"I'm no David Beckham" - bass version

[Nail Soup]

When people wanted to say they were OK but not great at football they could say "well, I'm no David Beckham, but......" or similar. That name would be widely recognised  to equate to "a good footballer", even amongst non-football fans.

 

Is there a bass player whose name you could use in the same sentence structure and would be similarly recognised? 

(Not just know the name like Paul McCartney, but know they are a bass player)

 

Or is bass just too far outside the public consciousness?

 

"Well, I'm no Bernard Edwards" anyone?

 

 

[Crawford13]

I reckon Flea would be the guy to fit this bill. He is the biggest household name bass player I can think of. 

[Nail Soup]

9 minutes ago, Crawford13 said:

I reckon Flea would be the guy to fit this bill. He is the biggest household name bass player I can think of. 

Good one.... but due to his choice of name you'd have to contextualise it by mentioning bass.

Otherwise they might think "I'm no Flea" means "Well, I can jump quite high"

😀

[upside downer]

Lemmy? Don't know if the general public knew or cared what he used to make that magnificent noise.

I used to tell people my playing was somewhere between Sid Vicious and John Entwistle. 

[Crawford13]

1 minute ago, Nail Soup said:

Good one.... but due to his choice of name you'd have to contextualise it by mentioning bass.

Otherwise they might think "I'm no Flea" means "Well, I can jump quite high"

😀

That's very true, I'm not sharp enough to think on that level. I would just say that and wonder why folk were looking at me funny.

[Guest]

Given the role the bass typically takes, it would be more like "I'm no Kenny Sansom but....."

[Nail Soup]

1 minute ago, Ricky Rioli said:

Given the role the bass typically takes, it would be more like "I'm no Kenny Sansom but....."

Proving your point I had to Google that! 

[paul_5]

I’m no Derek Smalls, but...

[Guest]

I'm no Martin Kemp, but.....

[TheGreek]

See, it doesn't work. Bassists would need to be a household name....there are bassists named on this forum I've never even heard of. Just who is John Myung??

[adamg67]

Lack of practice recently (no active project at the mo) means I'm no Adamg67 just at the moment.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

'Well, I'm no Charles Mingus'.... and when they respond 'Who is Charles Mingus?', just raise your eyebrows and mutter 'Don't you know anything?' 😂.

[seashell]

I once asked the 6 people in my office if any of them could name any  bass players at all. None of them could, even though one of them was married to a drummer and regularly went to gigs.

They couldn't name the bass player in any of the bands they professed to like.

Some of them had heard of Lemmy, Suzie Quattro and Phil Lynott but had no idea that they played bass. They weren't even sure about Paul McCartney.

[Mrbigstuff]

David Beckham transcended football and was also known for his fashion. I guess in that sense we (the bass player community) have Bootsy Collins 😅

[musicbassman]

"So, you play in a band, do you ?"

"Yes, but I'm no lead singer or guitarist"

"Drummer ?"

"No"

"Keyboards ?"

"No"

"So you must be the roadie, then ?"

🥺

[tegs07]

Geddy Lee?

Adam Clayton?

 

[kendall]

I'm no John Taylor but I have a reasonably good hair cut.

[tegs07]

 

10 minutes ago, kendall said:

I'm no John Taylor but I have a reasonably good hair cut.

Haha 

I’m no Adam Clayton but at least I don’t have to hang out with Bono..

[Supernaut]

I'm no Mark King, but...

[Reggaebass]

I’m no Aston ‘family man’ Barrett but I have got lots of jazz basses 😁

[Barking Spiders]

These days among footy fans / amateur players  I'd have thought they're more like to say 'I'm no Messi / Ronaldo' . Anyway pedantry aside, I can't think of any guitarist, let alone bass player, whose name would trip off the tongue of the average person in the street. I mean, even Hendrix means next to nothing to millennials and non-rock fans

Edited April 26, 2021 by Barking Spiders

[Supernaut]

27 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

I mean, even Hendrix means next to nothing to millennials

Er... no. 

[BassedinBucks]

1 hour ago, Barking Spiders said:

These days among footy fans / amateur players  I'd have thought they're more like to say 'I'm no Messi / Ronaldo' . Anyway pedantry aside, I can't think of any guitarist, let alone bass player, whose name would trip off the tongue of the average person in the street. I mean, even Hendrix means next to nothing to millennials and non-rock fans

That's sad but true. Maybe Eric Clapton or Ed Sheeran would be a more widely known guitarists than Hendrix, even amongst millennials.  As for bass players, maybe Sting might be well known? I bet the same difficulty in choosing a keyboard player or drummer may apply, kids these days only seem to know the lead singer of the latest boy band who's been hogging the front page or tweeting the most.

[tegs07]

1 minute ago, BassedinBucks said:

That's sad but true. Maybe Eric Clapton or Ed Sheeran would be a more widely known guitarists than Hendrix, even amongst millennials.  As for bass players, maybe Sting might be well known? I bet the same difficulty in choosing a keyboard player or drummer may apply, kids these days only seem to know the lead singer of the latest boy band who's been hogging the front page or tweeting the most.

Followers on Instagram are an important metric. My kids were deciding on who to see at a festival and ruled out some old codger called Lionel Ritchie as they had never heard of him and his number of followers was not high enough 😜

[ahpook]

19 hours ago, Nail Soup said:

Or is bass just too far outside the public consciousness?

Yes.

Edited April 26, 2021 by ahpook