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Post by Victor on Feb 4, 2017 7:39:58 GMT
We keep talking about this don't we, this magic recipe of the four of them. Here is why I think each of them was essential to the Quo feel... Rick - three things: 1 the engine room - that down picked rhythm guitar that first seemed to really draw breath on Mean Girl, took a solo on DWMT, then was perfected on Caroline. 2 The contribution of that higher range vibrato-laden vocal that was perfect for ballads. 3 the rock star presence exemplified on Rain & Mystery Song, Nuff - three things: 1 bass tone. Nuff had such a loose flappy tone, perhaps because of his short scale Mustang. His bass sounds like someone hitting a plank of wood against a wet blanket. It just pounds relentlessly. Don't know anyone else like it. 2 lyrics. His attitude in things like DTIM, TFG and ITABW is so sarcastic. Even in things like HF, Nuff seemed to project a toughness the others could not match. (which makes ILRnR seem all the more incredible). 3. Voice. Nuff's voice is odd. Sounds like Buddy Holly in a bad mood. But he brings an extra dimension to each album. NTL is lack lustre without Nuff. TMA would have been a perfect Nuff attitude song. Frame - three things - 1 his voice - it was utterly unique till the 80's - a nasal cockney cum faux deep south drawl. Only person I know like it is Alan Hull of Lindisfarne. 2 - his look - waistcoat, sideboards, legs miles apart, green tele, casual strumming - Frame looked more like Quo than anyone else in Quo. 3 his phenomenal ability with melodies - as I said above - heavily influenced by Cockney Music Hall (Quo played Rockney long before Chas n Dave) and country. I truly believe when people hear a song they think is Quo, it will be a Rossi song. As Davy memorably once said - you can whistle a Rossi guitar solo. It is worth learning to play guitar just to realise that it is easy to impersonate some guitarists, but not Frame. Spud - one seemingly very simple thing. Shuffle. It does not matter what the rest of the band are playing, somehow Spud can lay a cymbal or high hat shuffle over it. It is subtle. It took me decades to realise it. Never heard anyone else do it except Charlie Watts, but Spud can play shuffle over Nuff and Rick playing straight. No wonder he frowns so much on stage. Engine room, Flappy pounding bass, melody, shuffle. What could you remove without toppling the whole thing? It's true. When I'm fucking about on my Tele (with no Quo CDs playing), when I get to the solo, I whistle it. Try it. It works. With just about every solo he did. As much as I think he's a waalloper, I've always loved his solos because of that.
They are beautiful in their simplicity. Give me that over any Malmsteen showboating any day.Quoted for truth !
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Post by Whoppa Choppa on Feb 4, 2017 9:22:18 GMT
Yep... In the heydays of playing to pub audiences across the country, I sat down with the lead guitar player and we cleverly threw a Quo medley together... "But no solos" he said. "I can't find the Rossi scale...." This is a very talented man, who nails Rev. B. Gibbons, Clapton, Hendrix and a lot of the big names.. Just as Davy says.. tafkar is a waalloper, but the solos he made are so great!
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Post by frozenhero on Mar 1, 2017 10:13:49 GMT
Basically, I could go into my band and say "I wrote this" and play them a riff, a chord sequence and some lyrics. We'd jam it out and the drummer would come up with his parts, bass player his parts, singer the melody etc The song would come together and even someone could come up with an idea of changing the style of the song and it would work and that's the way it would go. However, I can still insist that because it was my idea and "my song" that I claim all credit for it. A lot of bands have done this throughout the years and it's led to bitter rows and break ups. The only band I know who say everyone wrote the songs, even though they didn't is U2. And they've been together 41 years, in their original form. Explains a lot Don't Rush also do that, they say Lyrics Neil Peart, Music Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. True, but there's a few exceptions. YYZ (instrumental) is Music Lee / Peart... (despite Alex playing a lot of great stuff, including an unusual solo, it seems he wasn't involved with the writing)
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Post by frozenhero on Mar 1, 2017 10:16:15 GMT
........Alan Lancaster on ROLD: "Roll Over Lay Down was written by me and Rick first off, Francis came in with the riff and Bob came in with some words. We didn't want to leave John out, so I suggested that he'd be credited as well."............
