"He plays like I would..."

Flacco

Flacco

Supporting Member
Jan 22, 2017
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Plymouth, MA
#1
So I hope this doesn't come off as as conceited 'cause I am not a virtuoso by any means, but have you ever listened to a bassist in a band and think, "man, I would have made the same choices for those tracks". Well, I was listening to the EP below and felt just that. His style (mellow indie-meets motown) and tone (flats on a semihollow?) just resonate with me.



I don't know if its just an admiration thing or a factor of a limited amount of styles but I just dig this guy's playing and feel I would do the same thing. Who are your bass-style dopplegangers?
 
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#3
John Wetton’s work in King Crimson is the first time I could personally identify with a player’s style(note choices, riffs, phrasing), even though, while I was a big fan of the band, I would never find myself playing that type of music. Sure, I copped bits and pieces from all the mid/late 60’s greats, but he was the first total package where everything he did made sense.
 
#4
Box Burrell with Bad Company. I ay all kinds of music. That's the weird part. I'm not just a rock guy. But when I play Bad Company bass lines it's like I'm making it up as I go along.

If you took a deep album cut and played it for me and said "Do you remember when we recorded this?" I would have to admit I don't remember the session but I wouldn't argue that it wasn't me.

I have often called Boz the "Jamerson of Rock".
 
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#6
Flacco said:
have you ever listened to a bassist in a band and think, "man, I would have made the same choices for those tracks".
Click to expand...

20-something years ago I was mixing a concert by Henry Threadgill's Make A Move ensemble, and I was really struck by bassist Stomu Takeshi for that very reason: His whole decision-making as it related to the musical materials struck me as exactly what I would have done were I in that same situation. It was uncanny. First time I'd ever heard him, also.
 
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#9
There have been several times when I have had that "I would have played it the same way" moment.
One I remember in particular, I was auditioning for a band and we got to just jamming and they played "One More Saturday Night" by the Grateful Dead. I had never heard the song and told them so and they said to just wing it. I listened to the actual song later and realized I had played a bassline almost exactly the same way Phil Lesh had.
 
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#10
Flacco said:
Who are your bass-style dopplegangers?
Click to expand...
i dig a lot of players, in a lot of styles, playing on all kinds of low-end instruments, but i don't think i've ever thought of any of them that way. maybe it's a 'jazz thing' --- or maybe i'm just rebellious/stupid enough to 'go my own way'. when the tune starts i'm definitely not thinking about any other cat and what he/she does...because at that moment = i don't care!
 
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#12
I started off with a lot of heavy music in the late 70's. Some of the bands would write a song in phrygian mode and I gravitated to that. So when I wrote songs I would use that <way too much>. Then in the Mid 80's along came speed metal and more and more I heard these sounds. For a while I felt like they were stealing them from me but really they were influenced by the same type of music/bands/songs as I was. And if I were lucky enough to be in their shoes I hope that I would have come up with the same great lines that they did.

Looking back I think anyone that has the same influences will have very similar outcomes. But thankfully we are all different enough to make it sound our own.
 
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