Author Topic: I Miss The 70's... (Read 1080 times)

57basstra · « **Reply #60 on:** June 24, 2009, 03:20:15 PM »

One of the finest bass players I ever saw was a female bass player in a Disco band in a club in Clarksville, Tenn. This road band had a horn section and they were really tight. The standout musician was the bass player.

(I started to mention her in the recent thread on women bass players, but I do not know her name. It was 30 plus years ago.)

With the proximity of Fort Campbell, Ky., Nashville, Tenn. The Clarksville area had some really good musicians and bands roll through. (In fact while stationed at Fort Campbell Jimi Hendrix had a band with some local musicians and he played several clubs on the Fort Campbell strip. In the 1970s I played at several of the clubs on the strip where Hendrix is said to have played. I collected a few stories from folks who said they saw Jimi play at these clubs. Some of these folks also claimed to have partied with Hendrix. Anyway........

I digress, however. I miss the '60s because I truly was a child of the '60s.)

hg30904 · « **Reply #61 on:** June 24, 2009, 03:38:44 PM »

I also thought that disco would kill bass playing. It seemed that there were keys playing the parts I used to have, notes too low for me to go to, and if there was a bass player, s/he needed to back up on keys.

But I cannot let this thread slide through without propping up Cordell Boogie Mosson of Parliament and Funkadelic. If you have access to any of the old (70s) videos, check out Mosson. He (to many of us) defined funk, and it was usually in the spaces and air. It was the space between the notes, it was the hesitation while still being on the beat, it was going low when everyone else was going high. He was busy, but there wasn't clutter...does that make any sense?

(And in the videos I have, he has a Ric if that means anything...)

57basstra · « **Reply #62 on:** June 24, 2009, 04:13:26 PM »

I graduated high school in May 1975. The decade has always felt like it was divided literally into two distinct and even parts. I can remember all of us on graduation night hooting it up around The Old Oak Tree in Land Between the Lakes, listening to the music and saying the newer stuff coming out was different.

Disco always seems to get the lion's share of discussion of this prime musical decade. For me there has been nothing before or since that can match the total breadth, depth and scope of the music of the first half of the 1970s.

terryc · « **Reply #63 on:** June 25, 2009, 07:53:41 AM »

Oh yes..Rocco..Tower of Power, how on earth did I forget to mention him..16ths at an amazing pace!
In the UK disco trickled over here and came at the same time as UK punk so there was a big mix going on.
HG..those low notes in disco came in the 80's with the advent of synths, the real stuff was those bass players I have already mentioned.
I guess every decade relates to someone in this forum, on a personal level we all connect with a certain time in our lives with the music that was going on.

olieoliver · « **Reply #64 on:** June 25, 2009, 08:04:25 AM »

Our old guitar player used to say, disco is to music what finger painting is to art.

OO

bassilisk · « **Reply #65 on:** June 25, 2009, 08:59:30 AM »

57basstra wrote:For me there has been nothing before or since that can match the total breadth, depth and scope of the music of the first half of the 1970s.

I'm also of the era - graduated HS in '73 and the musical heritage we had starting in the 60's has not been equaled since. It didn't just redefine the form but changed our culture - the way we dressed, talked, recreated (oh boy did it!) etc. Yes there has been great music since, but the total spectrum of change and impact hasn't been duplicated.

And yes, Disco had a huge impact. Why did it get so popular? It wasn't the scintillating melodies. It reintroduced physical contact between men and women while dancing! The 50's had it, the 60's lost it. Disco allowed you to touch your partner. Whatever else you might think or say about it (music notwithstanding), if you knew the steps all the girls wanted to dance with you. Need I say more? The musician's suffered - the dancers did not!

sonicus · « **Reply #66 on:** June 25, 2009, 09:10:30 AM »

HI terryc. I am an huge fan of Rocco's style, He has made an instructional video called 'FINGER STYLE FUNK ! i like watching it from time to time. It is worth buying.

phylo · « **Reply #67 on:** June 25, 2009, 09:27:53 AM »

retirement fund started by Kiss?

is there a good story here?

gyonnii · « **Reply #68 on:** June 25, 2009, 10:28:04 PM »

Yeah I know what John meant by the retirement fund started by Kiss, we had a few discussions about it,
In 1985 every band that was and had played made come backs and it started with Kiss going back out on tour and the rumors in the L.A. music circuit was the musicians there we mocking some of these groups that they spent all their money partying on substances, cars and homes and were broke and needed to pay the bills so off they went, which was probably true for most of them and some of them even admitted to the fact of it on T.V.
The labels were starving for new talent at the time also. Thats about all I can remember, John will have to tell ya the rest.

811952 · « **Reply #69 on:** June 26, 2009, 07:21:10 AM »

One of the bands I gig with does a few Tower of Power tunes, and those are the most physically challenging rapid-fire lines I've ever played..

John

olieoliver · « **Reply #70 on:** June 26, 2009, 07:25:32 AM »

Another one of my favorite LP's from the 70's was the Isley Brothers-Go For Your Guns lp. We used play the tune Climbing Up the Ladder. Cool bassline in it.

OO

blackelan · « **Reply #71 on:** June 26, 2009, 09:40:04 PM »

I also heard prohibition was pretty rough back then... any of you old guys into boot legging? How about flapper girls?

Sorry just trying to relate to you old guys so I thought I would bring up relevent issues from your youth. Must have been a shock to hear about the Kaiser getting shot, eh?

cozmik_cowboy · « **Reply #72 on:** June 26, 2009, 10:32:45 PM »

There were 4 Kaisers of the Austrian & Austro-Hungarian Empires & 3 Kaisers of the German Empire. None were shot (Franz Joseph of Austria was stabbed once, but survived). You must be thinking of Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand, who who would have one day been Kaiser of Austria-Hungary if Gavrillo Princip hadn't popped a cap in him in 1914, touching off the Great War. Jeez, kids these days......

Peter

57basstra · « **Reply #73 on:** June 26, 2009, 10:57:17 PM »

A big part of our local economy was (and is) driven by bootleggin'. A local legend in my area was a renowned bootlegger named Lim Manners who was also a guitar player, singer and songwriter. I went to school with one of his sons.

When the Revenuers come by his place and found nothing he told them to tell the community, Don't tell 'em I don't have nothin' to sell, jus' tell 'em you couldn't find it!

I went into one of his old houses with a friend who had bought it years after Lim had retired and the west wall had a false front and behind it was a full room hidden from view. We used it as a recording studio ( and ancillary advancements.)

We used to buy Moonshine from the local VFW and then go back to practice for our gigs there. In the '70s the VFW would let us play there once a month because we brought in such great lookin' women and sold them out standing room only on alcohol and beer.

I can remember playing Pink Floyd Pigs at the local VFW and saying, Sure, we can play Country Music; but guess what country.

I don't know much about the first Great War, but Moonshining was and is a way of life 'round chere.

Next lesson: Moonshine drag cars and starter girls who used their bras as starter flags....

dadabass2001 · « **Reply #74 on:** June 27, 2009, 09:04:45 AM »

Yee Haw!
Sure am good!

Mike

Author Topic: I Miss The 70's... (Read 1080 times)

blackelan