risingson

Three words... Boards of Canada.

[quote name='TimR' post='988261' date='Oct 14 2010, 06:40 PM']Ok so the Coverband thread is getting long and I think the point is getting missed. How many of you as bass players actually have any input into your originals band songs other than helping with the arrangement by coming up with a nice bass line. Pual McCartney is a good example of a good song writer who also played bass. It's not meant to be a contentious issue but I'm sure it will become one. Really I'm just interested.[/quote] I do. I love songwriting, as a musician I would feel completely unfulfilled if I couldn't write and perform my own music. Bass is my main instrument on which I am most competent but I do basically all my writing on guitar.

[quote name='BassBus' post='985627' date='Oct 12 2010, 12:42 PM']Perhaps this makes your point. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLwLPseckQ4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLwLPseckQ4[/url] Very competent playing but for me it doesn't really fit in with the latic rhythm behind it.[/quote] Yeh, classic example. It's like in conversation, people sometimes need to exert their perceived level of intelligence upon someone else just by saying too much, and it's just not required. [quote]depends on your definition of great. I would say the (arguably) second most successful bassist in popular music could be considered great by that fact alone, but he has poor technique by just using his thumb to pick.[/quote] You mean Sting? Sting isn't a tight player. Sting knows this, every producer and band member he's played with knows this. But listening to some of the multitracks off of off Synchronicity, the guy just hit the nail on the head with what was required.

[quote name='BassBus' post='984892' date='Oct 11 2010, 08:50 PM']Now this is the point I was trying to put across. There are great players out there without any training and technique to their playing that is not accepted as the norm. Perhaps it's those players who move ability forward taking it to new areas which the rest of us follow.[/quote] Technique is a nice thing, the problem comes when technique compromises your musicality, I see it all the time when I go to gigs and see people compensating for a lack of musicality with a flurry of slapping and tapping, executed with little to no discretion. IMO there are too many bass players that suffer from the idea that without mind-bending technique, their position as a bass player is going to be viewed as a simple/easy post that anyone with basic knowledge of music could fill. Wrong... bass is all about feel and timing. It takes years of practice to get it right.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='984616' date='Oct 11 2010, 05:05 PM']Nice he has a lesson with the actual basics on there. Flea doing that is pretty much the ideal thing.[/quote] +1 I think Flea is a great example for younger bass players, he appreciates he's got younger fans and is really tackling the basics and speaking in a language beginners can understand easily. I've got massive respect for him.

D'Addario's. Don't like DR's, I think they're too expensive for what they are, whereas D'Addarios are considerably cheaper and IMO a superior string.

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='984331' date='Oct 11 2010, 12:40 PM']so what do we think of Jamerson? Appalling technique - no teacher would advise a pupil to just pick with one finger - yet we can't deny his genius.[/quote] No way, Jamerson didn't have appalling technique! He had unconventional technique, but in no way was it appalling. There is no right or wrong way to do anything in the realms of popular music. Your technique isn't up for severe scrutiny unless it is unnecessarily impeding the song you're playing, that's the only time technique becomes an issue. It's preferable to have good technique of course because otherwise it proves difficult to play what you can hear in your head. But ultimately surely technique is the thing that should compliment your musicality and not the other way round, that's when you develop the bedroom players on Youtube that can fretw*nk till their hands fall off but give them a I IV V and they go to sh*t.

The Beatles, Jamerson's seat at Hitsville or Nathan Watts' later with Stevie Wonder. Not that I would have done any justice to any of their music like the original bass players did.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='981666' date='Oct 8 2010, 03:07 PM']I'm staunch in my beliefs. And they're closed for business.[/quote] A strange attitude to take, equally I think this sort of thing can leave you jaded and pining for the old days. I'm happy to concede that music is no where near as good as it used to be, but what are you so afraid of? Actually finding out there is something within the past three years you've actually enjoyed?

[quote name='chaypup' post='981653' date='Oct 8 2010, 02:51 PM'][url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10201932"]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10201932[/url] The top 2 spaces are occuppied by The Beatles. I'm not rubbishing Ken in particular, I just don't like the myth that music was great at one time and it's not now. If that was the case then there would be no point playing anymore - just listen to old records.[/quote] I never said that there wasn't good music out now... there is, but nowhere near the volume that there used to be. More attention was paid to great songwriting back in the day, conversely nowadays this simply isn't the case.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='981641' date='Oct 8 2010, 02:45 PM']Say what you like about the monstrous record companies of yore but they acted as a fairly efficient sh*t filter. Now that every self-deluding spod and his mate has got garageband, the netz is an arse-flood of derivative, badly executed material with all the appeal of a nasty case of projectile leprosy. I'd be perfectly happy to see a revival of interest in 'Originals' if the output was any good. It isn't.[/quote] I partially agree but there IS always good music out there, you just need to look a little harder for it, and approach it with an open mind. There is still talent out there.

[quote name='chaypup' post='981611' date='Oct 8 2010, 02:22 PM']You need to look past the top 10 then - The second biggest selling artist in the UK of the 1960's was Ken Dodd - quality songwriting?????[/quote] What's your source on that? EDIT - just had a look. Fine, he was (third, not second), but look what else was in the charts that year. The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Byrds, Bob Dylan, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, James Brown, The Temptations...

