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Prog Bass Excellence


Bilbo
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I have been a massive fan of Chris Squire since discovering him when I first hear Yes around the time of the release of Close To The Edge. I don't think he is the best bass technician in the world but I think his ideas and creativity are incomparable and I think he deserves all the credit he gets.

 

As a bass player and Genesis fan, I never really rated Mike Rutherford. I considered him more than competent but believed that he lacked Squire's panache. For reasons I cannot explain, I have started listening to him recently and rediscovered this version of In The Cage/Afterglow. Listen to Rutherford from 5.21 onwards. It is absolutely on a par with anything Squire did (I make comparisons with Gates of Delerium off Relayer - not in a 'sounds like' way but in a 'blows me away in the same manner' kind of way). I have gone on to listen to more Rutherford and think he is more subtle that Squire and never forward in the mix like the Fish but, man, what a mind.

To make matters even sweeter; I was at this gig!

 

 

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Agreed. Have been listening to Close to the Edge again recently and his playing is a thing of beauty, more like the cello section in an orchestra. I always thought his note choice, phrasing and note placement were superb. More like another melody at times, running alongside the main theme. Genius. Creativity trumps chops for me, every time. Not that Chris didn't have chops to die for, he simply played differently from the mainstream bassists.

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Lately I have been noticing similarities between the playing of Chris Squire and Les Claypool, however, that may just be the drugs. Chris Squire was a big influence on me as a a young teen, not that I played bass then but I loved that sound. I'm not impressed by technical playing when it appears simply to be for the sake of technical playing but Squire was a notable exception, it was always a great groove.

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What a tiny world... I was at that gig too :)  Agreed on the subject of Mike's playing. There's some very nifty arpeggio playing from 13:15 on.

I think the In The Cage/Afterglow live medley is probably my favourite Genesis thing ever. When those bass pedals really kick in at 16:48, "and I would search everywhere...", it gives me goosebumps like molehills. I remember listening to the Three Sides Live version in the car once, volume really cranked and I was just transported by the music, enthralled... when that bass pedal moment happened, every nut and bolt in the car was vibrating and I found tears streaming down my face. The power of music.

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I've never underrated Mr Rutherford. I used to have a bootleg from around 1977/78 and his playing on Los Endos was utterly brilliant, he was all over that neck. He was definitely no slouch that lad! 

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Genesis were the band I was most into just before I started playing, so Mike was one of my main early influences. I discovered him long before I discovered Chris (who is my favourite player), and I like to think there’s a fair bit of both in my musical DNA.  I always thought he was a really thoughtful, creative, melodic player, though definitely less up-front than Chris; let’s face it, most people are.

The first album I heard by Genesis was And Then There Were Three and there’s some lovely playing on that, from nice melodic stuff like Snowbound to the tear-up at the end of The Lady Lies. In fact even if you listen to early stuff like Return of the Giant Hogweed, when he was still getting to grips with bass (relatively speaking), his lines are always interesting and creative.

Edited by 4000
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5 hours ago, mikel said:

Agreed. Have been listening to Close to the Edge again recently and his playing is a thing of beauty, more like the cello section in an orchestra. I always thought his note choice, phrasing and note placement were superb. More like another melody at times, running alongside the main theme. Genius. Creativity trumps chops for me, every time. Not that Chris didn't have chops to die for, he simply played differently from the mainstream bassists.

This, completely. It’s interesting that you should make the cello analogy because it occurred to me recently that many of my favourite players share something of that quality, and I do love cello!

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1 hour ago, 4000 said:

Genesis were the band I was most into just before I started playing, so Mike was one of my main early influences. I discovered him long before I discovered Chris (who is my favourite player), and I like to think there’s a fair bit of both in my musical DNA.  I always thought he was a really thoughtful, creative, melodic player, though definitely less up-front than Chris; let’s face it, most people are.

The first album I heard by Genesis was And Then There Were Three and there’s some lovely playing on that, from nice melodic stuff like Snowbound to the tear-up at the end of The Lady Lies. In fact even if you listen to early stuff like Return of the Giant Hogweed, when he was still getting to grips with bass (relatively speaking), his lines are always interesting and creative.

Both the albums they recorded at Relight Studios in Holland have gorgeous bass lines. His stuff on Blood on the Rooftops is awesome subtle. 

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23 minutes ago, spectoremg said:

Both the albums they recorded at Relight Studios in Holland have gorgeous bass lines. His stuff on Blood on the Rooftops is awesome subtle. 

When I first heard them I thought for some reason they were Dutch, and I didn’t even know at the time that the albums were recorded in Holland. 

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