Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Queen has been one of my favorite bands since 1974. Saw them in concert in 1976 for the Night At The Opera tour, and again in 1980 for The Game tour.

Ric O'Sound wrote:Tell me about it. Deacon and the late Dee Murray from Elton John's old band were (and still are) two of the most underrated bassists from that era. Murray's playing on the Yellow Brick Road album was awesome...IMO, his bass work on "Love Lies Bleeding" and "The Ballad of Danny Bailey" should be on the "must listen" list for any bassist. But his performance on the whole album was impressive as hell.

Hey, did I just hijack this thread? Sorry...back to John Deacon.

Yes, Dee Murray! I'll add one more to the list of unsung heroes - the late Carl Radle from Clapton's 70s band.

gearhed289 wrote:

Ric O'Sound wrote:Tell me about it. Deacon and the late Dee Murray from Elton John's old band were (and still are) two of the most underrated bassists from that era. Murray's playing on the Yellow Brick Road album was awesome...IMO, his bass work on "Love Lies Bleeding" and "The Ballad of Danny Bailey" should be on the "must listen" list for any bassist. But his performance on the whole album was impressive as hell.

Hey, did I just hijack this thread? Sorry...back to John Deacon.

Yes, Dee Murray! I'll add one more to the list of unsung heroes - the late Carl Radle from Clapton's 70s band.

I don't have the album, but have always admired the bass playing from some of those 70's Elton John tunes. Was Dee Murray playing a Rick on that album? I remember a few years ago a white 4001 auctioned off on eBay that the seller claimed had belonged to Elton's bass player.

Sorry about crediting JD with some songs he didn't write. One thing I used to love are album covers, sitting there listening to the record (the vinyl thing) with the big artwork and trying to memorize everything about the album and the songs and who produced it.
That was 30-something years ago. Apparently my memory not so good.
But JD was a big influence on me too, a great bassist.

rickaddict wrote:I don't have the album, but have always admired the bass playing from some of those 70's Elton John tunes. Was Dee Murray playing a Rick on that album? I remember a few years ago a white 4001 auctioned off on eBay that the seller claimed had belonged to Elton's bass player.

I do recall seeing concert footage of Dee Murray slinging a Rick, but I believe he recorded most of the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" album with a Fender Jazz. I remember at some point when I was trying to cop his tone off that album, I managed to come pretty close with a Rick 4001. I never liked Jazz basses (hate their necks, but I looove P-Basses), and the Rick seemed the next best thing.

A shame you don't have the album. It's chock full of really tasty bass lines. You might see if you can borrow it from a friend or something, 'cos it's definitely worth a listen.

Ric O'Sound wrote: I do recall seeing concert footage of Dee Murray slinging a Rick, but I believe he recorded most of the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" album with a Fender Jazz. I remember at some point when I was trying to cop his tone off that album, I managed to come pretty close with a Rick 4001. I never liked Jazz basses (hate their necks, but I looove P-Basses), and the Rick seemed the next best thing.

My tone from my '87 4003S isn't too far away from 70's Elton bass tone either.

Ric O'Sound wrote: A shame you don't have the album. It's chock full of really tasty bass lines. You might see if you can borrow it from a friend or something, 'cos it's definitely worth a listen.

I'll have to pick it up. I have a bunch of Best Buy gift cards that need to be spent and haven't bought a new CD in too long. Well...I buy every CD offering from every band that I play a gig with, but that doesn't count!

I think a Ric with flats played with a pick would get you close to the "Funeral for a Friend" sound.

gearhed289 wrote:I think a Ric with flats played with a pick would get you close to the "Funeral for a Friend" sound.

Yup, you're right. My 4001 at the time was strung with flats. That got me really darn close to his sound on the album.

Well, I'm glad I checked this thread. Dee is the reason I took up bass in the late 70s, I was a HUGE fan of the Elton John Band as a teen. All those great tunes, great bass lines/tones, and each album usually had a shot of Dee with a cool bass. His pick tone is my favorite bass tone, those opening notes on "Harmony" for example. And while GYBR is a great album, I would suggest checking out the EJ album "11/17/70", it's a live album recorded on that date, when the EJ Band was just piano, bass, and drums. Nigel Olsson on drums(of course), and Dee is smokin'! A "must-have" CD for bass players.
I am the very proud owner of this bass, played on a few world tours in the 80s and to record the EJ album "Too Low For Zero" and its hit single "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues":

Wow, Ronn. How cool is that! You own a piece of history there, bud. I'm not a big fan of Steinbergers, but that one I would've bought in a heartbeat.

I still remember how the tears welled up in my eyes when I heard the news of Dee's passing. He really was one of the reasons I started bugging my parents to let me start taking bass lessons. Yup...Mingus, McCartney, Murray and Deacon were the reasons I put up with dragging that heavy-*** URB to my lesson every Thursday afternoon back when I was 11.

Oh, and I do have a copy of 11-17-70 somewhere. Gotta dig it out and rip it to my iPod. Thanks for the reminder. Dee does shine on that one for sure.

Very nice post Ronn. Reminded me I have a reel-to-reel of the 11/17/70 performance - recorded it off of a local FM station somewhere around Christmas that year as I remember I was told to turn it off because family was over visiting - I turned it down but kept rolling! Great performance. Also interesting to learn your Steinberger was the bass of Too Low For Zero - I played the grooves off that album.

I really love John Deacon. Fantastic melodic subtle interesting basslines. I've always adored his P sound in the higher range. (Sail away sweet sister, Millionaire Waltz, Love of my Life and so on...)
Together with the one of a kind voice of Freddie and guitar sound of Brian they were my absolute favourite band when I was a kid.
Shame I never had the chance to see them live.


My favourite albums are A Night at the Opera and at A Day at the Races.

Although this has always been one of my favourites;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyd6OLyhPJo[/youtube]