Overrated bass players

[MinorPentatonic]

I think Mccartney is a solid bassist who has had the benefit of being part of a ground breaking, massively popular band. He is an amazing songwriter and therefore a great musician. He deserves credit for developing melodic ideas in rock music that many people still copy.

Are we talking about the same man that wrote The Frog Chorus? and the pitiful No More Lonely Nights?

Seriously though is there such a thing as a bad bassist? Surely anyone who can hold down the groove (whatever the band and style) is good enough. Alright then....Newstead. I saw in our local music shop the book "Play Bass With Metallica" and perused it, laughed when I sawit was £16.95 to find out how to play an open E string, and quickly left.

 

[Basshammer]

Are we talking about the same man that wrote The Frog Chorus? and the pitiful No More Lonely Nights?

Seriously though is there such a thing as a bad bassist? Surely anyone who can hold down the groove (whatever the band and style) is good enough. Alright then....Newstead. I saw in our local music shop the book "Play Bass With Metallica" and perused it, laughed when I sawit was £16.95 to find out how to play an open E string, and quickly left.

Bad call, Newstead's actually underrated...Metllica just never let him play anything interesting....listen to his work with Voivod or Flotsam and Jetsam, it's quite good.

 

[erikh]

personally i agree that Les Claypool is overrated. I have heard numerous live recordings where he literally has NO time! Granted he is probably tripping balls on something, but he still cant maintain a 4/4 solid at all. His chops are awful, a lot of times he hides his terrible playing with cool affects or his whammy bar.
Its great that he has his own tone and that when I hear him playing, I say "oh, thats definitely Les", but that usually means it sounds really crappy and sloppy.

 

[Murf]

I think that this forum has turned into a very boring anti/pro Paul McCartney debate, so let's introduce a new victim...

Mark King is perhaps the most overrated bassist of the last 20 years. I find nothing original in his playing - Just look at 'Dune Tune' - if I was Stanley Clarke, I'd have sued. Another bassist who thinks that "fast" + "slap" = "good bass playing".

David

errrrr.The chinese way...fingerstyle
Livin it up......fingerstlye
Kansas city milman...fingerstyle
Starchild...fingerstyle
Children say.....fingerstyle
etc...etc...

I agree with Dune tune..it is a total Stanley Clarke rip off..but I dont agree with the fast slap = good tag youve labelled him with..yes he is insanely fast but personally I find his slap lines more supportive to the tunes than say Flea...also on recordings his playing is quite restrained check out the "physical presence" live album for some seriously good playing..both fingerstyle and slap...

personally I find Mark King playing Mr. Pink live funkier than anything Marcus Miller has ever put out...

Flame on

 

[AuG]

personally I find Mark King playing Mr. Pink live funkier than anything Marcus Miller has ever put out...

Wow. I'm not even going to try to pick apart this one...but I will agree that Mark King is the 'king' of horrible slap playing. The sad part is that he thinks it sounds good. Anybody else see that video on basslobster.com? It ruins all credibility he ever had IMO.

To get back on topic, I think Flea may be the Luckiest bassist alive. Cmon, someone with no knowledge of theory is propelled to the top by a song like "Californication"?


Okey Dokey.

 

[Newsboy129]

To get back on topic, I think Flea may be the Luckiest bassist alive. Cmon, someone with no knowledge of theory is propelled to the top by a song like "Californication"?


Okey Dokey.

Ok. . . so now, flea can outplay you, but he's no good because he has no knowledge of theory? how about an okey dokey to that. . . anyone thinking theory knowledge is the end of all ends is probably an "Okey Dokey" himself. . . sure, californication isn't the greatest song the chili peppers ever did. . . but when you start making more money than flea, you can start talking.

okey dokey?

 

[Murf]

Wow. I'm not even going to try to pick apart this one...but I will agree that Mark King is the 'king' of horrible slap playing. The sad part is that he thinks it sounds good. Anybody else see that video on basslobster.com? It ruins all credibility he ever had IMO.

To get back on topic, I think Flea may be the Luckiest bassist alive. Cmon, someone with no knowledge of theory is propelled to the top by a song like "Californication"?

Okey Dokey.

HA HA!.. ah I get it, your joking....had me going there for a while..




(you are taking the piss right?)

 

[ebladeboi123]

Didn't really read alll the pages. But this will probably stir some trouble. JPJ = over rated. Good? Yes. As good as everyone thinks, no. All my friends think he's the greatest thing to happen to rock 'n roll. But in all honesty, he really isn't that great. The whole band (led zep) is a buncha over rated guys imo. They were all talented, but they get way to much credit, for not doing enough.

