09.14.2018 03:46 PM

Jah Wobble is God

I have been playing punk bass since I was 15 years old. Early on, I figured out there were two ways to play bass.

You can play all the fucking fiddley-bits, like you are a (ew) guitarist. Or you can play like God and Dee Dee Ramone want you to play – with power and drive and as a rhythm instrument. The right way.

That is how Jah Wobble played. As God decreed it.

In 1979, the first time I heard his bass-playing on the first Public Image single, Public Image, it changed everything. I ditched the pick and started playing with my fingers. And, lo, it was better. Way.

To celebrate this – Jah Wobble coming to Toronto, and him following me on the Twitter machine – I give you this, the greatest bassist alive, the one Jah (God) Wobble.

Worship him, as I do.

(BONUS JAH FACTS: We played punk noise in a Calgary basement one afternoon with the pre-PIL guy behind the drums. He’s Canadian. Also: so genius was what Wobble does, here, fucking U2 stole it and made it their first single. Go listen.)


1 Comment

  1. Innocent III says:

    Disagree we might on matters of faith and politics, I am nonetheless glad we can agree that early PIL were terrific and that this is an unjustifiably overlooked piece of brilliance.

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