Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Some More About Donald "Duck" Dunn


Not to be tedious, but as mentioned in a post from a few days ago, Dunn was a major influence on most of the popular music that grew out of the cauldron of the 1960's; a time when the blending of styles created music so memorable that I still hear it played in high school dormitories.  This link is to an excellent article about him in The Atlantic with mentions of the songs on which he played, his style in regards to the other two bass greats of his era [James Jamerson, who died of a drug overdose, and Jaco Pastorius, who was beaten to death by a bouncer.  Rough crowd I hang out with, aren't they?] and the inspiration he bequeathed to bass players everywhere, even ratty nightclub hacks from the late 70's/early '80's [like me].

Dunn leaves behind an impressive legacy: just a quiet guy holding down the low end who managed to change the sound of pop music.