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Bruce Thomas Master, Madman, or Hack?
- Thread starter Fender2015
- Start date
I have a bunch of Costello albums and Bruce is great. The Get Happy album was one of my favorites. Bruce was great on all of the albums. I saw them in concert in the early 80s.
Not a hack. He plays what the song needs and puts his ego aside. Basically a great musician.
Check 'em out live here--a wee bit faster! Bruce was not only a great player, but fun to watch--great energy and vibe onstage:
I think he’s an absolutely great player. I don’t like using “genius” so casually. He seems a little eccentric and I heard was wild in his youth, but I wouldn’t use the term “madman”. “Hack” has no place here.
Genius. Yes, it's a word thrown around too much. Yes, I'm using it in that spirit.
Did he invent a new way of approaching the instrument? No. Was he the bedrock of a stellar band that walked the tightrope between pop beauty and punk fury, counterweighting one of the great melody-makers of our generation with just the right blend of groove and harmonic movement? Yes.
Did he invent a new way of approaching the instrument? No. Was he the bedrock of a stellar band that walked the tightrope between pop beauty and punk fury, counterweighting one of the great melody-makers of our generation with just the right blend of groove and harmonic movement? Yes.
Ahem.... So what are James Jamerson and Michael Manring then? Chopped liver?
Absolute badass. “Hack” is objectively not an option with that guy.
I'm a huge Bruce Thomas fan and, for a while when I was on Facebook, I had a nice little email 'friendship' going with him for a while.
He's definitely brilliant and one of the all time great bass players in my opinion. But let's not overuse the word 'genius.' A genius is someone, who through their own self motivated innovation, changed the lives of millions of people that they never met. DaVinci was a genius. Edison. Jefferson, Madison. In the music world, Beethoven, Bach, Lennon, McCartney, Rogers, Hammerstein, , etc, you get the idea. It's OK to use hyperbole to show your enthusiasm for somene that you admire, but let's keep it in perspective. To be fair, you didn't say he was a genius. But that word doesn't even apply here, and I say that as a huge fan. People tend to overuse that word with musicians.
He's definitely brilliant and one of the all time great bass players in my opinion. But let's not overuse the word 'genius.' A genius is someone, who through their own self motivated innovation, changed the lives of millions of people that they never met. DaVinci was a genius. Edison. Jefferson, Madison. In the music world, Beethoven, Bach, Lennon, McCartney, Rogers, Hammerstein, , etc, you get the idea. It's OK to use hyperbole to show your enthusiasm for somene that you admire, but let's keep it in perspective. To be fair, you didn't say he was a genius. But that word doesn't even apply here, and I say that as a huge fan. People tend to overuse that word with musicians.
Ahem.... So what are James Jamerson and Michael Manring then? Chopped liver?
So the options are either "genius" or "chopped liver" and one is either one or the other? Am I supposed to respond seriously? Not sure what you're asking for here.
Yes genius is overused, almost as much as the word diva, which now seems to apply to any female singer (auto tuned or not) with one or two hit records.
My grumpy personal opinion aside, Bruce is a damn good bass player and I've always enjoyed his bass lines. Bruce along with Norman Watt-Roy and a bunch of others already mentioned from the 70's-80's Punk/New Wave movements in the UK, were great inspirations for bass players back then.
PS. A shout out too for Andrew Bodnar, of the Rumour, Graham Parkers backing band, who also played the bass on the original recording of 'Watching The Detectives'.
My grumpy personal opinion aside, Bruce is a damn good bass player and I've always enjoyed his bass lines. Bruce along with Norman Watt-Roy and a bunch of others already mentioned from the 70's-80's Punk/New Wave movements in the UK, were great inspirations for bass players back then.
PS. A shout out too for Andrew Bodnar, of the Rumour, Graham Parkers backing band, who also played the bass on the original recording of 'Watching The Detectives'.
Master madman. Can't play everything, but what he plays is usually awesome.
Genius, no question. Inventive and melodic, I aspire to play like Bruce. I'm some way off yet!
Your opinion is sensible, not grumpy. It's either that or I'm also grumpy.
I could've met my hero, Norman, in July of 2019 had we just stayed one day longer in the UK. The Blockheads were playing outside somewhere in Surrey. I hear that he'll talk to you if you just buy him a beer. That's a Brit for ya. Then again, it was musically a star crossed trip. Earlier in the vacation, I missed seeing JD McPherson in London by 2 days.
Squire, Enwhistle, McCartney,Ahem.... So what are James Jamerson and Michael Manring then? Chopped liver?
I'm always a bit baffled when people say the 80's were a "bad time for bass". Sure synth bass was becoming more popular but as you say, during the new wave era there was so much great, inventive playing with everything from fretless to finger funk to pickstyle to you-name-it, that often times really stood out as hooks in the tracks. Way more so than the 90's, or heck....now, even. Come to think of it, lots of the synth bass was better in the 80's as well, compared to the boring "whole notes with some sidechain compression" that is the go-to in pop these days. Anyhow, I'll have to start a new rant thread about that I guess . . . .
I fully agree that Bruce Thomas is a fantastic bass player.
In case your response re: Manring was not a joke, I heartily suggest checking out an album by McGill Manring Stevens titled WHAT WE DO to hear him in a prog/shred improvisation-heavy rock trio. Additionally, here are three video clips (all under 10 minutes) that you might find interesting, even if they are not your preferred genre.
