Personality goes a long way (Metallica related content inside)

[Craig630]

Yo gang,

Jason Newstead, not Metallica's best bassist, but the best bassist for Metallica.

Cliff - Composition was his forte IMO. He had a great tone and his skill was there, but his musical knowledge and application is second to none.

Rob - Met's most skilled bassist IMO. This guy can do some stuff that just blows my mind, but he just doesn't seem to fit in with the others. Technically speaking, he's the best they've had yet.

Jay - Not the most technical for sure and though he can come up with some sweet stuff (My friend of misery, etc...) he was the best match for the group. His high energy performances, backing vocals, on stage antics (this guy could be a hoot during live shows), and overall look are second to none IMO

Like I said, not thier best, but the best for the band.

Can you think of any other examples of bassists that may not have been the most technical/creative/whatnot but were an absolute perfect fit for the band?

Discuss..

[Din Of Win]

Originally Posted by Craig630

Can you think of any other examples of bassists that may not have been the most technical/creative/whatnot but were an absolute perfect fit for the band?

Discuss..

Sid Vicious is a good example. Homeboy didn't even really play, but was PERFECT for the sex pistols.

[noahw1]

Cliff was the best. Best look. Best stage antics.
I'll probably get burned for this but IMO after And Justice For All they went down the toilet. I'll never forget listening to "Sad But True" in my friend's car on cassette when he suddenly popped out the tape, threw it out the window on the freeway and said "That's sad but true!" Metallica has never been the same. Some decent efforts but the Black album killed it for me.

[Leftybass12]

Originally Posted by noahw1

Cliff was the best. Best look. Best stage antics.
I'll probably get burned for this but IMO after And Justice For All they went down the toilet. I'll never forget listening to "Sad But True" in my friend's car on cassette when he suddenly popped out the tape, threw it out the window on the freeway and said "That's sad but true!" Metallica has never been the same. Some decent efforts but the Black album killed it for me.

Wow!!

[Leftybass12]

Originally Posted by Craig630

Yo gang,

Jason Newstead, not Metallica's best bassist, but the best bassist for Metallica.

Cliff - Composition was his forte IMO. He had a great tone and his skill was there, but his musical knowledge and application is second to none.

Rob - Met's most skilled bassist IMO. This guy can do some stuff that just blows my mind, but he just doesn't seem to fit in with the others. Technically speaking, he's the best they've had yet.

Jay - Not the most technical for sure and though he can come up with some sweet stuff (My friend of misery, etc...) he was the best match for the group. His high energy performances, backing vocals, on stage antics (this guy could be a hoot during live shows), and overall look are second to none IMO

Like I said, not thier best, but the best for the band.

Can you think of any other examples of bassists that may not have been the most technical/creative/whatnot but were an absolute perfect fit for the band?

Discuss..

Sorry I don't have anyone to add to this topic, but I have to say this is a pretty good conclusion. Jason was my favorite bassist they had, sorry Cliff and Rob fans. Jason has been a big influence on me. Cliff was awesome and his work really is second to none. Rob....he is an excellent musician, but with Metallica...I saw them last year during their US leg of their tour and to be perfectly honest, to me it didn't seem like he fit in with them at all, still Rob is an extremely technical bassist and excellent musician.

[hdracer]

Originally Posted by noahw1

Cliff was the best. Best look. Best stage antics.
I'll probably get burned for this but IMO after And Justice For All they went down the toilet. I'll never forget listening to "Sad But True" in my friend's car on cassette when he suddenly popped out the tape, threw it out the window on the freeway and said "That's sad but true!" Metallica has never been the same. Some decent efforts but the Black album killed it for me.

+1 LOL I did the same thing! Waist of $12.00

[Craig630]

Black Album was good IMO, not thier best by far, but listenable.

Everything after that was mostly junk. A few good songs on each album, but not something I could listen to beginning to end. Death Magnetic is growing on me, but there's nothing that catches me like WHOAH!

[Klopp18]

cliff was metallica. he kept them thrash. i've argued with many people about their albums. i personally dont like from the black album and on. i just cant listen to the full album. ride the lightning, master of puppets, and ...and justice for all i can listen to them fully through. they need to hang it up.

[Klopp18]

Originally Posted by Craig630

Black Album was good IMO, not thier best by far, but listenable.

Everything after that was mostly junk. A few good songs on each album, but not something I could listen to beginning to end. Death Magnetic is growing on me, but there's nothing that catches me like WHOAH!

+1
thats exactly how i feel. but death magnetic was such a let down

[tycobb73]

Originally Posted by Klopp18

cliff was metallica. he kept them thrash. i've argued with many people about their albums. i personally dont like from the black album and on. i just cant listen to the full album. ride the lightning, master of puppets, and ...and justice for all i can listen to them fully through. they need to hang it up.

by reading interviews with Cliff I really wonder if he did keep them thrash. He played it in Metallica but wasn't really fond of it otherwise.

