From Bass to Brother

January 6, 2010 12:16 PM

A poster on Talk Bass wanted to get a cool, old, down-on-his luck bassist a bass to play again. And in the course of doing so, reunited him with his long lost brother.

Arthur "Butch" Porter was a down-on-his-luck bassist working as a day laborer in New York. In a previous life, he played with Empress and Johnny Dynell. General Electric, the original poster, worked in a restaurant Butch frequented. Upon learning of Butch's hard times and after hearing him play his own bass, GE decided that he would find a bass for Butch.

With the help of the Talk Bass community, he started the thread linked above. But by page 2 and post 28, the thread took a turn into the unbelievable when a new poster from California came on the scene claiming that he was Butch's younger brother Andre and that they were separated 40 years ago.

The conversation unfolded from there to reveal that Andre's claims were true and a reunion is planned for the future.

And yes, General Electric did give Butch his bass.

posted by zizzle (21 comments total)

God, I love the internet.
posted by Trielli at 12:27 PM on January 6, 2010

Thanks for posting this. That was pretty cool to read.
posted by eyeballkid at 12:33 PM on January 6, 2010

The whole thread there has lots of sources of, uh, allergens for my eyes.
posted by kmz at 12:35 PM on January 6, 2010 [3 favorites]

i think it is a nobel undertaking .

The committee's standards have hit a low note lately. Go for it.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 12:39 PM on January 6, 2010 [3 favorites]

Holy cats, this is awesome. Thanks for sharing it!
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:45 PM on January 6, 2010

Wow. Just fucking wow.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 12:59 PM on January 6, 2010

Dude can play.
posted by mintcake! at 2:02 PM on January 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Oh my God...tears in eyes...this is super heart warming.
posted by vito90 at 2:05 PM on January 6, 2010

I love the internet. And, to a greater extent, the random kindness sometimes extended by human beings to other human beings.
posted by lholladay at 2:10 PM on January 6, 2010

.
posted by Mental Wimp at 2:23 PM on January 6, 2010

This just proves my long-held belief that the family of bass players contains some of the best people on God's green earth.
posted by elmer benson at 3:03 PM on January 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Let us not forget that this all started because General Electric met a fellow musician randomly and took it upon himself to make sure he got a new instrument after seeing how much joy he got from playing. That's the part I got a little teary at. What a guy.
posted by smartyboots at 4:22 PM on January 6, 2010 [3 favorites]

I sent this post to my friend the drummer: See? Why can't you guys be more like them?

Great post for a cold night, thanks zizzle.
posted by toadliquor at 6:07 PM on January 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Dang that's good stuff. Thanks for posting.
posted by rahnefan at 5:28 AM on January 7, 2010

holy cow. i don't have time to read the entire thread, but the skimming i've done so far makes me believe one poster's comment that 'dude stuff like this does not just happen, its a miracle.' and i don't believe in miracles. as another poster said,

'this is just ridiculous.

RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME!!!

thanks for posting this, zizzle.
posted by msconduct at 6:02 AM on January 7, 2010

I sent this post to my friend the drummer: See? Why can't you guys be more like them?

That's hilarious cuz I was just coming in to post something like 'it would be nice if drummers learned from this example'.
posted by spicynuts at 7:36 AM on January 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

Fantastic story, thanks for posting!
posted by shannonm at 8:55 PM on January 7, 2010

Ugh! So after that Meta fail on this (I claim still somewhat new to Metafilter and thanks for everyone being awesome about this), I will post an update here!

It's looking like Butch's daughter may have shown up as well.

There's a chance it's a scam. GE is trying to work it out and will post updates as needed. Isn't this getting crazy?!?!
posted by zizzle at 1:40 PM on January 26, 2010

I'm glad you mentioned this FPP in MeTa; I would have missed it otherwise. It's great.
posted by painquale at 12:51 AM on January 27, 2010

I also missed this until the MeTa thread. Wonderful story, I hope everything all works out well for this family.
posted by goshling at 5:18 AM on January 29, 2010

Apparently it really is his daughter.

Crazy awesome.
posted by Magnakai at 2:30 PM on January 30, 2010