Hooky: Why`s he never slapped?

Hookys been playing Bass for about 100 years. How come he never tried slap and pop style? I know he popped a little on the intro to The Perfect Kiss but, correct me if Im wrong, hes never done a bit of slap, yknow, like Flea out of Chili Peppers. Having said that, I can`t think of any NO songs that would accomodate slap bass, can you?

cos he don't do slap? actually there are bits and pieces on the Monaco albums.

Bernard played a bit of slap bass on Confusion iirc.

Doesnt really suit Hooky's style, which for me is all about driving melodies.

'cause he's got taste.

Wasim wrote: Bernard played a bit of slap bass on Confusion iirc.

I think Barney was popping the strings against the fretboard on Confusion. Well, thats what it looked like on the Pumped Full Of Drugs video. The reason I asked was cos my son has been learning bass for 2 years now and was introduced to slap and pop about 6 months ago. Hes getting the hang of it now but its been a painstaking process. Curiously, he doesnt like using a plectrum.

Slap bass had a brief moment in the sun around 1983 or so when every bugger seemed to be doing it. It was roughly around this time that fretless bass came into vogue for a while, primarily due to the gifted Mick Karn of Japan.

If ever there was a quintessential mid-80s sound, it's Simmons drums and slapped bass, with some DX7 bells on top!

Talking of slappers.......how are you MAYA?

Classic

Didnt Hooky slap Caroline Ahernes (now ex) fella once

Johnny wrote: Didnt Hooky slap Caroline Ahernes (now ex) fella once

Oh dear

Peter Winfield wrote:

Johnny wrote: Didnt Hooky slap Caroline Ahernes (now ex) fella once

Oh dear

You mean oh dear that i punned slap as in punch with slap as in bass slap.Or oh dear that Hooky slapped the guy?

Q: Why's he never slapped? A: cos he's bigger and uglier than most people :)

What do you mean slap is dead? Primus Chillies? That horrid tiny slap noise is dead and gone, but slap lives on.

As for what the village idiot doeson confusion. Slap is generally about getting a nice rhythm going by rocking your hand, thumb to fingers, you generall use the thumb on the E and A string. The G is too light (unless you use freak gauges) to hit, so you typically pull it with your little finger. The D string is open to offers, you can slap it OR pull it. Obviously that's me on my bass with my strings, people like mark king (level42) had total specialist setups, but the rule of thumbs on the downbeats and fingers on the ups still holds. Barney, if you watch, slaps it a coupla times, (PFD) realises it's too quiet and just starts pulling the E or A, cos letting a string twat back against the fretboard is fookin loud.

Johnny wrote:

Peter Winfield wrote:

Johnny wrote: Didnt Hooky slap Caroline Ahernes (now ex) fella once

Oh dear

You mean oh dear that i punned slap as in punch with slap as in bass slap.Or oh dear that Hooky slapped the guy?

neither really. Just that you said "(now ex)". He`s very ex. Dead.

The only interesting slappers were Mick Karn of Japan and Jez Kerr of ACR. Karn could actually play fretless and his band let his sound stay in the forefront of the mix, unlike Colin Moulding. Kerr- well just listen to the Force album and realize that ACR is essentially Donald Johnson on drums and Kerr on bass and vocals working the rhythm section.

Both of them were great because they left some space in their playing technique. Hooky isn't about space, he's about filling in open keyboard or guitar lines and driving the melody rather than the rhythm. Why keep rhythm when you've got sequencers?

Two words - Mark King - Level 42.

Alright, three words and a number.

Hannett of the Apes wrote: The only interesting slappers were Mick Karn of Japan and Jez Kerr of ACR.

I really liked ACR. I cant understand why they were mocked a bit in "24 hour Party People". I only have one of their albums, the singles one with a 7" sleve and disc pasted to the front. Cant remember its title, its in the loft.

Peter Winfield wrote:

Hannett of the Apes wrote: The only interesting slappers were Mick Karn of Japan and Jez Kerr of ACR.

I really liked ACR. I cant understand why they were mocked a bit in "24 hour Party People". I only have one of their albums, the singles one with a 7" sleve and disc pasted to the front. Cant remember its title, its in the loft.

