hairyhaw

[quote name='achknalligewelt' timestamp='1329920580' post='1549751'] But the more I read Basschat, I find the conversation dominated either by the classic rock basists of the 60's and 70's, such as Geddy Lee and John-Paul Jones, or super-duper bass soloists, like Victor Wooten or Jaco Pastorius. Where is the flattering reference to Mike Mills? Colin Greenwood? Or even Andy Rourke? Are these players genuinely inferior to the giant rock players of the 1970's? And if so, why? [/quote] Mmmmm, Andy Rourke. now [i]there's [/i]a player. Somebody told me the other day that he's barking when he's out on the lash.

[quote name='Mog' timestamp='1329920372' post='1549746'] Tis no biggie lad. Opinions (however different) are (supposedly) allowed. [/quote] They certainly are chappy and cheers for the recommends - only had time to do Nathan East and Dee Murray - have to say both fine solid workman-like bassists but I honestly wouldn't rate them any higher than A.James. That's opinions for you.

[quote name='Mog' timestamp='1329918723' post='1549682'] Sound, without going too far off topic. 5 bassists I'd class as remarkable:[list=1] [*]Nathan East [*]Mike Dean [*]John Paul Jones [*]Tye Zamora [*]Dee Murray [/list] Theres plenty more I could mention. [/quote] JPJ - happily agree but he's had plenty bog-standard moments too. Rest I've never heard of so will need to go look 'em up over next few days.

[quote name='Mog' timestamp='1329917381' post='1549637'] In my book yes. But thats just about how you define bog standard and less than remarkable. Its not a slur at all. Do I find Clayton to be a poor bassis? Not at all. Bog standard yes but not poor. I think you may be assuming that I class him as a poor bassist and that IMO a remarkable bassist has to be flashy or whatever, which is not the case at all. [/quote] On the face of it, I’m kind of glad I read my book and not yours. I’m not assuming anything at all, but it might help your case if you were to give a couple of examples that make up your particular frame of reference.

[quote name='Mog' timestamp='1329915059' post='1549554'] Aye fine examples. But, its not like they were commonplace on the majority of the tunes and despite being well thought out basslines they really aint remarkable. Shes so high is a great example. Well structured etc. However, everytime I hear it I just think Stone Roses, ie. classic Brit Pop. [/quote] [sub]Does that mean that all less than remarkable bassists are bog-standard then? I think there are a few more graduations of bass playing that. I would argue more that James is a thoughtful player and as a result this makes him a fine bassist. By contrast, a remarkable bassist is a rare beast and even remarkable bassists aren’t remarkable all the time. [/sub]

[quote name='Mog' timestamp='1329909766' post='1549377'] I find him bog standard to be honest.Then again so were his 'peers'. I mean, Matt Osman, Steve Mackey, Paul McGuigan, Annie Holland, Mick Quinn............ None of them spring to mind as outstanding bassists. I'd stick them all in the Adam Clayton/Michael Anthony pile. [/quote] [quote name='discreet' timestamp='1329909878' post='1549385'] That's the pile marked 'Drifted into it by accident/No-one else wanted to play bass'. [/quote] I'm happy for you too stick Osman et al in the bog-standard box but I disagree about James. The lines he wrote for “She’s so High”, “Bang”, plus the intro motif for “There’s No Other Way” and “Tracey Jacks”; these are all very well thought out lines. Not Clayton style root note run-of-the-mill at all. James was playing bass well before Blur too, so that drifted-into-it-by-accident notion is cobblers too.

[sub]So, sooooo sick of female diva singer types. would far rather watch Blur frankly., even if a couple were two drunk too play (not Graham tho, who's been tee-total for a while).[/sub]

