Why Cliff Williams = Genius

[descendent22]

i don't disagree with that. i'm sure it would sound good. ac/dc sounded good when chris slade was playing drums, too. but it's a feel thing...phil and cliff just have this natural feel together that feels really good.


ya, it's some heavy stuff they do.

Chris slate is a good drummer but he’s no Phil Rudd.100% agree it’s a feel thing. Phil’s drumming is the only drumming for th@t band

 

[JimmyM]

Chris slate is a good drummer but he’s no Phil Rudd.100% agree it’s a feel thing. Phil’s drumming is the only drumming for th@t band

Yep, but put Phil in The Firm or Manfred Mann's Earth Band and Chris would beat him every time, since Chris is a monster drummer with tremendous facility. And yet Phil's the only drummer for ACDC as far as I'm concerned. Don't even get me started on Simon Wright, who played with ACDC like he was doing it for the money, which he actually was.

 

[Ricky Rioli]

Chris slate is a good drummer but he’s no Phil Rudd.100% agree it’s a feel thing. Phil’s drumming is the only drumming for th@t band

Malcolm agrees. This is a great 5 minutes, but 2'50" to 3'50" is Malcolm on Phil:

 

[blue4]

Cliff Williams is a solid bassist but I don't think I'd go past that. That's not a criticism either, I like his band and his playing. I've never heard him outside of AC/DC though. For all I know, he could be trading licks with Jeff Berlin in his off time but Malcolm tells him what to play.

 

[JimmyM]

Cliff Williams is a solid bassist but I don't think I'd go past that. That's not a criticism either, I like his band and his playing. I've never heard him outside of AC/DC though. For all I know, he could be trading licks with Jeff Berlin in his off time but Malcolm tells him what to play.

He's pretty good. Won't rival Jaco but he's got some chops...or at least he did There's an album he did with a band called Home that had some pretty decent playing with busier lines than what he does in AC/DC.

 

[Ricky Rioli]

Malcolm tells him what to play

And he listened so carefully to what Malcolm had to say that he could carry on hearing what Malcolm was saying after Malcolm had died.

 

[lfmn16]

A genius? what makes him a genius? I love AC/DC and I enjoy listening to Cliffs simple and solid good sounding bass lines. Highway to Hell has still been my personal favorite AC/DC album for over 30 years now. But let's put it into perspective. He doesn't read a single note of music, never composed anything that would be deemed artistically worthy. Past musical genius's would be like Bach,and Beethoven, to more modern accomplished jazz artists like Stanley Clarke, Jaco ,Victor Wooten, and rockers like Steve Vai and Satriani and many others. I understand how much you like his playing, but would you really think he deserves the title of genius considering all the great musicians in the world today who most are unheard of and probably starving?

Only on TalkBass is a solid, but unremarkable bassist referred to as a genius.

 

[JimmyM]

And he listened so carefully to what Malcolm had to say that he could carry on hearing what Malcolm was saying after Malcolm had died.

LOL! Well the guy wasn't wrong about that. Cliff said Angus and Malcolm would often play bass on their demos and Cliff would pretty much play what they played but put his own angle on them. I guess only Angus does the demos now. Don't know if he trusts Stevie to do them yet