Greg Lake underrated as a bass player!!!

Clearly a contradiction.

 

(Removed, as there is more below)

 

I still think, that we're comparing apples to oranges ... well, to be fair, it's good juice, specially for an old foggie like me!

 

In general, a Levin, or Myung, for example, are much more real bass players, than otherwise ... although I would think that Levin is much more of an experimenting person, than Myung has been, who has been slightly stuck with the same music for a while, and is not really showing a development beyond the knowledge that you mention, like great listening, or music knowledge.

 

For me, and this is important for those days in "progressive" music, it is important to remember that many of those folks were a part of the art scene in those days that was trying to change the process and how things were done ... there was "anti-film", "anti-art", "anti-theater", anti-music" ... and when you see someone concentrate on creating something different, and illustrating some very fine writing and lyricism ... in my book, it is not about the bass playing, or guitar playing at that moment ... it's about the work itself.

 

Too much of the music that became "progressive" is not as illustrious, and well defined as the stuff that we generally compare it to. Most of it is highly formulaic and is missing the freedom to be creative, other than extending a solo here or there, or the singer do something exceptional. A lot of that stuff is very enjoyable ... but little will stand the test of time, as the music that "changed the world" and how we thought about it ... and that is the reason why we love it ... it was different.

 

Do check out that other thread on VdGG where the author of the book chips in. It talks about the use of the "chorus" ... and guess what was one of the first things that some of those folks did not use a lot of ... yeah! ... and that means a bass player, or musician, has to concentrate a lot better and harder and the compositional side of the music is not as easy ... Mike Howlett, is an interesting case with Gong ... you do know that he runs a music school in Australia, right? ... but he was knowledgeable enough that people around him could go anywhere and he always knew when to get them back ... and I think this is what makes the Gong "You" long cuts so massive ... check out Pierre Moerlin gone all over the place, but no one ever lost their place ... I'm not sure that it is just musical knowledge at that time ... it would defeat the teachings of the Karmic Zero Aellien, who does so much experimenting all around and he does go all over the place ... he just does it with different people all the time.

 

You're right though ... great listening or very good music knowledge ... and I think that is probably what Greg was about more than anything else.

Thank you Harmonium.

 

I'm ok with it. It's hard for people to take a look at quotidian studies and what they mean. It's much easier (and common) to compare to ideas in one's head, than the time and place that the creator and artist came from. Sometimes it yields interesting information, but it tend to remove the work from its "soul", as I like to say.

 

The hard part of it all, is, instead, to superimpose this on to today ... if you and I put together a band and we created "The Endless Enigma" today, most folks here would trash it ... because there is metal and there is this and there is that ... and folks are not really "listening" to music per se ... they are listening to ideals about music ... which "progressive" would be one of.

 

But saying that Greg is a bass player ... is strange ... in his first two solo albums, he barely touches a bass, if I remember correctly. And even does a Bob Dylan song ... the kind of thing that we love to trash people for and say ... they ain't progressive! .... that's another story for a rainy day, though!

I did not say ELP is not prog, and I did not say Greg Lake is a sucky bassist. Stop with those hyperboles.

And damnit, this thread was made for discussing Lake's bass playing skill, nothing else!