"I was brought in to melodic bass gamers like Carol Kaye. Why should a rock bassist play dumb notes all the time?" How Tony Visconti rethought rock bass for David Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World

(Image credit: Getty Images)

It didn’t increase to the top of the pops– thanks, in part, to Machiavellian intrigue by a specific artist supervisor– however David Bowie’s 1970 legendary, The Man Who Sold the Worldnevertheless turned into one of the examples of the glam age.

It likewise developed Tony Visconti, working from a platform developed by earlier leaders such as Paul McCartney and Jack Bruce, as a co-conspirator in the mission to raise rock bass playing beyond simply articulating root notes.

Visconti’s bass on The Man Who Sold the World dances all around the music, including countermelodies, consistencies, and solos in an awesome assault. Much more interesting, his basslines are loud, and they’re loud long before metropolitan artists started pleading mastering engineers to pump up the low-end on their discs.

Visconti– a street-smart, classically qualified jazz artist from New York– was technically and conceptually fully equipped to innovate, however a number of other pieces needed to lock into location before the sonic barrage of The Man Who Sold the World became.

Bowie’s band for the album consisted of guitar player Mick Ronson, whose love of Cream and Jack Bruce sustained a desire to crank up the bass in huge methods, and drummer Woody Woodmansey, a mix of a more sophisticated Keith Moon and a ballsier Ginger Baker, who supplied Visconti with the balanced fusillades to check out wilder and more complex basslines.

David Bowie – The Man Who Sold The World [2020 Mix] [Official Lyric Video] – YouTube

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In among those little presents of fate, the’power trio’ of Visconti, Ronson, and Woodmansey released a high level of musicianship while at the same time presenting an increasingly rocked-out Bowie to a public who had actually formerly understood him just for Area Oddity

“We began to cohabit in a huge home in Beckenham, Kent, which’s where we practiced for the sessions,” Visconti informed Bass Player back in 2016. “We exercised about half the album down in a transformed wine rack that functioned as our wedding rehearsal area.

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“It existed that my basslines were beginning to get established. I didn’t rather compose them down, however I arranged the parts in my head. The other tunes were composed in the studio.”

How did the musical relationship in between you and Woody establish?

“We jammed in the cellar and felt each other out. Woody is a really user-friendly drummer, and I’m an extremely improvisational bass gamer, so it worked fantastic in the studio, since we were comprising our parts as we went along.”

(Image credit: Getty Images)In your musical life before satisfying Bowie, who were your impacts on bass, and how would you represent your design at that early phase?

“When I initially began playing bass, I was a double bass gamer. In high school, I belonged to the All City High School Orchestra, where I played Schubert’s Symphonyand pieces like that.

” So I was currently affected that the bass has a strong voice where you played the bottom lead line. It wasn’t like rock ‘n’ roll at the time, where the bass constantly played the root note.

“Shortly later, I was drawn to jazz gamers such as Charlie Mingus and Scotty LaFaro. Mingus since he was really uninhibited-a wild guy on bass– and LaFaro since he was among the very first lead bass gamers in allure field.

The Width of a Circle (2015 Remaster) – YouTube

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” I believed I was going to be a jazz artist, so I purchased a Fender Jazz Bass. When I began to wander back to rock, I was drawn in to melodic gamers like Carol Kaye, James Jamerson, and Paul McCartney. I believed, Why should a rock bassist play dumb notes all the time– remain down there and play G, G, C, C, E, E?

“When The Man Who Sold the World Blown up out of my small record gamer, I remember it as one of those albums where my young ears went,’Wow, the bass is actually driving the tunes.’ When I hear it today, I’m ashamed. I want I might remix that album– let’s put it that method.

“But I’m thankful the bass entered into prominence at that time, due to the fact that Jack Bruce did lead the way for lead bass playing. Mick Ronson was the one who desired me to blend the bass up genuine high– not in all of the blends, however certainly on tunes like Width of a Circle.

(Image credit: Getty Images )What do you believe triggered Mick to desire the bass like that?

” He liked Cream flat out, and since we were a power trio, I was anticipated to fill a great deal of area. From the start, we chose to let everybody have an equivalent voice. Everyone needed to reveal themselves off to their finest capabilities, which was the style of the album– no holds disallowed.

“So Mick made the idea that I ought to be a bit more daring. He asked me to let go. He absolutely authorized of me, and he was rather callous. He had actually currently fired the drummer, due to the fact that he wasn’t approximately his requirement.

“And rather honestly, David and I desired somebody more daring– like Ginger Baker– since we were playing in odd time signatures, which was my specialty. That’s when Woody was available in.”

What was the recording procedure like?

“I followed Mick’s lead and turned whatever complete up! We were playing very loud– ungodly loud– and our amps had to do with 20 feet to the left and right of Woody. I used earphones more for ear security than to hear David’s vocals. David was the only one in a seclusion cubicle.”

She Shook Me Cold (2015 Remaster) – YouTube

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“In those days, we chose live takes. If you slipped up, you ‘d do another live take up until the band played it completely. If they were cool errors, you ‘d leave them, since they were a ‘feel’thing. You didn’t put your finger in precisely the exact same location at the very same time? What? What’s the huge offer?

“Obviously, there’s a great deal of signal bleed when you do live takes playing that loud, which made punching in at a later date practically difficult. The mindset of repairing your parts wasn’t popular back then, anyhow. It was considered as inexpensive and amateur-ish to wish to type and keeping punching in.

“We likewise felt it was a wild-goose chase. We weren’t opposed to splicing 2 takes together to get the very best of each. Oh, and nobody would have fun with a click track– that was for chumps. To be sincere, now I can’t live without one.”

Do you keep in mind the equipment you generated for the sessions?

“I had a 200-watt Wem tube bass amp with 2 Wem 2×18 cabinets. It had a black-plastic front, with controls for volume, bass, middle, treble, bass increase, and treble increase– and it was loud. Already, I had actually offered my Jazz Bass, since it didn’t have the low-end, it didn’t provide me adequate highs, and it didn’t rock.

Saviour Machine (2015 Remaster) – YouTube

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” So I purchased a Fender Precision. When I changed from playing with my fingers to a choice, I missed out on the bottom-end. I desired it to rumble. I had luthier Roger Gitten put a Telecaster Bass pickup on the P-Bass with a toggle switch. I might change in between the P-Bass pickups and the Tele pickup, which would rumble the method I desired when I played with a choice.

“Roger did another adjustment for me in the mid 1970s, setting up 2 DiMarzio pickups near the bridge, including active circuitry for treble and bass and a toggle switch, and sculpting a cavity in the back to accommodate a 9-volt battery.

“The Precision is just on a number of tunes on The Man Who Sold the World: She Shook Me Cold and Width of a CircleFor a great deal of the other tunes, I utilized an obtained Gibson EB-3, since we were returning to Mick Ronson’s persistence that I sound and play like Jack Bruce.

“I likewise had an 8-string Hagstrom bass, and an Ampeg Baby Bass that I utilized for a great deal of the bowed and pizzicato parts.”

Chris Jisi was Contributing Editor, Senior Contributing Editor, and Editor In Chief on Bass Player 1989-2018. He is the author of Brave New Bass, a collection of interviews with bass gamers like Marcus Miller, Flea, Will Lee, Tony Levin, Jeff Berlin, Les Claypool and more, and The Fretless Bass, with insight from over 25 masters consisting of Tony Levin, Marcus Miller, Gary Willis, Richard Bona, Jimmy Haslip, and Percy Jones.