and dozens of others Motown classics-in short, the majority of James Jamerson's signature performances. [/color] [color=#000000]At that point I decided to rethink the entire project. If I could substantiate Carol's allegations, I would write the book about her instead of Jamerson. I expected my research to turn up pros and cons for each player's position, along with the usual grey areas you can expect when researching multiple claims to the same material. Instead, what I found was overwhelmingly conclusive evidence that James Jamerson played the tunes in question. Here are the facts that my research turned up: [/color] [color=#000000]1) The songwriting-production team of [/color][url="http://www.hollanddozierholland.com/"]Holland-Dozier-Holland[/url][color=#000000] attested to the fact that James Jamerson played on almost every one of their productions, and they never allowed others to produce songs that they had written. Brian Holland signed a notarized [/color][url="http://www.bassland.net/bh1.htm"]affidavit[/url][color=#000000] categorically stating that "Bernadette", "Reach Out", "Can't Help Myself", "Keep Me Hanging On", "Standing in the Shadows of Love", "Reflections", "Baby Love", "Back In My Arms Again", "Come See About Me", and "Can't Hurry Love", (all tunes claimed by Carol) were in fact, played by James Jamerson. Most damning was his statement that he had never even heard of Carol Kaye. [/color] [color=#000000]2) Smokey Robinson who wrote or produced probably 30-40 percent of Motown's biggest hits also denied that she had any major role in the Motown story, and had no part at all on the songs in question. [/color] [color=#000000]3) The performance credit that Carol has pursued with the greatest tenacity over the years is the bass part on Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made to Love Her". Hank Cosby who co-wrote, produced it, and who, in his own words, "was there every step of the way from the writing of the song to the day the 45's were shipped", vehemently denied any participation by Carol Kaye on this recording. Cosby added, "Fifty percent of the song was James Jamerson's bass line. No one played like that but Jamerson." Cosby also signed an [/color][url="http://www.bassland.net/hc1.htm"]affidavit[/url][color=#000000] similar to Brian Holland's attesting to Jamerson's performance. [/color] *********Point-Counterpoint: Carol's Side of the Story********** [color=#000000]1) The Politics of Race and Gender-Carol contends that Motown was afraid to admit that a white female bassist was the driving force behind some of their biggest hits. They wanted to push a black male agenda. [/color] [color=#000000]There are two faults with this argument. First of all, when it came to musicians, Motown had no racial or gender bias. They were all faceless cogs to them. Regardless of whether they were black, white, female, male, or Martian, they weren't going to get any recognition-period! It was a star driven phenomena and the company never gave the slightest thought to publicizing background figures. In addition, the Motown studio band (which was called the Funk Brothers) was not exclusively black. Guitarists Joe Messina and Dennis Coffey, percussionist Jack Brokensha, arranger Dave Van dePitte, and bassist Bob Babbit, who also played quite a few important Motown dates, were all white. [/color] [color=#000000]2) Improvised vs. Written Parts - Her claim to "Reach Out" is based upon her contention that "discerning musicians can hear that the parts weren't improvised. It was a written part". James Jamerson regularly improvised and sight read parts of that complexity. Part of his genius was that he could take a written part and make it sound as if it was his. Regardless of this argument, I have a photocopy of the original Union contract from the "Reach Out" session. It's dated July 6, 1966 (the year of the tune's release), it lists James Jamerson as the bassist (for which he received the princely sum of $61.00), and Detroit's Hitsville studio is indicated as the place where it was recorded. Carol herself admits that she never recorded in Detroit. [/color] [color=#000000]3) The West Coast Connection-Carol maintains that a great deal of Motown's output was being cut on the West Coast in Los Angeles. [/color] [color=#000000]That is true, but don't forget that Motown also had acts like Tony Martin, James Darren, and Soupy Sales signed to their label. There were also various Broadway and Las Vegas style orchestrated albums produced like the the Temptations in a Mellow Mood and The Four Tops on Broadway, not to mention the constant demand for filler material on albums. There was plenty of work to go around and Detroit could not possibly handle all of it. Frank Wilson who produced hits for Motown in both Detroit and Los Angeles supports Carol's claim that she worked numerous sessions for the company. However, he qualifies it by stating, "They used her a lot but not on the hard core R&B stuff. That stuff came out of Detroit. They didn't like her sound for R&B because she played with a pick. It didn't have that fat round sound that Jamerson got with his fingers." [/color] [color=#000000]4) "I Was Made to Love Her"-According to Carol, this tune was recorded at Armin Steiner's studio and she recalls "I didn't like the final written riff that I played high up in unison with the horns. You can also hear where I was scuffling a bit with open