[quote name='chaypup' post='981180' date='Oct 8 2010, 07:42 AM']You could easily make the opposite point by listing the manufactured bands from the 60's and 70's (and even previous to that) and the great bands of today - and when I've got 5 minutes - I will! Older generations have always thought that the music of their youth was more relevant, mainly because it [b]reminds[/b] them of their youth. There are more people playing instruments and therefore more bands now than at any time since the 60's, and I suspect that there's even more now than then. A greater percentage are also writing original music compared to then because recording it is so accessible nowadays. True there is lazy, formulaic pap around, but there always was![/quote] Even if you did list the Monkees, The Osmonds, The Jackson 5 or others, the writing of the songs was done by some of the absolute best. Now it seems like little to no effort is being made. Just look at the top 10 this week. [quote]Please, please tell me you aren't drawing any sort of similarity between pub/club covers bands and the bloody X-Factor...[/quote] No way, I'm IN one of those pub bands we're talking about, I wouldn't dream of it. Just picking up on an earlier point in the post I'd made

[quote name='silddx' post='978234' date='Oct 5 2010, 12:38 PM']When was the situation any different?[/quote] Miles Davis, The Beatles, Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, Genesis, James Brown, Stevie Wonder. Lady Gaga, The Killers, Tiny Tempah, Pixie Lott, Rihanna, Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift, David Guetta, the cast of Glee. The consumer has got lazy and considerably more people are willing to put their faith in some television based competition like X-Factor for their musical pleasure as opposed to actively seeking out new music, that's what's changed. Not that they have much choice in the matter anyway.

This is the kind of Jamiroquai stuff that got me hooked on Zender's playing when I was younger. The bass sound I still think is one of the most unique I've heard... compressed to with an inch of it's life, but it's completely what makes it so cool.

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='977846' date='Oct 4 2010, 11:24 PM']Am feeling a little controversial, but does anyone care? I'm tempted to say that JK & his muzak is soul-less, funk-less, pointless production-line rubbish... But that would be an insult to music that is genuinely soul-less, funk-less, pointless production-line rubbish.. And that's with or without Zender IMO.[/quote] I disagree, strongly, but it's your opinion and no one can argue with that. I think nowadays the only reason Jay Kay can push the music he does is because he's got Jamiroquai's name to it, it's definitely not a patch on Emergency On Planet Earth or Space Cowboy because that was truly unique stuff and to my ears isn't particularly great to listen to. Also the sound is very dated.

[quote name='chaypup' post='977481' date='Oct 4 2010, 06:44 PM']Where's the evidence that music is dying? As far as I can see, there are new genres springing up weekly, more people are in bands, musical instrument sales are way up and there is almost unlimited choice in listening to music. Where I live, I have a choice of at least 5 or 6 live acts every night within a very short distance. Music is thriving! [/quote] I don't think music is dying but I think it's not easy for good music to come to the forefront because the forefront is occupied by label-sponsored acts that are easily moulded and controllable.

[quote name='blackmn90' post='976236' date='Oct 3 2010, 06:21 PM']just out of interest does anyone know how they did this? it cant have been using a gate, and i thought everything was recorded onto tape.[/quote] They had in the later stages of Hitsville Detroit more tracks to record onto, including one entirely for the bass take which was obviously of paramount importance to Berry Gordy and Holland–Dozier–Holland.

[quote name='squire5' post='974727' date='Oct 1 2010, 11:33 PM']Anyone watching this?Some nice tracks from them both.Lee Sklar is on bass and he's using what looks like a battered old Precision,covered with graffiti and sporting 2 Precision type pickups.He's sounding great as per usual.He played some great bass on Taylor's albums early on,especially 'You've got a Friend' and 'Carolina in my Mind' to name but two. The BBC is doing us musos proud tonight. [/quote] James Taylor is the man, talented beyond measure! Leland Sklar is sick too, that would be his Franken-bass of no particular brand if I'm not mistaken. I saw him a few years ago, Steve Jordan on kit and Jimmy Johnson on bass and it was too good.

[quote name='bubinga5' post='974604' date='Oct 1 2010, 08:56 PM'][/quote] Tell me about it. If sexism screams one thing it's complete insecurity. I've always been a fan of Sheryl Crow, she's a great writer.

You've got to fake it to make it, right? I play in a covers band to finance our original stuff, plus it can be fun. Easy. Look at Guns N Roses, ironically began life as an Aerosmith tribute band.

[quote name='YouMa' post='974184' date='Oct 1 2010, 03:29 PM']I love the fez! anyone know what he wont do without the fez on? whats this tune about?[/quote] The premise of the tune is that if he's not wearing his lucky fez then the person in question might fall over. Perhaps.

[quote name='Bilbo' post='973685' date='Oct 1 2010, 10:51 AM']Which tune is it? Can't watch video in work.[/quote] Gaslighting Abbie.

Yeh it funks hard this tune (Tom Barney is a superb player), although the original recording of this tune is so brutally clean, everything sounds so close in the mix. It's still cool songwriting if it's your thing but I preferred it when they were limited somewhat by technology with stuff like the Royal Scam and Aja, it did the tunes more justice IMO.

Live and Let Die, although tonight it was this: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj2g5l2-3RM&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj2g5l2-3RM...feature=related[/url]