{"id":12980,"date":"2012-04-12T21:52:42","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T01:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=12980"},"modified":"2012-04-12T22:16:59","modified_gmt":"2012-04-13T02:16:59","slug":"musicians-who-lose-their-rock-superpowers-when-they-switch-to-a-secondary-instrument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/musicians-who-lose-their-rock-superpowers-when-they-switch-to-a-secondary-instrument\/","title":{"rendered":"Musicians Who Lose Their Rock Superpowers When They Switch to a Secondary Instrument"},"content":{"rendered":"

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John Doe displays his bass-fueled rock superpowers.<\/p><\/div>\n

My close personal friend Townsman chickenfrank<\/strong> recalled a show<\/a> in which one of his former bands played on a bill with John Doe<\/strong>. This was probably 1995, when Doe’s second solo album, Kissingsohard<\/em>, came out. I bought his 1990 debut solo album, Meet John Doe<\/em>, when it came out, but I couldn’t convince myself that I liked it.\u00a0Nevertheless, we both loved\u00a0X<\/strong>. I was sure his solo stuff would sound better live.<\/p>\n

Doe took the stage that night playing guitar. He didn’t look right with a guitar in his hands. He didn’t have the same cool stage stance I was accustomed to when I saw him in X, playing bass. I even used my ears that night to assess that he did nothing special on guitar. It’s not like he’s an especially skilled bassist, but he drives the band from that instrument. Doe’s rock superpowers as a bassist were immense. He was a mere mortal on guitar.<\/p>\n

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John Doe in his guitar-wielding "Clark Kent" mode.<\/p><\/div>\n

It goes without saying that probably any usually “hands-free” lead singer<\/a> loses his or her rock superpowers when strapping on and, most likely, holstering<\/a> a guitar.<\/p>\n

Not all musicians, however, lose their rock superpowers when they switch to a secondary<\/a> or even tertiary<\/a> instrument. Paul McCartney<\/strong>, in fact, is a quadruple threat<\/a> and then some<\/a>. Brian Jones<\/strong> is another example. He retained his rock superpowers on even the\u00a0daintiest of instruments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nick Lowe<\/a><\/strong>? It’s debatable. I would argue that his rock superpowers were sapped during his mid-’80s years on guitar owing to the malaise of His Cowboy Outfit more than his instrument. Since he’s mellowed and grown into his older age, he’s as cool as he ever was<\/a> in his Rockpile days.<\/p>\n

What musician possessing rock superpowers on his or her main instrument do you feel is sapped of those same powers when they switch instruments? And can you think of an artist who actually gains rock superpowers when he or she reaches for a secondary instrument?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My close personal friend Townsman chickenfrank recalled a show in which one of his former bands played on a bill with John Doe. This was probably 1995, when Doe’s second solo album, Kissingsohard, came out. I bought his 1990 debut solo album, Meet John Doe, when it came out, but I couldn’t convince myself that […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}