That probably means the first riff Francis plays & repeats at the start, which is uncannily similar to the intro on Creedence Clearwater Revival's 'Commotion', even in the same key
Mikey
The other side of the coin is a track like Softer Ride, which clearly has the Rossi influence but wasn't credited to him as well.
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Post by freewilly on Mar 1, 2017 12:24:43 GMT
........Alan Lancaster on ROLD: "Roll Over Lay Down was written by me and Rick first off, Francis came in with the riff and Bob came in with some words. We didn't want to leave John out, so I suggested that he'd be credited as well."............
That probably means the first riff Francis plays & repeats at the start, which is uncannily similar to the intro on Creedence Clearwater Revival's 'Commotion', even in the same key
Mikey
The other side of the coin is a track like Softer Ride, which clearly has the Rossi influence but wasn't credited to him as well. Exactly. As I said previously, you really think Rick and Francis came up with 4500 times by themselves? Slow Train? Did Francis write the bass line in Down Down?
Nope.
The credits are very inaccurate
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gav
Veteran Rocker Rollin'
Posts: 2,161
Favourite Quo Album: On The Level
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Post by gav on Mar 1, 2017 12:59:03 GMT
The other side of the coin is a track like Softer Ride, which clearly has the Rossi influence but wasn't credited to him as well. Exactly. As I said previously, you really think Rick and Francis came up with 4500 times by themselves? Slow Train? Did Francis write the bass line in Down Down?
Nope.
The credits are very inaccurate
Probably why he (Alan) started writing on his own....he had his own ideas that perhaps the others weren't so keen on, and what ideas he had were absorbed into songs he ended up getting no credit for. So he'd have then had to fight harder to get his share on each album. Kind of an unintentionally divisive action. Funny though how for BFY, Rick writes on his own, and Francis and Alan team up. Weird goings on, but you can see through it, their egos were taking full flight and the chemistry was beginning to dissolve.
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Post by frozenhero on Mar 1, 2017 16:17:39 GMT
The other side of the coin is a track like Softer Ride, which clearly has the Rossi influence but wasn't credited to him as well. Exactly. As I said previously, you really think Rick and Francis came up with 4500 times by themselves? Slow Train? Did Francis write the bass line in Down Down?
Nope.
The credits are very inaccurate
Bob already confirmed that he wrote parts of 4500x
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Post by frozenhero on Mar 1, 2017 16:18:52 GMT
Exactly. As I said previously, you really think Rick and Francis came up with 4500 times by themselves? Slow Train? Did Francis write the bass line in Down Down?
Nope.
The credits are very inaccurate
Probably why he (Alan) started writing on his own....he had his own ideas that perhaps the others weren't so keen on, and what ideas he had were absorbed into songs he ended up getting no credit for. So he'd have then had to fight harder to get his share on each album. Kind of an unintentionally divisive action. Funny though how for BFY, Rick writes on his own, and Francis and Alan team up. Weird goings on, but you can see through it, their egos were taking full flight and the chemistry was beginning to dissolve. Though if Alan is to be believed, he had a lot to do with both Rick songs on BFY. I imagine the upcoming deluxe edition will bring some more insight into the credit situation!
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Post by freewilly on Mar 1, 2017 16:47:13 GMT
Exactly. As I said previously, you really think Rick and Francis came up with 4500 times by themselves? Slow Train? Did Francis write the bass line in Down Down?
Nope.
The credits are very inaccurate
Bob already confirmed that he wrote parts of 4500x Yep and John and Alan had parts they arranged themselves.
That's what made them great...Despite what the credits say, they were a band and worked like one
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Post by Detroit on Mar 1, 2017 16:48:55 GMT
Probably why he (Alan) started writing on his own....he had his own ideas that perhaps the others weren't so keen on, and what ideas he had were absorbed into songs he ended up getting no credit for. So he'd have then had to fight harder to get his share on each album. Kind of an unintentionally divisive action. Funny though how for BFY, Rick writes on his own, and Francis and Alan team up. Weird goings on, but you can see through it, their egos were taking full flight and the chemistry was beginning to dissolve. Though if Alan is to be believed, he had a lot to do with both Rick songs on BFY. I imagine the upcoming deluxe edition will bring some more insight into the credit situation! The other way around perhaps?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2017 18:01:28 GMT
Exactly. As I said previously, you really think Rick and Francis came up with 4500 times by themselves? Slow Train? Did Francis write the bass line in Down Down?
