This is the first I've heard of this, though I've gotten a number of calls and emails since. Dang. Phil was one of the great ones, and the first of the band to revive Grateful Dead music after Jerry died. RIP Phil...
Phil Lesh
R.I.P. A great innovator of the Bass guitar.
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……I was there in the 70’s, 80’s and even in the 90’s and experienced many of those “ Phil Bombs “. He was truly an innovator and also a founding member of the Grateful Dead when real music made a difference . They were musicians first and foremost and truly cared about the sound(s) they made. Sad as Phil was a pretty intelligent and interesting person…….who actually was a trumpet player first until he picked up a bass at Jerry Garcia’s request . The rest is history . Loved the sound you got out of that Alembic . A life well lived and thanks for all the music you gave us…… |
I had been focused on Phil’s sound and notes and playing all afternoon on Friday w/ some ‘71 and some ‘78 from the new boxset. I even conversed to the wife about his notes while listening and cleaning house. Then she gives me the news of his passing… The synchronicity, my mental attachment to him already that day, made the news a very surreal moment. I’ll remember this as being just as profound as what we were doing the moment we found out Jerry had passed. |
I’m not a concert going kind of Deadhead…only saw them once, at Watkins Glen…but I love their records, and Workingman’s, American Beauty, and Blues For Allah are my faves. Side 1 on BFA is genius level musicianship, and Phil was a big reason it. He gave the band a lot of what made it great…a bassist with a rare melodic sense and ear. |
Fare thee well, Phil. Like many, saw numerous shows in the 70s-90s. One night about ten rows back in the Phil Zone at the (old) Boston Garden, I thought those bass bombs would collapse my insides and turn me to mush. As @wharfy (good GD name) put it, may the four winds blow you home again ... |
I've known some musicians who characterize that kind of playing as lead bass. One of the best bassists I ever played with loved Phil, Jack Bruce and Casady, and Rick Danko. The two "best" electric bassists I’ve heard live were John Entwislle (awesome tone) and Jerry Scheff (L.A. studios; Elvis, Roy Orbison, the doors, Dylan, Richard Thompson, Chris Hillman, T Bone Burnett, Elvis Costello). My appreciation of the bass playing of Leland Sklar has been growing greatly in the past few years.
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Last time I saw Phil Lesh was at ‘Fare Thee Well’ in Santa Clara. He made some announcements regarding his liver transplant and being an organ donor. As a musician, I can’t think of another electric bass player that played harmony and counterpoint the way he did. For me, he was a great innovator of the instrument. |
I knew one really good guitar player whose instructions to new bass players in his band was "Nothing above the 5th fret." My favorite thing on bass is playing inversions, as James Jamerson did on some of his Motown recordings. Listen to his playing on Marvin Gaye's "Pride And Joy", a KILLER "walking" bass part!
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@goofyfoot - Indeed, at all the shows he did after the transplant, at the end of the show he would always encourage people to be organ donors, as he wouldn't be there if there hadn't been one for him.... |
To appreciate Phil Lesh’s approach to bass playing, give a close listen to the Dark Star > Spanish Jam > Lovelight, with the Allman Brothers, Berry Oakley on bass, 2/11/70. Both Phil and Berry are mixed up in the recording and you get a wonderful contrast and compare between two terrific bass players. https://archive.org/details/gd70-02-11.early-late.sbd.sacks.90.sbefail.shnf/gd70-2-11d2t1.shn |
