Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Double Bass Lazy Sting
- Thread starter oldprussians
- Start date
Possibly and probably. Please feel free to prove me wrong though. I'll accept your list of record sales, hit song creations, chart listings, big concert schedules, productions with other top artists, etc.
EDIT: It's not that relevant either way, the statements in this thread (lazy for not playng DB, jackass for smiling at a falling bass, etc) are ridiculous.
Possibly and probably. Please feel free to prove me wrong though. I'll accept your list of record sales, hit song creations, chart listings, big concert schedules, productions with other top artists, etc.
Talent and record sales, hit songs, etc have only a minor correlation, I've seen artists with 10 times the talent of sting playing bars and making little money for years. For every band/artist with record sales there's usually 100 others with better musical abilities who just didnt get spotted at the right time.
For example take Justin Bieber, he's got massive sales, chart listings, concert schedules, productions etc but I would not consider him talented in any way whereas by your logic he would be incredibly talented.
I disagree, Justin Bieber is very talented - as a singer and dancer - or he wouldn't have the success he has. Of course he has the best backing, but contrary to what people like to think you actually can't polish a turd that much. I don't think you can say Sting is not a multi-talent though, no matter how you define talent.
As for bass playing, and maybe it's just a question of definitions, talent and skills in terms of being a successful artist is so much more than just playing your instrument to perfection. Which is why so many supremely talented people never get further than their own woodshed or the local bar scene.
As for bass playing, and maybe it's just a question of definitions, talent and skills in terms of being a successful artist is so much more than just playing your instrument to perfection. Which is why so many supremely talented people never get further than their own woodshed or the local bar scene.
Exactly. Sting is one of my favorite bassists, and lazy is the last descriptor I would ever use in describing him. You don't have a music career like his if you're lazy.
His success is to do with someone seeing his videos on youtube and his pop appeal, not for his singing. Sting is multi talented, Im not denying that, Im just saying that as for you saying "none of us have a smidgen of stings talent" and its to do with not having record sales and all that is just ludicrous because talent is how you play. Success in music 99% of the time is being in the right place at the right time, the other 1% of success is to do with being active and talented for so long eg Michael Manring
Sting was always a singer/songwriter who happened to play bass, as that was what was needed in the band. It's pretty clear that his singing takes precedence - I saw the Police live in Brighton when "Message in a Bottle" was No 1 in the charts and it was a great gig - but there were many times where he stopped playing bass and nobody else noticed! As a bass player I was looking at his bass - but nobody else in the crowd was - they were all dancing and singing along! 
Agree. Like him or not, he's a songwriter/storyteller/performer who is doing exactly what he wants and is really good at what he does. It's easy to take potshots at pop/singer-songwriter genres as being too harmonically simplistic, but as someone currently playing in both jazz and more pop-oriented settings (both on DB not because I feel the instrument is "better" or more "worthy", but simply because tit happens to be my voice), each is complicated its own way.
Jazz has a role for the bass which calls on a particular skill set from the bassist, and it takes a lot of years to develop that kind of skill set. But on the other side of the coin, playing bass in a more pop/rock-ish setting is a completely different but no less exacting skill set in which the focus is on different things; in my experience, this skill set takes exactly as much of my concentration and technical control of the instrument to execute at the highest level - namely, all of it. When I'm playing in this field, I'm just focusing on different aspects of the texture, but playing them with exactly the same amount of intensity and focus. The lines themselves might be easier to physically play, but each song has its own character and vibe and "persona", and all of the musicians have to adjust their playing to it for it to work. In some ways, it's a lot more like playing classical music, where the notes and rhythms are a lot more preconceived - even where there is room for some improvisation of the details - and the focus becomes on interpreting and phrasing that preconception into a compelling flow in performance.
At any rate, I am done with criticizing other players for not playing DB for a simple reason: I am a very poor BG player compared to those who actively keep up that skill set on a daily basis. Sure, I can play the notes and rhythms of much of the BG stuff I hear, but not with the control, finesse, and conviction of those who live that skill set. In the case of Sting, he wears a lot of hats in doing what he does - writer, singer, arranger, frontman, and bassist - and when you do that it's a collective skill set. Given his prodigious output and the quality of much of it, lazy is the last thing I'd be inclined to call him even if I don't relate to some or even much of what he does. In terms of complexity, Summoner's Tales and Mercury Falling are masterpieces of pop orchestration and production IMO. I don't spin the records that often anymore, but the man has my respect for doing what he wants, and doing it well.
I think you have a too narrow definition of talent, and a completely wrong percentage of why people achieve success.
But let's agree to disagree, I'm out of here.
A common mistake is confusing talent with success. Not that Sting doesn't have talent, but there are quite a few people on TB that are talented too.
Not a huge Sting fan
He may have become a lazy bassist
But I don't think it is fair to question his musical talent
He may have become a lazy bassist
But I don't think it is fair to question his musical talent
I don't think the TB posters across the pond perhaps appreciated the subtlety of my provocation....
Of course Sting is not Lazy both as a musician activist or anything else.
I'm, a fan of his work, and yes he doesn't even touch the likes of Giovanni Patittucci, but...
I'm still sad that he doesn't play DB any more and I was wondering whether any one on this board might have insider knowledge as to why.
I heard that he uses the old P bass because it sounds like vaguely DB but is easier to play. he has amalgamated the DB and electric.
I heard he said something like the playing DB is more like an athletic pursuit than a musical instrument.
I also heard Dominic Miller on Sting's bass playing on DB.
He said something like "John Patittucci is the best bass player alive but the way Sting worked the notes on the end bit of Valparaiso was second to none....."
He also said on Stings birthday " of all the bass players I played with, your one of them"...
A few points:
1. I think it's amazing that he had the professionalism to keep playing without missing a beat while seeing a precious instrument fall and get damaged. It would have stopped me in my tracks.
2. Just because he is smiling does not necessarily mean he is happy or nonchalant about it. People express emotion in funny ways sometimes-- especially in groups of other people. To me his eyes are screaming "OH SH!T!"
3. Even if he is nonchalant about it because he can afford a nice replacement does not make him a jackass. It merely makes him wealthy. I don't know enough about the guy to know if he was born into money or if he had to scrape and scrounge for his first bass too.
4. A lot of us here are more instrument-lovers than musicians. Most of us are both, its a sliding scale between two extremes. But a characteristic I've noted among many professional musicians is an emotional unnatachment to the instrument. They see it as a tool like a hammer or chisel rather than a beautiful work of art. This could also explain some nonchalance and also would not merit the label of jackass.
Hopkins
Commercial User
First of all, there are some seriously judgemental people in this thread. Secondly I dont think that DB was even damaged when it fell over. It looked like it knocked something off of the table it hit.
His reaction is the same reaction I would have had, except I wouldnt have been able to continue the song. It doesn't make either of us an ass. But some peoples comments make them seem very smug and very jealous.
His reaction is the same reaction I would have had, except I wouldnt have been able to continue the song. It doesn't make either of us an ass. But some peoples comments make them seem very smug and very jealous.
I don't care what Sting plays or if he just feels like singing. He wasn't very nice on the John Lennon's Jukebox program so I still think he's an ass. If you watch the whole program, you'll also get to see him pretend to play horn parts with his thumb
