LeftyBassist.com

I played the bass for over 20 years and wrote for a bass magazine for ten. I got to interview my idol, Ray Shulman of Gentle Giant. Unfortunately the magazine editor was changed while the interview was in the can, and he killed the article, telling me that Gentle Giant was "yesterday's news."

About ten days ago ago I finally had to admit to myself that I'll never play the bass again, because of arthritis. It took me ten years to come to terms with this loss. I played a custom left-handed MusicMan Sting Ray, which had a rightie neck and all the hardware mounted on a custom lefty body made for me by some Japanese luthiers. I lived in Tokyo at the time, and Ernie Ball wasn't offering leftie versions of the Sting Ray.

This was the best bass I ever played. It had the best action and the best sound. So, to commemorate my special bass (bought for me by the love of my life), my long-gone playing ability, and last but not least the genius of Ray Shulman, I'd like to post a link to me playing "Mobile," my favorite song of all time.

You're all invited to participate in this wake. It's a time for joy, not sorrow. Imagine that I could once play like that! For almost five minutes, I came as close to perfection as I ever could as a bassist. The video and the bass bring back so many fantastic memories that I'm not sad. Nobody else should be, either.

So, thanks to all bass players everywhere, especially the left-handed ones. So many of you inspired me, and I was proud to be one of you. Keep playing, and I'll keep listening.

All the best,
Tom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEeiKkLqwe0

Appreciate the honesty, and your attitude... such a tough decision to make. Great video - that's a tough song to learn! I hear YES influences in there....

Hardest song I ever learned; hardest fact I ever had to face, that I'd never play again. But everyone else can still play for me.

Thanks for the compliment. I appreciate it.

Thanks man, I will say it does make me sad to hear though. Music is such a huge part of my life and playing bass is the biggest part of that. I wish you would have joined here a long time ago it seems you have so much to share. Good luck in your future endeavors.

Sorry to hear you can no longer play Tom.

As long as it doesn't cause too much heartache, you can always share your knowledge and wisdom on music and playing here.

If you'd like to post your interview with Ray Shulman here feel free.

Dude, that was sick! Killer tone and playing. You nailed it. I think Gentle Giant are hugely under-appreciated (except in Prog rock circles). I only own one of their albums - Octopus - which is a landmark album in that genre, but this has got me thinking I need to go out and pick up some more of their music.

I'm also sorry to hear about your arthritis, but if music is still a passion rest assured there are many other outlets for creative expression. (Ever consider producing or engineering?). And if not, that's okay too. Plenty of other outlets of expression to explore, should you desire a new muse.

Best of luck

Thanks. It was just too hard to deal with anything bass. The magazine I wrote for turned into a sad little shadow of its former self, so I finally quit, and then I couldn't play anymore. I'd take a year off and then try to play, and the pain would come back. I didn't want to admit that I'd lost such a big part of my life.

But I'm okay with it now. There's a scene in the Frank Sinatra movie The Man with the Golden Arm where a guy tells a story about how he was rejected for army service because he had high blood sugar, and they told him he couldn't eat candy anymore, his favorite thing. So he went out and bought a ton of candy and sat on his living room floor and ate candy all night, one last time. And after that, if anyone said it was too bad he couldn't eat candy, he tell them, "Brother, I had my candy."

And that's how I feel now. I had my bass, and it was great while it lasted.

Thanks. Here's a link to it, posted on a Gentle Giant fan site:

http://www.blazemonger.com/GG/Ray_Shulm ... mas_Wictor

It's ironic, but my idol doesn't play the bass anymore, either. My second-favorite bassist, Scott Thunes, had also given up the bass. But he's playing and touring again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAjlKA-sd9Q

Thanks very much. Lots of Gentle Giant videos are posted on YouTube. My favorite albums are Octopus, Interview, and In a Glass House, but each album except the last have at least two or three great songs.

My goal in life was to copy Ray Shulman's live version of "Free Hand," note for note. I kept putting it off, thinking I could always do it later, until I ran out of time. But someone posted it on YouTube.

Turn up the volume and imagine being able to play like this anytime you wanted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMrYSTzqFI8

Free Hand - what a great song! I can see why you wanted to learn it... if you learn a song like that, you can play just about anything! I like the bell on top of the drummer's hi-hat - never seen that before! Great band - I've just become a fan!

