Almanac Music: Herbie Flowers – Rock On….The Wild Side

 

 

 

Herbie Flowers (1938 – 2024)

 

Herbie was born in Middlesex, UK in 1938 and ended up being one of the most prestigious & recognisable bass players in modern music. His background suggests otherwise: conscripted into the UK Royal Air Force in 1956, he elected to join the military band as a tuba player rather than face combat. His promotion to the rank of corporal a few years later was based solely on his decision to add a second instrument (the double bass) to his repertoire. On completing his compulsory military service in 1965, he become a member of the band on the Queen Elizabeth liner and while in port at New York he purchased a Fender Jazz bass. All up, his ‘tools of the trade’ cost £25 (tuba), £40 English pine double bass) and US$70 (Fender bass).

 

In 1966, at the age of 28 (an age when a number of modern music’s superstars had already ‘burnt out rather than fade away’), Herbie began his modern music career and became a session player – a bass player for hire at various studios in the London area – at a rate of around £6 for a three-hour session.

 

It is estimated that by the end of the 70’s, Herbie had played bass on over 500 hit recordings. However, the prolific session work didn’t prevent Herbie from also being a member of various bands, sometimes contemporaneously: Blue Mink (1969-74); CCS (1970-73); Rumpelstiltskin (1972); T-Rex (1977); Sky (1978-95)

 

Herbie died earlier this month (5 September 2024) at the age of 86 and so a retrospective of his life as a ‘bass player for hire’ is appropriate. This article will attempt to showcase Herbie’s extraordinary career with what might be regarded as his ‘top 10’ highlights reel.

 

 

‘Space Oddity’ – David Bowie

 

Undeterred by the commercial failure of a number of singles released between 1966-68 and his 1967 debut album, David Bowie wrote a song in early 1969 that he hoped would ‘launch’ his career – Space Oddity. The released recording of the song took place on 20 June 1969 at London’s Trident Studios. It was produced by Gus Dudgeon. The relatively unknown Herbie Flowers was invited to play bass on the song along with: David Bowie (vocals, acoustic guitar, stylophone, handclaps); Mick Wayne (lead guitar); Terry Cox (drums); Rick Wakeman (mellotron); and a 17-piece orchestra.

 

Although Space Oddity was recorded on 20 June & rush released on 11 July 1969 to capitalise on the Apollo 11 moon landing, the official video was not released until 1972.

 

 

 

 

‘Melting Pot’ – Blue Mink

 

One of the studio’s where Herbie offered his services was Morgan Studios. It was in this environment that fellow session musicians Roger Coulam (keyboards), Barry Morgan (drummer & studio owner) and Alan Parker (guitar) teamed up with singer/songwriter Roger Cook and US soul singer Madeline Bell to form Blue Mink in September 1969. The band released 4 studio albums between 1969-73.

 

The band’s first single was Melting Pot, which was released in late October 1969. As Herbie commented in a 2006 interview with Bass Player magazine: “before we knew it, Melting Pot was No. 2 in the charts. Two Little Boys by Rolf Harris stopped it getting to number one and I was playing on that too!”

 

In this video Herbie is shown playing his US$70 Fender Jazz bass – an instrument that he would use for his entire career.

 

 

 

 

‘Whole Lotta Love’ – CCS

 

CCS was a British musical group, formed in 1970 and led by blues guitarist Alexis Korner. Its membership included Danish guitarist Peter Thorup and session musicians such as Roger Coulam, Barry Morgan, Alan Parker, Harold McNair & Herbie Flowers. CCS are best known for their instrumental version of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’, which entered the UK singles chart in 1970 and was used as the theme music for the BBC pop programme ‘Top Of The Pops’ for most the 1970’s.

 

 

 

 

‘Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)’ – Melanie

 

For reasons unknown, Melanie decided to record her 3^rd album ‘Candles In The Rain’ at London’s Wessex Studios, although further studio/production work was carried out in New York & San Fransisco. The session musicians who performed on the album at Wessex Studios were: Alan Parker (guitar), Harold McNair (fiddle, flute), Herbie Flowers (bass) and Barry Morgan (drums).

 

The album & single (Lay Down) both peaked at no.2 on the Australian charts.

 

 

 

 

 

‘Jump Into The Fire’ – Nilsson

 

Between January – June 1971 Harry Nilsson recorded the songs that would eventually make up his November 1971 Nilsson Schmilsson album. Four of those songs (Driving Along, The Moonbeam Song, Coconut & Jump In The Fire) were recorded in London at the Trident and Island Studios and featured Herbie Flowers on bass.

 

The bass part for Jump Into The Fire includes a section where, following Gordon’s drum solo, Flowers detunes as he plays. According to Flowers, he began loosening the bottom string ‘for a laugh’, believing that by that point in the song, the performance would be faded out on the released recording. This ‘detuning’ can be clearly heard between the 4m45s-5m10s mark of the video clip.

