The Last Bass Outpost
Main Forums => The Bass Zone => Topic started by: Chaser001 on February 12, 2010, 10:50:16 AM
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I ran across this completely by accident. If it were just a regular blog, I would not give it a second thought. But this is National Public Radio. This is funded by taxpayers as far as I know. Maybe I lack a sense of humor, but I don't see much amusing about this. The writer uses the well-known Michael Anthony drunken bass solo to make her point.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monitormix/2010/02/drunk_bass_solo_a_meditation_e.html
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My bass solos are terrible drunk or sober. :-\
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Just remember the popular joke about why the drums can never stop.
Opinions are like ******** . . . everybody has one.
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Funny I actually kind of enjoyed it. The buffoonery, the non attempt at anything really musical.
Really any unaccompanied solo I find really boring, pick an instrument.
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I think we're all pretty familiar with this, but it bears reposting:
In the beginning there was a bass. It was a Fender, probably a Precision, but it could have been a Jazz - nobody knows. Anyway, it was very old ... definitely pre-C.B.S. And God looked down upon it and saw that it was good. He saw that it was very good in fact, and couldn't be improved on at all (though men would later try.) And so He let it be and He created a man to play the bass. And lo the man looked upon the bass, which was a beautiful 'sunburst' red, and he loved it. He played upon the open E string and the note rang through the earth and reverberated throughout the firmaments (thus reverb came to be.) And it was good
And God heard that it was good and He smiled at his handiwork. Then in the course of time, the man came to slap upon the bass. And lo it was funky. And God heard this funkiness and He said, "Go man, go." And it was good. And more time passed, and, having little else to do, the man came to practice upon the bass. And lo, the man came to have upon him a great set of chops. And he did play faster and faster until the notes rippled like a breeze through the heavens. And God heard this sound which sounded something like the wind, which He had created earlier. It also sounded something like the movement of furniture, which He hadn't even created yet, and He was not so pleased.
And He spoke to the man, saying "Don't do that!" Now the man heard the voice of God, but he was so excited about his new ability that he slapped upon the bass a blizzard of funky notes. And the heavens shook with the sound, and the Angels ran about in confusion. (Some of the Angels started to dance, but that's another story.) And God heard this - how could He miss it - and lo He became Bugged. And He spoke to the man, and He said, "Listen man, if I wanted Jimi Hendrix I would have created the guitar. Stick to the bass parts."
And the man heard the voice of God, and he knew not to mess with it. But now he had upon him a passion for playing fast and high. The man took the frets off of the bass which God had created. And the man did slide his fingers upon the fretless fingerboard and play melodies high upon the neck. And, in his excitement, the man did forget the commandment of the Lord, and he played a frenzy of high melodies and blindingly fast licks. And the heavens rocked with the assault and the earth shook, rattled and rolled. Now God's wrath was great. And His voice was thunder as He spoke to the man. And He said, "O.K. for you, pal. You have not heeded My word. Lo, I shall create an soprano saxophone and it shall play higher than you can even think of." "And from out of the chaos I shall bring forth the drums. And they shall play so many notes thine head shall ache, and I shall make you to always stand next to the drummer." "You think you're loud? I shall create a stack of Marshall guitar amps to make thine ears bleed. And I shall send down upon the earth other instruments, and lo, they shall all be able to play higher and faster than the bass."
"And for all the days of man, your curse shall be this; that all the other musicians shall look to you, the bass player, for the low notes. And if you play too high or fast all the other musicians shall say "Wow" but really they shall hate it. And they shall tell you you're ready for your solo career, and find other bass players for their bands. And for all your days if you want to play your fancy licks you shall have to sneak them in like a thief in the night." "And if you finally do get to play a solo, everyone shall leave the bandstand and go to the bar for a drink." And it was so.
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Lots of showman ship going on, I liked it ! Clearly not as drunk as he would like you to think, it's a act. Don Powell of Slade did the same thing, Huge bottle of booze........................................... filled with ice tea.
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Clearly not as drunk as he would like you to think, it's a act.
True, he is more performing comedy, than trying to impress with his chopes (which he does have). It more about entertainment.
Like when BucketHead performs with him numchucks-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUvW9RnL65s&feature=related
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I think we're all pretty familiar with this, but it bears reposting:
New to me, but I like... :thumbsup:
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New to me, but I like... :thumbsup:
It's the opening of Tony Levin's book, Beyond The Bass Clef.
