Tina Weymouth

[Munjibunga]

OK, I'll try this one again.

Is Tina Weymouth any good? I can't tell ... I've been watching the Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" DVD, and it really bugs me the way the fingers on her left hand flail around like that. She seems to have a groove, but her technique is suspect. She was having trouble with articulating note lengths on a couple of the tunes. Help me out here.

[Monkey]

I love Tina Weymouth, but if you are watching her for tips on technique, you're missing the point. I love her grooves, and how she is very selfless in her playing. She is not worried about showing off or playing the killer fill. You will never hear her playing "Donna Lee" or tapping with her tongue or whatever, but she lays down a good groove. I try to judge bassists with my ears and not my eyes. If they can play inspiring music, be it simple or complex, I think they are good.

[jerry]

i started out not likeing tina, but after speaking in tongues, i had to give her props!
great grooves! anybody remember busta cherry
jones?

------------------
aloha, jerry

[blipndub]

I agree with Bruce, in fact, both Fear of Music and More Songs About Building and Food are absolutely brilliant. None of the players really do anything all that impressive (except maybe Adrian Beliew) but it's the whole that is so fantastic.

My favorite T. Head's album is Remain in Light which has the coolest, deepest grooves! But I remember hearing something that due to a spat with Byrne, Weymouth didn't cut all the tracks on that album if any. Does anyone know about this?

[Bruce Lindfield]

I've said this before, but if you are interested, check out "Fear of Music" for some of the most original and inventive bass lines in rock music. Who cares about technique, for sheer musical intelligence and taste, she has to be considered a very good bassist and innovator.

[Munjibunga]

OK, I can go with that.

[The Owl]

Originally Posted by jerry

i started out not likeing tina, but after speaking in tongues, i had to give her props!great grooves! anybody remember busta cherry
jones?

------------------
aloha, jerry

Yeah, Busta Jones (great name for a funk bassist BTW! ) was pulled into the Talking Heads for the Remain In Light tour (though AFAIK, Tina did cut the bass tracks on the original album), but Tina was less than thrilled at the idea of 2 bassists in the same band, so she would play extra synth or guitar parts out of necessity so Busta had room to play. She liked his playing but she was royally ticked at David Byrne for making her take a back seat (she once described the situation as like 2 kings trying to occupy the same palace).

Busta Jones recorded and toured with a ton of folks (Eno, Sharks, Gang of Four, Alvin Lee and more). He was quite the cokehead too I hear and ultimately, it cost him his life (he died sometime in the 90's)

http://www.chrisspedding.com/session/bj/bj.htm

[beaulandry]

Check out their last album, "Naked". If it's her playing, I say she is pretty great by my standards.

[Jerry Ziarko]

In my opinion technique is sometimes overated. Jamerson used only one finger on his right hand. Prestia uses basically two on his left! I'll admit great technique is impressive to watch, but I'll take listening to a great groove eveytime!

[Bruce Lindfield]

Wow - over a 5 -year gap in posts!!

That has to be a record for ressurrecting the dead!!

[bigtexashonk]

I just like the way she moves her hips ...

[Muzique Fann]

I love her playing. She created her own type of -thumpy funk- that many, many a bassist are still copying to this day.

[fraublugher]

necromancing old threads is fun

[sethlow3]

Originally Posted by Jerry Ziarko

In my opinion technique is sometimes overated. Jamerson used only one finger on his right hand. Prestia uses basically two on his left! I'll admit great technique is impressive to watch, but I'll take listening to a great groove eveytime!

exactly!

Tina is amazing!! She put me over the top on being a versitile player by using a pick. On "Stop Making Sense" the best groove is "Making Flippy Floppy" IMHO. She has groove for days. Isn't that what bass is about?


I remember her saying in an interview that she approaches fingerstyle like classical guitar. Sometimes using the thumb if that answers your question about her unorthadox style.

[Joe Garage]

Im starting to really get into Talking Heads, and I love Tina's funky grooving bass lines. I especially dig her bass line on the song called Life During Wartime.

[Thor]

I read an interview with her some years back. Snippets
of it return.

"I never played bass before ... I let David mold me ... I played
whatever he told me to."

I guess the genius was the puppet master.

[bassist15]

I started listening to the talking heads not to long after I started playing bass and she was probably the most influencial on me at that time. Simple , yet funky lines. Contrary to alot of belief , she did play on Remain in Light. She said one night she came in the studio after a bunch of people had left and the producer or engineer begged her to record new parts instead of Eno's and Byrne's cause they werent getting the feel right. Thats from a story she tells on bassplayer magazine site.

[GregC]

Not to hijack the thread too much, but: At the SXSW festival last week, I saw David Byrne and Jerry Harrison hanging out together at a club. Granted, they weren't speaking to each other when I saw them, but they were separated by only a few feet, and I saw them for about 15 minutes at this spot (couldn't be a coincidence, right?). Given the legal issues Byrne had in the '90s with the other three, maybe this indicates that the rift is really between Byrne and Weymouth/Frantz. But that's mere speculation...

[jim primate]

check her playing on "I Zimbra" i love that line.

[Philbiker]

Anybody notice how old this thread is?

BTW, the single most successful pop song to come out of the Talking Heads universe is arguably the Tom Tom Club's "Genius Of Love". Great singing and playing on that song by Tina.