A Flea Rant...

[ahpook]

[quote name='steve-soar' post='616373' date='Oct 4 2009, 11:42 AM']I'd rather staple my tongue to my foreskin...[/quote]

chuck us a cloth to wipe the tea of my laptop screen

[SteveK]

Not interested in the "He's better than him" BS...

But, interestingly, it wasn't till the Flea clip that my foot started tapping.

[leftybassman392]

It's pretty much all been said already, but FWIW Flea's brought me a lot more teaching work than Wootten ever has or will.

[GreeneKing]

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='616243' date='Oct 4 2009, 09:15 AM']I still think 'Blood Sugar' is one of the best albums ever, and is a bass tour-de-force.

'Mellowship Slinky' is amazing...and bloody hard to play![/quote]

+1

I'm a VW and MM fan too btw. We don't need to be mutually exclusive here

[bubinga5]

i apologise for my close minded rant...its never a good idea to post anything after you have been out for the evening....i really like some of Fleas playing..my comments were a little immature..

Edited October 4, 2009 by bubinga5

[Rich]

[quote name='Delberthot' post='616194' date='Oct 4 2009, 05:12 AM']These kind of rants rarely go anywhere as its down to personal preference....
One man's Pamela anderson is another man's Hattie Jaques etc[/quote]
He speak truth.

[GreeneKing]

[quote name='bubinga5' post='616391' date='Oct 4 2009, 12:04 PM']i apologise for my close minded rant...its never a good idea to post anything after you have been out for the evening....i really like some of Fleas playing..my comments were a little immature..[/quote]

Sometimes perhaps I feel that players deserve more recognition than others seem to get. This can be frustrating. However the musical tastes of the public are not our own. As a musician (I'm not sure I qualify) we tend to have discerning taste perhaps?

[Waldo]

[quote name='Waldo' post='616260' date='Oct 4 2009, 09:42 AM']Oh and I don't suppose I'm the only person who's noticed the irony of posting a Claypool song THAT ISN'T EVEN HIS SONG [/quote]

Ahem.

[silverfoxnik]

[quote name='bubinga5' post='616391' date='Oct 4 2009, 12:04 PM']i apologise for my close minded rant...its never a good idea to post anything after you have been out for the evening....i really like some of Fleas playing..my comments were a little immature..[/quote]
No need to apologise at all..

Your rant has sparked of some posts that make for really interesting reading, so as far as I'm concerned, it's been quite productive!

Back on topic, I agree with whoever said it needn't be mutually exclusive.. There's more than enough room for everyone and both Flea and VW have been hugely influential.. After all, how many of us can say that?

[Pete Academy]

These days I always try to say 'I don't like something' rather than 'it/he/she's crap!'

Doddy told me about a converation he had with a guitar teacher. The teacher cited Flea as being probably the world's best player, only because Flea was probably the only bass player he'd taken notice of.

In the land of the blind, the manic slap player is king.

[GreeneKing]

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='616416' date='Oct 4 2009, 12:26 PM']These days I always try to say 'I don't like something' rather than 'it/he/she's crap!'

Doddy told me about a converation he had with a guitar teacher. The teacher cited Flea as being probably the world's best player, only because Flea was probably the only bass player he'd taken notice of.

In the land of the blind, the manic slap player is king. [/quote]

No pun intended?

[Pete Academy]

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='616419' date='Oct 4 2009, 12:27 PM']No pun intended? [/quote]

[Raslee]

Anyone who brings bass forward to a positive light is doing a good deed in my eyes , even if its a genre that i don't like such as cheese American rock (i.e. Motley Crue etc not RCHP....they're grrreat IMO), so i guess fair play to Mr. Flea for getting noticed for what we all love....BASS!

And fair play to those like Wooten, Johnson, Graham, Pastorius, Miller, Clarke, Collins, Shakespeare & Barrett and many more-[b]including you[/b] who take bass to the outer limits -
[b]BASS = ONE LOVE[/b] (including American cock rock ) A one nation under a groove!

[bottomfeed]

I can understand why people would consider Wooten the better 'technician'.... & that youtube vid shows Flea to be a bit of a 'one trick pony' ....but pretty much all the basslines on 'Blood, sugar, sex, magic' are right up there, in my humble opinion..
Personally (& lets face it, this kinda stuff is always very subjective) I like aspects of both of their playing & I also think both are capable of boring w@nk that leaves me cold....
They've both contributed greatly to the bass playing world... I guess if it were a competition (which of cause it isn't!) the scales would tip a little in the favour of Flea for me, for his energy & soul... [i](but not for his endless machine gun slap.... )
[/i]
Claypool is a great 'character' player too.... unique

Meshell Ndegeocello & Pino Palladino are definitely two of my favourite bass players of all time! .....

