Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I though to share this cool email, not just intended for other bass players, but for all:

Since 1959, the sound and power of the electric bass and those who play it has been the support voice and backbone in the success of today's commercial music.

The bass player in recorded and live music is like the supporting actor of a successful film that gives and projects the glamour and fame in spotlighting the lead actor to the public, or in another scenario, the pitch calling of the catcher on a baseball team that wins the game, but the pitcher is given the credit.

I am always amazed when I see and hear artists who are receiving an award for a recording performance or interviewed for their success, thank everyone but the musicians for their success - especially the bass player and the music arranger.

The bass line/part is the one element in music that causes the listener to feel and hear the lyric, dance and above all enables the lead instrument to function.

Chuck Rainey is one of the best going, has always been one of my favorites, he's one of those guys who makes it all sound so easy.

Mike that was a very well written email and also no truer statement has ever been made with respect to the role of a bass player in a band.

On a personal note: One of the reasons my very last band was a power trio was to showcase the skill of our bass player, as he wove his magic around and through the guitar bass and drum arrangements that I had envisioned and coaxed to fruition.

A well rehearsed band consisting solely of bass drums and guitar leaves sufficient room for individual musical voices to shimmer and shine. However experience tells me that this is only true if the bass player is at the top of his game.

Thanks for sharing the email with us Mike. It triggered a flood of happy memories.

I've always compared the bass player to a catcher, secretly running the show.

This reminds me of a gig about a year ago with Chuck Rainey in the audience. I was sweatin'!
They stayed for most of the set and Chuck gave me a thumbs-up as his party was leaving. Whew.

Good job, Ronn! Wow - I would be sweatin too! You got a gig on the 21st of this month? I am coming on business to Austin for the first time.

Mike, yes but it's a private corporate thang. If you can make it "the night before" we've got a public gig at a nice outdoor venue in beautiful, laid-back South Austin.
Drop me an email if you can make it the 20th.

[email protected]

Rainey is one of the best. His '70s work is awesome.

Yes, he played most of the Steely Dan stuff. The song Aja is a masterpiece with him and Steve Gadd on drums. I have a half speed master of that LP I bought new.

I wouldn't say "most" of the Steely Dan stuff, but certainly the latter part which had the most non-touring commercial success.

Somewhere I have an actual copy of the Village Voice where Becker and Fagen answered an ad that Denny Dias placed in "The Village Voice" newspaper, reading "Looking for keyboardist and bassist. Must have jazz chops!" Becker wound up on bass then. ABC didn't think much of him. ABC was so cool to put Chuck Rainey in on Any Major Dude to play those sweet bass lines. When I first heard Chuck on Pretzel Logic, I knew he was the best, and it would only be a matter of time before he took over.

By the way, I always thought it was so freaky that they named the band after a dildo in William Burroughs' "Naked Lunch." What a bunch of heroin-type wacked guys.....

Finally, Rainey did come on in for Royal Scam, which was cool, after Baxter and McDonald left for the Doobie Brothers.

It was even cooler that Rainey was there when the band received its most commercial success, post-RS...what a good bassist

What do you mean by "most commercial success, post-aja"? During that period they only had one more LP didn't they, Gaucho? I have always though of Aja as their high water mark.

I fixed the typo immediately, Ray!! Well, the singles on the first few albums were the thing, the albums themselves didn't rate at first. Let me do them one at a time:

Can't Buy A Thrill was released in October 1972 and surprised everyone by spawning the runaway hit (I loved it when I first heard it ) "Do It Again" and the single reached #6 on the charts. ABC pressured the band to do a quick tour and Becker and Fagen reluctantly acquiesced (they hated the idea of The Road. Then "Reelin' In The Years" emerges and reached #11 on the single charts. "Can't Buy A Thrill" became a gold album (not platinum) and only peaked at #17

Next, the "Countdown to Ecstasy" album, released in July 1973 had "Showbiz Kids" as the first single to be released, and despite Rick Derringer's amazing slide guitar work, it only reached #61 on the charts. IIRC, the "expletive" used in the song did not popularize it with radio station program directors. Also, "My Old School", an homage to their days at Bard (with fellow Bard student Chevy Chase, the comedian from SNL who sat in with the band early-on), also does not fare well as a single and only peaked at #63. The album itself was in the toilet and never rated...

