BASS MAN

Your 'dad' was a tuff musician. I have clear and deep recollections about him, WAR and what was around them at the time. It was an intense creativity in the air pulsating, pushing out powerful contrasts to the political and cultural scene in the early 1970's. Musicians at every level were compelled to listen to each other with deep ears and create from what was heard, what was generated in those moments of strong listening. It seemed the inner voice of musical fans in the Black community were integral to the movement of sound translated from spirit to wax influencing how Black men talked to Black women and thinking Black people developed into and from the possibility of being themselves.

It is hard to describe where your father fit in, but fit in he did. He shaped the bass sound around who he was becoming. He found his voice. It didn't matter there were bassists out there who could dance technical circles around him. We had Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke with Return to Forever, that European bass player with Weather Report, and others. It was the voice that matter! A musician had to have a voice. When a cat on any instrument had a distinct voice that meant everything. You left critics to voice who was the best, who was this or that. Didn't matter. A cat onstage playing his heart out in a style with a group as innovative as WAR was the 'shiggady'!!

Your father shaped a lot of cats.

He sat so deep in the pocket. His groove was so solid. When their records came out they came out the same time so many others came out and every sound from every band that contributed to the sound, and feel of the times influenced each other, and made sound connections with a spirit in the air that was being defined by music of, and from the soul!

Your pops was a strong man. Only strong men carried their sound that deep, so deep it connected Africa and the hard streets of the ghetto into a sound. It put heart to head and body to soul.

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

October 6, 2016

This is my dad Morris BB Dickerson the original bassist for the group, WAR. Look at him on stage in his bad ass costume. I love you dad. - Angelique Dickerson‎ 10.5.16 

bassist B.B. Dickerson, the original bassist for WAR in the early 1970's.