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Roger Waters: Pink Floyd

#121
If playing a bass is about what fits the song best then RW is equal to Mccartney as that is what they both strived to achieve...create great bass lines that complement a song.

Granted Mccartney's basslines were more complex than RW but it was in perfect harmony with the song. But the principle is the same...the song is paramount.

But if bass playing nirvana is about creating obscure stuff like Jaco then I fine...not for me!

Basslines like Money, the Wall, etc are music history and stand the test of time...I and millions of others listen to time and again. Pure magic. Jaco, sorry, very hard on the ears.
 
#123
sarlscharisma said:
If playing a bass is about what fits the song best then RW is equal to Mccartney as that is what they both strived to achieve...create great bass lines that complement a song.

Granted Mccartney's basslines were more complex than RW but it was in perfect harmony with the song. But the principle is the same...the song is paramount.

But if bass playing nirvana is about creating obscure stuff like Jaco then I fine...not for me!

Basslines like Money, the Wall, etc are music history and stand the test of time...I and millions of others listen to time and again. Pure magic. Jaco, sorry, very hard on the ears.
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Somebody finally said it.
 
#124
JimmyM said:
OK bassist, average musician, brilliant writer and arranger who disappeared up his own ass by the end of Floyd's run.
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I'm pretty much in agreement with this.

I grew up listening to Pink Floyd, I've got every album on record and CD, saw them twice in concert and watched The Wall at least 500 times.

For me it's always been about their music setting a scene which was the back drop to a story, I never really gave allot of thought to the bass playing.
 
#125
zombywoof5050 said:
Put me in the camp that loves Roger's bass playing. Btw, I play in a Pink Floyd tribute band.

It's sad that you can't have a thread about Roger without someone coming in to criticize him and say that Gilmore played bass on most of the album cuts (which I don't believe is true).
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I've played dozens of Pink Floyd songs in cover bands over more than two decades and I think the bass parts that Roger played on the studio albums are just fine. I don't take anything away from him that they are simple basslines and I think some are misinterpreting a very specific observation about Waters playing to be some kind of personal attack or as an assertion that he was a hack on the bass. Neither is true.

I made the observation that there are many competent bass players who can play the bass on recordings and get similar results to what Roger got in the studio. The lines he came up with required no special creativity (he probably used up his allotment of genius for writing albums) and his execution is also nothing special. Listen to the many recordings of Roger's bass playing live in front of a crowd. Nothing special and he makes his fair share of mistakes and flubbed notes sprinkled here and there. This is true for his entire bass playing career and it's easily verified by listening to countless bootlegs and other recordings of his shows with the Pink Floyd.

I know bass players in local working bands who no one has ever heard of who can easily do what Waters did on bass both live and in studio. There are without doubt quite a large number of bassists here on TB who no one has heard of outside their gigging area who are at least his equal. By definition that makes him a mediocre bassist and that's not a bad thing especially when you consider that Waters didn't even like the bass and appeared to have pretty much given it up as his main instrument by the time he left the Floyd.

Why isn't the fact that he is widely acknowledged as a genius at writing songs and is the grandmaster of concept albums (and incidentally, an adequate bass player) enough for some of his fans. It's certainly enough for me, and I don't need to think of him as a great bass player as well to keep my respect for him intact.
 
#128
His bass lines are simple, and simplicity is often confused with basic. Simplicity is one of the hardest things to achieve in the music field , and as my teacher said to me once: "it is 1000 times easier play fast than playing right". So, I think that RW plays RIGHT
 

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