After a July 4, 1974 show at the Santa Monica Civic Center in California, Becker and Fagen swore off touring for the immediate future and decided to focus on writing and recording. This prompted Skunk Baxter, who freakin loved the road life, to leave and join the Doobie Brothers. Jim Hodder also quit just as "Pretzel Logic" went gold and reached #8 on the charts. Cool for PL. At least Denny was still there But that is not yet the peak of the band's commercial success as-rated by ABC....

Next, "Katy Lied" was released in March 1975 to critical raves, but the closest thing to a hit single was "Black Friday" which only reached number #37 as a single alone.

Despite the success of "Katy Lied" (Gold sales status, Chart peak at #13), Fagen and Becker were ****** at the sound fidelity of the album due to the faulty tape machine that they had used during recording. They refused to listen to the album in its final form, further setting them at odds with ABC

"The Royal Scam" was released in May 1976 and turned out to be known as their best "guitar album," mostly due to the terrific work of Larry Carlton. "The Royal Scam" also went gold but peaked at only #25 on the charts.

Then their highest and best commercial success occurred:

It started out bad - ABC Records drove Becker and Fagen (reluctantly, they were now kajillionares by now but also total heroin addicts by now and only did it at the point of a lawsuit threat) back into the studio. The end result, "Aja", was released in September 1977 and featured their longest and jazziest compositions to date. Fagen and Becker drafted even more giants of the jazz world including Joe Sample, Wayne Shorter and Tom Scott (WOW) to execute their increasingly complex songs. "Aja" became their first platinum album and reached #3 on the album chart, and trailed only mega-sellers Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" and Billy Joel's "The Stranger." "Peg" hit #11, "Deacon Blues" hit #19 and "Josie" hit #26 on the singles charts too.

In February 1978 "Aja" won a Grammy award for Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording. And, on the heels of this success, in July 1978, Fagen and Becker made it into the movies and released the title track to the movie "FM" and it reached #22 on the singles charts.

It all went downhill after that, with Gaucho because that was the last album that they owed ABC to finish their contract and F&B didn't give a sh@% anymore. They made Gaucho their paean to heroin addiction, it was dark and artsy, and ABC despised it because they realized F&B had given them the middle finger.....

I guess you can tell I am a Steely Dan fanatic and fan by now...

"I guess you can tell I am a Steely Dan fanatic and fan by now... "


I would never have guessed that at all Elys.

As I sit here listening to a playlist, I remember how great that band really was. Thanks Elys!

Very interesting Elys, I have always been a big fan also and have all those LP's, including their 2000 album and plan on getting their next one, (2003?) The first song I heard by them was Reelin' in the years, like a lot of people. I would have picked the Wow! as Wayne Shorter over Tom Scott (I like hard jazz and have a lot of Wayne shorter and Miles Davis) and would also have to include Steve Gadd, to me he was the stand out on the album even though he only played one song: Aja.
I also really like Gaucho. I thought they improved with every album up to Aja, it was apparent that they didn't try very hard with Gaucho but even when they didn't try very hard what they did was vastly superior to much of what was going on then at least in their vein of music. I have it on now.
Besides being blown away by the sheer musical virtuosity on the song Aja my all time favorite song by them is Pretzel Logic.

Incidently is MCA records a subsidiary of ABC as my Gaucho is on MCA? Just found it, it is or was the other way around, M<CA aquired ABC in 1979 along with many other labels, Kapp? haha! Now i know where to get The McCoys re-releases.