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I think my opinions of Michael Anthony and his solo/bass playing expertise have been made quite clear in the past so I shall refrain from boring you any more than you have already been due to Messer Anthothys bass abuse. :puke:
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This isn't just about Michael Anthony. The writer of the blog makes it pretty clear what she thinks of bass solos in general in her second paragraph. Furthermore, she used to be in a "power trio" with no bass. I have googled her band and I do have to disagree with one of the YouTube comments which said that her band was even better than Cream or the Jimi Hendrix Experience. I really don't think so. I also don't think I like the idea of my tax dollars funding NPR, period. This blog is just one example of NPR's many imperfections.
Note: I am having to revise what I said here, although it is done in a later post. As it turns out, though, it appears that the blog was probably more about Michael Anthony than I realized.
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....... I also don't think I like the idea of my tax dollars funding NPR, period. This blog is just one example of NPR's many imperfections.
+1. I listen to NPR from time to time and find some of it entertaining - though not all of it. I would rather see money from NPR go to fund music programs in underserved schools.
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NPR has its faults, but it's still the only radio venue where you can get more than a 45-second news story (usually a 15-second story). Their feature stories are excellent, and they do have reporters who actually specialize on topics and know something about them. Most TV reporters are hired as much for their hair and teeth as for their reporting.
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I hadn't read this until now, but my thought was, it's just someone's opinion, and whether a site is publicly funded or not, a blogger is entitled to personal opinion. NPR has never claimed to be devoid of personal preferences.
Then I looked. It's Carrie Brownstein. More than 10 posts in this thread and nobody mentioned it was Carrie's blog? Nobody else here knows her? IMO she's a great guitarist, and a much better guitarist than Michael Anthony is a bassist. YMMV, of course.
I don't think she was trying to be amusing. Whatever.
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Michael Anthony was never my cup of tea but to slag him off as not being a good bassist ? Naw that's silly.
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Michael Anthony was never my cup of tea but to slag him off as not being a good bassist ? Naw that's silly.
Where did she do that? She just posed some things to think about.
I see a lot of reading things into her (brief) comments that just aren't there.
She doesn't like bass solos. I expect the vast majority of listeners would agree with her.
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Where did she do that? She just posed some things to think about.
I see a lot of reading things into her (brief) comments that just aren't there.
She doesn't like bass solos. I expect the vast majority of listeners would agree with her.
My band was always forcing me to do a bass solo. I hated doing them.
One of the last cover bands I was in kept throwing me under the bus in "Brown-Eyed Girl", thinking it would be cool to do an impromptu bass solo. I finally came up with the perfect plan. After the lead singer introduced me doing my solo, I'd stop playing. The minute he went to the mic to recover, I'd jump on it. We'd do that back and forth for 8 measures. It ended up being funny, and they finally stopped trying to make me do a solo. 8)
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I think most hipster musicians today are aghast that anyone ever committed to their music without fear of ridicule from the clasped-arm set who attend every show and never change their facial expression from "mildly amused, but quite sleepy." Goof around on stage and act like a jackass-- doesn't Michael Anthony want the blogs to say he's cool !?!?
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I hadn't read this until now, but my thought was, it's just someone's opinion, and whether a site is publicly funded or not, a blogger is entitled to personal opinion. NPR has never claimed to be devoid of personal preferences.
Then I looked. It's Carrie Brownstein. More than 10 posts in this thread and nobody mentioned it was Carrie's blog? Nobody else here knows her? IMO she's a great guitarist, and a much better guitarist than Michael Anthony is a bassist. YMMV, of course.
I don't think she was trying to be amusing. Whatever.
I had heard some of her songs. Today I looked up some more which were live performances and I have to say I did like those better. Another thing I did was to look up some more things she has written. I now think in this particular blog she was not actually criticizing bassists in general, but Michael Anthony himself. That makes this into a different situation. As for Michael Anthony, it seems to me he is quite a controversial figure. So that is what I honestly don't understand. I don't know why some people dislike Michael Anthony so much. I never liked Van Halen's songs, so I haven't listened to Michael Anthony's bass playing enough to have an opinion on it.
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Michael Anthony was never my cup of tea but to slag him off as not being a good bassist ? Naw that's silly.
Scott, like Dave says "Its all just opinions". I think most of MA's bass lines suffer from laziness as a player. Including his infamous Jack Daniels bass solo. Someone else mentioned his chops. I agree he has the capacity to play (AND WRITE!) good lines but I hear a whole lot of "Dont GAF" in his playing. This is made worse when you can hear that he IS capable of playing something decent. Something inside me finds that attitude repugnant.
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EB2's (or clones) are great for soloing... sit em on top of the amp and leave the rest to science... ;D
Cheers for the info, Gary... I remember seeing Tony Levin with Gabriel and in the middle of doodling around on a "Stick", the cable came out... the silence before the sniggers was deafening...
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it is embarrassing to watch if you are not of a certain age, like 16.
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I don't get it. Does this Carrie character not realise that the Jack Daniels Michael Anthony solo was a joke, a parody?