strings a couple of times". [/color] [color=#000000]Now it starts to get complicated. First of all, the detailed studio log that Carol kept does not support her position. The log lists every date she played from 1963-1971. She painstakingly listed artists, studios, record labels, contractors and arrangers on each date. "I Was Made to Love Her" was released in 1967 which means it was cut in '66 or '67. There are no listings for a session at Steiner's or a Stevie Wonder date during that time span. [/color] [color=#000000]As far as "scuffling" around, the performance is perfect. Don't trust my ears. Trust the auditory ability of one of the world's most highly regarded bassists-lifelong Jamerson devotee, Anthony Jackson. He couldn't hear what she was talking about either. The "final written riff played in unison with the horns" argument also is problematic. "I Was Made To Love Her" is rhythm section and strings. There are no horns on that record. [/color] [color=#000000]5) Ask My Friends-Carol asked me to talk to Gene Page, Jerry Steinholtz, Earl Palmer, and some of the other studio musicians who played the West Coast Motown sessions with her. She felt they would back up her story. [/color] [color=#000000]I didn't just call a few of them. I talked to every one she recommended, naming the songs in question and telling them about Carol's claims. Arranger Gene Page immediately burst out laughing and said, "She said that? No way . . . never. That stuff was all Jamerson". Percussionist Steinholtz remembered playing Motown sessions with Carol but that was as much as he could remember. The closest I got to her viewpoint was with veteran R&B session drummer Earl Palmer who bristled at my suggestion that perhaps they played the demo versions of the songs in question. "Hell no!", he countered. "We weren't playing demos. We were playing hits". The only problem was that he also couldn't remember any song titles. [/color] [color=#000000]Now we all know that studio musicians live by their reputations, so remembering hits that they played on is of paramount importance. If they had even remembered one title-just one-I would have had something to pursue, but as it stood, they gave me no material at all to back up her story. Back in Detroit, In stark contrast to my California research, the Funk Brothers remembered everything- song titles, intricate details, times, dates, and fellow musicians on the session and it all revolved around James Jamerson. [/color] [color=#000000]6) The Great Cover-Up-Carol has accused many of Motown's producers of conducting illegal non-union, under scale sessions, and in efforts to cover their backs, they refuse to admit working with her. [/color] [color=#000000]First of all, if the sessions were illegal, why was a union musician like Carol playing them in direct violation of union rules? Secondly, the Motown story is full of lawsuits and union problems but that doesn't exactly strike fear in their hearts. It's just business as usual. James Jamerson certainly played under scale Motown sessions at different times. Why do these same producers admit working with him? [/color] [color=#000000]7) Demos That Became Hits-Amidst the thousand of studio dates in Carol's logs, quite a few are marked as demos and many of those were with Motown. According to her, the company misled the musicians because many of these sessions became the actual records. [/color] [color=#000000]Carol may have a legitimate grievance in this instance but not in regard to the songs in question. When the recent Platinum CD Box set The Hitsville Singles Collection was produced two years ago, most of the songs in question were pulled from the vaults and re-mastered. Motown's filing system lists whether the songs were recorded in Detroit or Los Angeles (and in a few instances in New York) on each storage box. All the disputed songs were listed as being cut in Detroit. [/color] [color=#000000]During the sixties and seventies, Carol Kaye contributed more to popular music than most musicians, including myself, could hope to equal in several lifetimes. By all accounts of people who know her well, she is also a wonderful, warm, loving person. I have no desire in any way to hurt her or ruin her reputation, but as James Jamerson's biographer, I do have a responsibility to him. James died a brokenhearted alcoholic, tortured by the lack of recognition for his his part in the Motown story. It took the world thirty years to find out and appreciate exactly what he did and I intend to further that recognition to the best of my abilities. If that includes defending him in the face of unfounded attacks on his life's work, so be it. [/color] [color=#000000]I'm still open to any information which would change the story and support Carol Kaye's version but so far, I've yet to find a single shred of evidence. I'd even go as far as to say that I wouldn't doubt that somewhere out there, there is some evidence that would support her claims on a few disputed songs. [/color] [color=#000000]She has my humblest apologies for the few that I may have missed. But when you're talking about "Bernadette", "Reach Out", "Baby Love", "I Was Made to Love Her", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "Dancing In the Streets", "Can't Help Myself", Standing In The Shadows of Love", "You Keep Me Hangin' On", and dozens of others . . . Sorry Carol. That magical legacy belongs to someone else.[/color]

