All about that (electric) bass... and Carol Kaye

As published by Carol Kaye.
 
"WHY IT'S CALLED AN ELECTRIC BASS.
 
It was called the "FENDER BASS" when first manufactured and sold early 1950s, a brand new instrument, made by the Fender company, shaped by Freddy Tavares, who worked for Leo Fender. I spoke with Freddy at the Fender factory in the 1970s, to get the history of the shaping of this instrument. He then said "you're playing it wrong", so I said "how should I play it?"....he then put it on his lap like a classical guitar and proceeded to play a few lines on it. Being a rather large man (probably over 6'2"), it was easy for him to reach the neck and he said he played polka music on it on his gigs, very easy bass lines. He had no opinion about how bass players were playing in the 1970s, 20 years later.
 
Back-tracking from that time, when I published the first of many educational books I issued beginning in 1969, I pondered what to call it, "How to Play The _________Bass" since there was a String Bass, called that in the Musicians Union Directory, and the Fender Bass for this bass.....but I reasoned, having played some of the finest guitars Gibson ever made, the Gibson L-5, L-10, and Super 400, and even the cheap wood "poor man's L5" - the ES 175 good electric guitar, that someone would someday put out a better bass than Fender, and it should have a generic name. So because the String Bass was commonly called the "Acoustic Bass", I successfully re-named the "Fender Bass", the "ELECTRIC BASS" -- my first book was: HOW TO PLAY THE ELECTRIC BASS published 1969 by my company, Gwyn Publishing Co. Inc. and sold worldwide, plus it was in all the music schools worldwide too. And not only did the Professionals love it, they immediately called it that, the ELECTRIC BASS, but so did our MUSICIANS' UNION, Local 47 and all the other Locals and the FEDERATION call it the ELECTRIC BASS in their Directories 1970s on. So there you have it.
 
It was NEVER called the BASS GUITAR by professionals, but yes in the UK, and Australia, and by Mel Bay (who published his books in the TREBLE CLEF!) who called it wrongly the "Bass Guitar"....there was a Bass Guitar, the DANO (short for Danelectro) BASS GUITAR - a 6-string instrument with horns tuned the same as a Guitar down one octave - NO SUCH THING as "Baritone Dano", that came later in the 1970s - always called that by the MUSICIANS' UNIONs in their Directories all over the USA and Canada. 
 
So yes, some still erroneously call it a "bass guitar" which is sort of an insult to real bass players.....the Viola isn't called a VIOLIN nor the cello either but look somewhat the same (cello just a lot bigger), why mis-name the real function of the FENDER nee ELECTRIC BASS a "guitar" or "bass guitar"?? 
 
The DANO bass guitar was an adjunct instrument, never a real "bass" in function. It wasn't a well-made instrument, we all had to have it practically re-make to make it playable for the record dates (change the pickup, the bridge set up, the strings etc.). Record dates yes, sometimes used the Dano Bass Guitar, the Fender Bass, and the String Bass, all 3 on the same parts on record dates for the advantages of the different sounds...then I come along and get all 3 sounds on the Fender Bass which is why I was No. 1 Call immediately in 1964 and they usually only used 1 bass after that.
 
Yes, the first Fender bassists played with a pick (all except Monk Montgomery who played with fingers, he was the very first to use the Fender Bass in the Lionel Hampton Jazz Orchestra in the 1950s)....
 
The first Studio Elec. Bassists? Probably in this order, RENE HALL (who also had his own solo DANO Bass Guitar-featured albums out mid 1950s) but played the Fender Bass on record dates, Ray Pohlman, and Arthur Wright - who all were guitar players and yes - they played it with a pick and the producers loved the sound of pick-playing on the Fender Bass........then I became popularly hired when in my 5th year of recording 1963 as a guitar player, was asked to play the Fender Bass (borrowing someone's, I forget who) when the guy didn't show up, so I accidentally played it at Capitol Records on a record date 1963, and by 1964 I was FIRST CALL - meaning Record and Film Co's called you FIRST ahead of anyone else, on Fender Bass from then on. They loved my sounds, my invented creative bass lines, I could sightread fly-specks if needed (movies ,and TV shows much-needed asset as well as inventing bass lines), and they all knew me already as a fine guitarist for recording for 5 years in Hollywood, knew I had a great sense of time (important with rock drummers), Jazz drummers all had great time sense.

Producers like Quincy Jones, Dave Axelrod still call it the "Fender Bass" but of course everyone else adopted my name for it quickly in 1969: The ELECTRIC BASS. And yes, those who aren't Studio Musicians some still call it by its erroneous name "bass guitar" not knowing this history.....the UK and Australia and some in Europe do too, but the professionals call it the ELECTRIC BASS, both for the fact that it is Electric and its function? BASS."

Ol Carol gets a little slack as she was who she was and did what she did and is as "unvarnished" as they come.

