Archive for June 3rd, 2010
If you grew up in the 60′s like I did you grew up listening to the sounds of music coming from the newly formed Motown record label. The Four Tops, The Temptations, The Miracles and Stevie Wonder were among the top music acts at the time.
Did you know allot of the songs done by these artists and others were backed up musically by the bass guitar of James Jamerson and the rest of The Funk Brothers. The Funk Brothers were Motowns’ session musicians who recorded on most of the songs recorded at Motown. Other guitar players for The Funk Brothers were Robert White, Eddie Willis, and Joe Messina.
One could say that Jamersons’ influential bass style was ahead of time. You can hear him playing on songs like “Shotgun” by Jr. Walker & The Allstars, “My Girl” sung by The Temptations, ”Dancing In The Street”, “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”, and “For Once In My Life” just to name a few. His favorite bass guitar package was not a guitar package at all, it was a stock Fender bass guitar.