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Sid Vicious - undervalued bass innovator?


upside downer

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I started this thread ages ago as a response to a couple of 'Isn't Jaco great' and 'Macca's the best, yes?' topics. Tongue firmly in cheek. I love The Sex Pistols and am saddened by what happened in the short time he had left following the bands' demise. I was only 8 when he died but I remember it being reported on the news as if it were yesterday. I had to ask my mum what heroin was. Poor old (young) Sid.

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The first time I heard  "My Way" on the car radio,  I had to pull over as I was laughing my butt off.

Punks?  Hell,  the Beatles were bigger punks in the early days but they could play.  Their management cleaned their image up, not down.

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36 minutes ago, Yank said:

The first time I heard  "My Way" on the car radio,  I had to pull over as I was laughing my butt off.

Punks?  Hell,  the Beatles were bigger punks in the early days but they could play.  Their management cleaned their image up, not down.

Oi, we finish our set with a Sid inspired My Way, always goes down a storm, but you're right the Beatles were punky in their leather clad early Hamburg days, but it was Hamburg that taught them to play.

It could be argued that Stu Sutcliffe was a worse bass player than Sid xD

Edited by PaulWarning
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On Fri Feb 02 2018 at 18:03, TheGreek said:

 

Yes, he played with The Sex Pistols but was more a showman than a performer/musician, ask the layman on the street what instrument he played, I bet very few would actually know. 

To paraphrase Sid "I've met the layman on the street, and he's a "c u next Tuesday' ". 

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Looked the part but, at least in my opinion, just a bit of a prat really. As someone else has mentioned, Lemmy tried to teach him bass for a couple of days but it was 'flipping hopeless'. On the album, Steve Jones did most the bass work with I think Steve and predecessor Glen doing a track each separately. 

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6 minutes ago, Powertripper said:

Looked the part but, at least in my opinion, just a bit of a prat really. As someone else has mentioned, Lemmy tried to teach him bass for a couple of days but it was 'flipping hopeless'. On the album, Steve Jones did most the bass work with I think Steve and predecessor Glen doing a track each separately. 

tbh I'm not sure Lemmy was the best person to teach anyone bass xD

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8 hours ago, Powertripper said:

Him being my favourite bass player, I politely disagree. I'm not expecting anybody on a bass players forum to agree with me though ;)

Nah, Lemmy was a fine bassist, bit unorthodox maybe but he did what was right for his band, can`t say better than that. And his solo line in Stay Clean is amazing, sure, not that difficult to master but it`s coming up with it in the first place.

Edited by Lozz196
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10 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Nah, Lemmy was a fine bassist, bit unorthodox maybe but he did what was right for his band, can`t say better than that.  

that's what I meant, can you imagine Lemmy playing bass for the Pistols? wasn't having a go at him as a bass player

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4 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

that's what I meant, can you imagine Lemmy playing bass for the Pistols? wasn't having a go at him as a bass player

Didn't you see? :P 

 

 

4 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Nah, Lemmy was a fine bassist, bit unorthodox maybe but he did what was right for his band, can`t say better than that. And his solo line in Stay Clean is amazing, sure, not that difficult to master but it`s coming up with it in the first place.

Indeed, it was that unorthodoxy that inspired me, funnily enough I think the same reason a lot of kids get into punk and stuff, 'Hang on a minute, I can do that too!'. Stay Clean was one of many good examples, listen to his interplay with the band as a bass player in his Hawkwind days, he was kind of more of a bass player then than the rhythm guitarist he became in his own Motorhead, but there's a lot of intelligent stuff there, especially as far as songwriting goes. The persona and iconography of Lemmy is cool and stuff, but I've always been blown away by his sense of melody and strength of songwriting, which I think some may laugh at, but he took the bass so far away from what everyone else was doing, awesome! Takes balls to stand up and do that.

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Fitted the bill for a Rock n roll/punk band ,likelable rogue who was 100% genuine hence ended up dead .Average player who got the job on looks

Always thought similar on Simonon ,cool as anything but limited bassist

 

People still chuntering punks couldnt play  40 years on have definitely missed the point

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