The Old and the New

Peter Winfield wrote:

Johnny wrote:

Peter Winfield wrote:

Johnny wrote: Didnt Hooky slap Caroline Ahernes (now ex) fella once

Oh dear

You mean oh dear that i punned slap as in punch with slap as in bass slap.Or oh dear that Hooky slapped the guy?

neither really. Just that you said "(now ex)". He`s very ex. Dead.

oh .shit.he`s dead?

Johnny wrote:

Peter Winfield wrote:

Johnny wrote:

Peter Winfield wrote:

Johnny wrote: Didnt Hooky slap Caroline Ahernes (now ex) fella once

Oh dear

You mean oh dear that i punned slap as in punch with slap as in bass slap.Or oh dear that Hooky slapped the guy?

neither really. Just that you said "(now ex)". He`s very ex. Dead.

oh .shit.he`s dead?

Yeah, Cancer. I think it was after they split though. It was late 90s? It was in the press when the media were obsessed with Caroline Aherne`s private life. She was great on the Fast Show. Remember Hooky and the boys on Mrs Merton? Would that band count as a side project? I could see what Hooky saw in her. Great mamms

yeah i used to bloody love the Mrs.Merton character and her tv show

A friend who went to see a recording of MM asked me why she was "snogging the bass player" during a break in recording!

They weren't together very long in all and I can't remember if they did actually get married or not. Poor cow had a bit of breakdown in the US and hit the sauce. Yup, nice funbags although a good bit of baggage. She's taken to being a recluse a bit.

She had been working on the excellent Early 'crime can't crack itself' Doors with former partner Craig Cash but her part (as the pub landlady) was written out at her request so that she could continue to hide in her house all day drinking vodka for breakfast and then go out at night and get shagged by strangers in back alleys and pub bogs instead.

She was ace in The Fast Show but declined to appear in the final (third) series or either of the live tours. She was top in the Royle Family too, another series that will never return.

Scorchio!!

Hannett of the Apes wrote: The only interesting slappers were Mick Karn of Japan and Jez Kerr of ACR. Karn could actually play fretless and his band let his sound stay in the forefront of the mix, unlike Colin Moulding. Kerr- well just listen to the Force album and realize that ACR is essentially Donald Johnson on drums and Kerr on bass and vocals working the rhythm section.

Both of them were great because they left some space in their playing technique. Hooky isn't about space, he's about filling in open keyboard or guitar lines and driving the melody rather than the rhythm. Why keep rhythm when you've got sequencers?

A lot of the slap bass on early ACR (up to Force) was actually DoJo. I think Jez took over later on when he learned to do it better. DoJo played bass onstage on songs like Tonight, when Martin Moscrop took over behind the kit.

Another reason no one came up with. Slap fucking HURTS! a lot

Untill you are flea or claypool and have calouses like a trawlerman covering all the active bits of your hands...it hurts.....and it tires you out too. we used to actuallu move our setlist around so I wouldn't get stuck with 3 slap tunes in a row, cos by the end of the third, my timing was shot to shit badly and every note was pain.

Mind you, if you want real pain, get an accoustic guitar-bass (ie not a big violin one), and charge away on it like it's an electric.....see how long before blood pisses from your fingertips. Last one I played was hired and we had to clean my bloody off it before it went back. (in fairness it came from a shop, so it wasn't set up, and was strung with FookinHeavy guage strings, which don't even agree with me on the electric.)

BTW....flea worships hooky as a god. Him and one of the other peppers staged raided NO in LA, and if you ever see flea's fave bass, the one with all the stickers on it.....that largest sticker, and the only one not covered by another, is the cover of unknown Pleasures

Steve Campbell wrote: Another reason no one came up with. Slap fucking HURTS! a lot BTW....flea worships hooky as a god. Him and one of the other peppers staged raided NO in LA, and if you ever see flea's fave bass, the one with all the stickers on it.....that largest sticker, and the only one not covered by another, is the cover of unknown Pleasures

My son, whos 13, adores the Peppers. Flea is HIS God! Watching Flea perform encouraged him to pick up the bass. Hes been playing nearly 2 years now and his teacher is a bit of a slap and reggae merchant, so hes doing a lot of that now. Hes considering trying a five string. He likes some JD/NO and one of the first bass lines he learned was Atmosphere