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1479043952' post='3173472'] I wouldn't knock it. You ain't had it so good. A lot of the guys on this board wouldn't even be playing in bands, if it wasn't for these duff composers and their silly little chord sequences. Fancy a whole night of 32 bar, chord a beat Jazz changes? What about busking your way through Enigma variations? or the 1812 overture? What about this with a refrain? You know how hard it is to get good keyboard players? Ukulele players ain't exactly growing on trees (hanging from them maybe) Stop being silly. [/quote] "In favour of something less cliched" was my comment; not "In favour of something more complex."

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1478976074' post='3173113'] And some songwriters take the most convoluted, left-field chord structures and turn them into dull, formulaic fodder for the elite. [/quote] Avoiding I, IV, V and I, V, VI, IV does not mean deliberately being left field and convoluted. How about I, I, I, I, I, I, I etc. for example?

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1478964880' post='3173023'] A great songwriter can make the simplest, off the shelf, chord structure, into a great song. [/quote] Completely true, however, some songwriters take the most overused, off the shelf chord structures and turn them into dull, formulaic fodder for the masses.

For me, instantly recognising a familiar chord sequence takes away from the effect of the lyrics and melody. If I wrote something which fitted a I, V, VI, IV progression, I'd scrap it, as I couldn't bear to be that predictable.

How is it that songs with chord sequences such as I, V, IV and I, V, VI, IV continue to be written and recorded? Surely any songwriter or artist with any integrity or artistic worth would avoid such overused, over-familiar changes in favour of something less cliched.

[quote name='lojo' timestamp='1478243733' post='3167765'] I like Cliff, some of his hits from the 70s and 80s are guilty pleasures and if Whitesnake had recorded them they'd have been excepted by the masses. [/quote] Do you mean "excepted" or "accepted"?

Desire (U2) into Superman theme, into Simpsons theme. 7 Nation Army into Lady Marmalade.

[quote name='TheDaivisch' timestamp='1477134241' post='3160037'] I have just received the LH1000 and tried it. I can categorically state that the TX600 is nowhere near as loud as an LH500. I used one of the 500 watt cores into a single speaker and this is *significantly* louder. Using both cores in Dual Parallel mode into two speakers, this is ridiculously, laughable louder. It makes the TX600 seem like a 60 watt practice combo. Full review and pics coming up... [/quote] Thanks Daivisch, this is really helpful. I will be waiting for Hartke to update the TX, or bring out more class D heads. I'll try a TX if I'm anywhere near Manchester or London. None in stock anywhere in Bristol, Brum or Cardiff as far as I know.

