Rock’n Me 24: Talking About Western Music - Pino Palladino

Hello. It’s Joshua here and I like to talk about Western music.
In this 24th installment, I would like to talk about Pino Palladino. I can describe him in one sentence: “the finest bassist of any era, regardless of any genre, fretted or not”. First, there’s his abundant discography: Paul Young, Eric Clapton, Don Henley, Phil Collins, David Gilmour, and Jeff Beck in the 1980s and 1990s; D'Angelo, The Who, John Mayer, and recently Adele in the 2000s and 2010s, Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran...He is a bassist who provides the finest performance in any music.

(Image taken from Wikipedia)

Born in 1957 in Cardiff, England, Pino began playing guitar at the age of 14 and bass at 17, and a year later he was mastering the fretless bass. He moved to London to pursue his musical career and was selected to join the band of British singer Paul Young. Paul Young's hit song “Everytime You Go Away” (1985) attracted attention not only for Paul's singing voice but also for the fretless Music Man Stingray bass that Pino played. Pino's melodic bass lines, which were so intricate that it was hard to believe that he was the singer, but he never stopped playing in the song at all, which made him a popular session musician requested by artists all over the world.

■ Paul Young “Everytime You Go Away”

The Secret of Association, the album on which this song was recorded, includes another must-hear song for bassists, “I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down”. At first glance, it sounds like a synth bass, but it is also played by Pino. How did he get his bass to sound like this? I remember reading in an old interview that he used a Boss Octaver (Boss OC-2) and a tube compressor. I found a live uploaded video with a bass solo in the postlude.

■ Paul Young “I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down (Bass Solo)”

Pino became an extremely popular session bassist and began to leave his mark on the albums of such blockbuster artists as Elton John, David Gilmour, and Eric Clapton. Phil Collins' “I Wish It Would Rain Down” (1989) and Don Henley's “New York Minute” (1989), to name a few, are both ballads that exemplify the singing fretless bass. The former includes a ballad by Eric Henderson, and the latter features a bassist named Eric Henderson. Eric Clapton was a guest on the former, both on the recording and in the promotional video, but Pino is not in the video that features Leland Sklar.

■ Phil Collins, “I Wish It Would Rain Down”

As for up-tempo tunes, Pete Townsend shows off his incredible technique on “Give Blood” (included in White City: A Novel, 1985), a solo album he released after The Who broke up. Incidentally, the guitarist is David Gilmour and the drummer is Simon Phillips. The collaboration at that time led to his later joining The Who.

■ Pete Townsend “Give Blood”

In the 1990s, he often played a fretted Fender Precision bass with flatwound strings, further expanding his range of activities. On neo-soul singer D'Angelo's second album (Voodoo, 2000), he played a weighty bass that emphasized pauses in a slow, ground-breaking tempo, which made him a sought after soul type.

■ D'Angelo “Chicken Grease”

A turning point for Pino came in 2002, when The Who's bassist, John Entwistle, passed away suddenly on June 27. The band decided to go on tour, even though it was just one day before the U.S. tour, and Pete brought Pino in on short notice. But, it didn't end there. He hit it off with John Mayer and Steve Jordan and began recording and touring with John Mayer, in addition to recording an album as the John Mayer Trio. The following video is a Jimi Hendrix cover, and the trio is going wild.

■ John Mayer, “Wait Until Tomorrow”

Pinot's ability to multitask has always amazed me. How much activity does he have to do between The Who and John Mayer, touring with Jeff Beck and Nine Inch Nails, and then recording with Adele and Ed Sheeran.... I've been slowly moving up a gear after Covid, and this year I've resumed touring with John Mayer and Blake Mills as a unit. If the Covid situation improves a little more, we would love to have him come back to Japan and let us hear his one-of-a-kind bass performance.

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