I'm totally undecided about 5 strings. there's the "orb fan" in me, and he thinks of a low-B as having the power of life and death. But then again.....you have to buy an amp that can go that low, lots of 5 strings I've played have what we laughingly called a "silent b", which just made a flapping sound. But the NO fan in me wants 6 strings of high pitched guitarist annoyance. there are apparently a few people building 6 strings as "barritone guitars" like Hooky's again, rather than the 4+ 1down 1up (And yes I even seen one that was 4 +2down...presumably for playing to whales in the far oceans).

You can even get (or used to be able to get) a type of bridge that lets you tune your bottom string twice. You pick a heavy gauge for your E, tune it to E, then hit this lever, and tune it to B.....then the lever toggles the two tunings. It sounds like hell on earth to use, and I'm sure it would lose tuning in no time....but a session dude I know said he toured one for a coupla weeks and it never bothered him, other than working out when it was better to play stuff up the B string and when it was better to flick it back to E.

I suppose if he's into flea, a nice warwick or jaydee would be the one to go for, awesomely slappable....and if you can't afford one of them, you could do a LOT worse than an old Westone Thunder-1A....you can play nice on it, or flick the active circuit on and beat seven shades of shite out of it, with pick, thumb or teeth, it wont care.

Anyway, it's a lot less annoying having a bass player around the house than a guitarist or (shudder) drummer.

Steve Campbell wrote:

I suppose if he's into flea, a nice warwick or jaydee would be the one to go for, awesomely slappable....and if you can't afford one of them, you could do a LOT worse than an old Westone Thunder-1A....you can play nice on it, or flick the active circuit on and beat seven shades of shite out of it, with pick, thumb or teeth, it wont care.

Anyway, it's a lot less annoying having a bass player around the house than a guitarist or (shudder) drummer.

Cheers for that Hes saving hard, but well put most towards it. Hes quite small for his age and needs something lightish. Hes got a Tanglewood Rebel which is quite light and ideal for beginners. Im not sure about a 5 string, I think hes trying to run before he can walk, so to speak. He has small hands. He`s fallen in love with a Music Man Sub 5 string which is a cheaper version of the Stingrays, but they look like they weigh a metric tonne.

yipes, small hands and a fender neck profile ( 125% wide too)....let him play it in a shop for an hour, that'll wise him up. Tanglewoods are lovely basses, keep promising myself one, BUT they don't look right on me, I wear it at waiste height and play with my fingers or a pick, and the tanglewoods always look like they wanna be a foot higher and getting some thumb abuse.

I play a well and truly wrecked Aria proII slb2, supid pointy heavy metal headstock ( that's had a saw pressed threateningly against it more than once), came in lipstick red....next day it was bare wood...couldn;t find beeswax to seal it, so I used turtlewax for cars....on bare wood. the finish hasn't changed in 10 years :)

The electrics are cheapish, the machine heads have seen beter days, it's got a steel bridge and a plastic nut. It needs new everything, but I absolutlely will NOT buy a new bass. This things weighs less than a guitar, has a neck as thin as paper and EVEN with bolloxed machine heads, I can bounce it off the ground, or people, or walk around in the sun wind and rain, and it never needs it's setup adjusted.....it once went 2 years between tunings too ( but I was being a tight ass and using the same strings, you never get away with that with fresh wires). Every time I weigh into a session with it, you can see the look on whoever called me's gob saying "oh fuck, that's why I shoulda called XXXXXX", then they say "when are you gonna lose that stupid plank and buy a bass" I make the obligatory "when you prize my cold dead hands off this one, fucker!" noises. Usually by the end of things they're apologising to me AND the bass :)

If I DO buy another bass it'll be a top spec Aria (or a 6 string shergold obviously) A mate of mine has a 4 string shergold modulator and his band banned him from gigging it....because every time he changed to that bass (twas his fretless.....musta been a custom when it was made cos I dont think they were offered in fretless and it's no home job), he obliterated the rest of the band. He metered it one day and reckoned it was 10dB louder thn all his other basses. At last hooky's secret revealed :)