I always thought Sting was great sort of the same way Prince was great because he clearly has chops but much more concerned about the composition than flash.
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SBL: Sting Basslines
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
I always thought Sting was great sort of the same way Prince was great because he clearly has chops but much more concerned about the composition than flash.
He was brilliant. Is, I suppose, though I much prefer his work with the Police.
I've been a fan of the Police and Sting for 45 years, but I didn't fully appreciate Sting's brilliance as both a songwriter and bass player before I started playing bass myself. The more I delve into those songs, the better they get. Even the ones I didn't like when they came out have turned out to have hidden depths only waiting to be discovered. The video is awesome, and Ian and Sharon highlighted a lot of things I wasn't aware of. However, they still barely scratched the surface - there is material for a great many more Sting videos out there. 
Sting's big, prescient bass lines have a simplicity that outline a jazzer's harmonic outlook.
In a way, he makes me think of McCartney's playing, IF Paul had grown up listening to Miles instead of Little Richard
In a way, he makes me think of McCartney's playing, IF Paul had grown up listening to Miles instead of Little Richard
Sting has a solid Jazz background. He was also a chart reading musician who played for shows many years before the Police.
Somehow, when I hear 'Englishman in New York', I'm not hearing pop or rock.
The Police were 3 guys that were essentially virtuosos at music and their own instruments, that started out as a "punk" group, then fairly quickly did their own thing, and eventually did their own things. We were lucky to have them stay together for a few albums.
Sting is one of the very few bassists who composed great song after great song around simple killer bass hooks.
The very first album I ever bought back in 1981 was Regatta de Blanc. I didn’t know anything about the bass but I quickly honed into his playing and tone. It planted the bass bug seed in my brain that wasn’t fulfilled for another 20 years, but better late than never.
Great vid!
I've never seen the female player before, she's a good player and their byplay is really funny.
But when she asked "why did bands make videos back then - where did they play them with no youtube?" I really started feeling my age!
I've never seen the female player before, she's a good player and their byplay is really funny.
But when she asked "why did bands make videos back then - where did they play them with no youtube?" I really started feeling my age!
I started feeling my age when I went to find this article and realized it was 25 years old:
You Know, I Used To Be Kind Of Cool Once
You know how, every so often, something you haven’t thought about in the longest time will just sort of pop up out of nowhere, and all of a sudden you’re like, “Hey… Wait a minute”? Well, that happened to me last week, when it occurred to me that I actually used to sort of be cool once.
www.theonion.com
