James Brown - The Boss

[TimR]

What is happening musically on that track?

Does anybody know the history? 

[musicbassman]

Well, assuming that it's a four string bass then the E string is tuned getting on for a quarter of a tone sharp ?

The weird thing is that sometimes it sounds worse than other times.

The bridge part of the song based on Bb just confirms it's only the E string that's out.

We can surely only speculate as why nobody picked up on this.

Maybe the studio air was so thick with waccy baccy that it interfered with the soundwaves...    😵

[Rich]

I find the song unlistenable. The bass is like fingernails down a blackboard.

[Hobbayne]

More on here.

https://www.pprune.org/jet-blast/478937-hit-records-bum-notes-out-tune-instruments.html

[mikel]

Like most J B stuff I find it boring and repetitive.

[mcnach]

1 hour ago, mikel said:

Like most J B stuff I find it boring and repetitive.

 

I guess you don't like blues or rock either?

[TimR]

@musicbassman Yes. It seems to drift in and out and I think the guitar is out in places. 

The whole album came in for a bit of stick at the time from what I can find online. 

Seems a lot of the music was recorded ensemble and just pick the best take. 

I initially thought it might be done deliberately as some kind of clever musical device. I quite like it to a point. 

[TimR]

23 hours ago, mikel said:

Like most J B stuff I find it boring and repetitive.

So did a lot of people at the time. The album was critically slated and yet went Gold. 

[BreadBin]

The whole line sounds out of tune, not just the verse. 

[chris_b]

On 20/01/2019 at 14:06, Hobbayne said:

More on here.

https://www.pprune.org/jet-blast/478937-hit-records-bum-notes-out-tune-instruments.html

Never mind James Brown, just get a load of those opinionated bell-ends on that site!!

[mikel]

2 hours ago, TimR said:

So did a lot of people at the time. The album was critically slated and yet went Gold. 

It was just a personal observation. I love Funk but never got the JB grunting, groaning and shrieking thing. As I say, my personal taste and that song does nowt to change it.

[scalpy]

As somebody once said about Mick Jaggar’s singing- it doesn’t have to be correct it just has to be right. 

Whilst the above track is out, something not even close to right is the outro to Layla- banshee slide at its coke powered worst.

[KK Jale]

I hate hate hate the out of tune bass on that.

But funnily enough I love this. 

 

 

[fleabag]

Dont like that particular JB track, but i love the Sex Machine bass line from Bootsy so much that we do a cover of the song

Also, i'm quite fond of My Thang after it was used in the film Jacobs Ladder ( stonking film by the way )

I get that a lot of his stuff is repetitive, but some like , some dont.  Just about the same story of every element of life

 

[drTStingray]

The thing with James Brown is its dance music - which generally tends to be repetitive.

Some people like it, some don't but for me a band as tight and with as much groove as James Brown's had is one of the most exciting things in music - totally influences my approach to bass playing - always has since I first got turned on to it in the mid 70s - the single Get Up Offa That Thing - (I would accept - probably to the annoyance of some - I know some of my prog mates at the time thought I was bonkers - but they then also gravitated to Tom Scott and Weather Report around the same time!!)

Edited January 22, 2019 by drTStingray

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited March 3, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[fleabag]

Where's that confounded bridge ?

I beg your pardon - that was Led Zep

[Sweeneythebass]

It’s way out, just came on my Spotify playlist and I thought wow that’s way out. I hadn’t really noticed before which says quite a bit for my Ears. Thank god for Basschat for confirmation of an out of tune bass! 

[SumOne]

Posted in wrong thread

Edited August 30, 2021 by SumOne
Wrong thread

[SumOne]

Posted in wrong thread

Edited August 30, 2021 by SumOne
Wrong thread!

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Did Bruce Springsteen ever recipricate by doing a song with the bass out of tune called "The hardest working man in showbusiness?"

[mouthmw]

Just heard this song on the radio for the first time (not a huge James Brown fan, but I do dig 70s funk in general). First thing I noticed was how out of tune bass is, so I had to check out the song and listen again on my headphones.
Yup, super out of tune.

[Doctor J]

The bass in Rock and Roll by Led Zeppelin sounds a bit flat when he's pedalling the A. Same for Do Anything You Want To by Thin Lizzy. Ah well, both are bangers and have done well enough regardless. It's not a huge deal.

[Cliff Edge]

I saw James Brown live many moons ago. Quite an experience it was too. As I recall the band was quite exceptional but his antics tended to take the attention away from it. The Hardest Working Man in Showbusiness schtick was well over the top at the end of the show.  I can’t listen to his recordings for more than 5 minutes. 

[chris_b]

I saw James Brown twice. First time was in 1971 at the East Ham Odeon, with Bootsy. The show ran for more than 2 hours, was their second show of the evening and started at 1 am, and was one of the best gigs I've ever seen.

 

The second time was at Hammersmith Odeon. It might have been sometime in the 90's. The band was still great but the show floundered a few times due to Mr Brown's "issues".

 

James Brown invented a whole new style of bass centric music. I'll be listening to those records for ever.