# RIP Herbie Flowers - wonderful bass player

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-herbie-flowers-wonderful-bass-player/1006998>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** music\
**Created:** [September 9, 2024, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-herbie-flowers-wonderful-bass-player/1006998 "2024-09-09T05:54:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-herbie-flowers-wonderful-bass-player/1006998/1 "2024-09-09T05:54:51Z")

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Herbie Flowers was a bass player’s bass player, but you’ve probably heard him. He played on a lot of sessions, including Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and Elton John’s _Madman Across the Water_.

> **[Bass guitarist Herbie Flowers dies aged 86](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdjw41pp7vmo)**
>
> The acclaimed guitarist worked with David Bowie, Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John.

But I know his name primarily for two songs. First, for Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” That bass line bedeviled me for a bit until I realized it was two parts: an upright part and an electric bass part. They’re both beautiful bass parts, though. He claimed that he did it so he’d get paid two session fees for one session (and claimed that other times when he played two bass parts on other recordings), but I think he probably could think of two good bass parts for any song.

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/oG6fayQBm9w/maxresdefault.jpg "Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side (Official Audio)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG6fayQBm9w)

Second, for Nilsson’s _Jump Into the Fire_. His instructions were apparently “a groove in D major”. It surely does groove. When he starts de-tuning his bass at around 2:27, it’s because he thinks the song is going to be faded out at that point, and he was just enjoying himself. So he gets back in tune at around 2:40. There’s a definite edit where the drum solo cuts in at 3:56, who knows what happened in the part edited out, Herbie comes back in at around 4:40 with a _severely_ de-tuned bass line, brings it back in tune again, and closes out the rest of the seven minutes majestically. When I cover this song, I cheat and just use a tuner while the guitars cover for me.

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/era7iVv2WPE/maxresdefault.jpg "Harry Nilsson - Jump Into The Fire "Remastered"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=era7iVv2WPE)

You were one of my heroes, Herbie. Sad to see you go, and thanks for your music.

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**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2024, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-herbie-flowers-wonderful-bass-player/1006998/2 "2024-10-01T20:43:42Z")

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Yes indeed… i was a big fan of David Bowie’s work in the seventies  
and Herbie played on one of my all time favorite live albums - David Live.