Bass players who have also been a pope.

[Kevin Newell]

Originally Posted by Richard Prowse

Kevin, while I am naturally very grateful for the effort that Craig and yourself have invested in the interest of saving the good name of this thread, if Pope Benedict did actually play a Smith bass (or any brand of bass, for that matter) he'd probably adopt the title
Pope Benedict The Bassist.

Silly, if he played a B.C. Rich then he might be named Pope Benedict The Bassist. If he plays a Smith he would just be call Pope or the Pope Formerly Know as Pope. Or magnificent.

Originally Posted by Richard Prowse

The three string chord that he has just strummed with his thumb is Amaj7b5(no 3rd). He's playing a tritone in that chord
(A - D# (enharmonically)); an interval that the early Church seriously disliked enough to refer to as 'the devil in music'. Has the church done an about turn? Has Heavy Metal sold out and will Heavy Metal songs now contain words such as 'love' and 'forgiveness'?

I know it looks like an Amaj7b5, but as we all know Pope Benedict plays Alto. So on top of his poor right hand technique (mostly due to his age) and being played Alto strung, that would actually be a Dsus2 chord which is quite common in Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina music. While I am sure the Pope gets down to Judas Priest on occasion, I cannot for see Rob Halford singing about the loaves and fishes any time in the foreseeable future.