Happy Birthday Tim Butler

I would like to wish a happy birthday to Tim Butler, born today in 1958. He, along with brother Richard, formed The Psychedelic Furs in 1977 and to this day they are the original members left remaining. Back when the band first started Tim originally wanted to play the drums but since he couldn't afford them, he decided to play bass instead. He was also a member of Love Spit Love and played bass on their first album.

During the years before I got into The Psychedelic Furs I didn't really pay attention to the sound of the bass guitar whenever I would listen to music. I liked the electric guitars better because they come with a variety of sounds while the bass just has a deep thump. Nothing else. But that all changed after I started listening to The Furs. There's something about the way Tim Butler plays and he's actually my favorite bassist of all time. He has his own unique style and the two songs that show how great Tim is are The Furs' "Mother-Son" and Love Spit Love's "Superman." I mentioned a couple or few times how the bass in "Superman" is just fantastic, and it is my favorite part in the song.

I really like the way how Tim Butler interacts with people at concerts. At points he would go up to the audience and sing the songs right to them, and if you sing back he nods his head at you in approval. I was one of those lucky people and it happened to me many times. Out of all the moments when Tim sang to me the one that stands out the most was at my fourth Psychedelic Furs show back in August. It was during "India," the encore, and Tim came up to me and we both sang the line "See the ceiling raining spit the beach is backwards, isn't it?" to each other. After that happened Tim gave me an approving nod, and it was so awesome.

Happy Birthday Tim, hope you have a great day!

In Portland, OR 8/1/19. Photo by me.