Minstrel in the Gallery Bass Cover

I’d like to wish my friend, Helen Anderson, a very Happy Birthday.

Helen is a very interesting woman who lives in Chipping England, a small town within the Forest of Bowland. She likes horror, plays bass, loves Jethro Tull (mostly the Glascock stuff), likes Rammstein, recently got into metal detecting, and is one of the few people I’ve ever come in contact with whose heart is blacker than mine. She is utterly irreverent. We don't converse as much as we once did, but we catch up from time to time.

The song is the title track off of the Jethro Tull album, “Minstrel in the Gallery” which came out in 1975 and features Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond on bass. This must be the radio version because the album track clocks in at over 8 minutes.

I have to admit that there are a couple of spots in the song where I have no idea what is going on timing-wise. It was one of those cases where I say to myself, “Alright, you’ve got to hit 3 longs notes, then a short one, and then slide up.” Or, something to that effect. These can be heard at 1:39 and 3:17. And, while naturaly, I wanted to just hammer-on the notes in the riff at 00:07 and beyond, it really sounded as if he was striking each note to me, so that’s what I did.

I’m playing the Rickenbacker with the ClassicAmplification replacement p/u, a pick-guard from PickGuardian, and a thumb-rest from Zero-Mod. If anyone ever sees me looking to buy another Ric, please, just shoot me.