Top 50 Hard Rock + Metal Bassists of All Time Read More: Top 50 Hard Rock + Met

[Basvarken]

Don't know if this is for real. But if it is, it's pretty sad...

[nofi]

its hard for me to think of maiden as a metal band. their 3 guitar set up has a very thin tone and no balls at all. the long songs lessen the sonic impact even more. way to much soloing going on as well. its a wonder they have so many crazy fans world wide.

[slinkp]

Like everything else, "metal" has evolved quite a lot over time.
I've never been particularly up on what is and what isn't.... but Maiden sure qualified to the legions of fans that I vaguely knew in middle school circa 1983.
Those same kids were Ozzy fans in sixth grade a year or two before, and many of them jumped on Metallica a couple years later.
So to me it's hard to imagine Maiden as not metal.  But that's genres for you, no two people ever quite agree what they are

[mc2NY]

I prefer to use my fingers...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/best-family-feud-answer_56016ad2e4b00310edf88c38?ir=Entertainment%253Fncid%253Dnewsltushpmg00000003

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Like everything else, "metal" has evolved quite a lot over time.
I've never been particularly up on what is and what isn't.... but Maiden sure qualified to the legions of fans that I vaguely knew in middle school circa 1983.
Those same kids were Ozzy fans in sixth grade a year or two before, and many of them jumped on Metallica a couple years later.
So to me it's hard to imagine Maiden as not metal.  But that's genres for you, no two people ever quite agree what they are

Metallica's, the REAL one anyway, swan song was opening on their Master of Puppets Tour for Ozzy, so the comparison is apt. Most of those are just "bass players in famous rock/metal bands" and few of them truly innovative or influential, so much so that even though there are probably as many sub-genres of metal as there are pop bands total, they're plodding out doubled guitar riffs like the faithful octave pedals they're expected to be. Good bass players that didn't even rate a mention on that list? Faith No More's Billy Gould, Eerie Von's tenure in Danzig (Behemoth's plodding white-boy cover of "Until You Call on the Dark" shows just how much soul that band once had ) and I have to wonder if bands like the Supersuckers were "too punk," (though Dee Dee got the obligatory nod-songwriting: yes, playing: no) because Eddie Spaghetti is one of THE most solid bassists EVER and Rex Brown and Cliff Burton should BOTH be rated much higher- both were the foundation for guitar tones that "somehow never sounded right" without them.  Flea, Geddy and Geezer all rightfully sit near the top, and I'm with Uwe: Maiden is OK, but Steve Harris is overrated. Bonus points for showing Tim Commerford with a Lakland and not his "70's Jazz with homemade pickups."

I'd reorder the hell out of that list but only if I were being paid to do so. Pissed off music is my specialty: this list was compiled by guitar players.

[Dave W]

I''d just like to know how Jack Bruce made the list. Is he hard rock or metal?     Shades of Jethro Tull's hard rock/metal Grammy!

[uwe]

Don't know if this is for real. But if it is, it's pretty sad...

It might be him and with the amount of jumping around he does on stage and and maybe the 115th night of another Maiden World Tour, I doubt I would do better.

The thing is: Harris was never a metronomic "throbber" like Ian Hill of Priest or Cliff Williams of AC/DC (who were both initially different bassist, but adjusted their playing to stadium walls). Harris still plays like he did in that pub where Maiden started their career, he never adjusted. By metal or even rock standards, his playing is overly busy, yet repetetive, extremely pentatonic and for all its swiftness filled with little timing inaccuracies/idiosyncracies that make it sound lively, but also cluttered. Plus he's always jumping ahead of the already hasty Maiden beat. His bass playing is also what makes Maiden sound a little punkish at times (and their NWOBHM phase albums with DiAnno sounded real punkish, not just for his singing either). But I grant Steve H. an individual style that he has kept undeterred by what people perceive as "proper" heavy metal/heavy rock bass playing. He has also influenced countless kids to take up bass playing and that is a good thing.

