Thanks to a suitably lewd S&M promo video that, predictably, was also barred from the airwaves, along with a massive marketing campaign that saw kids all over the UK wearing T-shirts with the slogan 'Frankie Says Relax', the band rode a short-lived wave of high-profile controversy. Relax, don't do it, when you want to come." While these words provided ample excuse for BBC Radio and TV to impose a ban on the joyously hypnotic 1983 debut single by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, they also served as a mid-'80s anthem during an era when homo-eroticism became an intrinsic component of the Britpop scene. Photo: Retna/Michael Putland"Relax, don't do it, when you want to suck it to it. And he did.The debut single from Liverpool's Frankie Goes To Hollywood was the result of adventurous production and enjoyed massive chart success - as well as creating a great deal of controversy. When she heard Sly was trying to put together a band, she told him to come check us out. "One particular woman came in all the time and she loved us," says Larry, "and she was also a fan of Sly, who was on KSOL radio at that time. After a few shows at a place called Relax With Yvonne in 1968, Larry caught the attention of a popular local deejay named Sylvester Stewart – also known as Sly Stone – who was looking to put together his own band. Graham mastered his new approach while he and his mother gigged around San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury scene. This simple-sounding concept turned the bass guitar into a hybrid instrument, capable of interacting with a drummer while still holding down a supportive role. His thumb would play the kick-drum parts, and his plucking fingers would simulate snare rhythms. It was the only way I could get that rhythmic sound." But Graham didn't just adopt a rhythmic attitude: he transferred actual drum figures to the bass. "That's when I started thumping with my thumb. Then something even more crucial happened: the band lost its drummer, which left Graham as the entire rhythm section. (Image credit: Photo by Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) In my mind, I was still a guitar player, so I didn't care that bass players might think I couldn't play or was doing it wrong." I wasn't concerned with playing it in the traditional way, because I didn't see myself as a bass player. One club we played at had an organ with bass foot pedals, and I found a way to use the foot pedals while playing the guitar." When the organ broke down, Graham switched to bass, hoping to fill in the low end until the organ was back in commission.Īs fate would have it, the organ never got fixed, leaving Larry on an instrument he never intended to play full-time. "We had a trio with me, my mother, and a drummer. An early student of drums, Graham later picked up the clarinet, sax and guitar, listening to the likes of Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, and Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers.īy the time he was 15, Larry was accompanying his mother at clubs around town it was then that he switched to bass and started developing his iconic style. His family – which included a guitar-playing father and a jazz piano-playing mother – moved there when Larry was two. Though he's Texan by birth, most of Larry Graham's musical growth took place in Oakland, California. The following interview is from the September 1996 issue of Bass Player. (Image credit: Photo by Jun Sato/WireImage)
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