Plus, she don't take nothin from nobody.

drewfx1

Rain
I guess this goes to show that not two people will read the same article and give the same importance to the same details. 
 
I really didn't pay much attention to her claim to have been the first to call it "electric bass". My attention seemed to focus on the "electric bass vs bass guitar vs whatnot".
 
That and the stories about the industry - which actually account for the whole article save that one paragraph where she claims what she claims.
 
I guess I always assume that people are people so that I don't give too much importance to their factual and historical claims.

What you might not know is that Carol has claimed (among many other things) to have played on legendary bass tracks like The Four Tops' Bernadette, which is commonly attributed to the late Motown bassist James Jamerson's genius.

I did not know that and quite frankly, this only reinforce my stance.
 
People claim whatever they claim, they twist things around, they embellish stories, and sometimes they just plain lie.
 
I still like to hear their story, because it's not like my life depends on it and I'm not asked to bear witness against or for them. By many accounts, Carole Kaye did in fact play on many memorable records - now, is she stretching the truth here or making things up there? Quite possible. Humans do that all the time.
 
The stories in this particular article are rather trivial, and long as anyone is free to chime in and voice different sides to those stories and re-establish the facts, that's as good as it gets.
 
Because, with all due respect, in the end, I wouldn't bet a dollar on what she or anyone on this forum or elsewhere says.

Think I'll just leave this here. 
 

Rain
... 
Because, with all due respect, in the end, I wouldn't bet a dollar on what she or anyone on this forum or elsewhere says.
...

That's a bit harsh on my book  ... but I'm OK with it. In the end, there are always pearls amidst all the swill and litter, and we have to learn to separate those, so you can filter out the good from the otherwise not good enough. There is always something nice and good about anything anyone says ... if we are willing to look. It may not be perfect for all of us, but however small amount of gold, can always be mined.
 
Sadly, someone like her, that fought hard as heck, and put up with so many insults because she was a woman, and then ended up playing on so much music that can't even consider or have a concept of, that it makes it easier to say that her words are not worth anything.
 
True or not, history is the lie that is often agreed upon! I think I would tend to appreciate her view some, but not always think that was the only truth around ... the truth is in all of them, not just one of them!

drewfx1
 
 
People today often seem to like to embrace relativism, as it allows them to elevate their own unsubstantiated opinions to the same level of people who have bothered to actually learn things, which often involves some effort. I mean it took me, I don't know, a few minutes (!) to find a published use of the term "electric bass" that pre-dates Carol's account by a number of years. And, yes, it would have been easier for me to just opine that I didn't think she invented the term. But I don't value opinions very highly when compared to objective facts, so I bothered to look it up.
 

While I'm absolutely grateful that you set the record straight about that one claim of hers, the actual text, or most of it anyway, is about why "electric bass" is a more accurate term than alternatives is use. Her claim takes as to who originated it represent a rather small portion of the entire thing. 
 
I too value facts a lot more than opinions. And one could argue that it is a fact that Carol Kaye claims to have invented the term "electric bass". The text is her take on it, and it is clearly identified as such.
 
Because I value facts over opinions, I tend to be discriminating in my appreciation of material before I even read it. As such, we wouldn't want to put this in the same category as a legal document or a scientific essay - it is a personal story, posted on Facebook. I read it as such - and I think it is the first step any critical mind would take. It is bound to be filled with personal bias and inaccuracies. And all the "facts" in there have to be checked. It is implicit.
 
It is not an article of faith. No one is going to decide whether or not they need to had their kids vaccinated based on that. And every one is free to chime in and set the record straight. If you'd asked me after I read it who invented the term "electric bass" I would have told you "Carol Kaye claims she did. But let me verify."
 
I am in way over my head into serious studies about historical, theological and philological issue these days - otherwise, I too might have gotten anal about it. 

Now that is most interesting and I'm glad to see that the somewhat trivial text I posted turns out to be an occasion to bring such things to light.

I don't really care who played what when. Kaye and Jamerson are both towering legends in my mind. JJ had more hits, but Carol played on more records - 10,000 by her estimate, and that's entirely believable considering how many years she was doing it before retiring.
 
Funny we'd debate which session players were on a record, but have no problem accepting that Ringo was the Beatles' only drummer. The important thing in all this is that I've been incorrectly referring to that instrument as a "guitar" for all these years. I wonder; is "axe" still acceptable?

That's heavy stuff, doghouse. As a history buff, I am fascinated by how it's continuously rewritten over time, even in the absence of any new evidence. And how ignorance of history warps one's perception of current/recent events. (Think W was our worst president ever? You don't know Andrew Johnson!)

I love Carol Kaye. Her work with Joe Pass is a joy to listen to and her body of work is astounding. She basically invented the bass vocabulary for pop music. She sure isn't the first musician I've heard of who probably shouldn't talk so much, but despite that, she's a great inspiration to me.