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Thoughts on Roger Waters as a Bass Player
- Thread starter Pow R Tosh
- Start date
If you listen to the Peel Sessions you can hear a good sampling of Roger's playing, and get a feel for his style. I personally really dig it. I think you can also tell that the album version of Any Colour You Like has to be Roger, since it has so many of his little flourishes in it.
In my honest opinion,
My feeling is that Roger Waters is and always will be a great Bassist.
I love Pink Floyd and I really liked the Wall from the Berlin Wall live.
I will always be a fan
My feeling is that Roger Waters is and always will be a great Bassist.
I love Pink Floyd and I really liked the Wall from the Berlin Wall live.
I will always be a fan
Roger Waters was one of my early influences on bass. (Or whoever played bass on any given Pink Floyd song.)
Who cares, really? Nobody bought Floyd albums for the stellar chopsfest.
I think he's an accomplished player, composer, and performer.
But with the never ending feud over Floyd, for me he's one more very rich and privileged famous musician for whom so much is never enough. These long festering disputes, like CSNY among others, just seems like school children. Successful, blessed men shouldn't act like pouting schoolboys. Grow up, settle your differences once and for all, and move on.
I lose patience with all the BS.
But with the never ending feud over Floyd, for me he's one more very rich and privileged famous musician for whom so much is never enough. These long festering disputes, like CSNY among others, just seems like school children. Successful, blessed men shouldn't act like pouting schoolboys. Grow up, settle your differences once and for all, and move on.
I lose patience with all the BS.
Not a great bass player.
Great band.
Great band.
It may be that a lot of rock band disputes are overdramatized by the press anyways
I find that while the press certainly isn't immune from riding this or that story way past done, the same story showing from many sources for many years (much less RW's spleen-venting interviews) leads me to think there's really something there.
The very successful and very rich complaining about things they could fix if they'd act like grownups for a change has just gotten very tiring. But then I always underestimate just how many people are happy being functionally unhappy. What a waste.
The very successful and very rich complaining about things they could fix if they'd act like grownups for a change has just gotten very tiring. But then I always underestimate just how many people are happy being functionally unhappy. What a waste.
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He's no virtuoso but he has a very recognisable style and his bass parts support and add to the songs without taking away the focus from the song itself. That's the definition of a good bass player IMO.
Well, he's successful… kind of like Gene Simmons— he's good enough to have a long, successful career in a field that is pretty tough to make a living in. So there's that.
Roger has a style I like, pretty simple and serves the songs well. What else can you ask for really…?
When it comes to evaluating a bass player's talent, many variables should be considered:
1) the type of band
2) technical prowess
3) groove
4) timing
5) creativity
6) tone
7) when NOT to play
8)etc.
Waters was smooth, precise, and melodic. And he did those 3 things very well, along with great transitions from one note to another.
To me, it's much more difficult to lock in with a drummer on songs with low BPM. I certainly admire him for his ability to achieve that.
1) the type of band
2) technical prowess
3) groove
4) timing
5) creativity
6) tone
7) when NOT to play
8)etc.
Waters was smooth, precise, and melodic. And he did those 3 things very well, along with great transitions from one note to another.
To me, it's much more difficult to lock in with a drummer on songs with low BPM. I certainly admire him for his ability to achieve that.
Playing any instrument is about serving the song. Waters (and Gilmour) did this perfectly on their songs and that's why they have and will stand the test of time. Their songs are things of beauty. I love the simplicity of his bass playing. Less is more as they say - music is as much about what you don't play as much as what you play.
Brick in the Wall is driven by a memorable and stand-out baseline. He knew how to get a great tone - think live at Pompeii!. How many bass players could make one note sound so good in One of These Days. His bass playing on Piper and Saucerful is perfect for those early albums - possibly a bit more busy than his later playing. Set the controls is a stand out baseline again from that period. Simple but it's the first thing I think of when I think of that song.
I know this tread is about his bass playing, but his ability take a theme and turn it into musical masterpiece is peerless.
Yeah, I'm a fan
Brick in the Wall is driven by a memorable and stand-out baseline. He knew how to get a great tone - think live at Pompeii!. How many bass players could make one note sound so good in One of These Days. His bass playing on Piper and Saucerful is perfect for those early albums - possibly a bit more busy than his later playing. Set the controls is a stand out baseline again from that period. Simple but it's the first thing I think of when I think of that song.
I know this tread is about his bass playing, but his ability take a theme and turn it into musical masterpiece is peerless.
Yeah, I'm a fan
From a technical perspective, there's something about his bass playing (across various Floyd albums) that I've always noticed and appreciated. I've always noticed his initial voicing of notes (various types of initial attack), and especially his ending of notes (various kinds of decay and decay lengths, chopping off a note on a perfect purpendicular angle, etc.). He's not playing in the manner of Phil Lesh, Jack Bruce, John Entwistle, Geddy Lee, or Steve Harris. But gosh, his smart choices in how to begin and end a note have always gripped me. And for that, his recorded material has been a teaching example for me.
David Gilmour is a guitar legend. I'll just stay positive.
/thread.
That's basically all you need to say. Pink Floyd has done some marvelous stuff and certainly sits at the head of the table in Valhalla with the GOAT of that kind of music. Mr. Waters work on the bass blends in perfectly and that is all what is needed to make it work.
As if there wasn't already enough reason to dislike the blowhard...
agreed....I am a huge Pink Floyd fan and I have mega-appreciation for Waters' artistry, but I dont think Waters' cared much about bass playing itself and I can feel it.....I do like Gilmour's bass playing - huge big difference!
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