Edited October 4, 2009 by bottomfeed

[skankdelvar]

'Ere! I seen a thread wot look just like you, not 2 minutes ago. You gotta twin? Uncanny.

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=62447"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=62447[/url]

[WarPig]

I dont care to be honest, but this comment on youtube had to be quoted:


Normannotnice (3 days ago)

I like the gentleman at the start,he plays nice & slow but can play very fast if he needs to,but the other 4 string guitar player who forgot to put his top on seems angry at his instument or maybe even his friends on stage or maybe even the camera man.....I'm just not sure from the movie.
But why o why must he damage his based guitar by hitting it so so hard??? Yes I like the gentle chap at the start more than Fly.

Edited October 4, 2009 by WarPig

[skankdelvar]

[quote name='Rasta' post='616441' date='Oct 4 2009, 12:48 PM']Anyone who brings bass forward to a positive light is doing a good deed in my eyes ... ... [b]BASS = ONE LOVE[/b] (including American cock rock ) A one nation under a groove! [/quote]
Indeedy.

Edited October 4, 2009 by skankdelvar

[AndyTravis]

It's just your taste.
I for one love his work, he pushed bassists up the ladder of public conscience.
I personally think he's a bit of a balloon as a bloke, and i'd hate to meet him...guess you shouldn't meet your heroes. I owe a lot to him.
Wooten is awesome, love his work, and hopefully have him booked for a Hartke clinic next month...

Thing is, Flea, and the rhcp divide opinion on here it seems.
It's just different strokes for different folks...
I thought Krist from Nirvana was 'the best bass player in the world...' at one point.

How things change.

[pietruszka]

This topic clearly winds some people up something rotten!
I have mixed feelings on Flea. Him and Zender are the reasons I got into bass playing, Flea is most certainly an influencial bass player and as Ive improved as a musician and become more knowledgable as a person, I have realised Flea is not that good. Bottom Feed said it right with 'one trick pony'. His slap style isnt particularly great and his patterns are repetitive.

But! He has raised the profile of the bass player and become such an influence on youngsters getting into music. He can't however, be compared to Wooten, or Claypool as they are completely different bass players.

Ultimately, each to their own. I personnaly dont rate Flea at all, but he is the reason I got into bass playing and I do recommend him to younger players, Especially if it keeps them playing!

Claypool for President!

Dan

[alexclaber]

It's a shame the competitive nature of humankind causes us to force better/worse comparisons upon artforms and artists. Pidgeonholing and genre subdivision is another equally unfortunate trait. Ah well, at least we can blame millennia of evolution...

Alex

P.S. f1EldY r00Lz

[Rich]

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='616451' date='Oct 4 2009, 12:59 PM']'Ere! I seen a thread wot look just like you, not 2 minutes ago. You gotta twin? Uncanny.

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=62447"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=62447[/url][/quote]
Quite. I don't think we need two of them. Continue on the other one.

[agoulding]

Everyone outside. We is gonna have ourselves a fight.

[4000]

[quote name='D-L-B' post='616213' date='Oct 4 2009, 08:21 AM']It looks to me like you're transferring your aggression towards those who refuse to move to your opinion onto the things they choose. Flea never insisted to you that he was this virtuoso musician, he's just a bloke in a band.
Clearly some growing up needs to be done here.[/quote]

+1000.

[4000]

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='616404' date='Oct 4 2009, 12:13 PM']Sometimes perhaps I feel that players deserve more recognition than others seem to get. This can be frustrating. However the musical tastes of the public are not our own. As a musician (I'm not sure I qualify) we tend to have discerning taste perhaps?[/quote]

I'm not sure it's discerning taste. Sometimes I think we get far too carried away with things that have nothing to do with communication, which is what music is really all about. Oh, and surely we ARE part of the public? Can't say I'm keen on the I/we know better philosophy; there's a dark place at the end of that road.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I get bored of any thwakkita-thwakkita-thwakkita type sounds after about five seconds, so I'm not qualified to say who's best even if I did care about that kind of thing. However I can name some tracks flea played on, but none of vic's...