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Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 5:30 am
by Mr.Bluelegs
I've felt for years that Dennis was (is) the most underrated and overlooked bassist in the history of rock. Ezrin once said that every note he played was heard- which is so true, his bass was always up front. I could name so many songs that display his greatness, but my favorite example is "Hello Hooray". Listen to what he's doing during the guitar solo. Another example is "Long Way to Go". So many to pick, so let's hear your opinions.

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 8:50 am
by James1981
Toatally agree with you i think from both a playing and songwriting perspective he is toatally overlooked. The albums he has put out post Alice have been spectacular too. Bones from the yard and Tornado on the Tracks are just fantastic and a runaway train is one of the best tracks on W2MN, and on top of all that he seems like a bloody nice guy.

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 10:45 am
by cherrypie
Agreed, I love listening to Blue Turk off SO, just to hear the amazing bass line.

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 11:00 am
by DIMMA
I couldn´t agree more with you!
Dennis is a true original and a unique artist. A great musician and truly one of the most amazing persons I´ve ever had the pleasure to know as a friend.

I´m sure that Alice agrees.

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 12:18 pm
by Awakening
He's "just" the one that most influenced the way I play the bass (even if I hate play with a pick, ha !)

Love his playing, definitly unique. So much great tunes.

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 4:36 pm
by Marcelocooper
Agree. He is a great bass player. I have met one bass teacher on the most famous school of music here in São Paulo, that did love his sound, we talked a lot about it since he was a big friend of my guitar teacher.
And, he IS a big nice guy, I have had the chance to talk to him, and only he was very receptive, but on a certain time he came to chat with me and told me great histories about the bones from the yard album and the ACG.

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 4:56 pm
by pitkin88
Sometimes I just find myself listening to the bass and not the songs. His bass playing on School's Out is probably his best.

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 6:23 pm
by alan1958
pitkin88 wrote:Sometimes I just find myself listening to the bass and not the songs.


Thats a very good point ...as a bass-player myself , I find with DD's use of a plectrum , and how prominent it is in the mix , it's pretty easy to follow his bass lines......... and as you say , you can get to the end of the song and realise you've only listened to Dennis' melodic meanderings , up and down the frets , like McCartney on acid (c)
Under-rated ? Yeah , like so many wonderful musicians I grew up with in the 70's , he is not the household name he should be .

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 7:39 pm
by Paul
The intro to Gutter Cat. Amazing!

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 1:56 am
by ThePainAddict
DD is amazing and was a wonderful contributor to whole AC sound. As he told Bass Player magazine he liked the description of his playing "cascading bass lines". Although, many of the subsequent bassists had more techical process none of them created so many memorable and integral bass parts to AC songs.

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 2:22 am
by guilty65
I have always said that if you stripped away all the other instruments and left only the bass and drums,you would have a song within a song. Dennis's playing was an orchestra. Absolutely Brilliant.

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 2:31 am
by Devon
Dennis and Neal are criminally underrated as players. Alot of Dunaway's basslines served more than just to hold the bottom end down. When you have bass riffs that are as memorable as guitar riffs then that means something. His tone was also very important. Not to mention he is a class act all the way, and judging by recent videos from the reunion shows he also has a tremendous presence on stage and appears to be having the time of his life. As for Neal, go to YouTube and check out the Area 51 Performance of "Muscle of Love." I didn't think Neal was one for drum solos, but his drum solo is GLORIOUS. Gave me a new appreciation of him as a drummer. Dunaway/Smith are truly an under-appreciated rhythm section.

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:27 am
by DaveJay
Paul wrote:The intro to Gutter Cat. Amazing!
Absolute UTTER Genius!!!.I've had a few Bass guitars ( strictly amateur noodling..) and that riff is just so great!!

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 1:28 pm
by sickthing
Absolutely agreed!!


The reason why I prefer the ACG albums over the solo albums is the playing by Neal and Dennis. I don't think there has ever been a bass player in the Alice Cooper line ups over the years to play stuff that just captures your attention the way those two did.


School's Out is my favourite album - Luney Tune, Gutter Cat, Blue Turk! But then, Dennis shines on so many other songs - Eighteen, Long Way to Go, Halo of Flies, Killer, Dead Babies, Hard Hearted Alice....



I also recently saw him play live with Blue Coupe and he can definitely still rock! Plus Bones from the Yard was, in my opinion, a great album and better than any other band member's solo album and better than many of Alice's solo efforts....again, just my opinion.

Re: Dennis Dunaway's playing

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 3:33 pm
by steven_crayn
he is the best, here is what he told me in response to my question in 2006 which was:

Hi Dennis,
Cool website, dig the audio loops - Blue Turk is playing right now and has got me in a trance !
Great meeting you a few years back at the UK Alice Cooper convention in Crewe.
My question is, of all those inventive bass lines you have played what one are you most proud of ? (when I hear Gutter Cat I want to be a bass player, though a guitar player is enough to be going on with!)

"Steven;
What bass lines am I the most proud of?I guess I might say Billion Dollar Babies
since the song began as a sing-song ballad. I told the other guys that we needed
to stick some dynamite under it if was going to be the title song. They said
what have you got? I turned my amp up a notch and worked up that line on the
spot. Glen doubled it and the song kicked into overdrive. Neal's drum part came
together on the final take in the studio.
Gutter Cat is just a sample of the type of thing that I make up when I practice
alone. It's an open D string drone with a raga scale on the G string. Like most
of my lines, it's much simpler than it sounds."

meeting him and seeing him live twice now was awesome!