Jason Newsted Rockin Hard !

Jason is \m/etal. After seeing "Some Kind of Monster" as well as reading This Monster Lives : The Inside Story of Some Kind of Monster companion book and Steffan Chirazi's So What! : The Good, The Mad, and The Ugly I'm positively astounded that he was able to stay with Metallica as long as he did with the years of continued hazing, lack of musical input and stifling of his sideprojects as sources of creativity, and general "You'll never be Cliff" attitude by both the fans as well as the band. It's a testimony to how much he loved that band. :scowl:

His choice of basses throughout the years also never hurt. Despite what "era" of tone one may prefer, you can't go wrong with Wals, Alembics, Spectors, and Sadowskys as well as his '81 Spector and '58 Precision "recording" basses.




"Am I doing this right?..."

 

Yeah, the rest of the band were total asshats to him. I quit a band like that after about a month. And that band liked what I did musically, they were just jerks.

 

I sure he is laughing all the way too the bank.

 

That's a great picture!

 

Jason is a rock-solid player! one of few pick players that i like

 

Jason's a great player, but im one of the fans who take the 'he'll never be cliff' attitude. not to knock him, its just that cliff is probably my favorite player and biggest influence of all time.

the whole metallica situation from cliff's death up until the black album was total BS. after ...and justice for all things got completely screwy and metallica sold out big time. Thats the other reason i take the 'he'll never be cliff' attitude, because i think that if cliff lived he and kirk would have been able to keep metallica true to the music, not the money, whereas jason came in at just about the worst possible time. not really his fault, but still...

I think the general consensus is that james and lars need a serious beat-down, in any case

just my opinion, feel free to flame away

 

I largely agree. I've never been a huge fan of Jason, but that is mostly because the stuff he played on with Metallica just wasn't good. I never felt like I actually heard him playing. His live renditions of earlier songs show a great deal of talent though, he can play really captivating basslines if the riffs he's working under don't suck. I'm glad he's finally moved out into doing other stuff outside the umbrella of the Jaymz/Larz personality cult. Hopefully he hasn't burned out and still has plenty of good playing to offer us.

 

Twas my avatar for about the first year or two 'til the ram came along.

Jason IS the reason I started playing. Met him about 14 months after I started playing and he's been nothing but supportive for lack of better terms. Used to get aftershows to see him all the time and he was always asking how the playing's going. Great guy, honestly WAS the heaviest part of Metallica, really made Echobrain rock, Voivod now (RIP Piggy) and all his other side projects.

For those of you wondering what he's been up to... check out www.chophouserecords.com

 

Yes.

LOL

 

Metallica Cunning stunts: He just kicks A$$ in the DVD....and how about the band before Metallica--Flotsam and Jetsam?
And he toured with Gov't Mule for awhile after the death of Allen Woody...

After all the crap Jason had to take has anybody seen the Video of Lars almost crying like a baby when he left the band?

One thang that ticked me off on Some Kind of Monster--was when MTV called and asked Metallica to do the ICON show(which really sucked anyway) the guys asked about Jason and the one at MTV said Jason lost his ICON status when he left the band.

 

At first I was kinda ticked off that Jason left that band. I mean, how DARE you leave Metallica? In my experience playing original music, I have had the pleasure of working with some great people who just wanted to play well and kick ass. I have also had the displeasure of playing with some control freakish, egomaniacal, self important, selfish idiots.

Nobody really knows for certain what happened between Jason and the other three, but one thing is for certain: you don't leave Metallica on a whim. He had his reasons, and after, what, ten years in the band you can't really call him difficult to work with. They didn't fire him, he quit. Thankfully, Jason is smart enough and talented enough that he hasn't turned into another "guy who quit huge band and faded into oblivion" statistic. He has always spoken well of the band and conducted himself with class.

It was kind of interesting to see Lars and James speak about Jason's departure. They were "shocked" and "devastated." Hopefully they have learned something from this. Trujillo has been slugging away for a long time now and he deserves the kind of platform a band like Metallica can offer. He also deserves a massive amount of respect.

Oh, and St. Anger was crap.

 

I think this sort of speaks to metallica's general malaise over the past 15 years or so. I used to be the "never be cliff" guy until i really watched S&M and payed attention to what he was doing on the later stuff. Yes, he will never be cliff, but he isn't SUPPOSED to be.

If you watched the behind the music I think there's a part where he came in and was the punk guy no? He's not a shredder but he really locks down with the drums and creates a very solid bottom for everyone else to work off of. That, and Cliff, with no disrespect intended, went off on his own every now and then. In the Bass icons issue of BassGuitar, james said something about Cliff just going nuts and soloing up high and losing the bottom etc, they just expected him to figure it out one day. They had to pick jason for a reason right? I mean, it's METALLICA. You know how many guys they had to have auditioned? Then again, they kind of settled for him.


Long story short, jason was good as he could be in the situation he was put in and i'm really suprised he lasted as long as he did. He's kind of like Danny Bonaduce's wife if you think about it.

 

I agree in the way that if cliff was still alive, the black album (i.e first 'commercial' metallica album) would never have happened

and so metallica wouldnt have become the joke that they are to so many metal fans that they are today,

I agree James and lars need a good slapping and that if kirk and Cliff had there way metallica would be much much better and more diverse than they are tody because at the end of the day they were the two most original and diverse musicians in the band

I agree jason is a good player
nothin awsome but good, and at the time probably right for the band but only because that was the direction james and lars wanted it to go, which in my opinion was the direction which they knew would make money

ps. dont get me wrong im still a big fan
and i like the black album but after that, fuel is about all ill listen too

 

both players have their own styles. You cant really compare the two becausecliff had his own unique leadbass style going on, distortion mixed with wah and wild solos was his bag of apples. Jason on the other hand is a more simple player which doesnt mean he isnt better on a theory level, but he did what he had to do to make the song work. I think if jason was allowed more creativity, he would have made better material. I can understand why he left metallica, becuase theres only so much **** you can take and having little musical input over a period of 15 years would get me in a bit of a cranky mood aswell.