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Michael Anthony was a lucky bass player

#42
Michael Anthony basically filled the role for the music. Busy bass playing along with Eddie's super busy guitar work would have removed any sense of groove in the music. Has anyone listened to Chickenfoot? Playing with Satch has really allowed him to branch out and show what he can do, because it's more collaborative, whereas Van Halen is much more about Eddie's vision.
 
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#43
I think the posts that say he sucked are envious. The guy was in a great rock band, did his job. There are many acts that use a "secondary" bass player that are very successful. Isn't the goal is to make it all come together and have a good end product?
I have seen bands with "great" bassists that sound horrible because everyone is playing as an individual rather than a band.
 
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#44
mikeluch said:
I think the posts that say he sucked are envious. The guy was in a great rock band, did his job. There are many acts that use a "secondary" bass player that are very successful. Isn't the goal is to make it all come together and have a good end product?
I have seen bands with "great" bassists that sound horrible because everyone is playing as an individual rather than a band.
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+1 Sometimes you have to have talent to be"lucky". He served the band and the song. He's had a great career that is still going. And the opening notes of VH 1 still are awesome to hear at a loud volume. Sure it's only one note you say, but it's that one note that made me want to play bass.
 
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#47
Session1969 said:
I believe that and I bet it happens alot. I had a producer do that with me and there certainly wasn't millions at stake like there was with VH (lol!). I can only imagine. If a bassline is so busy that it conflicts with the vocal melody, it must either be simplified or it'll get buried. For rock , he had a pretty decent level in the mix for back then, especially. I can't say enough about Michael Anthony because he's the perfect band member in the sense he moved around on stage and he sang backups. To regular people, that's way more important than how busy his basslines were/are.
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But this is a bassist's site. I wouldn't expect to understand what dentists talk about, nor would I expect dentists to discuss MY perception of their work.

But I get where the culture of the Fender guitar and bass and DIY music has led us.
 
#50
lowfreq33 said:
MA was the most professional member of that band. He certainly possesed the highest strength of character.
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I'll agree to that. The childish shenanigans of EVH have been near-legendary. When you see a band where one after another after another singer has to leave, you start to realize the problem isn't the singers in the band, it's someone else in the band whose ego needs to be contained.
 
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#51
I don't understand anyone who says ANY professional musician "sucks."

And Van Halen's first album was groundbreaking, and they deserved their fame. It was the best album of 1978 by a mile. And 1978 was a good year!

Rolling Stones - Some Girls
AC/DC - Powerage
Talking Heads - More Songs about Buildings and Food
The Clash - Give 'em Enough Rope
Dire Straights debut
Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
Bob Seger - Stranger in Town
The Police - Outlandos D'Amour
Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
Rush - Hemispheres
Queen - Jazz
Joe Walsh - But Seriously, Folks
Blondie - Parallel Lines
The Who - Who Are You?
Ramones - Road to Ruin


It was a pretty good year, unless you were Yes.

Tormato was awful.
 
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#53
I used to think he was terrible, then I matured in my musical tastes/knowledge about the bass and it's role, and now I think he was doing all the right things for what they were at the time: A hard rock band with a great guitar player who needed room in the music.
 
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#54
Letsee, he put up with Dave's crap for years, he put up with Eddies crap for years, always was a consummate professional and all around nice guy despite the tempest of drama surrounding him.

And in the end as his reward, he was so lucky he got booted from the band so the primary egomaniac's twerp kid could take his spot.

Lucky indeed.
 
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#55
donn landee was the mastermind behind the awesome tone which was ed; he blew up his guitar so much on those early recordings that so much of the sonic spectrum was covered my ed, that there wasn`t a lot of room for a bass.
i think mike did what he had to do in that band- tie it together. ed and al were always falling down the stairs and landing on their feet musically; there had to be an anchor- a reference...
 
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#58
Ok...I am a huge Michael Anthony fan and he was a big influence on me when I was young, no doubt. If you actually "listen" to the Van Halen catalog you will hear some great bass playing that was kind of always buried in the mix...nothing flashy, but nice fills nonetheless. And Kudos to Mike for putting up with Ed and Dave...But...this video has always made me wonder... (by the way....hold on to your socks ;))

Eddie Van Halen + Jan Hammer + Tony Levin + Bill Bruford, Les Paul Tribute Show, Aug 18th 1988 - YouTube
 
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#60

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