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Couple of bars or a chord change
Prior to his recently concluded Australian tour, Glenn Hughes appeared on the Scars and Guitars podcast. He talked about Purple marks 3 & 4, the Hughes/Thrall project, collaborations with Tony Iommi, Dead Daisies, and many other things.
Thanks to the Ultimate Guitar for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Really great and instructive interview, Glenn keeping the self-aggrandizing down.
Few comments:
1. I agree that Hughes Thrall is one of the most underrated albums ever. A wonderful union of AOR, Funk, New Wave and even Prog influences, great songwriting plus Thrall’s more technical “let’s create soundscapes” gelling inspirationally with Glenn’s more earthy bass. The two of them must have been really out of it at the time to not be able to promote that album to the success it warranted and deserved. I only listened to it full blast in the car two days ago, it’s an amazing piece of work from start to finish.
2. My memory might be deceiving me, but I don’t think that Glenn has ever played bass to Cozy Powell’s drumming, on the Phenomena albums that was mostly Neil Murray. And likely for good reason: I have doubts whether Glenn & Cozy would have worked as a rhythm section. I think there would have been a fist fight in the studio after a couple of takes of one trying to overpower the other!
3. You can hear it between the lines: David Lowy with his very bare-bones, almost punkish rhythm guitar approach is not exactly Glenn’s dream guitarist. But I really liked how Lowy’s rhythm guitar subconsciously influenced Glenn’s bass playing during his tenure with The Dead Daisies, he did some of his most aggressive and gung-ho bass playing there. Never before and never after has Glenn actually played in a band with a dedicated rhythm guitarist, it was a first for him and he adapted to it. It is the reason why I would have liked The Dead Daisies to have continued with him a while longer, it was interesting to hear and made for quite a racket! 🤯
4. Glenn is delusional 😁: The way he plays bass, his accents, microgroove and his sound all cry: “GET OUTTA MY WAY, I’M A PICK PLAYER!” He’s the epitome of a pick player, he is just a funky (and very nimble) pick player. But he sounds and grooves nothing like real finger players on bass – people like Neil Murray, Jack Bruce, Andy Fraser, Geezer Butler, Geddy Lee or Steve Harris – do. That’s not a knock, you can be an excellent bassist with both techniques, they just have a tendency to guide you into different directions of, e.g., how your microgroove develops, and Glenn’s microgroove is dyed-in-the-wool pick player (I should know, so is mine), the way he jerks the beat around. He’s even more pick-playerish than Roger (who has lately begun to play both live and in the studio with his fingers more, a development I’m not entirely happy about, the ‘Purple Wall of Sound’ requires a pick player IMHO).
October 15th, 2024 at 18:01Made In Europe”You Fool No One” part 2.35-3.53
October 16th, 2024 at 11:14Glenn is excellent on bass, in the middle “between the crazys”Ian Paica and Ritchie Blackmore… groove.groove,groove.
one of the best moments in my rock universe
Glenn ….a lifetime loan .
Yeah, I remember getting Made In Europe in 1976, Ritchie sounded to me dejected and withdrawn on that album, but Glenn’s bass went for the jugular! It sounded like he had tried to compensate for Ritchie’s lack of fervor.
Also the first Mk III album where you could hear the bass properly. Glenn’s playing has balls the size of his Hiwatt stacks on that record.
October 16th, 2024 at 23:48Alas!, our genial touchy-feels Californian is still a little upset …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9g8p0PK6nc
I think it really comes down to conflicting cultural expectations. Glenn is by now so californicated that he expects West Coast style social interaction, not really deep, but warm on the surface of it. That seems to be alien to Messrs Gillan, Glover and Paice, though you could of course ask the question whether they could not have acquainted themselves a bit more with US award show etiquette.
To Glenn, the RRHoF induction was obviously a big thing (and why not?) while Ian and at least Roger too viewed it as something to have to undergo for the fans and as a band promotion. So they were likely waiting for it to be over soon while Glenn was hoping to enjoy himself and do a little puppy-peeing on the rug. I’m pretty sure that no slight of GH and DC was intended, but that Big Ian simply wasn’t comfortable with the event – and it showed though he pulled himself together.
People and their conflicting expectations, all very tricky.
October 19th, 2024 at 14:07