Earthquake – Graham Central Station

Happy Friday! One of the most influential people in American music is Larry Graham. Especially when it comes to the bass, how it’s played, and how it’s used in music. I mean the guy essentially created the technique known as slapping, which is almost universally recognized as not only the coolest way to play the bass, but it can also be a lot more challenging than a traditional plucking style or using a pick. Getting his start as the bass player of the legendary psychedelic soul group Sly and The Family Stone, Larry eventually split with Sly and started Graham Central Station. I don’t know the backstory in its entirety to the split, but it supposedly involved a whole lot of bad PCP (is there such a thing as good PCP?), and an altercation involving the two men’s respective entourages. Supposedly, during all of this, someone made an accusation about Larry hiring a hitman to kill Sly or Larry threatened to hire a guy; nobody really knows, but soon, the altercation turned physical and Sly ended up climbing out of a hotel window to escape.

Les Claypool, who I wrote about yesterday, frequently cites Larry as THE bass master, and it’s easy to understand why, as he is responsible for creating the foundations for what would become Les’s infamous playing style. Described as mixing tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends, slapping, and so much more, it’s an often imitated, but perhaps never perfected technique. Would someone like Les, or fellow slap master, Flea, even exist if it weren’t for Larry? Short answer: probably. Creatives are just creative. But who knows? Maybe Les would be in Metallica, and would Flea be a regular smegular bassist with no personality?

Earthquake, perfectly named, this funk rocker has one of the most kick-down-the-front-door badass introductions across all music. It’s incredible to me how the first minute of the song is just the rhythm section (drums and bass, Larry and Flash Birch) alone, but they are able to sound like a full band. Next thing you know, you’re getting socked in the face by some nice and heavy fuzz in some early Hendrix-inspired riffs (reminded me a LOT of Purple Haze) and Larry’s charged-up vocals. A really nice wailing solo and a wall of sound later, and Graham Central Station are still going full steam ahead down the track in groovy fashion.

I could go into way more depth about Larry and his importance to modern American music, and I’m sure I will one day, but I was just thinking about a conversation I had with my dad not to long ago, about Larry. It occurred to me, that there’s a decent amount of people that don’t know, (or don’t care, which is fine) that Larry’s nephew is one Audrey Graham. Aka, Drake. For my generation, whether you like him or not, the dude was (and still is to some) the biggest artist in the world for a good bit of our upbringing . I have really mixed feelings about Drake, I like some of his songs for what they are, and he really has put out some objectively really good albums. I associate a ton of them with nostalgia and good memories from before the “real world” started. I’ll probably feature one or a few at some point in the future. On the flipside, a lot of people can’t stand the guy, typically with good reason. A lot of things were questioned and a lot of food for thought was brought to the table concerning Drizzy Drake recently by one of my favorite rappers, Kendrick Lamar. But I digress for now.

Link to song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgId4C8rVfk

Close up of Larry playing the intro – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWnjLp18H-c

Link to live (dubbed) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4YgVuAnnFQ

Link to Larry talking about slapping – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAcBVRa1snY