Author Topic: Your Super-Inspiring Moment? (Read 867 times)

richbass939 · « **Reply #15 on:** August 22, 2005, 08:15:15 AM »

J. Gary, that's interesting. I remember so well when Ed Sullivan introduced them. That was really the first of several life changing events for me. Never before had I seen anything like them. I felt like I was looking at something from another planet, something I hadn't even imagined. I saw in them something that I wanted to be, not just musically, as I hadn't previously persued music at all. It was the catalyst for much of what I have done in the last 40+ years.
BTW, the event I spoke of at the top of this thread was my 11 year old (a pretty talented pianist) watching my recently acquired DVD of ELP. Adam had never seen a keyboard player that he thought was cool. He has listened to ELP all his life but has never before seen them playing live. Now he is amazed and inspired by KE's musical ability, showmanship, and coolness.
Rich

j_gary · « **Reply #16 on:** August 22, 2005, 01:48:15 PM »

Well said Rich, I think our experience may parallel your son's. I was 10 when I saw that first Beatles show. I was at a buddies house playing a board game. At that time of my life the world was very small. Pardon the drama, but I feel their performance yanked me out of childhood and thrust me into the world. It was my first recollection of thinking,wow, what the heck is going on out there? The sound,harmonies and show were perfect. I was knocked out that just four guys could do so much, so well, and have a ball doing it. It lit a passion and interest in me that carried me through the troublesome teens with little time for foolishness, and into adulthood. I think when a young person, such as your boy, developes an interest in something that challenges and inspires them, they have a greater chance of becoming a contributing adult, verses the crowd that spends their time hanging out at the mall. It seems that he is off to a great start, good luck!

Stay Low,
Gary

ttwatts · « **Reply #17 on:** August 30, 2005, 02:12:13 PM »

Just seeing Louis Johnson (Brothers Johnson) play Thunder Thumbs and Lightning Licks live did it for me. I have been hooked ever since.

ttwatts

richbass939 · « **Reply #18 on:** August 30, 2005, 05:51:03 PM »

Hi, Kenneth. Killeen, huh? I grew up in Temple and lived there for 22 years.
When I was there in July, I wanted to go by Cutter Brandenburg's museum of Stevie Ray Vaughn's stuff. Ran out of time though. Maybe next year in July.
You probably are wondering why I would pick July to go to TX. No, I haven't forgotten the summer temps. Relatives seem to pick July when scheduling events.
Speaking of relatives, Rose and Robert Watts of Temple were old family friends of ours. Any relation?
Rich

kungfusheriff · « **Reply #19 on:** August 30, 2005, 09:41:54 PM »

Every time I get to see Mike Watt play live...he and I happen to disagree on the virtue of Alembics, but if you want to talk about players who are forces of nature...wow. Just wow.
Most recently, seeing about half of the original Funk Brothers play live about ten feet from me (and I got paid to see the show! Yes!) and beating my brains out on Jaco's Teen Town for the last two days.

gbarchus · « **Reply #20 on:** September 10, 2005, 10:38:26 PM »

Jaco wanting to talk with me and play my factory Fender Precision fretless after a shound check, not knowing who he was until after watching his opening set for MY (nobody anyone would know) band's show at the Flying Machine in Ft. Lauderdale in 1971!

gbarchus · « **Reply #21 on:** September 10, 2005, 10:46:57 PM »

richbass, I played at Cutter's outside of Temple, TX! He's got some great stories to tell (living under the stage of the Armadillo World Headquarters, the Bee Gees) and SRV artifacts.

Gale

gbarchus · « **Reply #22 on:** September 10, 2005, 10:53:21 PM »

I think the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show was a defining moment (like Kennedy's assasination) in the lives of many of the old folks around here. For me, the Beatles helped me believe I could be a musician. The next year, when I was 13, I saw a band called, Boy Blue and the Moonmen perform You Can't Do That on Galveston beach and I was hooked. There wasn't anything else I wanted to do with my life but play music. Then I learned about women!

