Here's my weekly tribute to bassists who don't usually feature in lists of bass heroes.
Except this time, I'll give my award to a guitarist, as well as to all the great bassists he adjoined himself.
The Cure is my soul, my core band. The one which helped forge my musical identity at around 14-15 years old. The cure had the intelligence and originality to make me believe in music, in an era (the 80's) where music was all washed out synths played by guys with spray net and hair gel, all dressed in pastel colours. (Or else you had the "bad guys", wearing super tight spandex and even more spray net and hair gel...)
Then there was The Cure. They had way more hair gel than anybody else! But also more intelligence and defiance. They wore makeup to fight homophobia, in an era where teenagers fancied themselves skinheads...
The Cure were the true successors to bands like Joy Division. Just more polished.
They went from a punk period (with Michael Dempsey on the bass), a deeply and beautifully depressive period (with Simon Gallup), an interlude (with Phil Thornally), then a pop period (back with Gallup) which lasts to this day.
All the time, band leader Robert Smith has been true to his creed: He composes with the bass at the forefront. Then he superposes a web of atmospheric guitar over it, coupled with dreamy lyrics.
Smith can play a mean bass. But it's especially his aesthetics that always got him to 1st compose a great minimalist bass line and centre everything else around it.
I believe no band before The Cure has ever given such a prominent place to the bass.
In the original period, Smith had found himself a fantastic bassist with Michael Dempsey. But as he put it, «There had to be only one leader in the band». That's when he teamed up with Gallup, who was less entrepreneurial and did more his bidding. Albeit brilliantly! Even in the interlude when The Cure was without a bassist, Smith managed to make the bass the forefront instrument!
If you're unfamiliar, please read the 1st comments below for a selection.
Except this time, I'll give my award to a guitarist, as well as to all the great bassists he adjoined himself.
The Cure is my soul, my core band. The one which helped forge my musical identity at around 14-15 years old. The cure had the intelligence and originality to make me believe in music, in an era (the 80's) where music was all washed out synths played by guys with spray net and hair gel, all dressed in pastel colours. (Or else you had the "bad guys", wearing super tight spandex and even more spray net and hair gel...)
Then there was The Cure. They had way more hair gel than anybody else! But also more intelligence and defiance. They wore makeup to fight homophobia, in an era where teenagers fancied themselves skinheads...
The Cure were the true successors to bands like Joy Division. Just more polished.
They went from a punk period (with Michael Dempsey on the bass), a deeply and beautifully depressive period (with Simon Gallup), an interlude (with Phil Thornally), then a pop period (back with Gallup) which lasts to this day.
All the time, band leader Robert Smith has been true to his creed: He composes with the bass at the forefront. Then he superposes a web of atmospheric guitar over it, coupled with dreamy lyrics.
Smith can play a mean bass. But it's especially his aesthetics that always got him to 1st compose a great minimalist bass line and centre everything else around it.
I believe no band before The Cure has ever given such a prominent place to the bass.
In the original period, Smith had found himself a fantastic bassist with Michael Dempsey. But as he put it, «There had to be only one leader in the band». That's when he teamed up with Gallup, who was less entrepreneurial and did more his bidding. Albeit brilliantly! Even in the interlude when The Cure was without a bassist, Smith managed to make the bass the forefront instrument!
If you're unfamiliar, please read the 1st comments below for a selection.
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