Nope.
The credits are very inaccurate
Funny though how for BFY, Rick writes on his own. Bless him, being stoned out leading to the creation of Mystery Song played quite a part in that
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Post by Mrs Flittersnoop on Mar 1, 2017 22:24:32 GMT
Probably why he (Alan) started writing on his own....he had his own ideas that perhaps the others weren't so keen on, and what ideas he had were absorbed into songs he ended up getting no credit for. So he'd have then had to fight harder to get his share on each album. Kind of an unintentionally divisive action. Funny though how for BFY, Rick writes on his own, and Francis and Alan team up. Weird goings on, but you can see through it, their egos were taking full flight and the chemistry was beginning to dissolve. Though if Alan is to be believed, he had a lot to do with both Rick songs on BFY. I imagine the upcoming deluxe edition will bring some more insight into the credit situation! So it has long been said, and I can't think of any reason not to believe him. Rick was up all night playing the riff ... that situation tends not to produced finished homework
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Post by Mrs Flittersnoop on Mar 1, 2017 22:40:42 GMT
We keep talking about this don't we, this magic recipe of the four of them. Here is why I think each of them was essential to the Quo feel... Nuff - three things: 1 bass tone. Nuff had such a loose flappy tone, perhaps because of his short scale Mustang. His bass sounds like someone hitting a plank of wood against a wet blanket. It just pounds relentlessly. Don't know anyone else like it. Frame - 1 his voice - it was utterly unique till the 80's - a nasal cockney cum faux deep south drawl. Only person I know like it is Alan Hull of Lindisfarne. Fantasically nailed the Nuff sound! I always said the bass on ROLD sounded like bedsprings. No, not Alan Hull. Keep looking. I knew and liked the Hull Sound, but could not confuse it with Rossi.
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Post by Mrs Flittersnoop on Mar 1, 2017 22:54:59 GMT
Yep... In the heydays of playing to pub audiences across the country, I sat down with the lead guitar player and we cleverly threw a Quo medley together... "But no solos" he said. " I can't find the Rossi scale...." This is a very talented man, who nails Rev. B. Gibbons, Clapton, Hendrix and a lot of the big names.. Just as Davy says.. tafkar is a waalloper, but the solos he made are so great! That is just it WC! Rossi often plays blues shapes, but he changes key over chords in a progression like a jazz guitarist. Good examples of this (to my ear) include DWMT (2:45 - 2:55), DTIM (2:35 to 2:55 - outstanding blues playing - his finest moment IMO) and WYW (2:15 - 2:25). Frame will move up two frets if the chord moves up two frets and it suits the melody, he'll stick chromatic passing notes in, and he will switch between minor and major (eg, again to my ear, 4500X at 7:50 - 8:05). The bloke is ridiculously underrated against those more famous players who play from the Big Book o' Blues. Fantastic! Rossi doesn't have a scale, so they have no way of catching him. I'm going to make a guess based on Gates's description: at such time as he has not planned his solo out note for note (which was not the fashion in thos days), Francis chased the chords wildly, leaping from location to location and playing his tunes over what he landed on, sometimes with almost un-analysable results. Often completely free of standard blues moves. No wonder my old guitar teacher told me, when I asked him how he got that bit like dropping a milk crate in the middle of Oh Baby, "By accident, I think." There's a similar clanky bit in the middle of George Harrison's solo in Roll Over Beethoven, another of my favourite solos. The tragedy is that Francis didn't think he was any good. So he stopped doing it.
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Post by vivfromcov on Mar 2, 2017 22:56:21 GMT
As much as his more recent noises have upset some of us, we know in our heart's that Francis was a genius (along with his bandmates) and I love singing his solos.
It must be frustrating having to continue playing the same songs for 40 odd years, striving to better them but never reaching the same heights again?
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