Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Ahhh...Bootsy. He da man. If you're into him and the history of funk in general, check out next week's Independent Lens on PBS...(it airs around 10 pm Tuesdays here, but check your local listings to make sure). Bootsy will be featured prominently...it's a documentary on Parliament/Funkadelic.

That's what I call Must See TV....Clinton For President!

Bernadette and IWMTLH are both cast from the same trademark mold. Draw your own conclusions.

Dane, it's hard to say if I'm really a funk fan or not since I don't know that much about it. But I do like Bootsy's playing with James Brown.
(My lead guitarist likes funk a lot and sometimes we get into pretty funky jams.)
By the way, in case you haven't heard, the rumour is that Sly Stone will appear at this year's Grammys.

In a formal straight-jacket, I'd imagine...

Whatever he wears, it'll be the best reason in years for me to watch the Grammys...

Make that the only reason in years...

I've heard Carol Kaye has claimed many tunes as her own playing that really weren't.
The last time Sly Stone tried a comeback he was late and when he showed up he got arrested for child support arrears, haha! I think he rode the Magic Bus for too long.

JJ was a phenomenol talent. The movie/DVD is great but the book with accompanying CD's is one of my favorite finds! Isolate the bass playing with the balance knob of your stereo and find out how unbelievable his bass parts were. The revival of this thread has me going back to those CD's for another listen once again. Thanks

1. Thanks Ron, I think I will get the JJ book.
2. Yeah, poor Sly has had his troubles. But he and the Family Stone were somethin'. When I see some of the acts these days and the reaction they get from young people, I just can't help it. I automatically think "you just don't know. Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, James Brown, The Four Tops, Sly Stone . . . " I know, I'm sounding just like my parents did.
3. I don't know what to make of the Carol Kaye thing. I've heard stories like this before. Playing on Motown records? When they were still in Detroit!? As Garcia said (in Gimmie Shelter) "doesn't seem right, man."

I saw "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown" several months ago and I don't recall Carol Kaye being mentioned as a "Funk Brother". Besides, I thought she worked mostly out of LA? Maybe she did some stuff after the move and it's caused confusion on what she did and when she did it.

On the funk subject, I grew up in Memphis in the seventies and got to hear players like Bootsy and the whole Parliament gang before most other white kids (I went to an almost all-Black high school). Anyway, while I always enjoyed that kind of music, my 16 year old son has become a big fan of Parliament and we've gotten several CDs to replace the albums/cassettes/8 tracks that were lost along the way.

Music...the gift that keeps on giving!

Yeah James Jamerson was one of the best if not the best. I got into Motown because Herman (Peter Noone) of Herman's Hermits said they had some great bass players over at Motown hey, what do you want I was about 11 or 12. Also I had been exposed to The Supremes right from their first hit by my older aunt, I have still not seen The Standing In The Shadows of Motown movie. Are there any clips of Jamerson actually playing? I am no Jamerson by any stretch of the imagination but I've always had the feel and can play that stuff because of my early exposure to it, I even unconsciously stole some of his stuff and incorporated it into my playing years ago and didn't realize where it had come from until recently. And my recent foray into upright has given me more hints of why he played the way he did, they just sound better when you use the side of one finger, it's really hard to play that way especially fast runs like he did, I still can't figure out how he did a lot of the things he did although it is coming to me slowly. Even his son can't play like he did.

Used to drop my wife off at work on occasion at Madison Electric Co. which was just around the corner from Hitsville USA, W. Grand Blvd. and Woodward Ave area back in the late 70's.
I never stopped by to check it out though. My loss

"I've got sunshine... on a cloudy day"

I enjoyed "STANDING IN THE.." very much. It was great to see many of these players get credit. BUT- Not once did the film credit any engineers, which i thought was a pretty selfish oversight.
I guess the music recorded itself...

there are a few tunes that are up in the air as to who played them on the record. Some were done in Detroit and some were done in LA.

As far as I remember, the funk brothers didn't want to leave detroit so apparently there were recordings done in Detroit that ended up being demos and the real thing was recorded out of LA and vice versa.

Regardless of who played what - this music has contributed a lot to a lot of musician's influences. I haven't been influenced directly by JJ, but I have been by Macca, Jack Bruce and many others who were.

Bruce and especially McCartney were contemporaries of Jamerson, I don't see the influence in either of their playing. Jamerson was a converted upright player who brought the upright technique to electric, not many people can play like or even sound like him. His style was already fully formed by the time he switched to electric bass, he was a wicked upright player, check out "My Guy" by Mary Wells. If you really want to hear his upright technique on electric check out "I hear it through the Grapevine" by Gladys Knight and the Pips.

I forgot where I got this list of tunes Jamerson played bass on (next post):