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Herbie Flowers, Bassist on Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side,’ Dead at 86


Herbie Flowers, the prolific bassist who played on Lou Reed’s "Walk on the Wild Side" and David Bowie’s "Space Oddity," has died at the age of 86.

Herbie Flowers, the bassist who played on songs like Lou Reed ’s “Walk on the Wild Side” and David Bowie ’s “Space Oddity,” has died at the age of 86. In addition to stints in rock acts T. Rex and Blue Mink, Flowers was longtime session musician who played on hundreds of albums throughout the Seventies and Eighties. Flowers’ bass can be heard on songs by three different solo Beatles (George Harrison’s Somewhere in England, Paul McCartney’s Give My Regards to Broad Street, and Ringo Starr’s Stop and Smell the Roses), Elton John’s Madman Across the Water, Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson(including providing the epic detuned bass line to “ Jump Into the Fire “), and albums by Bryan Ferry, Melanie, Cat Stevens and dozens more.

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