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Year end and there will be lots of music marathons with countdowns of my favorite Rock bands from the 60's and 70's.

I'm listening to some David Gilmore and Pink Floyd and realized that not only was it music from the 70's, that many of the Rock musicians I listen to are IN THEIR 70's!

What a huge list of talent...
David Gilmour 72
Ron Wood 71
Tony Iommi 70
Jimmy Page, 74
Andy Summers 75
Mick Ralphs 74
Brian May 71
Jeff Beck 74
Robin Trower 73
Eric Clapton 73
Ritchie Blackmore 73
Pete Townshend 73
Steve Howe 71
Ted Nugent 70
Keith Richards 75

How's that for a twist on 70's Rock!

More than 70 years ago, Gibson Guitar Corporation manufactured their first solid body electric guitar and with the help of musician Les Paul, they released several different models in his name.
Competing with Fender who bulk manufactured basic guitars on an assembly line, the Gibson Les Paul model had more hands-on craftsmanship. Select flamed maple front, decorative binding on the body and glue-in set neck (as opposed to bolting on a Fender neck) were the most significant visual differences. Another difference were the pickups. Fender used single coil pickups that were subject to interference or 60 cycle electrical hum. The Gibson pickups named Humbucker had dual coils inside a metal shielded case. Some of the early pickups were stamped patent applied for, later known as PAF were the most sought out style of that era.
So the combination of design, wood, hardware and electronics, adding limited production has made those models difficult to find and extremely valuable.
Unfortunately, collectors... players or not, scoop up these guitars whenever they can.
Guitarist Joe Bonamassa will go through pawn shops looking for vintage Les Paul guitars in the cities where he is performing.

Last year I saw a video of the guitar collection owned by Rick Nielsen of the rock band Cheap Trick. He's got many different brands and models and remembers every purchase.
According to Wiki, Nielsen has owned about two thousand guitars over the years and currently has about 500 instruments.

I believe he's got a museum for viewing and sometimes does shows of his favorites.

Here's a 5 minute version for an online music company name Reverb:

I was listening to a YouTube video from a studio/session guitarist who was explaining about absolute perfection in playing. If you are a professional, you must play the part.
Twanging a few wrong notes or messed up a timing is costly to the rest of the recording session if the engineer stops the recording take and makes everyone start again. Retakes get to be expensive. Some studio engineers will allow the song to continue and only retake the guitar part and not involve the rest of the session players.

Let's say you flubbed a solo note... one stinkin' note.
Years ago, everything was done on analog tape. They play the song again and the guitarist plays along repeating the part. At the very second where the mistake occurred, they 'punch-in' the new part to over write the mistake. It's only a second and not re-recording the entire solo.

Session players who aren't the best don't get called back for more work.

Now, nearly every studio is digital. No tapes. Everything goes directly to a computer.
The leading software workstation specially designed for recording studios is Pro Tools.
The beauty of that is doing a recording session in New York and sending the raw data to a studio in California to add vocals or other instruments.

Cowboy Chords are the most basic chords played in the first position, usually with a steel string acoustic guitar. Reminiscent of the early days of Western and Swing music, Cowboy Chords have lots of sustain due to the open strings. Guitars are tuned to E. If the song needs to be in a different pitch... let's say in the key of G, The guitarist would need to transpose and lose the sound of the Cowboy Chords.

Enter the capo. A capo is a device that straps around the guitar neck and placed in different locations to easily transpose music. The guitarist can still play like he was in E and strap a capo getting Cowboy Chords starting in the key of G.

For all the years of playing and listening to music, Cowboy Chords is a new term for me

For some unknown reason, I didn't develop a taste for Southern Rock in the 70's.
I did get to see the Allman Brothers Band in 1971... up close and they were terrific.
Extended jams did get boring, but it's the easiest way to make 5 songs last a one-hour set.

My favorite Allman Brothers song is (the 5 minute version of) Whipping Post.
The extended version is monotonous for my ears.
In this song, the Southern Rock label is shared with Blues Rock.

Another music icon is gone. News today that she died peacefully after a long illness in her home near Zurich Switzerland.

One of my favorite Tina Tuner songs was from the movie THUNDERDOME.

We Don't Need Another Hero

I started playing bass guitar around 1967. Music then was a mixture that included folk songs, soul music and rock & roll. Some of the name acts used studio musicians and the songs I listened to often had the same musicians who played on hundreds of records. Since they were paid union wages for their recording time, it was normal for them to be anonymous and receive no album credits.

My original idea was blog was to blog about them (musicians collectively) but today this blog starts with a few bassists who shaped the music we all grew up listening to. It was many years later when I found out who they were. Yeah, there are more and I'll introduce them and how their styles differed the sound of the electric bass.

James Jamerson, originally played upright bass, switched to a Fender electric bass. Plucked the strings with his first finger (like an upright bassist would normally do) that created his iconic Motown style.

Carol Kaye, a guitar teacher did some studio work and filled in for an absent bassist that started her career in 1963. Carol used a pick but I've read she put foam under the strings (near the bridge) to dampen the sound slightly making it sound like she was picking with her fingers.

For years, that's all my ears heard.

Rock music brought us THE WHO and bassist John Entwistle who attacked the bass with lots of treble, pick, 3 or 4 fingers in rapid strokes... it didn't matter. John was later nicknamed Thunder Fingers.
Right after that was the YES group and Chris Squire. Again another bassist using sharp treble sound on a bass. But, the style wasn't too far from conventional.

Bring on Larry Graham, multi-instrumentalist who created a thumping style of bass playing. He could tap a string and pluck another giving it a syncopated (funky) sound. Marcus Miller was doing much the same.

This "slapping" created an entirely new sound and style to bass guitar that brings it to the front as a soloist instrument.



The world is filling up with slap bassists and it would appear if you want to be a 'somebody' slap has to be in your arsenal.

This comes as a total shock. If you know the Foo Fighters, Taylor was their drummer.
Details are sketchy but it's said the band was on tour in South America. They finished a gig at a Festival in Argentina and scheduled to play Friday in Columbia.

I didn't see any updates to their website:

I'm back to watching musically oriented YouTube videos (among other things) and came across a few musicians who were said to be 'gifted' and after hearing their stories, I see that at an early age of 5 or 6 most (if not all) were enrolled in music training, usually classical.
Many of the 'gifted' adult guitarists, started in their teens and fit guitar lessons into a life full of other things. The turning point was 6 hours of practice daily. Eddie VanHalen dedicated hours upon hours of practice to get to the level he achieved. Hard work of 40 hours or more each week practicing guitar is what did it... not being gifted.

I'm rethinking the word 'gifted' when it applies to famous musicians.

Hard work?
John Petrucci of Dream Theater discusses his background and going to Berklee College of Music.
Accomplished, yes. Gifted... no.