Greg Lake underrated as a bass player!!!

Starhammer wrote: moshkito wrote: harmonium.ro wrote: No, he's providing you with an explanation. Long story told short is that extreme proficiency in bass playing was not Lake's goal and that must be kept in mind when compared to other bassists. I think that's a good point, but I don't know if he's right (I have no idea).   Long story short Harmonium, and Snow Dog is supporting it ... ELP IS NOT PROGRESSIVE ... because the BASS player sux!   We might as well announce it so we can have all the admins in this board remove ELP from the grouping, as they are an embarassment with such horrible bass playing ... !!!      As I mentioned before ... it's not about the music anymore ... it's about how good the bass player is!   Music is dead ...   ... well, besides the point that Snow Dog is disagreeing on principle, not because he believes it! 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!

[QUOTE=parapet]As a professor of modern bass guitar at music high school I have a big problem of paying attention to bass guitar in music, and progressive rock is full of great players of this instrument including glorious geddy lee, virtuous john paul jones,  paul mccartney, pastorius, squier, as well as the contemporary players like john myung, colin edwin, tony levin, trey gunn etc...

But one of the most underrated bass players by my opinion is Greg Lake, who beside his great vocal and composing skills and originality plays bass incredibly awesome. Greg's bass playing is not technically complicated, nor is it fast as it is popular nowdays, but the parts he plays are considerably complex harmonically, his tone is perfect as well, and his tempo and style deserve respect. If we then assume that he sings over those lines he plays then it's worth mentioning here. In addition, Greg is difficult to find even at bass guitar forums as well.

I'd like your opinion especially by the bass players here, or at least those who understand bass playing enough.
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Snow Dog wrote: Starhammer wrote: moshkito wrote: harmonium.ro wrote: No, he's providing you with an explanation. Long story told short is that extreme proficiency in bass playing was not Lake's goal and that must be kept in mind when compared to other bassists. I think that's a good point, but I don't know if he's right (I have no idea).   Long story short Harmonium, and Snow Dog is supporting it ... ELP IS NOT PROGRESSIVE ... because the BASS player sux!   We might as well announce it so we can have all the admins in this board remove ELP from the grouping, as they are an embarassment with such horrible bass playing ... !!!      As I mentioned before ... it's not about the music anymore ... it's about how good the bass player is!   Music is dead ...   ... well, besides the point that Snow Dog is disagreeing on principle, not because he believes it! 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! Have to say i totally agree with every word.

cstack3 wrote: I have to agree with you!  In fact, give a very close listen to Lake's bass playing on ITCOCK, particularly "21st Century Schizoid Man."   He was just in his early 20's, but blows the door off with his Fender Jazz Bass/Rotosound/plectrum technique!!

I agree, I also think his best performance is on ITCOCK. His bass leads on 21st Century Schizoid Man are amazing.

moshkito wrote: harmonium.ro wrote: @Starhammer: Moshkito makes a very good point for this discussion.    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 think u just went a bit astray ...

I play bass guitar and that is my instrument, and on my solo album i sang and played guitar, my bass playing there is as simple that one won't even pay attention to it. Bass guitar is a part of band and it is there to serve to the orchestra not to be used to show personal technical abilities and actually it was the only thing i thought we agreed from your first post, now i feel you changed your opinion???

@cstack3 and the @wrinkler:

Karn Evil 9 is one of the best examples. So, playing in time and having good dynamics is the final stage for a musician, and especially bass player, having good hearing and being creative, very important, good tone as well, everything else is an extra skill. Wooten, Levin, Miller and chaps like them have extra skills like playing very fast, double thumb tech, amazing tapping, harmonics playing or wonderful harmony knowledge and arpeggio playing. Greg lake has some of extra skills for himself as well... For example great memory (just pay attention to the parts he plays in those classically  inspired ELP songs, great unison playing (21 century s. m.), great improv. skills (most of KC live staff), he plays also very fast and precise parts in ELP early days.

As well as 21CSM, remember Karn Evil 9's Second Impression (the piano-led composition)?

not as underrated as Ray Shulman

he is a great bass player but he does liv in the shadow of bein the vocalist of ELP and theyre better bassists than him like Wetton, Lee and others but he is great. I most remember the bass on 21st Schizoid man becuz it helps create the unique mood KC has.  

JeanFrame wrote: Underrated? Not by me, I saw him in the early days, when he was in a band called 'The Gods', and he stood out then. The ace bass for me is Jack Bruce (Cream).