Despite this site being comprised primarily of movie reviews, it initially was to feature music reviews and appreciation. The name of this website, Now Very Bad, is actually taken from a musician joke*.
I hope to expand on the musical focus of this site, and I’m starting right now with the first in a series on bass players: Now Very Bass. (Bass is my chosen instrument…)
To kick off the series, I’m going to spotlight a bassist who is currently on his Final Tour with the band that made him famous and is one of my first influences: Nikki Sixx.
Now Very Bass: NVB#01 Nikki Sixx (Mötley Crüe, Sixx:A.M.)
From their start in the early 1980’s, Motley Crue was one of the loudest, hardest rock bands around. A large part of the driving rhythm of the band was provided by bassist Nikki Sixx. Of course, in the early days, Sixx attracted attention more for his on-stage antics, such as lighting himself on fire, than for his fretwork. And while the showmanship continues to be a huge part of the stage show over thirty years later, the same solid rhythm section that holds the band together today was already evident on the early records.
Sixx’s playing style is similar to many hard rock bassists of the time, known for being more sturdy than flashy. Mostly lives in the groove with a fairly typical hard rock / metal focus on pumping the root. It helps that his partner is one of the finest rock drummers out there, Tommy Lee. Like AC/DC before them, the simplicity of the music on paper can lead to the impression that anyone can play it. Sure, you can hit all the notes, but that driving beat is a deceptively difficult thing to do well. Anyone who has been in a new band can attest to that.
The self-produced debut album, Too Fast For Love, released in November 1981, may be more notable for Sixx’s writing than his bass playing. Sixx has always been a songwriter first, probably part of the selfless commitment to the songs over any showy playing. The record is rough around the edges, even after being remixed by Roy Thomas Baker, but the raw energy of the songs makes it a classic. Check out Live Wire, Public Enemy #1 or the title track.
For the band’s second album, Shout At The Devil, the songwriting is improved and the overall sound is far more polished. Shout is one of the best metal albums of all time, as Sixx really came into his own as a songwriter. The bass playing is typically solid if not particularly noteworthy. During these early records he generally used B.C. Rich Warlock & Mockingbird basses.
The time changes of the Theatre of Pain opener City Boy Blues are maybe a signal of some new styles creeping in with the band’s sound and complexity. Sadly, the bands extracurricular activities likely held them back from exploring any further, but the band tries out some interestingly classic rock/country tones on Raise Your Hands To Rock.
For the cover of Brownsville Station’s Smokin’ in the Boys Room, Sixx employs some distinctive sliding octaves on the verses. This is also the first time he uses an 8-string bass to fill out the sound. It is very effective, and I have always been surprised he didn’t use 8 & 12 strings more live, particularly as he switched to Hamer basses at this time, and Hamer has a long history with those instruments.
The album’s highlight, of course, is Home Sweet Home. The sonic field is altered significantly with the piano introduction, and there is some smooth movement of the bass line against the guitar solo.
Due to lifestyle decisions and priorities at the time, the 4th record, Girls, Girls, Girls, finds the band treading water a bit. There are some great tracks, but there’s more than a little bit of filler. The title track and the opener, Wild Side, are classics, finding Sixx keeping up with Mick Mars at his sleaziest. The record is a bit uneven but the high points are among the band’s best. The lyrical high point has to be Dancing on Glass, with Sixx getting his junkie poetry on.
The most interesting contribution by Sixx to the album, however, features no bass at all. The mostly instrumental piece Nona was written by Sixx for his grandmother and clocks in at less than 90 seconds, but it’s a beautiful piece with strings and offers a never to be repeated taste of a more mature direction for the Crue.
Crue went with a totally new approach on the follow-up, their first sober album, Dr. Feelgood. They severed ties with Tom Werner, producer of their past three albums and went with the bombastic Bob Rock. Rock would produce Feelgood and the follow-up album in addition to all of the new material for the various compilations the band would put out for the next 15 years. The record sounds huge and the bass is more upfront than in any previous recording.
The title track explodes with what I believe to be their first use of the Drop D tuning, and the chugging rhythm of the intro shows some very precise picking and great low-end. The guitars and basses are generally tuned down a half-step on all of the Motley albums, but the low D really sets the tone for what many consider their best album.
Contrast this with the bluesy approach to Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away), which sees Sixx filling in the verses with a very complementary approach.
Sixx used Spector basses on both Girls & Feelgood, particularly Gibson Thunderbird-inspired Spectorbirds, but started to utilize some classic P-basses and would soon switch to Gibson Thunderbirds or Thunderbird variations by Ernie Ball & Schecter for the remainder of his career.
The band added three new tracks for the semi-greatest hits album Decade of Decadence, most notable of these being the single Primal Scream, with a very riff-heavy bass line.
But the record also collected some songs recorded for compilation albums, beginning a trend of releasing some of their finest and most challenging pieces on non-album releases. (Decade of Decadence has since gone out of print, with most of the “extra” tunes included on Supersonic And Demonic Relics.) Rock N’ Roll Junkie may have been a fairly straightforward song for a truly terrible movie (The Adventures of Ford Fairlane), but the bass is fantastic with a great groove.
