Bow down and worship . . .Larry Graham

Prince comes on to help with some guitar work during an Encore of 'Thank You' with master of Funk bass, Larry Graham.


Larry Graham INVENTED slap bass.
If that fact doesn't immediately make him worthy of worship, let me tell you some more about this guy, a god to me and a genuine hero of modern music.






I first heard Larry Graham's music on the first funk album I ever listened to all the way through, Graham Central Station's second album 'Mirror' (1976). I had pulled it out of my Dad's vinyl collection, not because I had any idea what it was, but because it has a sheet of shiny metal attached to the front, making a mirror. I was intrigued, and had had previously had some successes with pulling random records out of my Dad's collection and listening to them (Black Sabbath, King Crimson etc), so I gave it a spin. The first track, Entrow, had me slightly confused by it's long marching drum intro, what's this , some fuckin marching band pish? Thought 12 year old Tulley. Then the brass,bass and drums kicked into the funkiest repeated bass line I had ever heard in my life and all confusion quickly vanished.


The percussive, so called 'slap pop' style of playing bass is taken for granted by us today, but Larry Graham was the guy who brought it to the people. See this clip for details: 



Larry Graham was born on the 14th of August 1946 in Beaumont, Texas, into a family of performers. They had him tap dancing at 5. At 11 he formed his first band, and 13 he made his first record. He played live with his Maw on piano and him on bass, making up for the lack of a rhythm section by thumping his strings hard. Anyway, he went from one kind of family to another when, in 1968 he joined a new band, yet to record, which called itself  Sly and the Family Stone. 


Larry played on their first two records, Stand! and Life, he's the guy with the well deep voice you can hear on backup vocals.Here he is looking super fly in banana yellow performing 'everyday people' in 1969:





Sly and the Family Stone were the real deal man. At Woodstock while everyone was preaching peace and love, Sly and the Family Stone were the dream personified, a group that was half black and half white, coming together in perfect harmony to sing about respecting one another and standing up for yourself. While the other hippies were singing 'Scarborough Fair' caked in shite and dressed in rags with their other white college buddies, Sly and the Family Stone were rocking the hardcore slabs of funk dressed in blinding white with massive platforms and diamond encrusted sunglasses. 


After the first couple (and best) Sly and the Family Stone albums, Larry left the group, basically because Sly was a mad junkie. He had been producing a band called Hot Chocolate (not that Hot Chocolate but, although it'd be interesting to hear how brilliant 'you sexy thing' would have been if it was) and basically said he was taking over and putting his own name in the band's title. Never a shy one, our Larry. The band was called Graham Central Station.


 Here they are on Soul Train in the seventies playing 'release yourself'. Note Larry's uber hair and beard development, coupled with the white clothes making him look like the big funky messiah he is.





Larry also played bass on the fantastic album 'Betty Davis' at this time, if you don't know her she is the sultry voiced second ex wife of Jazz legend Miles Davis. Larry understood the sexiness of her voice and coupled it with some sexy ass bass lines, like so:





In the eighties he recorded an album with Aretha Franklin (Aretha 1986) which I'm not that into to be honest. At the end of the day though, it's Aretha fuckin Franklin, she's a goddess and doing an album with her can only increase your ultimate coolness points.


His career slowly gained momentum again during the nineties, he did quite a few high profile gigs and guest spots, for example here he is in 1995 with George Clinton and P Funk rocking the living funk out of an old Sly and the Family Stone tune





And this culminated with him getting the old GCS back together, this time with Cynthia Robinson and Jerry Martini from Sly and the Family Stone (Cynthia is that kick ass female voice you hear on the earlier records) and they recorded an album in collaboration with Prince  called GCS 2000 which was released in 1999. Was it brilliant? You tell me:





So this takes us up to the awesome clip we started on, which was recorded this year. Larry Graham, inventor of slap bass, funking on through the generations.


Here is a compilation of some of my favourite tracks Larry has played on through the years, including all the ones mentioned and many more nuggets of genius. If I had to pick a favourite, it'd be the last track, 'earthquake'. It's monumental.


Download: Bow down and worship . . . Larry Graham


Tracklisting:


01 Graham Central Station - Scream.mp3
02 - Graham Central Station - Entrow.mp3
03 - Sly and the Family Stone - Stand.mp3
04 - Graham Central Station- The Jam.mp3
05 - Anti Love Song-Betty Davis.mp3
06 - Graham Central Station - Release Yourself.mp3
07 - Sly and the Family Stone - Everyday People.mp3
08 - Graham Central Station - Do Yah.mp3
09 - Graham Central Station - I Just Can´t Stop Dancing.mp3
10 - Sly and the Family Stone - i want to take you higher.mp3
11 - Sly and the Family Stone - Life.mp3
12 - Graham Central Station - Love (covers a multitude of sin).mp3
13 - Graham Central Station - The Entertainer.mp3
14 - Graham Central Station - Pow.mp3
15 - Larry Graham w Prince - Tell Me What It Is (live PPark 7-14-00 snippet).mp3
16 - Graham Central Station - last train.mp3
17 - Sly and the Family Stone - Sing a Simple Song.mp3
18 - Graham Central Station - My Radio Sure Sounds Good to Me(1).mp3
19 - Graham Central Station - Now do-u-wanta dance.mp3
20 - Graham Central Station - Hair.mp3
21 Graham Central Station - earthquake.mp3


Enjoy!