[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1329520568' post='1543937'] I just comes from browsing around Drowned in Sound really. There are plenty of Muse or Mars Volta fans there that have delved into the roots of prog but I've never noted any love for Genesis. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. I guess you and Dave are right about the Gabriel/Collins thing, but as a casual observation there didn't seem to be any love for the Gabriel era either. [/quote] Possibly, but as you said yourself, its a casual observation and they can be problematic - punk itself has been generalised to most as shouting, spitting, spikey haircuts and safety pins (Sid Snot) - scratch beneath the caricature of course and there's a lot more to it. Back to your main point though, The Mars Volta were interviewed a couple of years back in a print mag (Uncut or Mojo maybe) and were talking about Trespass (early, early Genesis album) and how prog had influenced them in general. As to how much that would influence their fans to pick up those records is a moot point - I really like the Beatles but I'm totally not arsed about listening to the 50's Rock'n'Roll that influenced them. Others would no doubt disagree. Some who are undeniably influenced by prog will deny it as it can still be considered social/career suicide for a musician or journalist to admit liking it - unless you're Stuart Maconie right enough. Radiohead are a good example - Rick Wakeman states that "they're as prog as they come" from OK Computer onward but the band totally deny it as they grew up when it was the dirtiest of words. A lot of prog is brilliant but just like all other genres there is the bloody awful (ELP, except for one bass riff). And those that use keyboards and early synths can sound dated to some and this is where punk wins out as a lot of its musical longevity (apart from some superb songwriting) is down to its fairly conservative format - Guitar, Bass, and Drums.

Aye, in the (Yorkhill) house. Welcome!

[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1329438957' post='1542672'] Off topic I know, but I've often wondered why Genesis seem to be completely off the radar nowadays. They must have been on a par with Yes as perhaps the biggest prog bands, but whilst other prog bands of the time get kudos today Genesis are rarely name checked. [/quote] Depends what sort of radar you have . They still get plenty name checks by people like The Mars Volta amongst others and I think they just completed a world tour a couple of years ago. But they stopped being a prog band in the late 70’s when Hackett left the band and they then jettisoned the long pieces, going off to the AOR/MOR territory that they sold gazillions of records with. So you have two Genesis’s really; the Peter Gabriel-era band that its ok to like at the moment, and then you have the stadium-filling Collins era that everyone likes to boo in pantomime villain stylee.

[quote name='BRANCINI' timestamp='1329410828' post='1542104'] To be honest, to my mind, the singles from the early 70s have, on the whole outlasted the album tracks which os surprising when you cosider that singles bands like Slade and the Faces were looked down on by the groovy people, myself included, who only bought albums back then. I still have the albums, but cant really get into them, theyre just so dated. There are of course the odd album tracks that still sound good. As evidenced by what covers bands are still playing 30, or sometimes 40 years on. None of em are by Genesis, or Yes, or the Van Fer Graff boring ol fart generators though. [/quote] Really? http://themusicalbox.net/ They seem to be doing alright. And a quick cursory look on youtube shows that plenty prog still getting played by other people. I'm glad punk came along, otherwise there'd be no Joy Division or Slaughter & The Dogs and it sharpened a lot of senses in the prog community. Keep praising punk for its own sake. But stop talking kak and talking pot-shots about music you know hee haw about.

[quote name='BRANCINI' timestamp='1329333988' post='1540912']Wasnt really all that new though I dont reckon, in the early 60s bands like the Stones and tha Yardbirds stopped dressing in identical suits and grew their hair. That shocked the older folks. but it dragged on and the same once outrageous people went off the 3 chords for 3 minutes formula and started making 'concept albums' some called emselves the Cream and played 20 minute solos, things like that.[/quote] Well you're right in that prog was a punk-style reaction to the 3 chords/3 minutes tradition that was the dominant force at the time. Also have to say that it wasn't all about elves either - that's a bit of a traditionally lazy observation - Genesis' "Selling England By The Pound" contains a fair amount of commentary on Britain's social decline from an admittedly middle class perspective (people "chewing on their Wimpey dreams"). And Can (which depending on who you ask is Krautrock, Prog or even Kraut Prog) doesn't have elves on the agenda either, even if Damo Suzuki was a bit out there. Gentle Giant definitely DID have some sort of Elfin-Featured giant on the first album, and an Octopus on a later one. But then they wrote a song about the music press called Interview. Quite a lot of the music could be pretty aggressive. But there was plenty humour too, some could even be described as po-faced - much like punk then. Punk served its purpose - even Chris Squire had become bored of playing 20 minute epics and was looking for a new direction and he reportedly had a copy of "Never Mind The Bollocks" in his mega mansion in Virginia Waters. Punk's only crime was to give a platform to Paul Morley who has managed to build a career spouting dewy-eyed drivel about punk ever since.

