You might recall that I had bought a guitar from the pawn shop and struggled to get anything but pain from it. I also bought a Fender Dual Showman Tube Bass Amp from Brian with a big Woodson cabinet sporting dual 15″ speakers. I don’t know why I bought a Bass amp for my guitat. The price was right and maybe something in the back of my mind saw the future.
Aric had been a Gene Simmons fan ever since his KISS Age. He felt that he wanted to play bass. Like me, he went to the pawn shop and bought a hideous economy model bass guitar. It actually had dimes wedged under the bridge to raise it. I don’t think Aric ever got around to buying an amp for it. He played around on it but was not getting any satisfaction.
So we move into The Roach Motel and a peculiar thing happens he starts playing my guitar and it seems to work. It takes some time as you would expect but before long he is making some pretty cool music on it. Not playing any songs yet, just making some music.
My switch to bass started with Ratt’s Wanted Man. Aric started getting some guitar magazines. Some of the magazines included sheet music. I remember being home alone one evening just doing a bit of housework and listening to Out Of The Cellar. For some reason, I zeroed in on the bass line, it seemed to stand out from the rest of the track. Up to that point, I had always focused on the guiatr parts but now, I was really appreciating the contribution that the bass line was making.
I rifled through the stack of guitar magazines and found one that had the music for Wanted Man. I don’t read music but I sat and listened and followed along on page seeing what Wanted Man looked like as a series of dots on the staff. Then I noticed that the music included tablature that translated the whole thing to the fret board for you. How much easier could it be?
I got Aric’s bass out and plugged it into my Fender Amp. It really was a crappy guitar but the tube amp gave it a fat rumble. In about an hour, I was most of the way through Wanted Man. It was not too difficult really. A lot of thumping and repition with a couple interesting changes. When Aric got home, I had to show him. Within a couple days, I was playing along with Wanted Man and You Shook Me All Nite Long. It was exciting to be able to actually play something and that just motivated me further.
Duran Duran – The Wild Boys
Don Henley – Boys Of Summer
Steve Winwood – Higher Love
Heart – What About Love
Tina Turner – We Don’t Need Another Hero