Original subtitles

that one is always a handful Stratus

from Billy Cobham spectrum we cut that

in 1973 this is the bass I played on the

track so I was trying to get this as

close as possible to where we were gonna

set this rascal down here and tell you

about it when I was in the group the

section we were managed by Peter Asher

and also handled by his partner at the

time now twice now now twice was

handling Mahavishnu Orchestra because I

remember we were on the road at one

point with James Taylor and that called

and called couch and I in our rooms he

said you guys got to come to my room and

hear something on I'm I don't know what

it is

and we went to his room and he played us

the first test pressing of the first

Mahavishnu record which completely

melted our brains and couch and I just

looked and said play that again right I

mean we could not believe what we were

hearing that band was so unbelievable it

was nothing nothing else like it and but

because of the relationships we had with

Peter and with Matt we ended up being in

the opening act form up for Mahavishnu

Orchestra for about six weeks we sat

there every night I spent the first week

trying to find one because they have all

these amazing time you know odd time

signatures and stuff which to those guys

had become so natural but we were just

groping away a hint is trying to figure

with that

are these guys doing Jerry Goodman was

such a monstrous violinist Billy is

probably one of the greatest drummer

several mcLaughlin there's nobody that

played guitar like him

Rick Laird is was the perfect bass

player for the group and Yann hammer

brought that whole Eastern European

mentality to it so we were on the road

with them one of the things I remember

that was most amazing was we were

playing the Mississippi River Festival

and we had played our set in and of

course after we played our set we hung

out you know in the wings and just you

know just dug the cat's and at one point

Cobham was taking a drum solo and he had

double kick drums and he broke his right

bass drum pedal during the course of his

solo so he doubled up his left foot and

doubled up his left hand reached down

unscrewed his pedal took it off while

he's soloing put the new pedal on and

then went right back to it once and I

looked at each other what holy this

happened now I've seen it all well

during the course of that tour where you

all became really good friends and so

after the tour was over we were actually

in the studio and just finishing up a

section album and Billy called me from

New York and he said would you consider

coming to New York I got a solo record

deal I think he had had some different

thoughts about different plays bass

players but he ended up calling me to to

come and do it and so I said oh

absolutely I'd love to of course in the

back of my head I'm going what the hell

did you just commit to you because I've

been sitting watching this beast every

night and just going man that's like

stepping out of the frying pan right

into the fire but I went and took a flew

out on a Sunday because we were in the

studio at Electric Ladyland on Monday

and Tuesday because basically we cut all

of our tracks I think it was two days I

don't know if it was three I think it

was two because almost every track on

the

is a first or second take at the most

but I got to the studio ken scott was

engineering it who's one of the greatest

engineers ever and it was a it was an

amazing experience today but the thing

that blew my mind the most was in the

late 60s I was in a band called Wolfgang

and we were handled by a company called

shady management which was the most

aptly named management company due to

what went on with them but one of the

other acts that they had was a band

called a zephyr and Tommy Bolin was the

guitarist in Zephyr and so Tommy and I

had spent time on the road in the late

62 the 60s together well in 1973 I go

walking into Electric Ladyland and

there's Tommy and at this point I mean

he had been doing I think he had been in

the James Gang he had been doing deep

purple I was just so surprised me and my

old bud was was there so it was a great

hang and I think one of the things that

made this record really stand the test

of time and still feels fresh today as

it did in 1973 is the fact that Billy

and young were coming at it kind of like

it's jazz fusion players and Tommy and I

were coming at it from the direction of

rock fusion and I think that that kind

of amalgamation really made this a

special album I mean I'm so proud of

this album I mean just playing it just

now it's really what I'm played that in

a long time and it's one of those songs

that man everybody's got to be really

sonically connected together so once

again sitting here with a loud bass amp

next to me and a little speaker playing

the track is is the antithesis of how I

like to think of things so it's hard for

me to like really dig deep into the

groove when I'm hearing it in this

really off-balance but I'm not gonna put

headphones on and get into this whole

