Greg Lake underrated as a bass player!!!

 

Just listen to his lead work on this. What's interesting is that bass is not missed at all. 

 

 

I only piddle on the bass ... and I am what should be called an "anti-music" musician ... because too much out there is too formulaic for my tastes and is centered around too much popular music and its simplicity.

 

That said, I happen to like the first 4 albums by that band, and Greg's greatest addition to it for me, is not the bass or the guitar at all ... it's his voice, as was the case with King Crimson.

 

It might be worth a study, but in those days, there were a lot of concepts and ideas about the "voice" being an "instrument", not just a singer in the previous ways that had been thought of. In my book, he read the poems/poetry for the effect and the two major bands he was with were very good at helping accentuate the words ... instead of simply follow some music rules and just add "lyrics" over it. There is a difference in my book ... one is Peter Hammill and the other is just another pop singer!

 

In the end, it is about the expression and how the music is bent, shaped, and formed around the work itself ... not just a song. At least in my way of seeing things.

 

That said, I am not sure that it is fair to compare him to other "bass players", when what he is doing is -- in my view -- a lot less about the bass guitar and its place in the music, than it is about making sure that this passage is accentuated better, and accounstic works better here with this and bass better here with that ... and so forth ... it is a totally different way of "composing" that has a lot less to do with "music theory" than it does with anything else.

 

Indeed, the music history of the last thousand years has almost all been about people doing different things ... so seeing some rock musicians do something different with it, other than the conventional stuff -- which is easier for you to teach -- as it is very difficult to teach something about ... what does it feel like to you? ... which becomes subjective and you can not teach very well ... which often tells you the trick ... to what music history was ... in the end, you revolted against the conventional, because you felt things differently!

 

So, Bass players worth mentioning ... in general, for rock music, I have my favorites, but I have never thought that enough of them were that open minded about the use of the instrument. I much prefer to listen to David Darling and his experiments (see if you can get a hold of EOS with Terje Rypdal ... and let's talk Bass then!), or even see how Holger Czukay can do bass on bass on bass on a bass leading ... in his first two solo albums in what amounts to pure insanity ... you pretty much can't teach that I would think.

 

A lot of it, depends on the music school and the place and the time. ... some of the european folks were around the best school for experimentation and improvisation in music ... and some of their instructors were some of the best named "classical" music folks out there ... and sometimes, when we are talking popular music ... we tend to separate the commercially sound players with anyone else. I love listening to Stanley Clarke, but I can't help thinking that I am listening to a professor in school. I love to listen to Bootsie ... and I can't help feeling that we're in a party having some fun! I think there is a difference and I'm not sure it is about the mechanics. I think it's the person that makes it, not necessarily the instrument.

 

But in terms of making the music special and stand out? I would say John Entwistle was quite innovative, and I like the way that Lothar Meid colors Amon Duul 2 in Yeti, Dance of the Lemmings, Wolf City and Vive La Trance, it's hard to not appreciate someone like the late Pekka Pohjola ... and I'm coming to appreciate more and more the work  that Mike Howlett did on Gong ... he's now the leader in an Australian music school, which tells you what kind of people he was playing with.

 

I still think that Chris Squire is very good, but his greatest contribution was splitting the heads and hairs on many technicians so he could get his bass pickups to do two different things, and sound "stereo" at that time ... which of course is not even thought about today with all the electronics available. But we should never take away to the massively skilled and insane playing of his in Tales from Topographic Oceans ... I doubt you can teach anyone to be that free and all over the place and do something different all the time, unless you have a special feel for the very music you are creating ... again ... it's less the instrument and more the music itself ... that helps create the work that goes into it ... you feel so fine about this passage, you want to make it better ... and that is not something that you can teach "notes" and "scales" about ... that is something that you can only hoppe to meet someone that "melts" into the music once in your life, so you know what it is ... and will spend the rest of your life figuring out how to teach others to do it ...  hint ... kids are the best teachers for you on this!

 

In general, and I don't mean it in a bad way, I do think that too many bass players mentioned, even in progressive music, are over rated ... and they have limited their musical ability to one style or song concept and are no longer developing their musical life ... way further ... than just popular music, or "acceptable" music, or "progressive" music  ... or at least expand the music itself, not just the bass and chords so it becomes something other than ... just music ... but still, not  "limited" to a set of chords and notes ... that usually fits a song structure of some sort.

Well I f you don't know I am probably a bigger fan than you are so everything you say above I already know of course. But I'm sure he plays guitar on Works 2 (Tiger in a Spotlight)

But I'm sure about 99% of ELP fans would agree...his guitar playing especially lead is really not up to much,pleasent though it is.

Oh..and the crazy talk id prefering the single version of Fanfare. I so strongly disagree. The short version is just plain dull to me. As you know even Copeland thought so.

Actually he plays a little electric on Love Beach too.

Anyway I feel a poll coming on.

A bit shorter but a lot heavier.