INTERVIEW, part 3

That would certainly come into play, because the show is there to showcase it.

He's walking along the street during that opening, and the music is just exactly right for him walking along a street. We all know what Bob Newhart's like, so...

Basically, the line that I came up with for that was sort of a skipping, walking line.

Oh, exactly. Yep. And it's great.

So that's really all that's behind it. Given the understanding that the players are all there because they're good at it. You have to be creative. It's the creative people who get the work. It's sort of what separates the wheat from the chaff.

I really love the drumming on the Newhart theme. Do you remember who that was?

I'm pretty sure that was John Guerin.

There's an interesting Quincy Jones quote, Quincy's talking about the '50s when he was playing with Lionel Hampton, who was one of the first to use electric bass. The quote is "It really changed the sound of music because it ate up so much space. Its sound was so imposing in comparison to the upright bass, so it couldn't have the same function. The rhythm section became the stars. The old style didn't work anymore, and it created a new language."

I would concur with that statement. I think he's talking about the sheer volume of the sound. It changed everything. I'd have to agree with that. From my point of view, the electric bass is more appropriate for some kinds of music; acoustic bass is more appropriate for other kinds of music. Simple as that. Unlike some "purist" acoustic players I know, I don't think of the electric bass as the bastard offspring of the acoustic. I believe that it occupies its own space in the world and that its right to that space is as legitimate as the acoustic's right to its own space. Plus, I honestly like playing the electric and the styles that go with it. Carol Kaye had a lot to do with this attitude. I took several lessons from her when I finally realized that it would be stupid for me to put off learning Fender bass any longer. Carol's teaching-- and playing-- was an inspiration to me. "The rhythm section became the stars": I don't know I'd say "stars", but they became the center of attention. Even where composition was concerned. All through those myriad pop-rock dates I've done, people like myself and Carol, sometimes the entire tune is the bass part, not just the arrangement, the tune is the bass part.

And a lot of times you guys made up that bass part.

Most of the time. And got little or no credit for it.

Don't get any songwriting royalties for it, right?

No, absolutely not. Lot's of times when we'd do tracking dates, we'd do a rhythm track with nothing else there, and when you'd hear the finished product, the horn and string charts were what I'd played. There were arrangers who would come up to me later on and just say privately, "Thank you, you gave me that chart." And I think that later on, people would hire me because they had a pretty good idea that I'd drop the arrangement in their hands. Part of that is because I'm an arranger, too.

And in the long run you'd get the credit too, 'cause you're getting all the dates.

Right.

Not the credit as much, but you get the...

The reward.