The Last Bass Outpost
Main Forums => The Bass Zone => Topic started by: Stjofön Big on April 07, 2020, 10:33:32 AM
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Hope you haven't seen this yet. Not any real news for anyone with deep interest, but interesting anyway!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U7s4ogQcRM&t=20s
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I've seen parts of that interview but after hearing this guy blather on for four minutes, I tuned out. There are too many YT videos with too much talk about the subject, and not enough subject.
I love Carol's playing, but she didn't play on everything out of those Los Angeles studio sessions. Joe Osborn played on hundreds of hits too.
Also, Carol continues to insist that no one ever called them the Wrecking Crew back then.
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About 18:00 in, Carol takes them to the studio where she worked, and the people don't have any clue who she is even when she introduces herself. Just shoddy knowledge of the industry and its history.
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"I made a lot of money for this studio ya' know."
Sad but they had no clue.
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It reminds me of when I bought a "Bass Player" magazine many years ago with Jack Bruce on the cover. That got some letters to the editor asking why somebody named Jack Bruce had been on the cover since they had never even heard of him. Ignorance is a choice.
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It reminds me of when I bought a "Bass Player" magazine many years ago with Jack Bruce on the cover. That got some letters to the editor asking why somebody named Jack Bruce had been on the cover since they had never even heard of him. Ignorance is a choice.
No surprise there, Bass Player used to be little more than a Jaco Pastorius worship tract.
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No surprise there, Bass Player used to be little more than a Jaco Pastorius worship tract.
I just looked it up. That was the September 2001 issue. I let my subscription lapse. I buy one from time to time at the bookstore mostly because it's the most convenient store to where I live. Several month ago, to my surprise, they actually did have a page or two on Jack again. Of course, he wasn't on the cover.
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Hasn't it ever occured to you that hardly a single one of the first generation electric bass giants left much of an imprint on today's bassists?
I hear guitarists today and you can tell after a few seconds they were raised on Hendrix or Page or EvH or Yngwie Malmsteen, what have you. But when did you last hear a bass player in a contemporary song who reminded you of Jack Bruce, Macca, Chris Squire, John Entwistle or James Jamerson? Éxceptions are few and far between. When Flea does not do his funk routines, but plays melodious, I hear Jack Bruce in him. You never hear anybody inspired by Chris Squire unless he plays in a Prog band aping his bright Ric clank on a superficial level. I sometimes think that Macca played more thirds on Sgt. Pepper than all bassists combined on records that followed it, all I hear today are root notes und fifths, thirds seem to be verboten. And no one, absolutely no one plays like JAE or James Jamerson these days.
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There are reasons that playing like JAE or Jamerson is rare.
JAE is extremely difficult to emulate. His bass lines and speed intimidate the hell out of me. There are people who can run his bass lines, but not many can do it well.
Jamerson is a challenge not only of technique, but of thought. He had a way of thinking that resulted in bass lines different from anyone else.
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I don't pay much attention to what most of today's bassists are playing. That's not a criticism, I just don't listen to much of the music.
Joe Osborn, Jack Bruce, McCartney and Wyman were the players who taught me how to think about the role of the bass, even though they each had a different approach. Carol Kaye and Jamerson to some extent too, although I didn't know who they were back then.
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I don’t understand what is so appealing to these self important nobodies making videos where they comment on other artists, pausing all the time to show their limitless expertise. This guy or that dreadful woman RebeccaVocalAthlete (that name alone makes me itch).
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There are reasons that playing like JAE or Jamerson is rare.
JAE is extremely difficult to emulate. His bass lines and speed intimidate the hell out of me. There are people who can run his bass lines, but not many can do it well.
Jamerson is a challenge not only of technique, but of thought. He had a way of thinking that resulted in bass lines different from anyone else.
That doesn't really convince me given the fact that it is difficult to play like EvH, Yngwie or, say, John Petrucci too, yet many kids all around the world do it. Speed is something enough 16 year olds can learn relatively quickly if they set their minds to it as any visit to a Guitar Center or music fair will tell you.
Now you can of course say that the more technically-minded kids tend to go for guitar rather than bass, but there are still enough blitz kids on bass out there.
I believe that the role for bass has simple become more limited in the last few decades - people say what a genius JAE was, yet I'm certain that anybody playing like him (outside of a bass solo spot) would be unceremoniously kicked out of most recording studios and auditions today. People are no longer prepared to give that type of bass playing room.
Even his former band mates do not really seem to miss his bass playing that much. Townsend misses him as a person, but not really his bass playing (where JAE allowed little outside interference); I've never heard Daltrey say anything about JAE other than that he doesn't like performing his songs on stage. And Kenny Jones has immortalized himself with the quip: "Within The Who there was only one person playing bass: my bass drum. But we had two lead guitarists. I could never adapt to that role." :mrgreen:
I always said it, they should have chosen Ian Paice over Kenny J at those post-Keith Moon auditions. 8) But they went for the guy they personally knew rather than the guy who would have fitted better musically.
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I don’t understand what is so appealing to these self important nobodies making videos where they comment on other artists, pausing all the time to show their limitless expertise. This guy or that dreadful woman RebeccaVocalAthlete (that name alone makes me itch).
In his 70s best selling book Looking Out For #1, author Robert Ringer invented the term "schmexpert" which he described as a schmuck passing himself off as an expert.
I wonder if Ringer watches YT now and marvels at the number of schmexperts.