 

 

 

 

‘Walk On The Wild Side’ – Lou Reed

 

In August 1972, Lou Reed decided to record his second solo album Transformer at Trident Studios in London, with David Bowie & Mick Ronson as album producers. Herbie Flowers was engaged to play bass/double bass on all tracks except for Perfect Day, Goodnight Ladies, Make Up (where Herbie played tuba) & Satellite Of Love. Klaus Voormann filled in the bass parts on those four songs.

 

Speaking to Bass Player magazine in 2006, Herbie recalls his iconic bass part on ‘Walk On The Wild Sid:

I played that on my old English pine double bass and my Fender Jazz. There was no inspiration, just a bar of C and a bar of F going round and round. I’d put double bass on the bottom end, playing the bottom note, and then I put bass guitar above because I wanted to try something else. But I’m sick of people saying, ‘Walk On The Wild Side is a classic, you must be rolling in it!’

 

As a session musician, Flowers was paid double the standard rate (£17 in total) for playing two instruments (double bass & electric bass) on the same track.

 

 

 

 

‘Rock On’ – David Essex

 

David Essex recorded his debut 1973 Rock On album at Advision Studio in London. The album was produced by Jeff Wayne.

 

On hearing a demo of the title track, Jeff Wayne decided that there would be nothing on the track that played a chord – so no keyboards, no guitars. Consequently, the final backing track consisted of bass (Herbie Flowers), percussion (Ray Cooper) and drums (Barry de Souza). The most prominently featured was Herbie Flowers, whose double-tracked bass guitar was treated with a prominent ‘slapback’ delay effect, creating a complex polyrhythmic backbeat.

 

As Jeff Wayne recalls:

‘’While the drums and percussion parts were written out, it was definitely Herbie that grasped immediately that a bass guitar playing a lead riff could fill a large part of the spatial spectrum and he took my idea and turned some basic notes of mine, into his amazing bass riff. Then to top it off, he suggested playing it again an octave higher. So you get this unusual bass sound right up front – now it couldn’t have been up front if the arrangement didn’t allow the air and the space to be created that way.”

 

For his efforts, Herbie was once again paid twice the normal session fee – around £24.

 

 

 

 

 

‘Rebel, Rebel’ – David Bowie

 

The connection between Bowie & Flowers that surfaced on 1969’s Space Oddity and reignited via Lou Reed’s Transformer album was brought to a glorious finale on Bowie’s May 1974 Diamond Dogs album & the subsequent October 1974 David Live album.

 

Herbie was the sole bass player on the studio album, recorded at Trident & Olympic Studios in London between Jan/Feb 1974 – as well as the sole bass player at the Tower Theatre, Pennsylvania between 8-12 July 1974 where the ‘David Live’ recordings were captured. Amongst a myriad of compelling performances from the album & live recording, ‘Rebel Rebel’ is worthy of highlighting Herbie at his creative best.

 

 

 

 

Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of War Of The Worlds

 

Between May 1976 – June 1977, Jeff Wayne gathered together a number of talented musicians & vocalists to record his double-album remaking of H. G. Wells’ ‘War Of The Worlds’. The selected bass player was Herbie Flowers, with whom he had previously worked with on ‘Rock On’. Notable vocalists included Justin Hayward (Moody Blues), David Essex, Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy), Julie Covington & Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann Earth Band). Richard Burton provided the narration. The album was released in June 1978, peaking at no.1 in the Australian Album charts.

 

The opening sequence is called ‘The Eve Of The War’ and Herbie’s bass is ‘right in’ on the action.

 

 

 

 

‘Troika’ – Sky

 

Sky were an Australian-English instrumental rock group that was active between 1978-1995. The groups’ founding Australian members were classical guitarist John William (1978-84) and electric guitarist Kevin Peek (1978-91). Herbie Flowers was also a 1978 founding member and remained with the group until it disbanded in 1995. Herbie contributed all his ‘bass’ skills – bass guitar, double bass, tuba.

 

To finish this article on a slightly lighter note, the following YouTube video showcases Sky members performing their interpretation of ‘Troika’. Herbie can be seen with his much-loved Fender Jazz bass.

 

 

 

 

Final comments

 

When vinyl ruled and we savoured the simple joy of holding an album cover in our hands and reading every square inch of the liner notes and accompanying minutiae, there is no doubt that the name ‘Herbie Flowers’ and the instrument ‘bass’ would have been read multiple times. In my case, it wasn’t until I recently decided to look back over his career in modern music that I have come to fully realise how often I would have read the name but how little I fully understood and appreciated the degree to which he soundtracked my journey in music. I guess it is time I said: ‘Thank you Herbie’.

 

 

More from Karl Dubravs can be read Here.

 

 

 

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