That solo is all about taking the piss out of all bass solos. And he laid it on pretty thick.
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Himmel, Herr Anthony tried to entertain a stadium. Not sure how many stadiums the ladywriter has played. If you play in a band with EvH, an icon, if not the icon of modern guitar playing, there is little point in seriously attempting to compete with him in a solo spot. Unless you are Joey di Maio, wear assless chaps, live with your parents and do sloppy tapping on a narrow neck Ric clone.
Anthony can both be inventive and tasteful, I invite anybody to listen to what he does on the recent Chickenfoot album. Much looser and more creative than anything he did with VH where between the antics of the two bruddahs he was relegated to playing very little.
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this Carrie character
the ladywriter
The writer is Carrie Brownstein, lead guitarist and sometime vocalist of the former Sleater-Kinney. You don't have to agree with anything she says, but she's certainly not a nobody. Sleater-Kinney was a successful indie band for many years until Corin Tucker decided raising her kid was more important.
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I am a nobody and I still think MA's JD solo is less than entertainment (TO ME!). Anyone who gets entertainment value out of that solo without cringing.... good luck to them. If its supposed to be not so subtle humor taking the piss out of Eddie as Rob suggests I missed it. But then, I find humor in Jerry Sadowitz' comedy, a lot of people do not.
http://www.jerrysadowitz.com/pages/main.htm (http://www.jerrysadowitz.com/pages/main.htm)
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If its supposed to be not so subtle humor taking the piss out of Eddie as Rob suggests I missed it.
That is not what I suggested. I think his bass solo was meant as a parody on bass solos.
The whole whiskey guzzling act, the whooo-eee yelling, running around, banging fists on the bass, etc
It all makes it perfectly clear that it was not meant as a serious display of musical craftmanship (whatever that may be)
@ Dave: I've never heard of Carrie Brownstein nor Sleater-Kinney, Corin Tucker. I don't think a lot of people outside the USA are familiar with those names.
Michael Anthony on the other hand...
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i can't prove it but i think SK were wider known than people imagine. OTOH, anthony is a very well known clown.
BTW i have noticed on bass forums in general people try to elevate some players skills to a point they never/couldn't reach for whatever reason.
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That is not what I suggested. I think his bass solo was meant as a parody on bass solos.
The whole whiskey guzzling act, the whooo-eee yelling, running around, banging fists on the bass, etc
It all makes it perfectly clear that it was not meant as a serious display of musical craftmanship (whatever that may be)
@ Dave: I've never heard of Carrie Brownstein nor Sleater-Kinney, Corin Tucker. I don't think a lot of people outside the USA are familiar with those names.
Michael Anthony on the other hand...
Isn't there a joke about bass players being a bunch of gorillas? If so, I think Michael Anthony was playing off that whole idea.
Sleater-Kinney was very well known in the indie music scene in the states, and toured frequently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleater-Kinney
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I just listened to it all the way through. It's an act and there is nothing wrong with that. The melodic chordy echoey stuff he plays around 4.30 comes over nice and will educate some people in VH's audience that a bass can sound harmonic too. I've suffered through so many guitar solo spots far worse, I makes me wonder why poor Michael was sought out to be the target here.
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Isn't there a joke about bass players being a bunch of gorillas? If so, I think Michael Anthony was playing off that whole idea.
Sleater-Kinney was very well known in the indie music scene in the states, and toured frequently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleater-Kinney
Wait until Rob finds out that Sleater-Kinney had no bassist. :-X
Corin did play a lot of bass-like rhythm parts.
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Wait until Rob finds out that Sleater-Kinney had no bassist. :-X
Corin did play a lot of bass-like rhythm parts.
That was a near keyboard spew!!! :o
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I makes me wonder why poor Michael was sought out to be the target here.
Because Carrie Brownstein lacks of a sense of humor maybe?
Or maybe she has one, but I don't get it. That's always a possibility ;D
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I maintain that you play to your audience. I remember that when I was a kid we referred to VH as "Jock Rock" and I'm fairly certain that the "solo" in question played very well to the, then, target audience. Looking back 20+ years later through the lense of disdain is not a fair take on MA.
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+1 and Van Halen always came off as really goofy in a very Hollywood way,i mean come on DLR was always a clown.he's like Soupy Sales
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The way that MA runs around the stage and does the whole cape/superman thing is what made think he was taking the piss out of Eddie rather than other bassists. I can listen to most music but when things make me cringe to watch/hear I cant pretend to like them.
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I never cared for Van Halen. Couldn't tell you what any of them did on stage.
OTOH I was a Sleater-Kinney fan from the beginning. Quirky songwriting and playing, It appealed to me but I never expected them to be as big as they actually became.