YouTube comments

[nofi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc3FMrjvJw4&feature=related

[westen44]

To be honest, I came late to the Hendrix party.  I liked a lot of the first album, and still do, but I've never been a big fan of either Axis or EL.  I just found them too trippy.  I perked up for Band of Gypsys, but not for "Machine Gun".  It was the shorter, and more structured songs.  The album that I always loved, if you hadn't figured it out, was Cry of Love.  It was cleaner, more intricate, more soulful and better structured.

My understanding of the real phenomenon of Hendrix was his ability to remember every solo and part he wrote, to the point where he could play them backwards perfectly.  I seem to recall an interview with Eddie Kramer that talked about recording songs like that to invert to sound envelope.

That's true; he could play the solos backwards in his head.  Kramer, of all people, would know about that. 

[Highlander]

Hansen has a track record for Hendrix that goes back some way... iirc he played incidental Hendrixie influenced material on Apocalypse Now, but he also released an outstanding LP in his own right...

A 1 hour show with Buddy Miles...



With the Roth clan and Jack Bruce...



... and two from his emponymous 1980 release...

 

I still play this LP (okay, my mp3 version of it, though I do still have the rather worn vinyl) at full volume, which it thoroughly deserves - Time Won't Stop has a superb feel and a stunning solo - the outro run hits home every time - excellent rhythm section throughout the lp too - a nice Sly Stone (higher) cover on the lp too...

[uwe]

I had issues with Hendrix' non-singing for much of the seventies and eighties. These days I like the way he talks over the music.

Will I get slaughtered here that I sometimes hear a bit or more than a bit of Hendrix in how Prince solos?

[Highlander]

Perfectly agreed - an under-rated guitarist...

There was a lot of speculation of the jazz leanings Hendrix had - it would have been fascinating had he lived... what he would have been doing now...

[westen44]

Perfectly agreed - an under-rated guitarist...

There was a lot of speculation of the jazz leanings Hendrix had - it would have been fascinating had he lived... what he would have been doing now...

In his autobiography, Noel Redding does state that he was convinced Hendrix would have become a "jazzer." 

[Dave W]

I liked Noel Redding much better than Billy Cox for the same reason I like Bill Wyman much better than Darryl Jones.

[westen44]

I liked Noel Redding much better than Billy Cox for the same reason I like Bill Wyman much better than Darryl Jones.

This is certainly not my cup of tea.  But if you take a poll, you would probably have more that like it than dislike it. 

[nofi]

ish....
the easter bunny plays bass.

[gweimer]

This is certainly not my cup of tea.  But if you take a poll, you would probably have more that like it than dislike it. 

I've never been a fan of Wyman, but this clip is certainly not my cup of tea at all.

[uwe]

This is certainly not my cup of tea.  But if you take a poll, you would probably have more that like it than dislike it. 

Give DJ a break, that's a looped fusion solo at a clinic, it's not how he plays with The Stones at all! In fact, with The Stones, he plays like a lot of bassists "better than rock" play if they have to play rock, rather ploddingly and unimaginatively. It's like they take on a second identity or wish to merge into an archaic jungle tribe, "I better pretend to not know how to read and write now so I fit in". Sometimes, people at the limit of their capabilities come up with the more original stuff. Wyman's forte was of course that he played where 90% of other bassists would not and refrained from playing where 90% of other bassists would play. In contrast, with The Stones, DJ plays stadium rock bass - he wouldn't have to adapt this adopted style if he played for, say, Journey. Since Wyman has left, the Stones have lost some of their rhythm section idiosyncracy. Not that 99% of the Stones audience hear the dif or give a crap.

[Dave W]

Making the music sound good beats technical prowess any time. I could only listen to a few seconds of that. Yuck.

I agree with Uwe about his style with the Stones vs. Wyman. He's certainly a capable bassist, but has none of Wyman's intuition.

