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Adam Clayton

#81
The Mock Turtle Regulator said:
I guess that's what drink and drugs can do to you.
didn't he have to drop out of a gig due to having to into rehab, and they had to use a dep? (was it on the actung baby or zooropa tours?)
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If you ever get a chance to watch U2 Live in Sydney - the ZooTV tour - that was the live recording the night after Adam couldn't appear due to a hangover... and never drank again (DVD is Adam's first day sober!!) and his bass tech Stuart Morgan stood in the night before. His binge was apparantly associated with his then recent break up with Naomi Campbell
 
#82
U2 is Bono and The Edge and their melodic songs. Clayton is functional, but I do find it a little bit dull. The greatest eighth note player of all time Cliff Williams of AC/DC does get some cool little fills in there time and again and the chord selection is usually pretty limited.
When I listen to U2 its more the melodies not the basslines.
 
#83
Jazz Ad said:
Yep.
People who bring him down and don't understand his major role in the sound and ambience of the band need to open their ears.
I wish I was as expressive and tasteful as he is.
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I did not have much of an impression of him until my church did a live gig and we played a bunch of U2 songs. We did, With or Without You, Beautiful Day, Rejoice and Gloria.

Playing those "simple" lines made me appreciate him a lot more. It's such a big part of the melodic value of the song. He carries the melody most of the time and the edge is just off doing whatever.
 
#84
TheThumb said:
Oh I know that, I'm a very simplistic player when it calls for it and the BEST feeling (I think everyone will agree to some extent) I possibly get is when I lock into a groove, no matter what form that groove takes, just making everything come together as one. And I agree than Clayton does this perfectly, but my comment was about versatility. I'm saying I'd get bored if I stuck to the same style of 8th note picking in every song (I haven't heard him do more than this) without doing anything different with the bass ever.
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If you have never heard him do anymore than this, then either you haven't been listening, or you haven't heard many of his lines.
 
#88
Jazz Ad said:
This meaningless cliche keeps coming back regarding Clayton's lines.
So, other than With or without you (on which it was purposely done and perfectly fits the song), could anyone quote a song on which he plays straight 8th root lines ?
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Even the songs where he dosen't do this are largely made up of pentatonic "box" patterns (nothing wrong with that, please see Donald Duck Dunn) played as straight 8ths with little or no syncopation (that's where Dunn and Clayton differ).
 
#89
Jazz Ad said:
This meaningless cliche keeps coming back regarding Clayton's lines.
So, other than With or without you (on which it was purposely done and perfectly fits the song), could anyone quote a song on which he plays straight 8th root lines ?
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Hey look, it's U2's latest single "Window In The Skies". Surely that will help to erase Adam's "8th-note-root" reputation...oh wait, it doesn't. :eyebrow:



(BTW, in case you're wondering, the video clips are just a fanboy edit of their previous videos).
 
#91
Vandelay said:
* Pride (In the Name of Love)
* Where the Streets Have No Name
* Walk On
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If you only get straight roots from these lines (especially from Pride) I'd say you have serious hearing issues. :eyebrow:
Alan Vorse said:
Even the songs where he dosen't do this are largely made up of pentatonic "box" patterns (nothing wrong with that, please see Donald Duck Dunn) played as straight 8ths with little or no syncopation (that's where Dunn and Clayton differ).
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Well, it's rock'n'roll. When looking for r'n'b funk you probably shouldn't listen to U2.
 
#95
Vandelay said:
* Pride (In the Name of Love)
* Where the Streets Have No Name
* Walk On
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Walk On isn't 8th notes.

Their is no doubt he uses 8th notes often. It's the assertion that because he uses 8th notes in the few songs you've listened to, that he never does anything else.

Discotheque
Do You Feel Loved
Mofo
If God Will Send His Angels
Staring At The Sun
Last Night On Earth
Gone
Walk On
Miami
The Playboy Mansion
If You Wear That Velvet Dress
Please
Wake Up Dead Man
Elevation
Stuck In A Moment That You Can't Get Out Of
Kite
In A Little While
Grace
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Until The End Of The World
Zoo Station
One
New Years Day
Bullet The Blue Sky
Lemon
In God's Country
Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Seconds
Desire
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Yahweh
Fast Cars

There's just a handful...
 
#96
twodinners said:
Great lifetime career gig, nicely done... and didn't he once get that Naomi Campbell back to his place? Lucky?
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Well, lucky she didn't throw a cell phone at him. :eek:

Adam Clayton is...very clean, very tasteful, talk about playing to the song, as opposed to imposing yourself on it. Wonderful tone.

So what, so he's not triple thumb plucking a six string...I have a hard time thinking of a single bass player more adept at sounding right for the band he's in.
 
#98
Let's face it - music is subjective! There is no solid, fast rule or universallly accepted defimnition of what is good, great, tasteful, bad, etc.

Opinions . . . well we all know about those. That said - he is one of my greatest influences. No question there are countless players that are more technically proficient, but U2 is not the band they are without his basslines.

Intersting discussion on Adam by Bono and Edge on an HBO special I saw last night. Edge stated he was basically a rhythm guitarist on early U2 tracks and that Adam was "lead bass." He also stated that when he was laying down the initial track to Bullet the Blue Sky, Adam and Larry joined in. The result was not what Edge intended - Adam was in a diffefent key and the "feel" was different. But when he listened back to the track, it was better than his original idea, and the song grew from there. Bono sees Adam as "edgy" (not really sure what that means, is he on edge, or like "the Edge.") Anyhow, he was very complimentary of Adam's playing, and approach to the instrument.

I agree that Adam's playing was more aggressive on earlier U2 tracks, but there are a number of great lines on recent albums.
 
#100
Yeah, you people are right... He doesn't follow chords with 8th notes, he MAKES the chords and melodies while the guitarist kind of flutters around on the high strings (ok, this is very narrow description and sounds dumb, but you know what I mean)... so I stand corrected!:)
 

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