Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

gareth wrote:Sparks - Falling in Love With Myself

Off the Kimono My House album. Quite possibly THE song that got me into RIC basses all those years ago. '73 MG 4001 played through an HH amp setup. Thunderous sound with a very nice bass solo in the middle eight in 3/4 time. Played by Martin Gordon.

The Damned - Wait for the Blackout.

Off the Black Album. Played by Paul Gray who later went on to play with UFO. Classic RIC punchy sound. I believe it's a '77 AZ 4001 through an Acoustic setup. I could ask him if it's important to know.

And of course feel free to recommend anything by the Ghosthookers. I need the money.

I'm with Gareth on this. "Kimono My House" had a big effect on my playing and getting a Ric bass. Most of the tracks have a nice 4001 sound. Martin was nice enough in the past to run down his hardware for me, and yes, he simply used an HH combo.

My favorite Ric bass opening to a song is "Barbecutie" (also Sparks/Martin Gordon). This song is on the "Kimono..."" CD, but was left off of the LP originally. Baseball players in the U.S. usually walk out to bat to a favorite song of their's. If I was a pro baseball player, the opening to "Barbecutie" would be my walk'in up to the plate music. I think that this link should play the start of the song.

http://ilike.myspacecdn.com/play#Sparks ... e10f106169

I also like the Ric 4001 sound and parts on The Vapor's "New Clear Days". "Letter from Hiro" would be in the Ric bass hall of fame I think. You don't seem to hear these kinds of bass parts much anymore."Turning Japanese" is the big hit from the release, but other songs have the 4001 up higher in the mix:



Hopefully no one pegged this already - oops, Greg beat me. Actually, glad that someone pegged it already.

Can't pass this by either....

Clatter -- "House of Trouble"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAhQ2F56 ... re=related

Who needs guitars when ya got a Ric!

jps wrote:

Ric N. Backer wrote:Who else was on the show?

Some funk band opened the show, called Sylvester & The Hot Band, then Genesis, and finally It's A Beautiful Day.

It's amazing just where Ricks will show up! I just did a search on youtube for S&THB and look what I see:


This was years after I saw them, when they were still a fairly new band; I don't think their bassist played a Rick at that time since the first time I saw one being used in a show was the bassist in the band that played after them.


I don't remember if they did this song, probably not though, as I would have remembered since this is one of my favorite songs; I did see Procol Harum do it twice, the first time was in 1972.

You obviously got out a lot!!

Procol Harum, now that's another band that was well worth seeing.

Back in the '60s and '70s shows were a whole lot less expensive (or free) to go to.

jps wrote:Back in the '60s and '70s shows were a whole lot less expensive (or free) to go to.

Yea, the good old days.

cjj wrote:

Ric N. Backer wrote:

rickenbrother wrote: Geez, yous guys ARE old! Ya must have seen the Big Dipper when it was just a drinking cup!

Not old, my friend. Vintage!

Of what vintage? There were no calendars back then!

rickenbrother wrote:

Ric N. Backer wrote:

rickenbrother wrote: Geez, yous guys ARE old! Ya must have seen the Big Dipper when it was just a drinking cup!

Not old, my friend. Vintage!

Of what vintage? There were no calendars back then! [/quote]

They did have 'em. But the dates went in reverse order (BC); counting down instead of up (AD).

That is until we got to year one (AD). The little fellow in the manger turned things around for us all.

I don´t think The Stranglers were already mentioned here(?)

mikko wrote:I don´t think The Stranglers were already mentioned here(?)

I thought JJ Burnel used a Fender Precision in the early days?? I've never heard of him using a Rickenbacker. I always loved his up front aggressive sound though...

You could be right...at least he´s playing Fender in all those old concert videos I found from Youtube.

Let´s mention The Jam then...Bruce Foxton changed to Fender later but their early stuff definitely had some fine Rickenbacker bass playing (and guitar too).

mikko wrote:Let´s mention The Jam then...Bruce Foxton changed to Fender later but their early stuff definitely had some fine Rickenbacker bass playing (and guitar too).

Yes he did play a 4001 on lots of their earlier stuff, although he used a Fender Precision a lot later on, among other basses. I think that in the earliest days of the Jam he actually had a fake 4001 (Ibanez?) but eventually got several genuine ones. I love the tone he got from his Rick and the way it drove the music along.