Listen To The Music - bass line

[fleabag]

Just re-visited some old Doobies and realised how much i love the simple but  wonderful bass line on that track from Tiran Porter, who was on the 2nd album Toulouse Street and subsequent albums

I know the vid isnt live, just the track playing over the top, but Tiran is sporting a T Bird and wondered if that was the bass they recorded Toulouse Street with

On a side note,  Tom Johnston is one of my all time fave male crooners

 

 

Edited February 29, 2020 by fleabag

[gary mac]

Love his playing, especially on What Were Once Vices are Now Habits album. Rock bass with a great sense of groove and funk. 

[fleabag]

Agreed - i  have Toulouse,  Capt., and Vices in my collection. Treasure music indeed

[BlueMoon]

Great player who seems to know how to devise bass lines that just work. Not too flashy, but always spot on in my opinion. He can make simple sound like an "art". For example, the track "Taking It To The Streets" from the album of the same name. So simple, and it works beautifully.

[Happy Jack]

It will be my immense pleasure to play this bassline (slightly simplified) in about four hours from now ...

 

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, gary mac said:

Rock bass with a great sense of groove and funk.

I remember George Clinton asking the rhetorical question in Parliament's "P-Funk (wants to get funked up)" " Can you imaging Doobiein' your funk?"

[Kazan]

I used to own that very same T-bird. Yet another of those that I never should have sold or traded...

I know it was used to record quite a few of the tracks but don't know about  Toulouse Street specifically.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Kazan
Add info

[Happy Jack]

"I remember George Clinton asking the rhetorical question in Parliament's "P-Funk (wants to get funked up)" " Can you imaging Doobiein' your funk?""

Yeh, but who knows WTF he was talking about?

Edited February 29, 2020 by Happy Jack

[Happy Jack]

2 minutes ago, Kazan said:

I used to own that very same T-bird. Yet another of those that I never should have sold or traded...

I wish I that very same hat that the drummer's wearing ...

[Happy Jack]

OK, so here's a strange thing.

I was enjoying listening to the original so much that I picked up my bass, thought I'd have another go at that little bass lick that Porter puts in at the end of each line of the verse.

Hmmmmm ... that's a little faster that I remember this song being. And I'm sure that the original is in E, not F.

I know that's a TOTP recording an' all, but it both looks & sounds as if the whole bloody thing has been varispeeded up by a semi. 

[Ricky 4000]

6 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

"I remember George Clinton asking the rhetorical question in Parliament's "P-Funk (wants to get funked up)" " Can you imaging Doobiein' your funk?""

Yeh, but who knows WTF he was talking about?

All Parliament / Funkadelic songs are about having sex, or, trying to persuade somebody to have sex... while wearing an enormous hat and/or adult nappy.

🤪

 

[fleabag]

Its going back a while, but didnt the BBC TOTP team insist that any band appearing must do a recording of their track the day before ( or whatever ) and then mime to that on the night of appearance ?

If that was true, the Doobs may have changed the key, either by accident or design ?

[Stub Mandrel]

3 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

I know that's a TOTP recording an' all, but it both looks & sounds as if the whole bloody thing has been varispeeded up by a semi. 

Curious. I tried playing along to an OGWT video of Dire Straits doing Sultans yesterday and it was about 1/4 tone sharp - as if it had been edited to fit exactly in 5 minutes, but maybe they just tuned to each other, after all this was long before clip and pedal tuners ...

[Mykesbass]

4 hours ago, fleabag said:

Its going back a while, but didnt the BBC TOTP team insist that any band appearing must do a recording of their track the day before ( or whatever ) and then mime to that on the night of appearance ?

If that was true, the Doobs may have changed the key, either by accident or design ?

They were obliged to due to an agreement between the BBC and the MU. What happened in reality was the band would book in to a studio. The MU would come down to see the recording in process. Th erecord company would then take the MU rep to the pub and get back just in time for the "new" recording to be handed over, which of course was just a fresh copy of th emaster.

IIRC this would not have been an issue with non UK acts.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Mykesbass

[TrevorR]

17 hours ago, fleabag said:

Just re-visited some old Doobies and realised how much i love the simple but  wonderful bass line on that track from Tiran Porter, who was on the 2nd album Toulouse Street and subsequent albums

I know the vid isnt live, just the track playing over the top, but Tiran is sporting a T Bird and wondered if that was the bass they recorded Toulouse Street with

On a side note,  Tom Johnston is one of my all time fave male crooners

 

 

Good to see that there was no expense spared by the Beeb on the stage set. Not so much Rockin’ Down The Highway but rockin ‘ in the loading bay!

