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Overrated Bassists.


Josh
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[quote name='BassManKev' post='186866' date='Apr 27 2008, 11:05 PM']how so? in comparisson to some of the other bassists mentioned?[/quote]

to be fair a lot of the players mention on this thread do over complicate things to a certain extent *but you have to take into consideration the context in which they are playing; i.e. a solo player is gonna play differently compaired to someong playing within a band set up*. regardless, i actually really enjoy the over complicated bass lines that flea comes out with as their great fun to play/listen to/watch. flea is definitely a bass icon for the masses but being rated Bass Guitar magazine's bass player of the year 4 years in a row or something crazy in the 90's is another example of how over rated he is.

Edit: might have been bass player magazine?

Edited by benwhiteuk
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Marcus Miller has played on so many records I've lost count. People I know who have hung out with him say he's totally cool (how can someone who was nearly late for a Miles Davis gig because he was taking a balloon ride not be cool!) and a phenomenally great all-round bass player, sightreader and player across all stylistic boundaries. When you feel like overrating him take a listen to the Nightfly by Donald Fagen. He doesn't slap a note and plays great.

If you play over the bridge pickup, use harmonics, solo, slide notes, play chords or play fretless than Jaco is not overrated. If he didn't influence you overtly he did subliminally. Fine if you don't like the music, but I can make a fair guess he would pi** over everyone here in any musical context.

If you are going to overrate Flea because he was in a band that became successful ask yourself if you could have anchored the Chillis and been a part of that band for 20+ years?

Can you play Phantom of the Opera or Run to the Hills as tight as Steve Harris. I've been playing 23 years and can do a pretty good John Coltrane impression, and I still can't. Did you play bass for a top metal band for years and years?

Have you written a bunch of top ten singles like Mark King and played in front of tens of thousands of fans, or inspired a league of musicians and sustained the bass guitar and amp industry in this country throughout the 80's?

Have you contributed to albums that have sold over 50 million copies like Pino?

None of us have done this have we? So why not stop wasting time talking bollocks and do some practice, go out and gig and sound like the bollocks ? I've just finished transcribing "Glamour Profession" by Steely Dan - wicked bassline by Anthony Jackson. Must be overrated then :)
How do you shut a bass player up? Give them a chart to read...

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[quote name='rayfw' post='186005' date='Apr 26 2008, 04:47 PM']I know this place is about debate but I don't see the point of these threads TBH. One man's Mingus is another man's Adam Clayton and vice versa.
I've seen these threads rapidly degenerate into a slanging match and end up fueling disagreements between previously friendly members.
Just my opinion ( :)) of course.[/quote]
You were right!

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[quote name='matty589' post='186880' date='Apr 27 2008, 11:26 PM']None of us have done this have we? So why not stop wasting time talking bollocks and do some practice, go out and gig and sound like the bollocks ?[/quote]

geeeeeez louise, take a chill pill :)

it's all opinion. I'd never be so blindly arrogant or ignorant to say i was better than a bass player who has made a bloody good living from being a bloody good bass player over 20+ years. as has been said before...i thought the purpose of this thread [i]was[/i] to talk bollocks about bass players that we reckon are over rated?

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[quote name='matty589' post='186898' date='Apr 27 2008, 11:51 PM']Maybe it would save us all wasting even more of our time (well actually I have one eye on CSI) just to get on with something else?[/quote]

i concur...and give up with this thread

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[quote name='matty589' post='186880' date='Apr 27 2008, 11:26 PM']So why not stop wasting time talking bollocks and do some practice, go out and gig and sound like the bollocks ?[/quote]
Right back at ya - I don't mean to be rude, but it appears that you do? You don't wanna talk bollocks, so why are you complaining so much on here? To us it's just friendly banter; not a waste of time at all! I'm a student so I have nothing to do except r*v*s* for easy *x*ms, so today I'll get 3 hours of band rehearsal and plenty of practise on my own as well as a lot of time "wasted" socialising on basschat... instead of watching TV, which is what you call productive? Sorry again if I seem rude, but please stop trying to bring us down for having a fun discussion - arguments like "OMG how can you say The Ox is over-rated?!! He's the best thing ever!" are all part of the fun - telling us the discussion is futile is just unreasonable - it's just bass chat!
If I say Cliff Burton is over-rated (and I do), it's because thousands of Metallica fans seem to worship him, which, IMO, is more than he deserves... Flea gets the same treatment and so do many others - the fact that they're better bassists than I am doesn't enter into it - I can have opinions on the merits of flautists but I've never even touched a flute*
Anyone can be over-rated and we're all entitled to state our opinions - in fact, I WANT to know what people think

*I'm pretty sure someone will drag an innuendo out of them

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[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='187053' date='Apr 28 2008, 10:53 AM']...flute*
*I'm pretty sure someone will drag an innuendo out of them[/quote]
It appears that [url="http://www.geocities.com/riverdanceflutist/flutehumor.html"]flautists[/url] may be the guitarists of the classical world.

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[quote name='matty589' post='186106' date='Apr 26 2008, 07:08 PM']Overrated by who? Without wishing to descend into an argument, does the wider world care what the posters on this thread think? Jaco, Jamerson, Mark King and the rest have made music that has entertained and been enjoyed by people all round the world. Have you?[/quote]
Um. Yes.

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[quote name='bnt' post='186184' date='Apr 26 2008, 09:38 PM']Not as many hits as Carol Kaye, however... :)[/quote]
That's one thing we forgot to put in the "advice for newbie to recording" thread - make sure you lock Carol Kaye out as she's bound to show up.

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[quote name='matty589' post='186880' date='Apr 27 2008, 11:26 PM']When you feel like overrating him take a listen to the Nightfly by Donald Fagen. He doesn't slap a note and plays great.[/quote]
I've listened to it once. What a pile of tedious turgid crap it is too.

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[quote name='bremen' post='186732' date='Apr 27 2008, 08:28 PM']He's certainly one of the most mis-spelled bassists in history ;-)

But he's definitely one of the giants on whose shoulders many of us stand, and the inspiration to countless players who otherwise wouldn't have realised just how exciting bass could be. 'Bassist of the milennium' is silly, I agree. 'anything' of the milennium is, really, isn't it.

That solo in My Generation - if you could put it into words you'd want it on your gravestone.[/quote]

I got slaughtered for saying The Who were overated and only had a few decent singles...but that's another story...that leads me onto to Pino I don't think was overated but everytime I hear his bass part live on My Generation...it totally underwhelms me.

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[quote name='BassManKev' post='186866' date='Apr 27 2008, 11:05 PM']how so? in comparisson to some of the other bassists mentioned?

and ye, far as i know flea knows practically no theory, which makes some of his basslines seem even more impressive if it was done without theory, which i know for certain that all pre bssm at least stuff was[/quote]

I don't think it's important to know theory to be able to play fast, or atonally for that matter. You definitely don't need to know theory to tell if a note sound "right". Looking at the tab for Around the World, many of the notes in the runs he plays aren't in the right key. Not that they need to be, but some bits are just grating. He's definitely skilled, and Soul to Squeeze has some real nice and tasteful bass playing, but not my cup of tea that's for sure.

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