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Overrated bass players

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#981
Sneckumhaw said:
Agree wholeheartedly with the first part, but since when is John Paul Jones gay?
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I heard it somewhere, don't know if it was on the radio or if I read it on a forum somewhere.
Not 100% sure.
I know nothing about his personal life, I only know him as a musician.

Only untill some months ago I found out Stephen Fry was gay. And that is an actor/comedian I admire for a very long time. Still love him though... as a fan. ;)
 
#983
I've only read the first page of this thread but--holy sh*t--Paul McCartney is overrated as a bass player? Wow, that's really a different planet than mine.

I know it's all personal taste, but speaking of taste, please go back and listen to him again. That sh*t is so relaxed and pocket and spontaneous. And tasty.

That combination for me = master player, unquestionably.

There is so much openness and love in his playing, god damn...

What other qualities are remotely as important as those?
 
#986
kittyboy said:
I've only read the first page of this thread but--holy sh*t--Paul McCartney is overrated as a bass player? Wow, that's really a different planet than mine.

I know it's all personal taste, but speaking of taste, please go back and listen to him again. That sh*t is so relaxed and pocket and spontaneous. And tasty.

That combination for me = master player, unquestionably.

There is so much openness and love in his playing, god damn...

What other qualities are remotely as important as those?
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I never, EVER liked McCartney's playing... Until I had a student ask me to teach him "Silly little love song" - a song I just HATED... but, being paid for my time I did as I was asked...

The bass line in that song is GREAT. Just great. The song itself is sickingly sweet and darn near intolerable, but the bass part is the shiz... So hats off to Paul.
 
#992
mvw356 said:
macca was the first to make playing bass in band 'cool'. he deserves some credit for that me thinks.
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+1

I think it helps to keep in mind the musical time frame in which some of the more senior guys made their mark. I'm not religious about Macca but back then his work was ground breaking and opened a lot of doors for other bass players in pop music to be more creative and much of his stuff still holds up to my ears at least. Another guy from that era making a huge contribution was Entwistle. Jamerson did that for soul and r&b, and Jaco did it for the electric bass in jazz imho.
 
#993
I play and listen to jazz primarily and am almost always on the UB side but was kind of interested to see what goes on here!!! Wow...this thread has been going on a long time! Guys.... I'm not sure where to begin.....

Paul McCartney, John Paul Jones, Jack Bruce and the "Ox" from the "Who" John Entwhistle dramatically changed R&R bass playing.. They all made great contributions and most, if not all, have stated that they're influences include Jamie Jamerson of Motown and Duck Dunn of Stax/Volt. It is historical fact that all of these guys changed the way we listen and think about electric bass playing.

I could go on but..... A good friend of my said to me one time when I was slagging another bass player who had done a few records, Well if you think you can do better, go prove it.... It was great advice. It's much different creating and recording parts in a high pressure studio situation than playing someone else's parts in some club somewhere! :bassist:
 
#994
I dislike many 'solo' bass records. With the exception of Jaco and a small handfull of others, I find many of them to contain too much flash and not enough soul. A good example for me is Victor Wooten, whose work with the Flecktones is very soulfull but his solo stuff seems robot-like. Amazing, but robot-like. Some of my favorite bassists shined when in the context of their origional bands, like Entwistle, Bruce or even Jamerson with the Funk Bros.. Its great to see the magic of a bassist shine while still in the role of 'bassist'. But thats just my opinion.
 
#995
BigOldHarry said:
I never, EVER liked McCartney's playing... Until I had a student ask me to teach him "Silly little love song" - a song I just HATED... but, being paid for my time I did as I was asked...

The bass line in that song is GREAT. Just great. The song itself is sickingly sweet and darn near intolerable, but the bass part is the shiz... So hats off to Paul.
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I can see if you're into stuff like Jordan, Jaco and Wooten that you wouldn't "get" McCartney.

IMO, McCartney is all about the white guy melodic playing in pop/rock music. There's so much stuff he "wrote the book" on that it's darn near impossible to find a bass player in pop/rock music that he hasn't directly or indirectly influenced. Whether it's the role of the bass, or the technology of recording the bass to just the riffs- McCartney is just frickin' awesome.

Listen to something like "Baby You're A Rich Man" and see if you can find a bass tone anywhere as full and rich in 1967. Listen to the countermelody in "Lady Madonna," it's so strong that it IS the melody of the song. Listen to "Sexy Sadie" and see how what he's doing tricks your ear into thinking he's doing something entirely different of what he's doing.

So much of that post 1965 Beatles stuff is really where rock bass is. You can split hairs about what "melodic" playing is- IMO, it's not about a bass solo, it's about what you can do that adds to the song, is melodic, is entertaining, but isn't a showy extraneous flurry. To me it's McCartney and Jamerson.
 
#999
Bryan said:
On the other side of bassists deserving more "props",I am curious to know who you think gets too much credit. The only one that instantly comes to mind is Les Claypool. I like Primus but I think his technique is sloppy. He is different but I can't listen to him for too long.I'm interested to know what everyone's opinion is.
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Sloppy, Huh?

He can be as boring and technical as the next guy:

 
#1,000
I'm putting my neck on the line here: Flea. What do people see in that clown. He doesn't hold the song together at all. Everyone seems to like him, but I can't see why. I also think that Lemmy is over-rated. Could just be me though
 
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