Gilmour's letter to Bass Player magazine 1998

[arthurhenry]

Here is David Gilmour's July 1998 letter to Bass Player magazine in response to their March  '98 retrospective review of Animals (also attached). I have referred to this letter before in related discussions and have been surprised to find no reference to it anywhere online. If you're a member of a PF Facebook group or website, please feel free to share it.

Edited November 9, 2020 by arthurhenry

[mikel]

15 hours ago, arthurhenry said:

Here is David Gilmour's July 1998 letter to Bass Player magazine in response to their March  '98 retrospective review of Animals (also attached). I have referred to this letter before in related discussions and have been surprised to find no reference to it anywhere online. If you're a member of a PF Facebook group or website, please feel free to share it.

Reading that I could hear Dave's voice in my head. He has one of those voices I could listen too all day, he could recite the phone directory and I would find it soothing.

[Baloney Balderdash]

But...

Then you have something like this :

 

 

Pretty horrible bass playing as far as I am concerned.

He did however record some pretty incredible bass lines for Pink floyd's first two albums, after that it kind of went downhill for him though, as a bass player at least, and as far as I am concerned.

Guess he was more focused on writing songs and taking over leadership of Pink Floyd than being a great bass player. 

But I suppose Gilmour is right when he says Waters could be, or rather could have been, a great bassist, if that is what he really wanted. 

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[mikel]

9 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

But...

Then you have something like this :

 

 

Pretty horrible bass playing as far as I am concerned.

He did however record some pretty incredible bass lines for Pink floyd's first two albums, after that it kind of went downhill for him though, as a bass player at least, and as far as I am concerned.

Guess he was more focused on writing songs and taking over leadership of Pink Floyd than being a great bass player. 

But I suppose Gilmour is right when he says he could be, or rather could have been a great bassist, if that is what he really wanted. 

 

 

 

I suppose he found it more enjoyable and rewarding to help create some of the 20th centuries iconic music, rather than become a "Great bassist". I know what I would have settled for.

[Baloney Balderdash]

24 minutes ago, mikel said:

I suppose he found it more enjoyable and rewarding to help create some of the 20th centuries iconic music, rather than become a "Great bassist". I know what I would have settled for.

Oh, absolutely, I agree, and perfectly understand that kind of mindset, even if I can't say I am big Waters fan.

I myself have developed into and see my self as more of a composer/song writer kind of musician these day than really an instrumentalist kind of musician. 

Still I love playing bass and consider bass as my main instrument of choice.

It's just that I love composing and writing songs even more and that I am a much more skilled composer/songwriter than bass or guitar player (which I guess, like in the case of Waters, is mainly due to where my main focus has turned to). 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[mikel]

6 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Oh, absolutely, I agree, and perfectly understand that kind of mindset, even if I can't say I am big Waters fan.

I myself have developed into and see my self as more of a composer/song writer kind of musician these day than really an instrumentalist kind of musician. 

Still I love playing bass and consider bass as my main instrument of choice.

 

 

Agreed. The bass is also my passion, I just wish I could compose an albums worth of great songs that I could play simple bass lines on and be as successful as Floyd. We can dream.

[wateroftyne]

Listen to the early live recordings of DSoTM - nothing wrong with Roger’s performance there.

[fleabag]

Personally, i couldnt care less about his sub par bass playing.  It aint that bad, but he is a song writing genius and that is an art thats way beyond playing a bass.  I wish i had some of that writing talent