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Tony Levin says the wordluckya lot.
Have you seen this guys credentials?
The Brethren of King Crimson.
Lennon, Frampton, Rundgren, Bowie.
Its a strange process, but its a very pleasant one, he explains.
Theyre not work at all.
He plays his song and walks over to the keyboard player first.
At that time, it was Richard Tee.
He plays it with him and works out the piano part.
And then Paul walks over to Steve Gadd, the drummer, and does the same thing with him.
Then he comes to me, but he sang to me the bass parts he imagined.
Thats what he wanted.
He wanted me to be myself but to be influenced by his ideas.
So I got to be meandI got to be Paul.
At its deepest level, my bass playing isnt just picking the right notes.
Its being the kind of musician whos aware of what, musically, is best for that situation.
Peter had just left Genesis.
I didnt know who he was or even what Genesis was.
It was a terrific lineup forPeter Gabriel.
Peter was different from anybody I had heard.
He was so energetic, young, and trim.
Actually, we wereallenergetic, young, and trim back then.
Soon after, I was on tour with him and saw the other side of Peter.
I wouldnt say Peter is shy, but hes a quiet, humble, and gentle person.
And then I got onstage with him and he unveiled Rael, the Genesis character he goes into.
Hes basically a juvenile delinquent whos out of control.
I was like,What the hell is this?
They were supposed to be a secret.
And the cabdriver responded, Oh, thats where the John Lennon sessions are going on.
I said, Excuse me, but how did you know that?
And he responded, Oh, it was on the radio this morning.
So the secret of those sessions didnt work out so well.
Johns first words to me were They tell me youre good.
Just dont play too many notes.
I smiled, knowing that I dont play too many notes and it wasnt going to be a problem.
John would, like Paul Simon, play the guitar for all of us at the same time.
He wouldnt walk over me as a bass player.
My thoughts were always,Hes playing a John Lennon song.
Hes not playing something that sounds like a Beatles song.
I have to find the right notes.
Its all there for you.I was very gratified that John seemed to like my bass parts.
We alternated between his and Yokos songs.
Yoko didnt play an instrument, so how she communicated her pieces was the exact opposite of John.
John could just play it and the musicians knew what to play.
It was a different adventure finding the style and the way to best do Yokos songs.
We would do one after the other.
I brought out the Chapman Stick, an instrument I can play as a bass.
Its not the most common instrument, but I use it as one of my regular basses.
I found David to be a fascinating guy and a real gentleman a wonderful person to be with.
Those sessions werent exactly hard, but the style of Pink Floyd is very particular.
I can remember one instance when I had a long vamp out andI played an extra few notes.
Im not talking about a fast bass riff here; Im just talking about a couple notes.
I had the right idea, but I did it too quickly.
He was silently saying,You dont know that, but the rest of us do.
The music went down fine.
So when I was called for it, the production team told me not to tell anybody.
And unlike John and Yoko, this really was a big secret.
I was to be the best man at that wedding.
This close friend was a David Bowie fan.
Here was my conundrum:What do I tell him?
Do I turn down the session to be there for the wedding or do I do the opposite?
And I didnt tell my friend.
I had to be like, Im sorry, I cant be your best man.
I can only be there at the wedding.
So hows that for a cryptic compromise?
But the producer, Tony Visconti, emailed me at midnight of the day it could be spoken about.
Immediately, I called my friend and said, Remember when I couldnt make the rehearsal dinner?
I was doing a David Bowie session.
I hope you appreciate that and forgive me for not telling you about it.
He did, thank God.
Anyway, the thrill was being in the studio for an extended period of time.
I was playing the songs with David playing keyboards right beside me.
He didnt say much.
He let me do what I did.
I hadnt known what a good musician, a goodplayer, he was.
He really helped things by his live playing of the keyboard and singing along.
So that was a hoot.
Im a photographer who takes a whole lot of photos in the studio.
Instead of being the bass player who asks first and then doesnt take the photo.
And now, a bonus memory …
Arriving, I found it was a big band composed of horn players Id admired for years.
They were great jazz players doing whatever sessions came up.
Arranging and conducting was none other than Herbie Hancock.
I played my simple part, thinking,Tony, youre not in Rochester anymore.
