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Adam Clayton Does Not Suck.
- Thread starter spasepeepole026
- Start date
I just googled "Adam Clayton Signature Bass", thinking it would be good for a chuckle when nothing popped up...Lo and behold, there IS one! Warwick put it out. I have never seen one, but it exists!
It's like making a Kurt Rambis signature basketball shoe!
It's like making a Kurt Rambis signature basketball shoe!
I call them fake bass players. They're just playing to be in a band. Anyone with a passion for bass usually has timing.
Agree 100%.
Some bass players do nothing but show off and play every lick they know in every song. It's all about them!
While others SERVE THE SONG. It's all about the song.
I most certainly enjoy and respect the latter while avoiding and tuning out the former.
I think the official conclusion reached in the last 7 pages is that we DON'T know if Adam Clayton sucks, because we have only heard him play with U2. What we DO know is that U2 DOES suck.
You can close the thread now!
You can close the thread now!
The thing with "serve the song" is ... I could play a different bass line over one U2 song and it will serve the song like the original bass line. I may be more busier than him or not. I may got outside of what you consider good taste or what is serving the song. So in all ... serving the song is really subjectif like what is good bass playing, what is art ( well it seems so by some people getting kind of offended by my statement ).
We all have heard of "Armchair Quarterbacks " right? What would you call bass players hiding behind their PC screens putting down and correcting a bassist in a nationally known Band. A bassist with a band that has sold Millions of Records and plays sold out arena's? 
I just spent 15 minutes writing a something to post on this thread..... then I deleted it.... I really don't get these kind of discussions/arguments.
I will say this; to this day I still get chills when I hear that simple bassline and guitar part that begin "With or Without You", I have been listening to that album since 1987 and the older I get the more I love it.
A few years when checking out what Jaco was about I stumbled across "Continuum". Honestly it is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard.
What I'm saying is that I really don't care how many or how few notes it takes for a piece of music to reach me on an emotional or mental level as long as it does.
I will say this; to this day I still get chills when I hear that simple bassline and guitar part that begin "With or Without You", I have been listening to that album since 1987 and the older I get the more I love it.
A few years when checking out what Jaco was about I stumbled across "Continuum". Honestly it is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard.
What I'm saying is that I really don't care how many or how few notes it takes for a piece of music to reach me on an emotional or mental level as long as it does.
He gets the job done. Mostly what I get from reading this thread is many of you who are writing here have no idea about U2's band philosophy, yet you go on like experts. It's art, its not, too mainstream, blah blah. It's pointless. He began getting the job done in the late 70's with NO training, just experimenting and working with his mates on rocking out; no previous experience, he was fifteen. He continues that to this day and is now filthy rich. Love or hate, he gets it done. Where are you on the radar?
Let's look at Sir Paul for a comparison, by the time he was 15 he had been plunkng guitars for quite a few years. Adam had never touched an instrument before. He answered Larry's ad because he, thought it would be cool. Bono and Edge wanted to speak about their horrors of seeing children their age addicted to heroin and and living in seemingly hopeless poverty... and to be cool.
Thats U2, love or hate, it is what it is. Period. Adam does his job successfully. Period.
Let's look at Sir Paul for a comparison, by the time he was 15 he had been plunkng guitars for quite a few years. Adam had never touched an instrument before. He answered Larry's ad because he, thought it would be cool. Bono and Edge wanted to speak about their horrors of seeing children their age addicted to heroin and and living in seemingly hopeless poverty... and to be cool.
Thats U2, love or hate, it is what it is. Period. Adam does his job successfully. Period.
I don't know why I came on here since these types of threads are so stupid... being bored is a #itch.
Look, most people who know and love U2 don't even know who Adam is...or care. They would not know if he played an open E string or a million notes all night long, they just like U2 and their music...its that simple.
My Wife is a big fan and if I asked her who Adam Clayton is she would go...huh? Who? If I asked who Bono is? She would say sure the cute singer of U2.
Face it the mass market who buy their records and supports them and makes them millionaires don't care about Adam or how good of a bass player he is. But in the land of TB we have those who sit around and judge those who have done what you dream to do. No matter if you can play better than Adam you are not him and never will be sorry to burst that bubble. He is doing just fine last I looked and no I am not a U2 fan at all.
BTW, 95% of the people at your gigs could careless that you are the bass player and that your bass cost $2000 your amp $2500 and if this crappy coverband would let you really slap your bass like a methhead monkey you would. But you have to play Mustang Sally cuz it has the bar dancin and this way you will get paid at the end of the night. Nobody cares! You are the bass player! Is this why you take the time to pick on someone? Another bass player that has made it? Is it that you really know you never will?
Look, most people who know and love U2 don't even know who Adam is...or care. They would not know if he played an open E string or a million notes all night long, they just like U2 and their music...its that simple.
My Wife is a big fan and if I asked her who Adam Clayton is she would go...huh? Who? If I asked who Bono is? She would say sure the cute singer of U2.
Face it the mass market who buy their records and supports them and makes them millionaires don't care about Adam or how good of a bass player he is. But in the land of TB we have those who sit around and judge those who have done what you dream to do. No matter if you can play better than Adam you are not him and never will be sorry to burst that bubble. He is doing just fine last I looked and no I am not a U2 fan at all.
BTW, 95% of the people at your gigs could careless that you are the bass player and that your bass cost $2000 your amp $2500 and if this crappy coverband would let you really slap your bass like a methhead monkey you would. But you have to play Mustang Sally cuz it has the bar dancin and this way you will get paid at the end of the night. Nobody cares! You are the bass player! Is this why you take the time to pick on someone? Another bass player that has made it? Is it that you really know you never will?
AC is the right guy for that bands chemistry and songwriting style. Has anyone posting on this thread ever taken 2 notes and written a bassline better than AC's on 'Bullet The Blue Sky?'
Had Jaco been in U2 would Bono now be tending bar in Dublin?
I have always thought that the MAGIC that makes a band successful has to do with the overall combination, not any one player.
There is a feel and mood that U2 creates that most likely would not happen with a busy bass player.
Adam Clayton wouldn't get past the first audition in Weather Report. For that matter he might not even get an audition.
I have always thought that the MAGIC that makes a band successful has to do with the overall combination, not any one player.
There is a feel and mood that U2 creates that most likely would not happen with a busy bass player.
Adam Clayton wouldn't get past the first audition in Weather Report. For that matter he might not even get an audition.
I am sorry for skipping from the OP to the end, but Adam Clayton, while he may not be the most bestest, he certainly is cool enough, talented enough, and able to hang with one of the greatest surviving band out in our musical world today. No, I am not a big fan of U2, but props to a band that has been an influence on generations of musicians, sold countless millions of albums, toured for nearly 4 decades!! Hats off and a big round of applause. If Adam Clayton sucks, then WOW, I wish I sucked that bad.
Ha! If I was a bassbully I would be an Adam not a 50 year old guy who plays in a lil band in tiny clubs 2-3 x a month for change 
