The big day arrived and the re-mixed version of the old Amaziah track, ‘Slowly’ landed on my doormat in the form of a vinyl 10” single and as a compilation track on a CD. All nice, remixed and full of life.
The best thing was; for the first time since I was 18 years old I could hear the bass guitar that I had played.
Sadly the original album had been so poorly mixed that the bass guitar was practically non existent and so for the first time in over 30 years (cough) the sound of my bass guitar playing shook the speakers of my car…..’like a good un’!
The only down side to this was that I was faced with the reality that as an 18 year old bass player I would have made a good brick layer.
To the trained ear you could tell that I was a) a complete novice and b) terrified.
I have always found the process of ‘recording’ really boring, however; I also find it an extremely stressful experience and when the sound engineer points towards you and mouths something like ‘rolling’, my buttock cheeks clench to the point where an ‘unclenching’ might possibly require surgery, my heart pounds fit to leave my chest and my whole body becomes as rigid as a garden hoe.
The problem was that this particular track ‘Slowly’ was supposed to have that funky kind of loose groove to it, the kind that bass players are supposed to love. However; to be brutally honest with myself my playing was as stiff as a McDonalds milkshake and quite frankly …….boring!
This whole experience has reminded me that despite having played the bass guitar in one form or another for the whole of my musical life, since I blagged my way into Amaziah at any rate, I have never acknowledged myself as a ‘bass player’.
I have always just been ‘standing in’ for a bass player that had quit or until a proper one could be found.
Even now with The Mudheads, with my limited edition Fender Bass guitar and a Marshall stack so large that it has snow on the peak and requires the services of a Sherpa to traverse the climb in order to ‘twiddle’ with the tone controls, I still would not consider myself a Bass Guitarist.
I have always, and I mean ALWAYS considered myself to be a Rhythm guitarist, despite the fact that the number of years I have performed in bands with said instrument could be counted in dog years.
Besides, my son and heir often remarks that as a guitarist I make a great bass player and as I have said…as bass player I make a great brickie!!
However; if you do not include all my acoustic guitar playing, I have spent the last seven years firmly planted in four string territory with no signs of change on the horizon.
Mind you, a real moment of pride for me, with a bit of a sting in the tail, was when Dave & Kev Steel from Amaziah came to see The Mudheads last year for the first time and remarked “Blimey it’s a shame you didn’t play the bass that well back in Amaziah days.
I think they meant it as a compliment…….but one can never be sure!
5 comments:
I could go all social worky on you and suggest that we are always in search of our true identity. Or maybe a bit philosophical: learning without thought is labour lost and thought without learning is perilous AND therefore never to have become what others already recognise us to be is to find true enlightenment. The journey is all. But then as they say here in Scotland I'd be "havering a lot of shite"
...and picking up on the philsophical thread, we are all three people. The person we think we are, the person others think we are and the person we actually are.
You are the mighty Rock God the last bastion of musical integrity from the days when we all wanted to be in a band, for many spurious reasons as I recall, but you just wanted to play music.
I have seen The Mudheads (and survived) and whilst you seem to have your own resistance in believing how good you are, as a singer and bass player there are few who can whip up an audience the way you do. Think Slade and you'll get my drift.
And if you still think you would prefer to play the six string ukulele, then give me the bass and I'll have a go..!
Now there's a sobering thought.
You may remember that I once had a bass guitar. Personally I felt there were 3 strings too many.
We also remember that you (Quick Sketch) had a bass guitar and thought there were FOUR strings too many..!
It was the fact that the thing was plugged into ampiflication that create the biggest problem.
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