Most outstanding is the cover of Tommy Bolin’s Teaser. The song is absolutely perfect for the band and for Sixx’s playing. It was recorded for the Stairway to Heaven / Highway to Hell compilation for the 1989 Moscow Music Peace Festival (It’s a very interesting record, with then current artists performing at the festival – strong-armed by manager Doc McGhee – covering songs by artists who had died from substance abuse.) Sixx had been very vocal about his admiration for Bolin in the rock mags of the day, which was certainly influential in Geffen releasing a 2-cd box set, The Ultimate… in 1989. (I know Sixx’s endorsement was the reason I checked out Tommy Bolin, for which I am eternally grateful.)
After the monster success of Feelgood, the band separated with singer Vince Neil and enlisted singer/guitarist John Corabi for the hugely underrated self-titled 1994 album, Mötley Crüe. While the album was a commercial failure, I consider it an artistic success. The band really challenged themselves with this one and I believe it is the first album in their career that is actually well-rounded. Even their greatest efforts before this had contained some amount of filler, and picking the greatest hits from the early albums is easy. And that may have been part of the real problem with the album – there’s no real single. Hooligan’s Holiday may have been a poor choice of single – it’s far from the best song on the album – but I’m not really sure what they’d have used instead.
The record has a great bass sound, with lots of moving parts and some experimentation with distortion and other bass effects. The two guitar approach also leads to some interesting things. It is unfortunate that the times had changed and the landscape didn’t favor this music.
In their tell-all book, The Dirt, everyone involved with the project has bitter and unpleasant memories about the follow-up album, Generation Swine, which I think is unfortunate, as I love the album. In some ways it’s one of my favorites. I get why they don’t like it – it’s schizophrenic, having started off as a Corabi album and ending up with Vince Neil back. There are too many cooks and everyone is doing what they want, but it makes for an interesting album – there are some great songs on here. I would have loved to have heard this with Corabi’s vocals – maybe his tenure with the band would be more fondly recalled.
From a bass standpoint, it’s easily Sixx’s most experimental and exciting record. In addition to handling some of the lead vocals, there’s a lot of use of distortion and effects and different recording styles. The single Afraid starts with strummed bass chords as the main riff and it’s a great sound. On the tour Sixx brought out both Epiphone 5 strings and 12-strings from Hiroshigi Kids Guitar Company.
He would also use 5 string basses on Enslaved & Bitter Pill, two new songs for 1998’s Greatest Hits.
After touring in support of the Greatest Hits record, Lee would leave the band and be replaced for 2000’s New Tattoo. There is a real difference in that groove on the Mike Clink-produced album without Lee. Replacement drummer Randy Castillo (RIP) was a very fine drummer, but there is an ingredient x missing. He and Sixx hold down the rhythm, but there is very little groove and none of Lee’s creative embellishments. I never realized how good Lee was until I heard Crue without him. I’m no drummer, so I can’t even point to exactly what it is that he adds. He’s a seriously hard hitter, and tends to use the bass drum a lot and/or tune his drums a bit deeper to add to the “bass” of the band.
This period is significant largely as the time in which Sixx was collaborating with other artists, including a significant songwriting partnership with James Michael. Michael has co-writing credit on 6 of the 10 originals on New Tattoo, as well as 2 of the 3 new original tunes on the 2005 compilation Red, White and Crüe. [Sick Love Song & the Japanese-only release I’m a Liar (and That’s the Truth)]. Note: The 3rd was also a Sixx collaboration – with band Simple Plan.
James Michael would soon collaborate with Sixx on a more permanent basis in their new band Sixx:A.M. in 2006. They have released two studio albums to date with a third to be released in October 2014.
The final Crue album, Saints of Los Angeles, was released in 2008 and featured the original lineup. The title track is classic Crue and the album is very solid. James Michael took on the producer role for the project and the bass never sounded better. Every song on the album was written by the Sixx:A.M. members and Marti Frederiksen with a few co-writing credits from Mick Mars and one from Tommy Lee.
The latest (and last?) Crue song, All Bad Things Must Come To An End is currently being played on their Final Tour and is featured in the promo video below:
Nikki Sixx has provided the pulse of one of the biggest rock bands in history and redefined the role of the bass player in the band. His songwriting has made him a central figure in the rock landscape and inspired countless musicians.
*Joke has been told many times over the years, but goes (roughly) as follows:
A party of explorers are travelling through the jungle when they hear a steady, rhythmic drumming. Curious, they ask their guide what the drumming is about. The guide replies, “When drums stop, very bad.”
They continue their trek but the drums keep pounding away; again they inquire about the sound and are again told, “When drums stop, very bad.”
They press on, nearly driven mad by the incessant drumming, when suddenly the pounding stops. The explorers are surprised and look expectantly to the guide who says, “Now very bad…now bass solo.”
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