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1329388974' post='1541562'] I miss this feeling - only done local gigs recently [/quote] Same here. Miss the drive back to Glasgow on a summer night from Twa Tams in Perth or a Dundee venue. Not quite dark, not quite light. Roaring past occasional artics with little else on the road, and quiet choons on the radio. Nice.

[quote name='Stacker' timestamp='1329133767' post='1537499'] He's also got a fat-neck [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1999-Rickenbacker-4001V63-Fireglo-bass-guitar-/320847074500?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item4ab3f9d4c4"]V63FG[/url] up there for sale, and at a reasonable price, too! [/quote] That's actually a really good price considering V63's tend to go for silly money. I'd consider myself....if I wasn't skint!

Looks like it might be something to do with Pete out of Seyes. He used to actually own Maurice's RM1999 if I remember. Though it would have been nice to see the vermillion wings kept, I don't see anything wrong with the colour. The cream was prone to colour bleed from guitar stands anyway and as someone else mentioned it may have seen heavy gigging action. Doesn't look like a '91 though; headstock shape suggests post '97.

Postman's been! Ah you cheeky Rotosound people, tempting me with your added freebies of Keyring and Pen. Very nice too I might say. Slapped a set of Elites on the Jazz just the other day so will gig them tommorow and stick the Rotos on for the next one in a weeks time and attempt a comparison.

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1328542714' post='1528730'] Re Sex On Fire, the band had been doing Molly's chambers for a while so we thought we'd have a go at another of theirs. I was adamant we weren't going to do Sex On Fire as I'd heard it by practically every covers band I'd seen over the last 6 months. However after perusing KoL's back catalog I was struggling to find something with similar impact. In the end I picked Use Somebody which apparently is also fairly common yet I've not heard anyone do it locally myself. [/quote] We're the same in being determined not to do Sex on Fire, so we do Radioactive instead. Seems to go down well enough - still in the set after a year. Have to say I hate doing Green Day songs.

[quote name='jezzaboy' timestamp='1328455851' post='1527279']A few years ago I went and seen a Led zep tribute band, a whole lotta led I think, at the Ferry and the same year Page and Plant were touring. Guess which one was better? Yep the tribute band. [/quote] That was more than a few years back chieftain - that was bloody ages ago!! I did the same, but saw WLL in Aberdeen instead of the Ferry. Pretty damn good. When I saw P&P have to say Percy's rock gawd voice was starting to wear out. On the subject of tribute bands - The Musical Box spring to mind - several members of Genesis have either sat in (Hackett, Collins) or been in the audience (Rutherford, Gabriel) so yeah, a funny old business.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1328451691' post='1527160'] I don't know.The blocks on my Geddy Lee were painted on. Looked pretty good to me. [/quote] No way, never knew that.

Are the blocks on Squier VM Jazzes not stickers? Look pretty pretty convincing if they are.

[quote name='Chris2112' timestamp='1328449637' post='1527091'] Personally, I would not pay that sort of money to see a covers band. You can usually see the real band for less! [/quote] Not so sure about that - if the Floyd were together they would charge three times the amount for the tribute act if the ticket prices of Gilmour's last tour were anything to go by. Generally all the enormo-dome acts that spawn tribute [i]artistes[/i] charge an arm and a leg for ticket prices these days.

[quote name='rOB' timestamp='1328130241' post='1522477'] I was just thinking this the other day. Maybe in a few years we'll have a more distinct two tier music system. Mainstream, bankable music making money for the labels and less mainstream, underground music made by people who either don't want to or can't access the marketing budgets. [/quote] Like the eighties then?

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1328104070' post='1521844'] You're not confusing her with Beth Hart are you? [/quote] The crazy eyes part? Or the Joe Bonnamossa part?

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1328039930' post='1520813'] I saw Sandi Thom at the Rhythm Festival last year and was full of cynicism, but was actually pleasantly surprised. Did some really good Bluesey stuff, which apparently is were she's at at the moment (Well 6 months ago). [/quote] I heard she'd collaborated with Joe Bonnamosa (probably spelt that wrong) and this what heralded the "going back to the roots" phase. She's still bloody awful. And has crazy eyes. Just keeping the cynicism alive for you.