Are Maiden heavy metal? Good question. They label themselves as such and most of their fans consider them to be, but  their music really isn't that brutal and hammering, they never recorded a song as shrieky-heavy-frantic as, say, Priest's Painkiller or Freewheel Burning. While most Maiden songs are faster than the 120-140 bpm that rule most traditional heavy music with an iron fist, the typical Maiden gallop (at least in the studio) never reaches speed metal margins. I tend to consider Maiden a heavy rock band - had they existed with their music in the 70ies (as the NME always claims they do!), I don't believe they would have been branded as heavy metal. There is even a good deal of prog content in their sprawling compositions and a lot of Maiden guitar interplay sounds like a 33 rpm Wishbone Ash album played at 45 rpm. Steve Harris probably wouldn't disagree with that as he is a great Wishbone Ash fan.

Why are they so continuously popular though their music was never really current at any given time and they never had single hits? Sheer preseverance, relentless touring, the fact that they are truly a people's band (and that is not an act, they are sincere in that, their concerts are holy communions of audience and band) that throughout its success has managed to retain an underdog and outsider image (it never was and never will be cool to like Maiden), a certain naffness/very Brit bloke-ishness that makes them accessible/likeable and the fact that - by mere chance, but then they doggedly stuck to it - they created with their shrunkhead mascot Eddie a trademark that (like all good trademarks) has long transcended their own market. Edith knows next to nothing about Iron Maiden and wouldn't recognize a single song (she's by now much better at recognizing Judas Priest, let me tell you!), but she knows that "they make all these covers with that disgusting, creepy figure".

[uwe]

I''d just like to know how Jack Bruce made the list. Is he hard rock or metal?     Shades of Jethro Tull's hard rock/metal Grammy!

I know that they have always denied this and been embarrassed about it, but Cream were in many ways a seed for first heavy rock and then heavy metal. The first Sabbath albums sound like a second rate Cream slowed down, they even swiped whole riffs (just listen to Sunshine of your Love and N.I.B) and you know where Sabbath's influence went. Dominant guitar soloing/improvisation plus equally dominant drumming with flashy rolls (the two instruments adolescent boys want to play) are key ingredients of nearly all forms of heavy music and Cream pretty much copyrighted both. And Jack Bruce's bass playing was like a second guitar in that. Finally, his vocal style - singing riffs in unison on one hand, but then on the other hand coming up with vocal lines that had very little to do with what the music did, it sure wasn't "backing" his vocal lines - was hugely influential. Ian Gillan was a fan for one (as was David Byron of Uriah Heep) and you can hear that in early Purple which is generally regarded as fledgling heavy metal (though the Purps and I have issues with that, but in truth 1970's In Rock was similarly pivotal as 1984's Ride the Lightning of Metallica for paving the way to heavier music). It's no secret that Mountain patterned themselves after Cream too and they were certainly already a step into heavy rock territory.

If there had been no Cream and only a Jimi Hendrix Experience (would there have been one without Cream?), I'm not sure that heavy rock and then heavy metal would have developed as they did. Eat your hearts out Eric, Ginger and Jack! 

[Dave W]

I know that they have always denied this and been embarrassed about it, but Cream were in many ways a seed for first heavy rock and then heavy metal. The first Sabbath albums sound like a second rate Cream slowed down, they even swiped whole riffs (just listen to Sunshine of your Love and N.I.B) and you know where Sabbath's influence went. Dominant guitar soloing/improvisation plus equally dominant drumming with flashy rolls (the two instruments adolescent boys want to play) are key ingredients of nearly all forms of heavy music and Cream pretty much copyrighted both. And Jack Bruce's bass playing was like a second guitar in that. Finally, his vocal style - singing riffs in unison on one hand, but then on the other hand coming up with vocal lines that had very little to do with what the music did, it sure wasn't "backing" his vocal lines - was hugely influential. Ian Gillan was a fan for one (as was David Byron of Uriah Heep) and you can hear that on early Purple which is generally regarded as fledgling heavy metal (though the Purps and I have issues with that, but in truth 1970's In Rock was similarly pivotal as 1984's Ride the Lightning of Metallica for paving the way to heavier music). It's no secret that Mountain patterned themselves after Cream too and they were certainly already a step into heavy rock territory.

