How I discovered music and what I really like in Soul Music.
In the first 3 articles I guess I’m going to speak about myself so you just can understand a tiny tiny bit my reactions and what I actually like in music. So. First of all, when and how I started to pay attention to music. The first real memories I have about music might be when I was around the age of 5, maybe 6.
My father introduced me to the music of The Beatles, a band I’m still listening at. Amazing band, nobody can denie this fact. Paul and John as well as George and Ringo were absolute geniuses. John was a person that I started to appreciate quite young because of his involving into politics.
Then around 13 I started to listen to some hard rock. I listened to hard rock and metal around 5 or 6 months before I realized that it wasn’t really the kind of music that matched with my person ( nothing to do with behaviour or the way you look, it’s just that within yourself there is a kind of music to which you are made for I guess). I started to listen to some more alternative and Brit pop music. One of the band I really appreciated was Muse.
Meanwhile I started to listen electronic music. The French touch to be more precise. Daft Punk was one of my favourite bands, for their style and the fact that their faces were and still are unknown to most people, keeping them from entering the star system. They feared that “Star System” I guess, which might be illustrated in their film “Interstella 5555” that had the fabulous music of their own album, known as Discovery.
As I celebrated my Fifteenth birthday, I realized I really was a crackshot about Daft Punk, Muse and The Beatles, the latter about who I knew everything. Then I slowly started to listen to Soul Music. One of the firsts albums I started to listen at was “Let’s Get It On” from Marvin Gaye. Then came Jamiroquai with “High Times 1992-2006” an album he apparently hates because it’s a best-of that Sony asked him to do. Then came “What’s Going on” from Marvin Gaye once more, but I was still resilient to listen to it carefully.
Until, my 16 th birthday. My best friend bought me a bass. On October the 6th of 2010 he bought me a bass. I had been paying attention to the basslines of some songs like “Runaway” from Jamiroquai, which sounded really nice. I had been starting to talk about bass to a few friends and my parents “blablabla It’d be cool if I could play bass guitar one day”. I was quite suprised as my best friend hadn’t asked me if I was really into playing bass guitar or if I wasn’t serious. On the 10th of October I brought it back to my place. I didn’t want to take any lessons, saying I’d do fine without a teacher. I learned “Jungle Boogie” from Kool and The Gang, a band I discovered thanks to the film “Pulp Fiction” ( which has by the way, an amaaazing soundtrack ).I learned the song with the help of a software, but it really sounded horrible. I oted to mention that I had no amp. So in fact I couldn’t hear anything and if I heared a sound it was just like a horrible mistake. My mother thought I was playing an indian instrument of some kind. Quite a difficult start. The next day, I played around 4 hours and by the end of the day I had blisters on each of the fingers of my right hand, as I’m right handed. I practiced quite a bit, and when Christmas came I got an Amp. After 3 months of being able to hear myself only when it was perfectly silent around me. I started to play some basslines of Paul McCartney and a few others, one from the song “Taxman” had made a strong impression on me. I was able to play it with my best friend who was really good at guitar. He introduced me to his band, with which I played from time to time, allowing me to get a bit of experience and to improve my sense of rythm. We were playing some Pop and some Hard Rock as the two guitarists were the most experienced musicians of the band. My best friend was telling me how good I was after playing only 4 months. I had no knowledge in music itself. I didn’t knew my scales and even ignored their existence on the bass. I was just playing it by heart and when I improvised it was like really random, whenever I felt like doing it. My technique improved as I started to use two fingers with my right hand. I got better and better. I did a small gig with the band just before the summer holidays ( I had been playing for 8 months ).
The film Standing in the Shadows of Motown made me what is to me, the best rythm section to have ever been composed. The bassist James “Igor ” Jamerson was a real genius to me, as well as Benny “Papa Zita” Benjamin on the drums, Eddie “Bongo” Brown on the Congos and Earl ” Chunk of Funk”. The rest of the Funk Brothers were amazing too. I started to play basslines just like the one from “What’s Going On” which is one of the bests basslines of the whole Motown story. “Inner City Blues ( Makes me wanna Holler ) ” was one of my favorites songs. I started to play some songs of Stevie Wonder as I discovered his famous double album “Songs in the Key of Life”. “Sir Duke” and “I wish” are songs that I learned during that summer and that I still really enjoy to play. I discovered as well The Temptations and The Four Tops, as well as James Brown. “Shakey Ground” introduced me to the style of slapping, a style that seemed out of reach to me. I’m not really crazy about slapping so I’m not really into The Red Hot Chili Peppers ( I’ll refere to them from now by saying RHCP*, it’s easier). Still I appreciate listening to a song of Marcus Miller or Victor Wooten from time to time. The famous danish bass player also known as MarloweDk seriously helped me to improve my slapping technique, allowing me to use double thumbing from time to time, but I still considere myself as a Rookie in this style and in bass in general as I have so much to learn in bass guitar and music. I expanded my styles of Soul as I started to listen at the sound of Memphis, Stax. A much more aggressive and “Black Power like” type of Soul than Motown that was very “pacifist” meaning that the Motown industry had a Martin-Luther-King-like essence compared to Stax that was much violent in the messages given through music. I discovered Stax thanks to the film “Wattstax”. I’m really into the music of the Black Moses, Isaac Hayes.
Until now I’ve been playing bass and getting to listen different types of Soul, Funk, Blues and Jazz. And if I can reassure you, I finally learned my scales on the Bass !
I guess that makes it, as I’ve just summed up my “musical story” if I may say so hahaha. My English is quite bad, so if you see any grammar mistakes, tell me ! I’ll correct them, in order to never make that same mistakes again. I think this article is a bit too long but anyway nobody is going to read this lost article. Don’t hesitate to ask me questions or to give your opinion about Soul Music or how you’ve been introduced to it ! Thanks for Reading !
Ps : I might make a review of “What’s Going On” this week end so keep your eyes and your ears wide open music lovers ! Stay Tuned !
With Love, Louis.