Onto the flea... Who cares if you know nothing about theory. He obviously knows enough to make a bass line. If you can tell what key you're in, thats real basic theory imo. Or if you can play in a key when some1 tells you, you have to have some sense of theory. + he has a tight signature bass...
One last comment- underrated (can't take giving all this negative stuff)- Tina Weymouth, i don't care if you think she sucks. Her bass lines are some of the catchiest i've heard, and one of the few bands i don't mind having stuck in my head. + she is a female, and in all honesty, there are not that many female bass players. She broke grounds, and she did it well.

Flame on.

 

[Fawkes007]

Rudy Sarzo..he had is own line of basses!!
Nikki Stix..need I say more.

And all of the frustrated Guitar players that feel doing grooveless scales and sweeps on a bass is cool. Listen to Duck Dunn you girly bassists!!!!

Dude...my band did a warm up for Quiet Riot a couple of years ago, and I must say...Rudy was not only a terrific player, but a very nice guy, too. His technique was a bit "flamenco" at times, but he held it down and can groove.

 

[Fawkes007]

I am tired of hearing all about the bass player from the "flavor of the month" band. For a while it was the Mudvayne guy, then the 311 guy, then the Korn guy, etc. Whatever band had an album out that the labels wanted to push seemed to also have their bass players, guitar players and drummers in all the magazines.

So I'd read about these dudes in the bass rags, then I would run into one of their songs on XM radio, give them a listen, think to myself..."Who give's a ret's ass?" To me, that makes them overrated. There was nothing about the music they were playing or they way they were playing it that spoke to me in any way shape or form.

I'm surprised no one mentioned Mike Anthony...talk about stepping in sh*t.

 

[lambofgod814]

mikey way from my chemical romance

chances are you havent heard of him but where i live the people who know a lot about music (read the people who think they know a lot about music but have no idea what they are talking about) think hes fantastic

nothing against mcr, i like their music but when you just play 16ths on one note with a pick ur not too talented in my book

nothing against mikey, cuz the music doesnt require much more, but hes overrated imo

 

[skewh]

I like giving Wooten a little crap every once in awhile, but its always just to jive the people around me, I respect Victor greatly. Honestly I can't think of a bassist whom I hate.

 

[jazzbasta]

One last comment- underrated (can't take giving all this negative stuff)- Tina Weymouth

She's cool, both in Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club. I was just listening to "Girlfriend is Better" the other day and thinking what a groove the Heads could create.

 

[Unchain]

I would say Fieldy, Nikki Sixx, Duff McKagan, Shavo Odadjian, Johnny Christ and Mark Hoppus. That's my list.

 

[The_Ryst]

You know Shavo actually isn't that bad. Much better then the others listed, but he's not great.

 

[Newsboy129]

A little thought on that listing of crappy bassists two entries up: I'd be fine with you listing mark hoppus if it wasn't for this one small problem: Mark Hoppus isn't a bassist. . . the man is a better guitarist than Tom DeLonge. . . the mofo picked up bass cuz that band needed it, busted out one of his picks and was like "wow, the guitar sure can get low."

so yeah. . . i dunno, one of my dilemmas is wondering whether or not people like that can actually be called bassists. . . sure they play the bass. . . but they're playing it no differently than a guitar, with no more chops or extra creativity than Blink's music takes to play on a guitar. . .

opinions anyone??

 

[SWiTCH]

Fieldy is a bad bassist?
That bass is what makes Korn, imo. I don't even listen to them, but when I hear them on the radio, Fieldy's bass is the part that makes me bang my head. That loose cutting tone is just awesome. I don't care how well he plays the bass, but it sounds good to my ears.

 

[HMZ]

Hi,
O.K. I'm not going to try and defend this,I can honestly say that I personally NEVER liked a single thing the Beatles ever did,I never bought any of their records,not even Sgt Peppers.I thought that at that time McCartney "Eclipsed" and to a certain extent,got in the way of, other Bassists who had far more to offer I.E. John Entwistle,Bill Wyman etc. O.K. maybe not in terms of songwriting ability,but they had a hell of a lot more technique.As you say,probably just a personal thing.

You must be kidding Right????

 

[Free Tibet]

If any of you have enjoyed such albums as "Highly Refined Pirates" or "Menos el Oso", go see them live and rip the bassist a new one for me. He drags them down so badly I don't want to see them again until he's fired. He had a GK 6-10" cab with duct tape on one of the speakers. I was watching his Boss Chrom Tuner, and he was always off by one or two notches. At the two shows I went to this month, the rest of the boys were really tight (considering being on the fringe of blackout), but this jit needs to quit.

 

[60hz]

The only bassists that i'd really describe as overrated are the ones that are credited on their albums but didn't actually play on them, ie. Duff McKagen, Nikki Sixx, Shavo Odajian, Darcy, etc.