There are very, very few instruments I can’t stand the sound of, and the electric fretless bass guitar is one of them. But Hejira is one of my all-time favorite records, at least in part due to Jaco’s playing. I don’t like him on anything else he’s played on. Shrug emoji.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 28 July 2022 20:35 (one year ago) link
^^ Same.
And after listening to Hejira the first or fourth time, I resigned myself to being all wrong about Jaco. Went back and listened to some of his other stuff. Relieved to find that nope, it's just him with Joni that I can take for more than five minutes.
― pplains, Thursday, 28 July 2022 20:38 (one year ago) link
Even for a fretless bass Jaco's tone is very specific, I think it's the bridge pickup of a Fender Jazz turned all the way up and the neck pickup turned all the way down. Not my favorite tone, but hey, he owned it.
― Josefa, Thursday, 28 July 2022 20:46 (one year ago) link
Just to underline Jaco's singularity, imagine Pino Palladino in his stead.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 July 2022 21:00 (one year ago) link
Same here on the fretless bass. What is it about that sound that sucks so bad? I put off listening to Hejira for a while because I expected it to bother me but it fits with the music just right.
Lou Reed's later stuff has a lot of problems, but Fernando Saunders makes it unlistenable.
― Cow_Art, Thursday, 28 July 2022 22:02 (one year ago) link
It sounds like liquid.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 28 July 2022 22:04 (one year ago) link
it sounds like thishttps://tenor.com/qkcC.gif
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 28 July 2022 22:12 (one year ago) link
ughit sounds like thishttps://c.tenor.com/xvtjWxR-looAAAAS/when-harry-met-sally-billy-crystal.gif
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 28 July 2022 22:13 (one year ago) link
Fretless bass is great you are all heathens
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Thursday, 28 July 2022 22:20 (one year ago) link
It's how you use it and what kind of fretless - like an upright fretless is very common. Rick Danko used a fretless on The Band (see "Cripple Creek"), Freebo used one on some early Bonnie Raitt tracks like "You’ve Been In Love Too Long" on Takin’ My Time and Sting used one with the Police ("Don’t Stand So Close To Me" on Zenyatta Mondatta).
― birdistheword, Thursday, 28 July 2022 22:28 (one year ago) link
There's a documentary where she tells an anecdote about auditioning a bassist (not Jaco or Larry Klein). She told the bassist to play a B, and he was confused and said, "But... there's not even a B _in_ that chord!" And she said, exasperatedly, "Well there WILL be, when you PLAY it."
I love this anecdote. Jaco would have played the B and made it work. Klein would have shrugged and done what she asked.
― your marshmallows may vary (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 29 July 2022 00:51 (one year ago) link
Upright bass is fine. Electric fretless bass sounds like sped up whale call.
― Cow_Art, Friday, 29 July 2022 01:08 (one year ago) link
no, literally no instruments have a "this sounds like THIS" character, everything is down to usage and context.
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Friday, 29 July 2022 01:10 (one year ago) link
y’all have taught yourselves to hate fretless bass
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 29 July 2022 01:25 (one year ago) link
― Cow_Art, Thursday, July 28, 2022 3:02 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
come on
brad otm teaching myself to unhate it was great fun though.
― ミ💙🅟 🅛 🅤 🅡 🅜 🅑💙彡 (Austin), Friday, 29 July 2022 02:00 (one year ago) link
when i think of fretless i think of japan, who rule. that is all.
― the cat needs to start paying for its own cbd (map), Friday, 29 July 2022 02:05 (one year ago) link
japan+jaco so very crucial to "getting it" wrt fretless ebass
― ミ💙🅟 🅛 🅤 🅡 🅜 🅑💙彡 (Austin), Friday, 29 July 2022 02:16 (one year ago) link
good call on Japan
Hejira rules, 30% b/c of Jaki imho
― thinkmanship (sleeve), Friday, 29 July 2022 02:22 (one year ago) link
xxxxpost You find all of this unlistenable?
with Lou ReedThe Blue Mask (1982)Legendary Hearts (1983)Live in Italy (1984)New Sensations (1984)Mistrial (1986)Set the Twilight Reeling (1996)Perfect Night: Live in London (1998)Ecstasy (2000)The Raven (2003)Animal Serenade (2004)Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse (2008)FilmA Night with Lou Reed (1983)Coney Island Baby: Live in Jersey (Lou Reed) (1987)Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart (1998)Lou Reed: Live at Montreux (2000)Prozac Nation (2001)Spanish Fly: Lou Reed Live in Spain (2005)Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse (Lou Reed-Julian Schnabel) (2008)
― dow, Friday, 29 July 2022 02:27 (one year ago) link
yah really
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 29 July 2022 02:28 (one year ago) link
Yes
― My Little Red Buchla (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 29 July 2022 02:36 (one year ago) link
But maybe it's just because I myself stll rely on the training wheels of actual frets.