[westen44]

Give DJ a break, that's a looped fusion solo at a clinic, it's not how he plays with The Stones at all! In fact, with The Stones, he plays like a lot of bassists "better than rock" play if they have to play rock, rather ploddingly and unimaginatively. It's like they take on a second identity or wish to merge into an archaic jungle tribe, "I better pretend to not know how to read and write now so I fit in". Sometimes, people at the limit of their capabilities come up with the more original stuff. Wyman's forte was of course that he played where 90% of other bassists would not and refrained from playing where 90% of other bassists would play. In contrast, with The Stones, DJ plays stadium rock bass - he wouldn't have to adapt this adopted style if he played for, say, Journey. Since Wyman has left, the Stones have lost some of their rhythm section idiosyncracy. Not that 99% of the Stones audience hear the dif or give a crap.

Something that you've said there resonates with me.  The part about sometimes people at the limit of their capabilities come up with the more original stuff.  Just because of the way things have worked out, I've found myself around people that I would consider real pros.  Most of the time they've been formally trained, too.  Sometimes I'll hear comments that what I'm doing is creative, original, etc.  I think more often than not, what is really happening is that I may have pushed myself to the limit and I honestly don't know how to come up with anything else.  Actually, this isn't doing anything for my ego or confidence to think that this may be true, though.  The only solution--if there actually is one--is to continue attempts to get better. 

[Pilgrim]

Making the music sound good beats technical prowess any time. I could only listen to a few seconds of that. Yuck.

I feel exactly the same way.  That clip exemplifies much of what I intensely dislike about modern bass playing.  To me, the sound is very unpleasant.

[uwe]

Rhino, the "new" Status Quo bassist since the eighties, once said in an interview (tired of comparisons to his predecessor Alan Lancaster who, inter alia, played mostly with downstrokes - even the fast stuff - with his pick while Rhino is a much more nimble finger player): "What people don't realize is that Alan - and I love his style - played to the best extent of his capabilites then". Rhino (not a nasty person) was indicating that while he was, within Quo, playing at a, say, 50% level of his capabilities,  Alan - true - had done so at 95%. And you know what: That is exactly why Lancaster's bass playing had a sense of urgency and perhaps unrelaxed forcefulness in it that Rhino's much more supple bass playing so totally lacks. Lancaster was fighting his limits and Status Quo sounded so much better for it. Lancaster himself put it down to his pick playing in an interview years later, but I believe he was missing the point or maybe didn't want to admit to how much better a bass player Rhino technically is. When Alan played a fast run, you could hear that he just barely made it, when Rhino does the same, it's effortless for him.

Another example: I saw "Hairsnake" in 1990, the Vai line up. I believe Vai is an utterly idiosyncratic player and a gifted musician and more fluid than even EvH, Satriani or Steve Morse. I love what he did with Alcatrazz on Disturbing the Peace. Everything he did at that Monsters of Rock gig was effortless, he made Vandenberg, Perry and Whitford (Aerosmith were seond on the bill) seem like klutzes on guitar. He was so sky-high above the other guitarist that he looked like he was taking the piss on them (I'm sure he wasn't even though he admittd today that he regrets in hindsight how much he overplayed with WS live making an hand injury ailing Vandenberg feel even worse). It was horrible. Like seeing an adult method actor take part in an amateur play of children. It grated so much it was physically painful to watch and hear.

Vai is effortless even in comparison to Malmsteen (certainly no technical slouch), just compare the two here (playing a Malmsteen composition):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdDfd4aKFrs&feature=related



To the unaccustomed ear, both Malmsteen and Vai might "noodle", but I hear, however comic book/Spinal Tap amd Blackmore-clonish you might perceive Yngwie to be, a lot more bite, effort, passion and conviction (also: more mistakes and slight inaccuracies) in his playing than in Vai's. That is not to knock Vai at all, in the right setting he can be lovely/breathtaking, but he too needs music that demands something off him. Vai would have been great with Miles Davis, I'm sure.