silverfoxnik

Just bought some great headphones from Patrick, who's been a pleasure to deal with from start to finish! Great comms, super-fast shipping and as I said, really good headphones. Highly recommended! 👍 Thanks Patrick - I'm really pleased with the Audio Technica h/phones and hope to deal with you again. 😊 Cheers Nik

Well said @Dad3353 She is one the few artists who's work and career arc (for want of a better phrase) have had that sort of spellbinding power over us mere mortals.. I used to have a book years ago called - I think - 'The Craft of Lyric writing', or something like that anyway... It was a great book, full of fascinating analysis and insight into the craft of lyric writing in popular music..and it had sections on writers like Dylan, The Beatles, Cole Porter etc, etc.. But the author reserved their absolute highest praise for Joni Mitchell, saying that she was just on another level to everyone else. As the years have gone by, I'm more and more convinced that the author was 100% correct. Joni Mitchell is the greatest storytelling songwriter of the last 50 years...

Yep, me too 👍 Used to cover this in a band I was in a few years ago.. We did a mash-up of the original version and Carleen Anderson's cover of it , and it was great fun to play!

Can't agree at all with @Nail Soup @PaulWarning @neilp or @TheLowDown, but hey - that's the joy of good, honest debate here on Basschat... 😁 Only my opinion of course, but Eleanor Rigby (amongst many of McCartney's other songs) is a work of absolute genius. No doubting the stunning foresight and incredible contribution of George Martin of course, and the very different, complimentary genius of John Lennon, but McCartney's place as one of the very, very best songwriters of the 20th century, is absolutely assured. In addition, his bass playing contribution is right up there too and as if that isn't enough, in 2010, he was ranked No. 11 on the Rolling Stone Magazine '100 Greatest Singers of All Time'.

Great stuff there @chris_b! I really like his tone, as well as what he plays too... And that band - they're absolutely rockin'. 👍👌😊

Wow! 😱

I'm in agreement with you on this point... Only my observation of course, but I'd say that here on Basschat, Macca isn't talked about quite as often and/or in quite the same reverential tones as the other bassists you've cited above . Is that because he isn't recognised as having raised the bar for bass? Probably.. Do I agree with that? No... My personal view is that he did raise the bar for bass, bringing far more creativity, and melodic invention to bear in a catalogue of (brilliant) pop songs than some of his contemporaries might otherwise have done.

Just Googled it.. Wow - I didn't know that!! 👍

Sounds good - I've a fair few Adam stories to share too! 👍😊

Ah, cool.. It was a great little venue back in the day! I played The Moonlight myself many times and also saw U2, Adam and The Ants, Monochrome Set there amongst many others... Eventually, the Decca Records site was taken over by English National Opera and I spent a lot of time there too as my then other half worked for them - in fact she still does all these years later.

Definitely - those were good days for sure! Do you mean West End Lane as in West Hampstead? If so, then that's yet more nostalgia for me. I used to spend a lot of my time there at The Railway Tavern and The Moonlight Club... I always thought Barson was a genius of a songwriter - 'My Girl's Mad At Me' being a case in point... As good as anything by Sting, Squeeze, Elvis Costello and other contemporary post-punk songwriters..

I remember them as the North London Invaders @ProfJames because they used to rehearse where my band did, at Halligan's Heap rehearsal studios in the Holloway Road, near Highbury and Islington tube station.. It was an absolute heap, just as the name suggested, but it had a great vibeo. Spandau used to rehearse there too when they were called Gentry.

Definitely.. It must have had far more impact than anything around at the time, including The Rolling Stones.. M

^^^ +100 to this... Last year, @Paul S very kindly lent me his Sprackenbacker bass for a recording project I'm doing that needed that sort of 'Ricky' sound. .. Despite vaguely seeing each other around on Basschat, at that point, we'd never met - still haven't in fact.. But Paul took a chance on loaning out the bass to me purely based on a number of messages and 1 phone call I think it was... I guess it was kind of a trust built on what I can only describe as 'the Basschat Guarantee'.. 😁 Anyway, spin forward 5 months later and that bass has now been used on loads of the tracks and has been of enormous benefit to the project! Then, Paul gets in touch with me to say he's thinking of moving the bass on and would I like first refusal?? Could I believe my luck? No I bleeding couldn't!! And of course, there was only ever going to be one answer to that question.. So now, I'm the very proud owner of said Sprackenbacker bass and I just wanted to share this little story with all you Basschatters out there about what an absolutely brilliant bloke Paul is ! As was said above so very well by @stewblack. Paul - thanks very much for your generosity and for being such a help - it really is very much appreciated by me and the guys involved in the recording project! ☺️👍🎶 Nik

Good choices!