A Bass Player by any other name

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By Paul Loader

The big day arrived and the re-mixed version of the old Amaziah (my first serious band) track, ‘Slowly’ landed on my doormat in the form of a vinyl 10” single and as a compilation track on a CD. All nicely remixed and full of life. (For details as to why, see last lecture) 

The best thing was; for the first time since I was 18 years old I could hear the bass guitar that I had played. 

Sadly the original album had been so poorly mixed that the bass guitar was practically non existent and so for the first time in over 30 years (cough) the sound of my bass guitar playing shook the speakers of my car…..’like a good un’! 

The only down side to this was that I was faced with the reality that as an 18 year old bass player I would have made a good panel beater. 

To the trained ear you could tell that I was a) a complete novice and b) terrified.

I have always found the process of ‘recording’ really boring, however; I also find it an extremely stressful experience and when the sound engineer points towards me and mouths something like ‘rolling’, my buttock cheeks clench to the point where an ‘unclenching’ might possibly require surgery, my heart pounds fit to leave my chest and my whole body becomes as rigid as a garden hoe.

The problem was that this particular track ‘Slowly’ was supposed to have that funky kind of loose groove to it, the kind that bass players are supposed to love. However; to be brutally honest with myself my playing was as stiff as a McDonalds milkshake and quite frankly …….boring!

This whole ‘trip down memory lane’ experience has reminded me that despite having played the bass guitar in one form or another for the whole of my musical life, since I blagged my way into Amaziah at any rate, I have never acknowledged myself as a ‘bass player’.

I have always just been ‘standing in’ for a bass player that had quit or until a proper one could be found.

Even now with The Mudheads, armed with my limited edition Fender Bass guitar and a Marshall stack so large that it has snow on the peak and requires the services of a Sherpa to traverse the climb in order to ‘twiddle’ with the tone controls, I still would not consider myself a Bass Guitarist.

I have always, and I mean ALWAYS considered myself a Rhythm guitarist, despite the fact that the number of years I have performed in bands with said instrument could be counted in dog years.

Besides, my son and heir often remarks that as a guitarist I make a great bass player and as I have said…as bass player I make a great panel beater!!

However; if you do not include my acoustic guitar playing, I have spent the last seven years firmly planted in four string territory with no signs of change on the horizon.

This got me to thinking (steady there Loader) why is that what ever musician you meet they want to be something else. Drummers all want to be guitarists, Guitarists all reckon they can play the drums like Buddy Ritch, Keyboard players all want to be singers, singers just want to be the star and bass players, well bass players just want somebody to take us seriously and in my case play the guitar.

Back in Amaziah days we had a roadie that would take any opportunity to grab a microphone or a guitar (my band mates once auditioned him to replace me on vocals in a marquee in Holland. Sadly they didn’t realise that being in a canvas tent the whole Dutch community could hear what was going on, including me).

The irony was, after Amaziah split up he went on to Roadie for Robert Palmer and AC/DC and nowadays if rumour is to be believed he is now the front of house sound engineer for Status Quo.

Perhaps as a bass player, I should have dreamed of being a roadie.