Seeker of Rock
Let’s Go Brandon!
A buddy who reads music and can play classical guitar (not too complicated but he can read and play) is at 52 now getting into electric guitar and self recording on GarageBand. He lives musically for The Cure and Pink Floyd as well. When I moved back to Indianapolis last Winter …yeah what was I thinking?) and our mutual friend and one of my best friends (also a good guitar player) , the three of us like old times…he’d been getting the electric bug but James and I jamming together in front of him with no sheet music and just vibing together like musicians do, sent his electric/home recording bug into lust.
I explained and he bought a MIM J bass. Awesome!
Then, and since, I’ve tried to explain to his rigid analytically inquisitive ass that ‘bass’ is usually not just replicating the lowest note a guitar or piano is playing, then explained wannabe bass players (mainly o the ‘80s and again nothing wrong with that and first Felony BP was and still is that way…solid, in the pocket low end, but not what I would consider bass as an instrument or role.
I was jamming to The Who on a road trip the other day and heard John Entwistle not only expanding simple townsend root notes but changing and walking with Moon’s beats ((yeah hi even that are all over the place but still). Yesterday Witchy Woman comes in the radio and paid attention to the actually bass notes instead of the song as whole, and beautiful. So many great bass parts are the same way…it’s not a guitar with 4 strings meant to follow the guitar or keyboard’s root note, it’s an instrument of itself; highly underrated, misunderstood, and underappreciated
Roger Waters (not in Gates of Dawn and took him a few years albums) played some of the most beautiful, bridging bass lines.
So. Trying to explain to my bud that bass is not something you should tap on the GarageBand app. It can be depending on the tune, and moreso for his fav Robert and The Cure but wayyyy less so for classic Floyd. Even Flea, when he’s not going crazy because of the crazy mood of a tune, plays beautiful bass and seems to hit the perfect notes at the perfect times. Geddy and Steve Harris and acheus Squire and Cliff Burton and Geezer Butler are heavier players and more in a lot of their tunes but not always. Just because they can the good ones know where they shouldn’t.
Played with some talented bassists but most have been 4 strings guitarists at varying levels. The better ones solid low end, always hitting percussively in heavier tunes and they were awesome (and somewhat rare to find a bass guitar player that good). Then the virtuosos that are impressive (one could play Charlie Brown theme hammering on the bass line and hammering/lightly strumming the piano chords in the high frets simultaneously. Damned impressive. But there are sooooo many great bass players in rock history that have played indiscreetly geniius parts to songs that just wouldn’t have been the same without that track.
I explained and he bought a MIM J bass. Awesome!
Then, and since, I’ve tried to explain to his rigid analytically inquisitive ass that ‘bass’ is usually not just replicating the lowest note a guitar or piano is playing, then explained wannabe bass players (mainly o the ‘80s and again nothing wrong with that and first Felony BP was and still is that way…solid, in the pocket low end, but not what I would consider bass as an instrument or role.
I was jamming to The Who on a road trip the other day and heard John Entwistle not only expanding simple townsend root notes but changing and walking with Moon’s beats ((yeah hi even that are all over the place but still). Yesterday Witchy Woman comes in the radio and paid attention to the actually bass notes instead of the song as whole, and beautiful. So many great bass parts are the same way…it’s not a guitar with 4 strings meant to follow the guitar or keyboard’s root note, it’s an instrument of itself; highly underrated, misunderstood, and underappreciated
Roger Waters (not in Gates of Dawn and took him a few years albums) played some of the most beautiful, bridging bass lines.
So. Trying to explain to my bud that bass is not something you should tap on the GarageBand app. It can be depending on the tune, and moreso for his fav Robert and The Cure but wayyyy less so for classic Floyd. Even Flea, when he’s not going crazy because of the crazy mood of a tune, plays beautiful bass and seems to hit the perfect notes at the perfect times. Geddy and Steve Harris and acheus Squire and Cliff Burton and Geezer Butler are heavier players and more in a lot of their tunes but not always. Just because they can the good ones know where they shouldn’t.
Played with some talented bassists but most have been 4 strings guitarists at varying levels. The better ones solid low end, always hitting percussively in heavier tunes and they were awesome (and somewhat rare to find a bass guitar player that good). Then the virtuosos that are impressive (one could play Charlie Brown theme hammering on the bass line and hammering/lightly strumming the piano chords in the high frets simultaneously. Damned impressive. But there are sooooo many great bass players in rock history that have played indiscreetly geniius parts to songs that just wouldn’t have been the same without that track.
Last edited by a moderator: