The amazing Herbie Flowers passed away on September 5th at the age of 86, an immaculate musician and unique character. There wasn’t and there won’t be another artist like him. Not because nobody else started out playing tuba in a the Royal Air Force band and made this non-rock instrument a part of his performances with SKY, and not because not a lot of instrumentalists played on a half a thousand hits – that’s hits, rather than regular pieces! – but because Herbie used to bring his indomitable spirit and personality to every recording he contributed to. On-stage, Flowers was as much a clown as he was a bassist par excellence.
The aforementioned SKY, alongside BLUE MINK and T. REX may have been the only collectives that listed Herbie as a staff member, yet many were legendary singers who wanted to have him on their future classics. Without Flowers’ prominent four-string riffs, Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side” would lose most of its impact, as would David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and “Burn Down the Mission” by Elton John. Without his bass anchoring them, George Harrison’s “All Those Years Ago” and “Rock On” by David Essex couldn’t feel as vigorous, and neither could Melanie’s “Candles In The Rain” and “Coconut” by Harry Nilsson.
The last one wasn’t the first novelty gem that Herbie left his imprint on – he had cowritten “Grandad” for Clive Dunn a little earlier, and Flowers’ parts on Jeff Wayne’s “The War Of The Worlds” still sound original. And then there’s “No More Lonely Nights” he played on for some other bassist. In later years the veteran focused mainly on jazz and various community endeavors in the field of music, and he never really promoted his several solo albums which are as interesting as one can imagine. As interesting as Herbie Flowers himself was, and I tried for a couple of decades to track him down for an interview. In the next world, now. Sleep well, master.
