Bob Marshall – Bass

I got this album when I was a kid. I was just getting into Rock music and came across the John Miles album, ‘Stranger In The City’ in the ‘cheapies’ bin (where the reduced/sale items were sold) so it was cheap at a time when money was short and records very precious things (this is well before the internet became a thing and music was to become almost universally free). I had heard the name John Miles and thought it was worth a go (we used to have to buy before we heard things in those days) and I have to admit to being a bit disappointed as it was not nearly heavy enough for my tastes at that point. I persevered though and grew to love a couple of tracks on there which had great guitar solos on. This was one of them. I learned to play the guitar solo and when I remembered this today and went looking for it online, I was amazed to discover that I could still scat the whole guitar solo from memory (I learned it over 45 years ago). I didn’t even know who the bass player was until today. It is a guy called Bob Marshall who also wrote a lot of the music on this album. I don’t think he did anything else other than the John Miles band, at least I cannot find anything on the normal website.

This is a tune called ‘Stand Up (And Give Me A Reason’ from the 1977 John Miles album, ‘Stranger In The City’. The guitar solo I learned is at the end. The part is very much of it’s time and the whole production thing has dated a little but the dots are the dots.