[quote name='TheDaivisch' timestamp='1476905803' post='3158418'] "Loud" needs qualification. It might be loud compared to a small combo, but 600 watts loud? My comparison is against other 600, 500 and 900 watt amps Ive used recently. There are far too many reviews saying the same thing as me for it not to be a thing. Is it a bad head? No. Its tone is lovely and features are great. Is it quiet? Not at all. Is it 600 watts loud? Not in my opinion. [/quote] Well said. My LH500 has rarely needed to be at above the halfway point on the linear volume control. If the TX is as loud with plenty to spare, then it'll be perfect for me. The trouble is, it's not exactly easy to try one out in the UK, without a long journey. With all the negative comments, it's definitely one to try before you buy.

Bass Player's review describes the TX as "loud and punchy". It would seem many disagree.

Thanks for this review, I am having second thoughts about ordering one due to the reported volume issues. Would you say it's usable for a loud rock band? Apparently this is what Larry Hartke has said: [color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4]"Yes set the gain as high as you can without the lightsaround the knob flashing red (that indicates an overload on the preamp). Then use the master. The master volume taper is not linear so it will get loud slowly and then increase in volume quicker the farther you turn it up. It will start hitting hard around 1:00 or 2:00 O'clock that's normal for that type of control."[/size][/font][/color]

Is the lifespan of an amp affected more by age or usage? For example would a ten year old head which had been used once a month be less likely to develop problems than an identical ten year old head which had been used eight times a month? I have found that amps tend to develop problems with dry joints after 8-12 years.

If you're really into playing and music, I don't see how you could fail to gain a knowledge of theory. You would surely have a natural interest in what things are called and why they work in the way they do. There's no need to sit down and study it if you're not so inclined; just play and learn as you go.

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1474827020' post='3140855'] so does the clinton foundation ... doesnt make it right though ? [/quote] It makes it very hard and perhaps foolish for anyone to make a decision to bring it to an end.

[quote name='Bassman Sam' timestamp='1474755309' post='3140344'] Coca Cola and Nike didn't change the public face of their produce until people didn't recognise them anymore. AC/DC are in danger of doing that. [/quote] The point is that they continue to make millions of dollars when they tour.

It's interesting how many people say that "they" should call it a day now. AC/DC are a global enterprise with offices, secretaries, accountants, private planes and an income to rival the GDP of some small countries. Would Coca Cola or Nike suddenly stop, when they are ongoing successful businesses?

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1473599001' post='3131493'] I'm auditioning for a band sometime soon and I've been given six songs to learn. The band play pop covers. Two of the songs I've been given aren't in their current set and I'm pretty sure never will be - and one of them is a real bass challenge. I don't want to get into a discussion about levels of ability (and we're talking Geddy Lee) but I've got the feeling I'm being asked to do something that's unnecessarily difficult just to massage someones ego. I haven't contacted the band about it because I've some other stuff to sort before I make contact. Opinions please. [/quote] As others have said; if you want to join the band and they've given you songs to learn, learn them, practise them until you never get them wrong and go and blow them away. Or cancel and do something else.

He has expressed an interest in doing some rock/metal stuff in the past.

I know someone who travelled from London to Sydney for one covers gig, then flew back. Expenses were taken care of and the money was good.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1473061477' post='3126395'] Can we assume that you suffer from this problem..? I don't of course - but a friend of mine says it's easy to achieve a good tuner line-up, with practice... [/quote] I don't suffer this, in fact It annoys me when they do line up! My general OCD tendencies caused me to notice it as a potential source of anxiety.

On occasion, when new strings have been installed, the tuning pegs happen to line up in an aesthetically pleasing way. Imagine if you had severe OCD and had to have them this way. Strings would have to be removed, the peg moved slightly and then re-strung, in the hope that the desired result would be achieved - it could take hours! It would all have to be done again each time the bass was tuned.