Well, rock me like a hurricane, Trevor Kent of Taka Comics has graced 1977 with a guest comic strip! The genious that is Trevor has managed to put the entire storyline of 1977 into three panels. This is how MOST musicians end up. Whatever happened to the members of Frijid Pink, the one-hit wonders from 1970? Yep, managing a Wendy’s… (I don’t know, but I would not be surprised…)
Thanks Trevor, this was really cool! AND if anyone else feels like getting their name in “lights” during my “vacation” then send me your guest strip and I’ll put it up here for all to see! Send any submissions to byron@1977thecomic.com.
Only one tiny, tiny nit-pick… Bud is shown playing his bass WAY too high. Some bassists like to “play their nipples” as I like to say and have the bass REALLY high on their body. BUT we classic rock bass players always, always swung them down low. That’s how you can spot a real rocker!
🙂
Today’s title struck me the very moment I saw Trevor’s comic… Supertramp from “Breakfast in America” in 1979. Bud is probably listening to the album as he’s flipping burgers. Also, Trevor manages to take 1977 the SHORT way home in three panels… very cool.
Ooh, true about Bud playing too high (his bass that is, not his current state of mind). Kids, this is ALSO how you can tell that the artist of the strip plays guitar, and not bass :). Thanks for posting it!
Trevor – Well…. I DID play bass… I think you’ve been smoking something as you got it backwards!
🙂
Nonono, Byron. I play guitar. And I have short arms and short fingers. I’m used to playing a guitar up high on my body so my hand doesn’t cramp up.
Crap… I get it… I’M the one smoking something… oops… 🙂
Great strip, dynamic and really does sum up a lot of bands I know.
I have to agree with Byron though, real bassists don’t play their nipples 🙂
RE: T III – You are right, but some bassists do play them that high and man, I hate that. How do you play with your wrist that bent over? God put the pick-ups by the strings so we could rest our thumbs there!
Humorously, my bass actually has a little handle on the lower portion that would be used to “hold” the bass with your fingers and pluck the strings with your thumb! Imagine that style!
🙂
I’m a classic rock bass player and never hung my bass low… but I also played guitar, so I guess to each his own. Love 1977. Brings me back! My wife and I were high school sweethearts back then and re-connected 26 years later! Now we’ve been married 5 years and counting! We also play live acoustically. I really relate to 1977 and hope you never change the title (78, 79, 80).
Big fan,
Andyman
if you play with a pick (a plastic one, not one of the five picks attached to yer hand), having a bass slung low like that can be really bad for yer wrists simply because it puts yer hand and wrist at a pretty awkward angle and stresses the carpal tunnel in nasty ways. having the bass strapped on a little higher helps with that and puts it at a slightly more natural angle. at least, in my experience.
if you play a bass picking with just yer fingers, having the bass slung low can be ok, as long as its not a stretch to reach the g string (huh huh huh huh).
however ..
if you play slap (a technique not necessarily invented in the 70’s but most certainly popularized with funk and disco during that era), that’s another story. the way some people play slap, their technique works with a bass slung low because they slap with their hand and thumb at a horizontal angle. but other people use a technique where they slap the strings with the thumb in a vertical position (which is how i learned how to do it when i played right-handed, and now am learning how to do playing left-handed as well). this version of slap technique does not allow for the bass to be slung low because the technique requires the arm in question to be bent at close to a right angle (similar to how a sling holds a broken arm) so as to be able to slap the strings with the thumb in a vertical position.
as far as the neck position goes in the photo … i’ve seen japanese girls and guys play an electric guitar (and bass) with the neck almost pointed to the sky simply because their arms weren’t long enough to reach the lowest notes if the instrument was almost straight horizontally. if yer arm just isn’t long enough, this is why you’d want to do that. other reasons would be all a question of personal ergonomics — ie does yer wrist feel comfortable while fretting / fingering (in the case of fretless basses) the instrument? putting yer palms at an almost flat angle is not ergonomically sound. looks great. can really screw you up.
having a bass ‘slung low’ is actually sort of bad for you because it can put yer hands or wrists in ergonomically unfriendly positions and can do damage to yer hands in the process. it really boils down to comfort. the general rule is that if it feels very awkward, strains yer hands / fingers on the first try or causes you pain (!!!), re-adjust the instrument until it doesn’t. “looking cool” can actually hurt you and drastically affect yer ability to play in the long run. and i don’t know a single bass or guitar player that doesn’t want to be able to play ’til the day he/she dies. 😉
with regard to that ‘rest’, well, its not really a rest, per se, but sort of a leverage point. depending on where it is located on the instrument, it can actually be used for leverage or a bracing point when using yer fingers as picks or a place to leverage yer hand for slap, depending on where it is located on the bass. most people took them off because they felt it got in the way, but others found them to be a useful tool used them for leverage to slap!
there are also techniques where you can use yer thumb to pick strings on the bass, and this is largely just a way to translate fingerpicking from guitar to bass. see, the ‘proper’ technique for fingerpicking on a guitar is to use yer thumb for plucking the first three strings, and yer first, second and third finger for the other three. this is so you can play ‘bass lines’ with yer thumb and easily play complicated, intricate melody lines with yer fingers. depending on how you were trained, you can translate this to the bass relatively easily.
while those positions may make you look like a total dork while playing (tom morello of rage against the la trine and audioslave springs to mind), it really boils down to comfort and ergonomics. who wants to be in pain while playing an instrument, or cause themselves long-term damage that can keep you hurting for years, long after you’ve quit playing? yeah, yeah, i hear the arguments. rock should hurt a little. right. no pain no gain. sure. you should suffer for yer art. uh huh. i’d rather have each note bring a stupid grin to my face instead of a painful grimace. quite frankly, to paraphrase steve dallas, i’d rather be able to “grimace musically” instead. 🙂
rock on,
–dee!
Two words: Tony Levin.
Holds his however he wants to get the noise he needs out of the thing. Probably gave up worrying about “the look” around the second week he was playing.
T’aint how you look, it’s the way that you pluck.
Steve.
Hey Byron, I had a nose on Wikipedia, and it seems that Frijid Pink still exists, but with only one of the original band members: Richard Stevers. Weirdly, in 2001, another version of the band formed with none of the original or past members…