[TrevorR]

15 hours ago, Ricky 4000 said:

All Parliament / Funkadelic songs are about having sex, or, trying to persuade somebody to have sex... while wearing an enormous hat and/or adult nappy.

🤪

 

....whilst in space or so high you might as well have been...!

[TrevorR]

15 hours ago, BlueMoon said:

Great player who seems to know how to devise bass lines that just work. Not too flashy, but always spot on in my opinion. He can make simple sound like an "art". For example, the track "Taking It To The Streets" from the album of the same name. So simple, and it works beautifully.

Oooooooh, and the sheer tone in every note from Tiran’s P-bass on that track... drool!

[Kazan]

51 minutes ago, TrevorR said:

Oooooooh, and the sheer tone in every note from Tiran’s P-bass on that track... drool!

FWIW I was told by Mark Brown (guitar tech for the DBs) that that studio track was actually the T-bird. Not sure if that's really true as it sounds very P-bass like to me but the T-bird with just the neck pickup can sound close sometimes (pickups in that bass were replaced with later, hotter late '60s T-bird pickups and it had a P-bass bridge mounted on a plastic spacer.

[TrevorR]

15 hours ago, Kazan said:

FWIW I was told by Mark Brown (guitar tech for the DBs) that that studio track was actually the T-bird. Not sure if that's really true as it sounds very P-bass like to me but the T-bird with just the neck pickup can sound close sometimes (pickups in that bass were replaced with later, hotter late '60s T-bird pickups and it had a P-bass bridge mounted on a plastic spacer.

A chum knows him and asked. He said P not TB!

[Kazan]

8 hours ago, TrevorR said:

A chum knows him and asked. He said P not TB!

Certainly believable. He's quite accessible. I've spoken with him before but not asked about that point in particular (though he clearly remembers that bass). He's played the bar circuit around Santa Cruz for decades.

[cetera]

I believe this was either an old Gibson EB-0 or EB-3 on LTTM, though I seem to recall Tiran mentioning to me that it may have been a P bass. Definitely with flats and prob through an old Ampeg B-15...

I love his playing (particularly in the Tom Johnston era - i.e. Toulouse St to Stampede) and he perfectly mixes groove, tone, melody and counterpoint on everything he touches.

Honoured to be a good friend of his now.... a fanboy dream come true!

[EliasMooseblaster]

On 29/02/2020 at 19:44, Stub Mandrel said:

Curious. I tried playing along to an OGWT video of Dire Straits doing Sultans yesterday and it was about 1/4 tone sharp - as if it had been edited to fit exactly in 5 minutes, but maybe they just tuned to each other, after all this was long before clip and pedal tuners ...

The other possible culprit is getting around the copyright: YouTube is generally sympathetic to anybody who complains that somebody has pinched their music for an unlicensed video, and a lot of bigger plaintiffs (Auntie Beeb included) have automated scripts in place which will trawl t'interweb for any material which they own, but which some other cheeky blighter has uploaded.

There's all manner of visual trickery which some people have taken to when it comes to video footage. But the most common way to get around the music algorithm is to speed up or slow down the audio just enough that the computer thinks it's a different piece of music.

[cetera]

On a separate note.... just how cool is Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter on this vid?

Also, of note, is that this song was released in 1972 but this TV pop show footage is likely from 1974 as both Jeff & drummer Keith Knudsen (without silly hat) weren't in the Doobies in 1972.

[No lust in Jazz]

On ‎29‎/‎02‎/‎2020 at 15:57, Happy Jack said:

I know that's a TOTP recording an' all, but it both looks & sounds as if the whole bloody thing has been varispeeded up by a semi. 

It's not TOTP this is the Dutch equivalent TOP POP, the speed issue, who knows - it could equally be down to its upload to YT.

[Happy Jack]

1 hour ago, No lust in Jazz said:

It's not TOTP this is the Dutch equivalent TOP POP, the speed issue, who knows - it could equally be down to its upload to YT.

I had no idea that Top Pop existed ...