Legendary bassist Tony Levin has discussed the origin of the bizarre ‘Funk Fingers’ drumstick appendages that he famously uses to perform the tapped bass parts on Peter Gabriel’s Big Time.
Speaking to Rick Beato, Levin reveals that the track was recorded using a drum stick on the bass (performed by drummer Jerry Marotta), but fell to him to play live – something he was finding tricky to incorporate.
“I'm practicing every day at soundcheck with one drumstick,” recalls Levin [around 38.20 in the clip below]. “And one day at sound check Peter Gabriel walked by me and said, ‘Why don't you put two drumsticks on your fingers?’ This is how this started, and I facetiously turned to Andy Moore, my bass tech, saying, ‘Can we do that Andy!?’”
Levin says the two of them were soon taking it more seriously and experimented with different velcro grips (“because they could fly into the audience or turn my fingers purple”) and settled on rubber tips, due to the short lifespan of wooden sticks on metal strings.
Amusingly, even though it was Gabriel’s suggestion in the first place, Levin tells Beato that the two have developed a friendly rivalry over whether or not he should use the Funk Fingers and the. bass, or stick to synth recreations when performing live.
“In 2016, Peter did a joint tour with Sting… and Sting really liked that part. The bass player in him gravitated towards it. And he said, ‘Can I play that?’" adds Levin.
“He didn’t know about these [the Funk Fingers] – he was doing it with thumb slaps and I’d be playing the synth, thinking, ‘Peter, do you see this? Sting is playing that part – and you don’t mind when Sting does it!’”
The bass icon also addresses the Funk Fingers in his forthcoming Guitar World interview.
“They are chopped-off drumsticks,” he explains. “The invention came about after, on Peter Gabriel’s SO album, I had the drummer play on the bass strings while I fingered the fretboard notes.
“To play the Big Time part live, I needed the drumsticks on my fingers, hence ‘Funk Fingers.’ I’ve played with them a number of times since on records. On my new album, the piece Road Dogs features my playing with them and starts off with the bass.”
The Funk Fingers were by no means Levin’s only unusual tonal innovation during his time with Gabriel. Levin previously told Bass Player about the time he used diapers to mute his strings, while recording Don’t Give Up.