There’s a few there that I haven’t tried, but I have had most of those and sold them back. Apart from the occasional song, everything about his sound went sour.
The kids summer camp is about 35 minutes away and we’ve been doing some focused listening to classic albums. My girls are very taken with Blue. In the middle of River the 7 year old asked “Why is it so sad?” They ask me questions and I’ve laid the narrative out for them.
― Cow_Art, Friday, 29 July 2022 02:51 (one year ago) link
<3
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 29 July 2022 03:56 (one year ago) link
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, July 28, 2022 9:25 PM
new permanent board description
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 29 July 2022 04:05 (one year ago) link
second.
― ミ💙🅟 🅛 🅤 🅡 🅜 🅑💙彡 (Austin), Friday, 29 July 2022 04:15 (one year ago) link
xxxxxxxp That's the bulk of my favorite Lou Reed records outside of the Velvet Underground.
Back to Joni, my introduction was really Court and Spark - still a favorite - but Blue came next. I can't tell you how many times I've put on that record in the midst of some horrible thing happening around me (not a particular sociopolitical event, just a sad state of affairs between people) and it felt like this music is by someone who knows, who would totally get what's happening and have complete empathy for it.
― birdistheword, Friday, 29 July 2022 04:17 (one year ago) link
Some of you need some ECM in your lives. Namely Eberhard Weber.
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, 29 July 2022 08:16 (one year ago) link
fretless bass rules
but to get back on track,
I didn't get into Heijera right away, partly because I knew "Coyote" from The Last Waltz - in retrospect that wasn't a great way to discover the song.
― corrs unplugged, Friday, 29 July 2022 08:55 (one year ago) link
the saunders lou reed band was literally the best band he ever had, reflexive hating on fretless is phoned-in silliness, most of thread otm
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Friday, 29 July 2022 11:53 (one year ago) link
well, there was a time he had Metallica
― corrs unplugged, Friday, 29 July 2022 11:55 (one year ago) link
Man, if he'd gotten with the Cliff Burton Metallica---!
― dow, Friday, 29 July 2022 17:45 (one year ago) link
The Cliff Burton Dave Mustaine Metallica, even.
― dow, Friday, 29 July 2022 17:47 (one year ago) link
And Joni. (Who might have liked Fernando too.)
― dow, Friday, 29 July 2022 17:49 (one year ago) link
Slayer's still around. WTF Lou, you missed your chance!
― birdistheword, Friday, 29 July 2022 17:49 (one year ago) link
(or was still around)
― birdistheword, Friday, 29 July 2022 17:50 (one year ago) link
Srsly, I could see Mitchell and Reed getting together later on, at least for a little while, with Saunders or RIP Rob Wasserman, say.
― dow, Friday, 29 July 2022 17:58 (one year ago) link
https://pitchfork.com/news/joni-mitchell-announces-new-asylum-albums-1972-1975-box-set/
― dow, Friday, 29 July 2022 22:10 (one year ago) link
Fernando Saunders’s octave figure on “Waves Of Fear” is one of the greatest moments in Lou’s post-‘70s work.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 29 July 2022 22:28 (one year ago) link
^^^^^^^^^^
― brimstead, Friday, 29 July 2022 22:44 (one year ago) link
My favourite Fernando Saunders with Lou moment: the bass solo at the end of "Ecstasy".
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 30 July 2022 01:47 (one year ago) link
Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, Austin, Texas, January 1976.📷Norm Beitch pic.twitter.com/xLrY2BmucN— Lonesome Suzie (@NathalieO5) August 1, 2022
― dow, Monday, 1 August 2022 20:09 (one year ago) link
Was wondering if she played any w Rolling Thunder--search led me to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeaO5UZ5OcI
1975 fundraiser at Lightfoot's house, here she's with Dylan and McGuinn
― dow, Monday, 1 August 2022 20:13 (one year ago) link
No unreleased music on this new box set, damn :(
― MaresNest, Monday, 1 August 2022 20:16 (one year ago) link
Her adjustment of "Baby Blue":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzGD4eTifPk
― dow, Monday, 1 August 2022 20:18 (one year ago) link
this is just another of the regular LP series boxsets, there should be a separate archives one of the unreleased stuff too at some point
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Monday, 1 August 2022 21:45 (one year ago) link
I'm more lenient about Joni Mitchell changing the chords (and words) to "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" than when the 13th Floor Elevators did the same.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 1 August 2022 22:15 (one year ago) link
XP - Oh thank goodness!
― MaresNest, Monday, 1 August 2022 22:52 (one year ago) link
Yeah, and as the YouTube poster mentioned, Dylan himself had already been changing some of his songs in live performance.
― dow, Tuesday, 2 August 2022 00:22 (one year ago) link