Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Graceland
I’ve been trying to get into Paul Simon’s Graceland—but I cannot. It’s the cheesy-to-my-ears bass. It sounds SO CHEAP and SHITTY that I cannot I just cannot listen to the album. I can’t. I feel like there’s something wrong with me, but I can’t listen to a lot of 80s music because of this sound. Do you know what I mean?
Casiotone’s take, however, sounds like expansive fields of golden Tennessee corn worked by bourbon-besotted, dirtpoor workers. And a slight, slightly dirty uplift.
[Late Update: I did a little research and discovered that Bakithi Kumalo played bass on the tracks I have issue with on Graceland. And then I realized what the sound is: It’s the fretless jazz bass sound. Which, for me, traces its lineage back to Jaco. And like most jazz guitar tones, I take issue with it. It’s too ‘cool’ sounding. I especially hate jazz guitar, but fretless bass sound similarly spineless and effete. That’s why I like John McLaughlin and Michael Henderson (of Miles’ rock band)—their sound has bite. But you don’t have to be a rock god to sound like them. Wes Montgomery has an awesome, biting guitar tone while still paying lip service (finger service?) to a more traditional jazz sound.]
