Hello Bass Maniacs!

You’re about to take a shallow dive into my history as a musician and bass player. You’ll learn about why I played a different bass on every tour with The Doobie Brothers and some of the many albums I’ve played on. Since 1992 I’ve played nothing but fretless. In 2005 I started to assemble my own basses from after-market pieces and wood from Warmoth. Knowledge is a powerful tool and I hope you gather some from my website.

My full name is Tiran Calvin Porter. I was born in southern California in the city of Los Angeles on September 26, 1948. I have played in concert venues from California to New York City to Australia and Japan. My first gig playing bass was at The House of the Rising Sun in LA. I’ve played at Carnegie Hall, as a Grammy recipient in the Shrine Auditorium, and on Saturday Night Live.

During the earliest years of my childhood my family lived with my grandparents just south of downtown LA. My grandmother, who I named Muna, had a big console radio and record-player. Consoles of the early fifties stood on long legs and this design compelled me to crawl beneath the unit and listen to the music. I found comfort laying my head on Muna’s floor to hear the velvety crooning of Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. Here, I could relax without being watched by my mother. Both Cole and Sinatra could tell a story with their baritone voices and perfect pitch. I was easily hypnotized, and this kept me in one place. The comfort I felt not only came from their voices but from Nelson Riddle's orchestrated arrangements of Sinatra's music. Riddle's arrangements took me on a journey, kind of like being on a river. Imagine floating down a river and a rock comes close and then another one, accentuating Sinatra's voice. What Riddle was able to create around Frank Sinatra was amazing. I didn’t know about arrangers or conductors, but it fascinated me because it was beautiful.

I started hearing about a band called The Beatles in 1963. Up until then I listened to only black and white radio–James Brown, Chuck Berry, Burt Bacharach, Carole King, and others. I was used to hearing sophistication. But the Beatles had a different kind of sophistication with their guitar-based music. Some of their music was jazz-ish. When they played on the Ed Sullivan show I saw the girls fainting and I thought “That’s for me!” I rushed out to buy “Meet the Beatles!” right after it was released in January of “64. Fueled by Beatle Mania at fifteen years old, I began to teach myself how to play guitar on a Sears Roebuck guitar my parents bought for me. I spent hours in my room trying to mimic my favorite rock and roll musicians.

During high school I regularly sat on the sidewalk outside my classroom and read science fiction books. One day a student stopped and said, “I've read that book, are you interested in that?” And I said, “Yeah!” This is how my lifelong friendship began with Marc Bailey. Later, Marc and I formed a band. The Greenwich Meantimes were me, Marc, Jennifer Ball and Melody England. I was still learning to play guitar but wasn’t learning fast enough. Marc told me to try bass since I was playing the bass line anyway. My first bass ended up being a Teisco. We played together through high school. This was the 60’s and bands were forming everywhere! We were a tight group of friends experimenting with music and learning together. I played in eight different bands around LA from the time I was sixteen and into my early twenties. I soon would join a band that would drastically change my life.

In 1969-70 my friend Mike Mindel, who I played with in our band The Six Penny Opera, called and invited me to come up to San Jose. He wanted me to play with him and a guy he had met, Pat Simmons. Of course, I said yes! Mike, Pat, and I played as a trio called Scratch for about six months. At the same time, Pat met some guys in a band called Pud: guitarist Tom Johnston, drummer John Hartman, and Dave Shogren on bass. They wanted a second guitarist and singer, and Pat filled the bill. So, Scratch ended, and The Doobie Brothers began. I was sidelined and went back to LA and joined a band called EarthLight. When bass player Dave Shogren left The Doobie’s after their first album, Pat called and asked me to come up and jam. They sent me a plane ticket and I officially joined the band. My first album was Toulouse Street. I was just 23 years old. The rest, as they say, is history. Or is it his story?