studio thing oh yeah I figured this is

loose as a goose and I'm just gonna

enjoy it but it was it was an incredible

experience we spent all our time

going running having a runner go down

the street that there was an Orange

Julius down the street from the studio

and for some reason we got sucked into a

strawberry Julius's liked drinking that

the whole time and then when we finished

the last session we went there was a

fabulous Indian restaurant in New York

City that's no longer there called

nirvana right on Central Park and we

went there and had dinner afterwards and

then I flew home and basically it was so

strange because for years and years guys

would say oh man you know just write a

spectrum all that man they would go

Jesus you know let's jam and I'm going

you guys have been gigging this crap in

clubs for years and I only played it

once or twice in the studio and never

played it again and it was like one

every time I would bump into Jeff Beck

he just always comes with me goes

Stratos Stratos because he played he

always does that in his set he loves

that song and he said that album really

kind of changed his head about how he

plays and everything so I just thought I

would get this one get this one out

there but it's Yann hammer on keyboards

Tommy Bolin on guitar myself and Billy

Cobham now everything on this record is

live there was no fixes and if you

listen I think it's the track as tarean

Matador the beauty of an instrumental

album is you can call stuff anything you

wanted so this is tarean Matador but if

you listen really closely to it there's

a point at which young hammer and Tommy

Bolin are trading licks back and forth

and you hear Tommy going Riario but what

happens is you hear right right right

and he broke his e string in the middle

of his solo man did not face him for a

second he just pulled it went right on

Bloo played the heads I mean it is not

fixed there was no punches

nothing was was tidied up after the

course of this project it is raw it's

just raw energy brutal brutal energy

then there were two other tracks that

they did after I left they were big band

tracks and Ron Carter played upright on

them and if I ever had to share bass

duties on a record with somebody

man could not ask for anybody more

amazing than Ron Carter in fact I just

we were just emailing the other day and

he said he's a remarkable musician and a

remarkable presence in the world of

music so so that is Stratus and I

remember we buffoon we Billy called me

and it was the 30th anniversary of this

album and he said you want to go gig it

it's like you don't want to rush into

these things let's let's wait 30 years

before we ever play this again but I

said I'd love to and he got Dean Brown

because um tragically Tommy Bolin died

very young he was 28 when he passed away

so there was no Tommy Bolin and Tommy

was one of the greatest guitar players

that ever strapped on that instrument

everything everything you hear on this

record when you when you dig into this

is live all his solos are live sitting

there all he had was his old Echoplex

with him and he played an Echoplex as

though it was a completely other

instrument but so Dean Brown had the

guitar seat and Gary husband who can be

a monstrous drummer was the keyboard

player on it and and we did like I think

it was like 16 shows in 18 days or

something wrong in a van man it was like

just bitchin it was like 2003 I think

and when we did that I remember playing

a gig in and I think it was at like

Buffalo or somewhere up there in New

York and we were doing these clubs and

we're doing two sets a night like 80

minutes and that we were doing all of

spectrum and doing some stuff from

crosswinds but I remember sitting there

and there was a guy in the front row

watching he was focused on me they are

watching me play and I suddenly realized

he had binoculars and he's watching me

like this and he's only ten feet away

from me me I'm not sure if he was

looking to see if I had you know a

cuticle or a hair in my nose or

something it was just almost stopped

playing because I was just kind of

freaking out what is this dude up to but

but I look back on this album as

the greatest times I had in the studio

I'm so proud of this Billy it was just

the most remarkable group of people yawn

hammer Jesus I mean that guy his thumb

work on mini mug is like nobody could

beat it and Robert Moog was at the

studio so at the very beginning I just

left a tiny bit but there's a bunch of

little sections in this album where you

hear like it's almost like a sequencing

thing

it's Billy playing like the first

electronic drums Moe brought them down

to the studio and they were

experimenting with them so there was

lots of things that went on on this

thing but so I had this base and a

little univox amp that was my first kind

of real amp and I think it had a single

12 in it and they set me up right in

front of Billy so needless to say I

could not hear through this whole

thing of what I was doing but it was

great we went over the heads of each

