Hendrix’s bassist died a couple of days ago. Great bass line on Red House.
Amazing that he sold his royalty rights for $100,000 in early 70’s, and hadn’t been raking it in from the CD revolution. I suppose his estate’s lawyers will get on that.
I doubt there’s much they can do… at that time, nobody realized how much money Hendrix’ music would make after his death. I hope things work out, though.
Interestingly, I’m not sure he played the bassline on Red House. Hendrix overdubbed some bass parts on his albums himself (which Noel didn’t like). I used to think he only played bass on a few songs, like All Along the Watchtower, but it may have been more than I thought.
I’m sorry to see him go. I always liked his 1969 album “Fat Mattress,” especially Mr. Moonshine. A quick look at AMG shows all the Fat Mattress releases are now out of print, but they’re worth looking for. He was a fine musician and probably deserved a better shake.
That would be interesting to determine. And speaking of bass players, I often wondered about Bill Wyman and the Stones’ recordings–you know there is a bass playing there somewhere, but it is so hollow and up in the clouds kind of sound, I always wondered if he knew what he was doing. Unlike McCartney, for example, whose bass playing was crisp and no problem to hear. And then of course there’s Zeppelin’s, uhm, who was that? John Bonham? I wonder if his great bass lines weren’t dubbed in by Page.
Naw, Bonham’s the drummer. John Paul Jones played bass guitar.
Bonham is known for his “hammer-of-the-gods” bass drum; he accomplished this with a 26" x (I think) 14" Ludwig drum and keeping the microphone further away than is common.
[sup]And now, back to our program…[/sup]
I am sorry to hear of Noel’s early passing. He was rather disgruntled towards the end, wasn’t he? I’m off to research his career so that I might have something happier to remember him by, rather than his well-known dour moods and disgruntlement with Jimi Hendrix towards the end.
Thanks, Joe K, I always got those two names mixed up. I still love to focus on the bass playing of Jones on those Led Zeppelin blues numbers. It’s sort of like–“Is this what you are all trying to do when you say you are playing the blues?” And whoever was playing the bass on Red House indulged in that same sort of…exaggeration, shall we call it?
Keith often filled in on bass (see the song credits on “Let it Bleed” and “Exile on Main Street” for examples), though I’m certain it wasn’t due to incompetence on Bill’s part; Mick and Keith are pretty pragmatic when it comes to their business and wouldn’t have tolerated any slackers.