Gale

82daion · « **Reply #23 on:** September 12, 2005, 06:49:03 PM »

Hearing the work of John Entwistle, John Paul Jones, and Geddy Lee(on record) in 2004 really blew me away, and made me think, Hey-maybe I should take bass more seriously! However, seeing the Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense concerts(on DVD) really made me want to play live music.

lothartu · « **Reply #24 on:** September 20, 2005, 07:50:43 PM »

Well here's my little story.

When I was in high school I played in the jazz band one year. I didn't read so I just made a copy of the guitar charts and winged my way through the changes. I had a lot of fun but I was just a young kid who played KISS and Zep tunes in a bad garage band and I didn't have much musical confidence even though I really dug playing.

The jazz band had a competiton one weekend in another town so we loaded up and headed off. We got there late so we didn't have any time to warm up. We were about to get off the bus when our teacher says Look, I didn't want to tell you before because I didn't want you to be nervous but I don't want you to walk out there and freak out so here the deal, the judges for the competition are Dizzy Gillespie and Slide Hampton.

Dead silence.

So we unload and are standing around backstage while the band before us is on stange playing. They get done and Dizzy and Slide tear them appart. They didn't pull any punches. When it came to music Dizzy and Slide were the definition of brutally honest.

So we're shaking in our boots because we're standing back stage hearing all this and now we have to go out and play. No warmup, just got off the bus, just found out that we have to play in front of Dizzy and Slide and just heard the band before us, who we thought sounded pretty good, get torn apart in the critique.

We go out and play. I swear, we played better than we had ever played before. It was pure joy. Twenty players who all were feeling it at the same time just feeding off each other. That set we played was magical. We were all playing and looking at each other and we couldn't believe what was happening.

So then we get done. Now we come back to reality because Dizzy and Slide are walking up to work us over...

and they liked us. They really dug it.

Now here's the part of the story that's important to me. Dizzy and Slide tell me that they think that I'm a good player and that I've got a really good feel. They liked that I didn't play the notes on the official bass chart and that instead I just winged it. This really changed my view of my musical self image. It gave me a lot of confidence when I was just a scruffy little rocker in high school.

richbass939 · « **Reply #25 on:** September 20, 2005, 09:04:03 PM »

Very cool story.
Rich

lbpesq · « **Reply #26 on:** September 20, 2005, 10:52:46 PM »

A few years before he died, Dizzy played the old Yoshi's in Berkeley - a room about the size of a good sized living room - great place. A friend and I were sitting there waiting for the late show when a couple came up and asked to share our table. As we talked we discovered that the guy was a bass player who had played with Dizzy and the woman was a jazz singer. After an amazing show, as the crowd filed out, Dizzy and other band members made a bee line for our table and started pulling up chairs. Next thing I know I'm getting introduced: Dizzy, this is Billy, Billy, this is Dizzy. And I'm thinking HOLY S**T, THIS IS DIZZY GILLESPIE! We shot the bull for about an hour or so. He was very down to earth. It was like hanging out with your cool grandfather.

Bill, tgo

David Houck · « **Reply #27 on:** September 21, 2005, 05:25:11 AM »

So Bill, who was the bass player?

lbpesq · « **Reply #28 on:** September 21, 2005, 07:36:07 AM »

I don't remember, but not anyone I'd heard of and, as many of you have often pointed out around here, guitar players don't notice bass players anyway. nyuk, nyuk. I do remember one bass player quite well, though. When I first moved to Californina in 1973, the community college I was attending (Mt.SAC, east of L.A.) put on a small concert with Ray Brown and Shelley Mann. I didn't know much about them at the time, but I was very glad I went.

Bill, tgo

flaxattack · « **Reply #29 on:** September 21, 2005, 10:42:30 AM »

obviously my first dead show 9/28/72 stanley theatre

second- sitting behind john lennon at a jerry-merl show at the bottom line in 74. everybody stood and hoisted a drink to john and he stood and thanked us all. when the big man came out, there was that nod of hello between them and the night was magical....

third- pink floyd -radio city 1973- it was 3 dead shows,the riders,and floyd all in one week...

(Message edited by flaxattack on September 21, 2005)