God bless Jaco Pastorius’s bass solo on Ian Hunter’s “All American Alien Boy”

By Steve Newton

I really appreciate incredible guitar solos. Sometimes, when I hear one that totally blows me away, I even ask God to bless it.

In previous blogs I’ve asked Him to bless exquisite guitar solos by Scott Gorham on Thin Lizzy’s “Romeo and the Lonely Girl”, Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser on Blue Öyster Cult’s “Burnin’ For You”, Snowy White on Peter Green’s “Slabo Day”, Steve Cropper on Rod Stewart’s “Stone Cold Sober”, and Huey Thomasson on the Outlaws’ “Hurry Sundown”.

Sometimes I’ll even ask God to bless bits of music played on other instruments, like that time I asked Him to bless Chuck Leavell‘s piano solo on the Allman Brothers’ “Southbound”, and Ian Paice‘s drumming on Deep Purple’s “Burn”.

Up until now I’ve never asked His Holiness to bless a bass solo for me, but that all changes today as I’m putting in a request for Him to sanctify Jaco Pastorius‘s performance on Ian Hunter‘s “All American Alien Boy”.

Pastorius is often described as the greatest electric jazz bassist of all time, and today would have been his 72nd birthday. I’m not going to get into the sickening incident that led to his untimely death at the age of 35, because, for one thing, birthdays are a time for celebration.

So let’s celebrate Jaco’s life by checking out his stunning 40-second solo on the title track of Hunter’s 1976 album, which kicks off around the 1:20 mark.

No wonder Hunter felt driven to add an “alright!” at the 1:48 mark, eh?

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