Anyone who has seen Matt live with Elton over the last year and a bit can't help but notice how hot this guy is. On the bass of course! Underneath the hat lurks one hot as hell bass player. But then again, he has to be. The music demands it. Look at those who went before him, Dee Murray, David Paton and Bob Birch were masters of their craft. Elton's music requires a special touch and Matt plays it up and down the fret with a real slick vibe.
When Matt joined the band he put down his own instruments of choice and picked up Bob's Ernie Ball bass guitars and just kept the music right on going. This is what Davey said on his blog said to me at the time, ''Matt who suggested he use the same guitar and Bob’s bass rig in order to create a more ‘seamless’ transition for the band and our sound man. You gotta love this guy...'' So when you make a start like that, he's at the top of the hill and staying there. Plus he was great mates with Bob going back to their younger days, so he's knows the job as well as anyone.
Traci Loving of Imagine Loving Art has very kindly allowed me to share these pics. She's no stranger herself to great artwork, check out the link below to her Facebook page. She did a wonderful montage drawing of Elton and the band earlier this year for me which is one of my favourite Elton things in my collection. The other link is to the album of pics which are the two newest bass guitars that Matt Bissonette is currently using. They were designed by Rick Salazar, guitar tech of the EJ band and produced by Ernie Ball MUSIC MAN Guitars & Basses.
The multi colour bass is silver paint with three different layers, large flake, small flake and the base paint is black. Same with the gold. The silver picks up every colour near it so the look of it is real cool. Rick asked them to paint both guitars with a black base coat to give a contrast to the colour and help it 'pop' more which certainly works a treat. Ernie Ball have never done it this way before, so this is a first. The gold one was used on the Grammy's performance back in September, so check that out on Youtube
Thanks to Traci for supplying the pics and all the background information on them. They look (and sound!) fantastic!!
Didn't Elton seek out T-Bone to produce? He must have known the style TB has, end the overall feel. So I think the blame for what the general public thinks is a weak album lies more with EJ than with TB. Why the heck doesn't EJ let Davey have a shot at producing? If not Davey then Davey and son? As a reader of Mr. Johnstone's self-penned blog, I know for a fact he would encourage rockers and uptempo and more sounds....the other thing that seems obvious to this fan is that: EJ has stated he will be cutting back on touring, so why not put one's work time (since he has admitted being a workaholic) into the studio? And that leads to my next point - how about building a modern studio near one of his homes...and lastly, I don't understand why he can't record someone else's songs (like in the blues genre....blues players do this all the time, playing old stuff) Clapton for instance. I have a list of songs that I can hear in my head, that he could knock out of the park if he wanted to...."Raw Ramp" by T. Rex would be one of them. That's just a very tiny start....more to come
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if this is the right topic you clicked 'reply' to, I think it's the next one down if I'm not mistaken. But I'll run with it for now. As regards TDB and who produced it, that's in the past as far as I'm concerned. But just to reply to your comment about Elton asking him to produce. That is indeed true, however I do feel a bit sorry for the producer in some ways. He came up with the concept of the album without having heard the songs first. So his concept of piano, bass and drums in it's purest form ultimately didn't materialise. In order to try and make some of the songs sound better than they actually are.
DeleteWhat I'm looking forward to is the next project. Assuming there will be one, we'd need to know Elton's thoughts on how he really thinks the album went down with folks. His position on it I'm in no doubt is different to what it was before the US tour started.
Nearly all of the major players in Elton's back catalogue are still around. The gaping hole being Gus of course, if he had lived we'd have gotten a 21st Century album produced by him. No doubt there. But only on his terms. The terms being the ones I stated above. If anyone tells me there's not one producer out there who'd give his eye teeth to have that access to that pool of talent, then I'll show you a nine bob note. Maybe one of the four producers on Macca's last album would fit the bill. I don't care at this stage, just bring Elton back to do what he does better than anyone else. His 'thing'.
As regards Davey producing, he would be well placed as anyone to do the job. He would have probably more experience than anyone of what went on in the studio after Elton had put down his parts. So he'd be an ideal candidate.