Jun 242010
Townsman Al just passed along the sad news of Kinks bassist Pete Quaife dying at 66 years of age. Although it’s hard to gauge how much magic Quaife contributed to a band led by control-freak Ray Davies, his departure from the band in 1969 marked the beginning of the end of The Golden Age of The Kinks. The band would make a couple more fine albums with replacement John Dalton, but Dalton’s Look never melded near as well as Quaife’s did with the Davies brothers and Mick Avory.
I wonder how late in his Kinks kareer this 1969 clip dates?
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First ones I though of were Too Much On My Mind and House In The Country. He carries Johnny Thunder too for a good portion of it. I guess I think of big fat bass glissandos a lot.
Pete was solid on those downbeats for all the descending patterns Davies loved, and worked the bottom as a ladder for the guitars to follow. Great warm sound too.
Thank you for the daze, Pete.
Johnny Thunder’s a good one. Last of the Steam Powered Trains too. Also when he goes double-time at the end of From Morning Till the End of the Day.
My initial thought was the intro of “Mindless Child of Motherhood”. After a listen, the whole song has pretty good bass parts.
Picking out Quaife’s parts is difficult; he seems to stay under the barre chords on earliest songs.
“Mindless Child…” is a good one. On a lot of those cool songs from his last few years with the band it seems he often moves from supporting the barre chords to doubling guitar riffs. Sometimes, as on a “Mindless Child of Motherhood” or “Monica,” between the riffing and Dave Davies’ chunky tone, I’m not sure where the guitar ends and the bass begins.