If there had been no Cream and only a Jimi Hendrix Experience (would there have been one without Cream?), I'm not sure that heavy rock and then heavy metal would have developed as they did. Eat your hearts out Eric, Ginger and Jack! 

No, they wouldn't have developed the same way, possibly not at all. Yet I doubt Eric and Jack ever regretted not being part of it. Ginger, who knows.

[uwe]

A jazz musician/funker (not a metal guy at all) once said to me that heavy metal is the only popular (he didn't deem jazz "popular" himself) music form left today where (i) instrumental brawn (if only of the guitarist and to some extent the drummer) is still mandatory and where (ii) the music is not subservient to the vocal line or at least supporting it, but where the lead vocalist has to step out largely on his own.

I thought that an interesting comment from someone who was neither playing nor listening to that type of music as a fan (his own music was more in the Sade-vein). I guess you can say that heavy metal retains for both guitarists (as well as to an extent: drummers) and vocalists an athletic component that is attractive to people that otherwise like sports: boys (and those who never grew out of being one!).

And in that sense, Iron Maiden is a very athletic band, they are like a charging soccer team really. And Steve Harris runs his band like a soccer team too.

[uwe]

No, they wouldn't have developed the same way, possibly not at all. Yet I doubt Eric and Jack ever regretted not being part of it. Ginger, who knows.

Not sure whether Jack Bruce's preference for LOADS of bass volume (to the eternal chagrin of Ginger) might not qualify him more for the godfather role! Clapton certainly went out of his way post-Cream not to be perceived as a hard rock guitar hero. Had he gathered a Led Zep II type band around him (or done a Beck, Bogert & Appice thing, unlike Beck he could at least sing a little) and kept his hair long, he would have had stadium America eating from his hands in the 70ies.

[Dave W]

Not sure whether Jack Bruce's preference for LOADS of bass volume (to the eternal chagrin of Ginger) might not qualify him more for the godfather role! Clapton certainly went out of his way post-Cream not to be perceived as a hard rock guitar hero. Had he gathered a Led Zep II type band around him (or done a Beck, Bogert & Appice thing, unlike Beck he could at least sing a little) and kept his hair long, he would have had stadium America eating from his hands in the 70ies.

Actual conversation from about 1992, as near as I can remember:

She: You always liked Eric Clapton, didn't you?

I: Yep.

She: Did you know that some clown has put out a kicky little acoustic version of Layla? I heard it on the radio.

I: That clown is Eric Clapton.

She: What happened?

I: I guess he got mellow.

She: How sad!

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Speaking of timely ironies: http://www.spin.com/2015/09/rage-against-the-machine-limp-bizkit-apology-interview/?utm_source=spinfacebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spinfacebook

[uwe]

Actual conversation from about 1992, as near as I can remember:

She: You always liked Eric Clapton, didn't you?

I: Yep.

She: Did you know that some clown has put out a kicky little acoustic version of Layla? I heard it on the radio.

I: That clown is Eric Clapton.

She: What happened?

I: I guess he got mellow.

She: How sad!

The "mellowisation" process with Eric started as early as on those last endless Cream US tours when he was longing to rather be a member of The Band than a guitar god. He was always his own man: He left the Bluesbreakers because they were too puristic, the Yardbirds because they became too pop and Cream because he wanted to return to classic song structures. He had what he eventually wanted mapped out right from the start.

Of course, I prefer the old Layla version too, but I give him credit that the old Eric who had grown estranged from Patti and divorced from her could no longer muster the passion the young Eric felt when he recorded the song longing in secret for the Patti who was then the wife of his best friend. Two different Erics, two different songs. Maybe it meant too much to him to continue to fake the emotion of the original version. So he changed it to fit the Eric at ease with himself after decades of psychotherapy.

[Basvarken]

Are Iron Maiden Heayy Metal?
They certainly were back in 1980. They were part of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. 
Other British bands that were part of that same NWOBHM are Def Leppard, Venom, Raven, Saxon, etc

Metallica was labelled Speed Metal when they released Kill 'em All
Just like Megadeth

For some reason those labels are subject to inflation. With new bands becoming heavier and faster, the old ones seem mellow and slow.