song with Yann just to see because Tommy

couldn't read music and Jana had

sketched some things out for me but

basically this is what we are we all

contributed to it so that's today I'll

probably get something otherworldly

tomorrow but I just wanted to get this

one done because a lot of people have

asked about it had I had a better mix I

could have dug into the pocket a little

bit deeper on it but man it's one of

those funny songs every time I see

anybody there's lots and lots of covers

of it on YouTube lots of people have

done it and it seems like they get to

about four six bars into it and they

start adding a lot of stuff to it

because it gets boring but I think the

thing that worked for me on this thing

was the fact that it never moved it's

all tension based that that lick just

keeps on going and going well Billy's

playing all around and the guys are

soloing around it that thing that groove

just stays right there and and I really

feel that that was the thing that made

my part on that thing work is as good as

it did so I hope everybody's doing okay

I'm you know

once again I'm doing my shoutout because

I think we all have to give a serious

shout-out every day to the people that

are making this world it's tolerable an

experience as it can be under these

really adverse circumstances all the

people I just I was up this morning I

had to go to ace hardware because I'm

building something at home I had to get

parts for that and I went to Trader

Joe's and pick up some things and and

stuff and I'm looking at all these

people you know working these places all

messed up and gloved up and behind

Plexiglas and I'm just thinking god

bless you guys you know I mean it's like

they're really putting out every day and

all of the the medical staffs and I'm

watching the news and all these people

talking about you know the horror of it

all that they're working so hard and

they're still losing people and then the

frustration of suddenly people are all

thinking well we've just got to get back

to normal so let's all start gathering

again and man they're gonna be

inundating these already over staffed

and overworked

I mean overworked and understaffed

hospitals with people because as soon as

these big crowds gather this is

gonna be like pouring gasoline on a fire

I wish it wasn't that way but it is that

way and and there's this encouragement

now to get people out there and let's

return to normal there is nothing normal

about what is going on right now if it

was normal I'd be preparing to go to

Zurich to do a concert I was supposed to

be doing and doing an album project with

an Argentinean artist and but a lot of

stuff a gig we do every year at the

Library of Congress for ASCAP a trip you

know a tour in Japan all these things

everything's shelved right now it's all

maybe gonna be rescheduled or just done

next year or whenever but be smart be

smart please God don't you know don't be

stupid about this I saw people trying to

get into Trader Joe's without masks on

because we're still and I have he said

and they stole them no you can't come in

and I thank you thank you for that I

mean why shouldn't 95% of people be

busting their balls in there to try to

keep the place clean and a senator

Russell and some comes walking in

you know like nothing's going on so I

was glad that they they told the people

get out of here and come back when

you've got covering so that's enough of

my lecturing today just thank you thank

you so much to everybody who's working

so hard to do this I'm loving this page

I'm gonna stay with it as long as people

want to come here and hear tunes I'll

keep digging stuff up some stuff I may

not get to I mean there's a lot of

requests for you know a bunch of Toto

stuff and Toto stuff was a real handful

and I'll have to see what kind of you

know time I can really devote I don't

want to completely suck when I play this

stuff so I've got to devote some energy

to relearning things that I haven't

played in years and so not like riding a

bike you know I don't just get on and

pedal down the street everything I don't

have a great memory for stuff I have to

work at it it doesn't come that easy but

but I want to do it right so look at you

all take good care of yourselves maybe

I'll wear a different color t-shirt next

time I'll go dig through and see if I

have another color blue or another black

I wear my dress black t-shirt rather

than my casual black t-shirt so love you

guys you take good care and I'm still

collating pictures so that book will

happen once all this is done and I can

get out of the house and meet with the

guy who is going to be helping me with

my finger book that's a whole other

discussion and we've got another song

we're doing another song with the

immediate family for a cappella and

Judith Owen has it we just did SOS the

Abba tune on acapella and she's got

another one that she's gonna be sending

me and we're gonna work on her trying to

just keep busy you know musically and

keep keep fresh with this and not sit

here and stagnate so take good care see

you tomorrow bye