[bassic.science]

Originally Posted by Klopp18

cliff was metallica. he kept them thrash. i've argued with many people about their albums. i personally dont like from the black album and on. i just cant listen to the full album. ride the lightning, master of puppets, and ...and justice for all i can listen to them fully through. they need to hang it up.

Minor detail, but Cliff wasn't on Justice, that's Newsted's 1st album.

That said, I agree that they changed (for the worse in my opinion) after Cliff died. It's really tragic, Kill 'Em All was very thrash metal, but still some amazing songs on it. Ride The Lightning they were starting to really gel as a group, and Master of Puppets is the pinnacle of their work, there isn't a better Metallica album in my opinion. Really sad that they had to deal with such adversity right at the height of their musicianship as well as their popularity.

[Daveomd]

Originally Posted by Din Of Win

Sid Vicious is a good example. Homeboy didn't even really play, but was PERFECT for the sex pistols.

Sid Vicious ruined the Sex Pistols. He pretty much caused their breakup.

[The Last Rebel]

Just curious, how did you come to the conclusion that Rob is Metallica's most talented bass player? You can't even hear him on most of Death Magnetic.

And as far as the premise of your thread, I'd like to bring forth the best of the thrash bands, Slayer. Tom Araya is, instrumentally speaking, the weakest member of Slayer (which doesn't mean a whole lot when he's surrounded by Hanneman, King and, for most of his career, Dave Lombardo) but someone with more technical proficiency would totally mess up their sound.

Originally Posted by tycobb73

by reading interviews with Cliff I really wonder if he did keep them thrash. He played it in Metallica but wasn't really fond of it otherwise.

As Cliff can't tell us himself, I guess we'll never know. What we do know is: Cliff dies, they make one more good album, Bob Rock gets brought in, Metallica's been mediocre to crap ever since.

[chump stain]

I hate reading these threads, because I like every album. Sure, some more then others, my least favorite is St. Anger. But when it came out I was excited. Of course I like the older albums the best, but I think there really is some good songs on the Black album, and the Loads. It's just different, shouldn't they be allowed to change their style? It's their music. If they want to write more structured mainstream music, then they should have that freedom. Didn't their first 4 albums give them that, didn't they earn their respect with those albums? When those radio songs come on the radio, I know it blows away just about anything any other station may be playing. Why keep making M.O.P. over and over again? They've already put out those albums. I think Death Magnetic is the best work they've done since Justice.

I freakin' love watching the Nimes DVD, I think Rob fits in great. Cliff was great, I think Rob is amazing, and I think Newstead was okay. I like fingerstyle playing better, but he sounded good. I liked his singing the most. But Rob is singing better these days. I hope they put out a new album soon.

[St Drogo]

Originally Posted by Daveomd

Sid Vicious ruined the Sex Pistols. He pretty much caused their breakup.

That's a good thing, for what they were. I'd hate to have seen a band like them hang around for forty fartin' years, losing the fire and intensity and stuff. They went when they had to go.

[ozzyismetal]

Cliff was one of my main influences, but he os overrated by many people. Just go onto youtube and listen to one his isolated basslines. Not as impressive as everyone thinks.

E.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJJtkQjY1c8


Not trying to start a flame war, but give my opinion on him.

[René_Julien]

Ron McGovney was the best bassist Metallica ever had!

Can you think of any other examples of bassists that may not have been the most technical/creative/whatnot but were an absolute perfect fit for the band?

Fieldy actually.

What he does is what makes Korn Korn.

I like Korn... all up until Issues... when I was a teenager.

[casualmadness]

Originally Posted by noahw1

Cliff was the best. Best look. Best stage antics.
I'll probably get burned for this but IMO after And Justice For All they went down the toilet. I'll never forget listening to "Sad But True" in my friend's car on cassette when he suddenly popped out the tape, threw it out the window on the freeway and said "That's sad but true!" Metallica has never been the same. Some decent efforts but the Black album killed it for me.

I agree 100%. When the black album came out, Tower records in Hollywood opened at midnight to sell it. My friends and I all went down (I was living in west Hollywood at the time). We waited in line, each of us bought it (on cassette), and within a few hours of arriving home, mine was in the trash, along with my brother's and a friend's. Metallica's last good album (IMO) was justice.

[Unrepresented]

I think there's a mistake here in believing that Metallica was static outside of its bass player roster.

Black album came a decade into the life of the band, during which time its members had matured, gotten rich, gotten mullets, had tragedy befall them, seen new genres of music develop around them, etc.

And furthermore we're talking Metallica where the bass is buried for most of their catalogue.

James is their primary songwriter, I'd suspect the changes in his life had a far greater impact in their sound than the bassist position.

[Daveomd]

Originally Posted by St Drogo

That's a good thing, for what they were. I'd hate to have seen a band like them hang around for forty fartin' years, losing the fire and intensity and stuff. They went when they had to go.

Uh...check out Youtube. They are still around. They reuinited and are doing exactly what you'd hate to see.