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I see this guy on the YouTube sidebar all the time. I always get a chuckle out of the "British guitarist" tag. Like, who gives a F where he's from? :rolleyes: I haven't watched any of his, but I've seen a couple of "vocal coach reacts to" videos that just made me cringe.
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I've seen some of his stuff, he has commented on Be Bop Deluxe for instance (favorably). Most people think that is a jazz music style. :-\ There are worse people out there, but in depth he is not.
It was great gratification for me though when Bill Nelson, the man behind Be Bop Deluxe reviewed an anniversary edition of DP's Machine Head and actually lauded the music for being "smart" and Blackmore's solos as "clever". This from a man who once panned Angel (the band) as "flve people, all dressed up as Freddie Mercury" and whose experiences touring with Ted Nugent made him doubt whether he was cut out for a rock star career (he wasn't).
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"flve people, all dressed up as Freddie Mercury" - Haha! Accurate!
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I don’t understand what is so appealing to these self important nobodies making videos where they comment on other artists, pausing all the time to show their limitless expertise. This guy or that dreadful woman RebeccaVocalAthlete (that name alone makes me itch).
The longer they pause the video and yack the more advert revenue they generate.
This guy has an annoying accent and can't grow a proper beard. He also dresses like a 15 year old boy. Nothing about him comes across as though he's an authority on the subject. He's basically yacking away the same information we could get by surfing Wikipedia or a decade of TalkBass posts.
I see this guy on the YouTube sidebar all the time. I always get a chuckle out of the "British guitarist" tag. Like, who gives a F where he's from?
I think he's headlined Madison Square Bedroom a few times, but that is about it. He's probably in five Djent-core extreme metal bands that never gig but release technically challenging concept albums every six months on Soundcloud?
There are reasons that playing like JAE or Jamerson is rare.
JAE is extremely difficult to emulate. His bass lines and speed intimidate the hell out of me. There are people who can run his bass lines, but not many can do it well.
Jamerson is a challenge not only of technique, but of thought. He had a way of thinking that resulted in bass lines different from anyone else.
Copying Jamerson's lines and tone is one thing, but inventing new bass lines that sound like Jamerson's parts are something else.
Controversially I stopped listening to JAE's playing to learn things pretty early on. I've never played in a band that would give me the bandwidth to use that sort of tone, or to play that busily. Plus, there is something harmonically lacking in JAE's bass lines. He had the speed, the technique and the gear. He was the first bassist on the moon for all of those things. Harmonically he was pretty limited in terms of note choices and falling back on set patterns and runs for fills.
I don't pay much attention to what most of today's bassists are playing. That's not a criticism, I just don't listen to much of the music.
I sense that Bass Culture (tm) is being driven partly by nostalgia and partly by gear rather than developing musicianship. It is easier to chat shit about basses online than it is to practice scales. If you follow online discussion forums etc, you would think that Flea was an innovative up and coming slap bassist, Les Claypool was still the darling of metal, Rush were still the biggest band that ever existed, and guys like Stu Hamm and Victor Wooten are still these brave, boundary-pushing and enthralling players. Bass culture is becoming fairly boring, fairly facile and horribly stuck in the mid-'90s in terms of a lot of development and ideas. Some of the freshest new players have a style and musicianship that is a heavy nod to the Motown/Stax sounds of the '60s going into Tower of Power, etc.
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I sense that Bass Culture (tm) is being driven partly by nostalgia and partly by gear rather than developing musicianship. It is easier to chat shit about basses online than it is to practice scales. If you follow online discussion forums etc, you would think that Flea was an innovative up and coming slap bassist, Les Claypool was still the darling of metal, Rush were still the biggest band that ever existed, and guys like Stu Hamm and Victor Wooten are still these brave, boundary-pushing and enthralling players. Bass culture is becoming fairly boring, fairly facile and horribly stuck in the mid-'90s in terms of a lot of development and ideas. Some of the freshest new players have a style and musicianship that is a heavy nod to the Motown/Stax sounds of the '60s going into Tower of Power, etc.
My personal Bass Culture (tm) :mrgreen: never got as far as the 90s.
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I see this guy on the YouTube sidebar all the time. I always get a chuckle out of the "British guitarist" tag. Like, who gives a F where he's from? :rolleyes: I haven't watched any of his, but I've seen a couple of "vocal coach reacts to" videos that just made me cringe.
I like this lady: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JODZAMCnV7Q
Her stuff actually breaks down the vocal stylings and explains why certain singers sound the way they do. She's not elitist and self-absorbed like some of the others I've seen. I've had years of vocal training and her approach is the closest to what I'm used to with the added bonus of her being just so damn cute. Plus she's really nice. I've emailed her with questions and she's very friendly and engaging.
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I kinda dig the guy, Wings of Pegasus, analyses. Think he's cool. A true fan with lots of love for music, and a lot of knowledge. As we all...
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I like this lady: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JODZAMCnV7Q
Her stuff actually breaks down the vocal stylings and explains why certain singers sound the way they do. She's not elitist and self-absorbed like some of the others I've seen. I've had years of vocal training and her approach is the closest to what I'm used to with the added bonus of her being just so damn cute. Plus she's really nice. I've emailed her with questions and she's very friendly and engaging.
I watched this video of hers last year. I thought it was an outstanding analysis of Gary Brooker's voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ajdXyTbjwU