Yeah, not sure what this is about brother bands where the brothers freeze out the others. The Jesus and Mary Chain have had five bassists and twelve drummers:
And then there’s Oasis, lol.
Yeah, not sure what this is about brother bands where the brothers freeze out the others. The Jesus and Mary Chain have had five bassists and twelve drummers:
And then there’s Oasis, lol.
To be fair, the brothers in Oasis didn’t freeze the other members in the band out; they just hated each others’ guts so bad it became untenable to play in the same band.
I never had a brother, but from what I’ve heard, brothers usually beat the hell out of each other and then move on. xD
For sure. And I think what you are saying (btw Tommy is AMAZING) is kind of a symptom OF bass not being regarded as important or taken seriously as a lead instrument. Sit in the back, shut up and play your root notes! Now, it’s totally cool to be in the background as a bassist and lay down the groove and not strive for glory or attention, BUT the instrument is capable of so much more. So it’s more the disrespect and the “know your place” attitude towards bassists and the instrument.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the bass guitar is a great instrument to play (I wouldn’t be playing it if it wasn’t). What I meant was, we don’t have to shred 200mph to make our stuff sound good. Cliff could really shred on a bass, but in other songs, he could play a more reserved style (well, as reserved as Cliff could be I guess)
What I mean is, if the sound as a whole sounds better with you on the bass shredding, great. If it sounds better sitting back and being the glue, fine too. But just because a bass player is very technically proficient, doesn’t mean they are the best player for that one song.
I dunno, fast or slow, complicated or simple, I think it’s about what works, rather than how many notes you play. But that’s just me, and certainly, my opinion isn’t final on any subject. xD
I think Josh Fosgreen makes my point in this video at 3:24 and 4:15.
For me; it’s about what sounds good, not necessarily what sounds cool.
Shout out to Frank Bello, Dave Ellefson, and Tom Araya. The Big Four had some of the best bassists in rock. And they were on the side of “do what the song needs”.
Cliff, Frank, Dave, Tom. How do you pick?
There’s always a bigger fish.
Also Donald “Duck” Dunn is a classic example of “Boys, I’ll lay that groove in. I got your back, let’s kick some ass.”
Post-punk is full of amazing bassists that don’t try and take the lead. Dave Allen, Steven Severin, Simon Gallup, Simon Raymonde, Sara Lee, David J, etc.
Some great ones that took the lead too, like Peter Hook. But even Hooky was playing in support of bands; those bands were just kind of defined by his style.
They’re are some really good session players who we’ve not even touched on. Like Chuck Rainey. He did what was best for the song. He even slapped when the song called for it even though Donald Fagen told him not to (though he turned his back so Donald wouldn’t see).
Chuck exemplifies technical skill, funk, and soul.
yeah Sara Lee there again too, and her friend Gail Ann Dorsey.
Ida Nielsen as well.
I have never been interested in technical players or shredders. To me its all about the emotion a guitarist can wring out of an instrument. because I do honestly believe that with enough dedication, blood and sweat anyone can play as fast as (for instance) Yngwie but you can try for a lifetime and never be able to play a single note as well as B.B. Speaking of which, I have always maintained that there are three guitarists who I can always recognize from a single note. There are probably more but the three I’m thinking of are B B King, Carlos Santana and Dave Gilmour. If you can be recognised by playing a single note you have truly achieved greatness
I think a good example is Another One Bites the Dust. Nothing complex or difficult to ply there, but one of the greatest bass lines ever written.
That’s totally true.
Sure. Pino and Lee Sklar too.
Oohhh Santana does just have an amazing sound and style. For me, and I’m more of a metal head, Dimebag Darrell was the best metal guitarist ever. There are guys who are faster and more technical, but no one grooves as well, makes a guitar scream better, or plays with more passion!
If you like Duck, Soul Fingers is worth getting the book. The online tracks you can play with are great and you can slow down the tempo as needed, isolate the bass or eliminate it, plus it has sheet music w/ tab too.
I couldn’t agree more. Whilst I appreciate the chops of Yngwie or Nita Strauss, I can’t connect to them. Give me Stevie Ray Vaughn, Gary Moore or John Frusciante any day.
Speaking of Nita, she recently said that she likes to warm up with something slow, like Bon Jovi’s “Bed of Roses” and whilst I’m not much of a Jovi fan these days, Richie Sambora puts a lot of soul into single notes, something which Nita is not capable of replicating. IMVHO.
With regards to bass, again, feeling trumps technical ability and whilst no one is going to ever accuse John Taylor of being the world’s best bassist, he is to my mind, a shining example of how bass should sound on a record. Driving the song with melodic bass, not overpowering, but noticeable.
In my very limited experience of playing bass, “Ballad of the mighty I” by Noel Gallagher has a great bassline, which even I can play, but it really propels the song along and that’s what it’s all about.
As someone mentioned before this type of subject comes up a lot and I remember someone saying, “well sure Jeff Beck can play rings around Chuck Berry but could he have come up with the riff from Johnny B Goode”. I definitely prefer soulful playing, I can only listen to guys like Vai, Malsteen, fill in the blank with your favorite shredder, when they slow down enough that I can hear the conversation. I feel the same way about bass players such as Mohini Dey, she just stuns you but then listen to Tal Wilkenfeld play cause we ended as lovers with Jeff Beck, or listen Duck Dunn play you a simple line that you’ll remember forever. So much of what is dazzling technique is wasted on me and my more simple tastes.
It’s funny how it applies to guitar or songwriting too. Liking the songs or not is just tastes, but for me Nirvana and Foo Fighters write very simple songs but they are so catchy and memorable. Nobody is jumping up and down about how good of a guitarist Kurt or Grohl are, but actually they ARE really good guitarists.
I think what I focus on (either listening or playing) is simply how it sounds and makes you feel.
We did a recording the other week where I am simply playing octave notes on 2 notes only. It can’t get much simpler really but it was slightly out with the drums on the recording due to a mistake. Absolutely tiny amount but it messed it all up. Recorded it again, and got it right and automatically the song ‘clicked’ into place again and everything was right in the world. And all its doing is a D and a G octave. Nothing fancy but it makes the track feel alive because it makes everything else playing work as well. So in that example, anything complicated would make the song completely different. It might take it into a different direction but we know where we want this song to go.
Also, make mistakes. I’ve found this to be amazingly valuable.
Half way through a song, my strap slipped and I had to stop to grab the damn thing from falling.
Turns out this was in a point of the song that absolutely loved no bass at that precise moment and the guitarist said to do it again and leave that bit out intentionally. It now works a treat.
I’m not sure about anyone else, but when I’ve got to come up with something, I must go through all kinds of randomness (to help mix up my playing) and we’ve found the oddest things that work really well together.
Sorry, rambling, but for main point for me, it’s definitely how it feels, regardless of what it is.