* Favorite/Most Underrated Bassist:
Paul McCartney
| Paul was one of the most innovative bass players ever. And half the stuff that is going on now is directly ripped off from his Beatles period.-- John Lennon1 |
Paul McCartney was a guitar player who was basically demoted to playing bass, setting the standard for most all rock bass players to follow, haha. Seriously though, he is, in my opinion, the most underrated bass player in Rock history. He has laid down some of the most taseful and melodic bass line's ever.
Listen to the bass lines on, A Day in the Life. Just because he's in the rhythm section doesn't mean he has to resign himself to just playing in the background. He treats the bass as if it were a lead instrument, but its not overpowering the vocals or other instruments. His bass stands out but its not stepping on anyone else's toes and it doesn't take away from the song.
One of my favorite songs, I Want You (She's So Heavy) has some haunting, trippy ass bass on it.
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*My Other Favorite Bad Ass Bass Player
James Jamerson
I think James Jamerson is behind pretty much every awesome Motown song ever. The guy was just a friggin genius.
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Other Awesome Bass Players I like
- John Entwistle
- John Paul Jones
- Geezer Butler
- Steve Harris:
- Cliff Burton: (for me there was no Metallica after Cliff died)
- Justin Chancellor [Tool]
And yeah, yeah, I didn't say any other names like, Victor Wooten, John Myung, Jaco Pastorious and all them other overly technical, jazzy dudes. I'm not saying it's not good, but thats just not my type of music.
Most Overrated Bass Player/s
Michael Anthony: While I don't condone bass playing that's so complex it interferes with melody and overall song structure, I also don't condone doing nothing but riding root notes all night long. Have some f*kking imagination. I'm not saying he's a bad bass player, just an overrated one.
Billy Sheehan: If you're gonna do nothing but play bass solos and tapping like Eddie Van Halen, then just play a f*kking guitar. I wouldn't listen to a bass player just because he's fast, no more than I would start a conversation with someone just because they could talk fast. Just because it might be fast doesn't mean it's necessarily interesting. Just because you might have a larger vocabulary than anyone else doesn't mean you have anything profound to say. Shit Ava is 4 1/2, still learning to master the English language and some of the shit she says is more interesting than anything most of the people I went to college with ever had to say.
Geddy Lee: I've never been a Rush fan and as far as bass playing goes, I don't believe in self-indulgency, and complexity simply for the sake of being complex.
- The dude from Green Day
- The dude from U2
- Gene Simmons
- Jason Newstead
- Flea *now he's ok, but some people think he's a bass God, and I refuse to give him any more credit than just a simple, "He's Ok."*
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Pick vs. Fingers
I'm somewhere in the middle on this one but I lean more towards a "no pick" philosophy. While I believe the bass should be learned without a pick, I also believe in a kind of "different tools for different jobs," type of thing too. If you're trying to achieve a certain tone, a pick could be appropriate.
But when all is said and done at the end of the day, I believe fingers vs pick is ultimate the difference between a Bass Player and simply, somebody who just plays bass.
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Best Horror Movie 1980-1995
The Shining [1980]: By the time I was 9 or 10 I had already seen movies like Faces of Death, The Exorcist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I don't scare easily. In my leisure time I look at gory websites of murder scenes, car crashes, and war atrocities for fun. Ever been to www.rotten.com? that's kids stuff compared to the stuff I watch for fun.
Anyways, I don't get scared by movies, but I do get disturbed by them, and the only movie that ever came close to scaring me was "The Shining," When I first saw it I was about 10 years old and already a veteran of many horror films and I prided myself on being able to literally watch anything without getting scared or sick. The Shining gave me the creeps. I had to get thru it in two sittings. That had never happened before and hasn't happened since. As far as book adaptations go, maybe not the truest film depiction of a book ever done, but it's definitely a disturbing, great movie.
P.S. want some messed up trippy websites that are not for the squeamish?
Also email your Ask a Guitarded Person questions anytime to bloggeradmin@guitardedblog.com
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