You're a man of great taste. The main reason I posted the video was to bring attention to one of the most criminally overlooked bassists in the world.

As long as you're here, these are some of the best GG songs for bassists:

"Empty City" - turn up the volume; it's recorded too low.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVDVSsM5aEA

"Working All Day" - deceptively difficult, with fantastic tone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVWFqwTXLOY

"Mister Class and Quality" - from the intro to the swelling finale, it's all bass. One of their longer tunes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvNzZ7RXQtM

"River" - my second-favorite GG song after "Mobile."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q89CdVsyRiM

Wow, very sad... but your attitude is definitely inspiring.

KILLER video too.

Stick around if you can... it'd definitely be cool to hear some more stories.

Thanks very much. Loss often makes you appreciate what you still have.

It's a great forum, too.

Thank you for sharing your story with us.

Some people do not understand what music feels like to me. Driving 2+ hours to see a show, buying music even though I already own tons, playing the music that I want to play. To lose the ability to play music would bring up feelings that you described.

Playing music is not only in your hands, but mainly in your mind and ears. Beethoven continued to compose and conduct music even after he was completely deaf. Guitarist Jason Becker, who is completely immobile due to ALS, continues to compose music even though all he can move are his eyes.

http://vimeo.com/jasonbeckermovie

In 2007 I went to the eye doctor for a routine examination, and he told me that my optic nerves were swollen. I asked him what it meant, and he hemmed and hawed until I told him to just give me the straight dope, because I could handle it. That was a lie; I knew from the way he was acting it would be really bad news and it terrified me, but I still needed to know.

The doctor sort of flapped his arms in a big shrug and said, "It could be a brain tumor, or it could be the first signs of multiple sclerosis."

It was the the worst thing I could've heard. I have a special terror of brain tumors and those wasting diseases. So I went out and sat in my car and thought about it, and I concluded, "Why not me? What makes me special? People get terminal diagnoses every day. If it's my time, I'll squeeze every last drop of living out of my life. I'll appreciate every single tiny fragment of beauty and positivity and art and humanity I witness." And I was at peace with it. Not happy, but accepting.

Luckily it was a weird disease called "pseudotumor cerebri," which causes your brain to manufacture too much cerebrospinal fluid, which is trapped in the closed system of your head and spine and builds up pressure, damaging your optic nerves. I was cured after a 6-month course of medication, but it can come back. It's funny that I accepted the possibility of a brain tumor or multiple sclerosis in about 15 minutes, but it took me ten years to admit I can't play bass anymore. Tells you about my priorities, I guess. I loved bass more than life itself, maybe.

Hopefully I'll never face something like MS and ALS. But like Jason Becker, I still hear music in my head, and I play it flawlessly on my imaginary bass.

You have an inspiring outlook. Thanks for sharing your story and welcome to the board.

Thanks very much. I like it here.

Here's another guy who deserves as many ears listening to him as possible. He's an absolute genius with the Fender VI bass. Tony Hayes from Australia.

Search "Tony Hayes Fender VI" on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrhpNzx3YaA

Very strange, and oddly interesting! Really like all of the drummers, and especially all of the cool drum sets! I'm going to forward this on to some of my drummer buddies....

Back in the day, I was a huge GG fan. I was lucky enough to see them in Toronto when they were the 'warm-up' band for j. Geils and Jefferson Starship (headliner) in 1976. Saw them in Montreal/Ottawa/quebec City once or twice before that but the memories are really fuzzy. Heck, I was lucky to survive the 70's, let alone remember anything about the last half of that decade ...

I cut a lot of my baby bass-playing teeth learning GG riffs (good lord, I could never make all the way through any of their tunes and probably still can't).

Anyway, long story short, they faded into my memories until this Xmas when the wife bought me the newly remastered Octopus and Three Frieds CD's (yes, I still buy cd's ...) and it was like KA-POW!! I haven't been able to get their stuff out of my head for the last three months.

I heartily advise everyone to go and get those remasters, they did a primo quality job getting it to sound right.

Off-topic but slightly related, I was listening to Tony's excellent track on You Tube and when it was finished, this link came up. I've never seen a lefty Fender VI before. I looked closely at the vibrato plate and headstock and it doesn't appear to be shot in the mirror. Either this thing really exists or he flipped the mirror image back with editing software.

http://youtu.be/shY8vkWmlB0