BOC and Bass

[Swartz, John A.]

Drum and bass solos are alright in my book, but one after another breaks up the flow of the concert too much, IMHO (not to mention the fact that BOC's been doing a drum solo in "Godzilla" for the past 30 years!!!).  

As a bassplayer, I do NOT think bass solos are an abomination (although I'm not skilled enough to pull off a real good one, so I'm happy to not do one*), but (like drum solos) I prefer shorter ones.  I saw Stu Hamm playing with Joe Satriani 10 years ago or so and his bass solo was most excellent.  I respect Claypool as a bassplayer, but never could get into Primus (as much as I wanted to like them).  Michael Anthony is an very solid bassplayer (just saw him with Chickenfoot in Boston last month), but I've also seen that YouTube video and his "solo" was musically uninspiring (it was really more of an opportunity to let him go crazy on stage).

* I actually had to do an impromptu bass solo at a gig last year (our first club gig no less) when one of our guitarists broke a string and had to change it (he had brought a spare guitar, but he had broken a string on THAT one in the first set - Murphy's Law) - someone in the crowd yelled out "bass solo" (what a fool), so I took a page from Joe Bouchard's book (figuratively) and started playing the bassline to Pink Floyd's "Money" (something Joe worked into some of his solos in the early 80s).

By the way, to the person who mentioned the recent BOC bass solo and being confused by it, I suspect you are talking about the intro Eric gives to Rudy Szarzo, where he gives a brief musical history of Rudy, punctuated by the band playing snippets of "Metal Health" (Quiet Riot), "Still of the Night" (Whitesnake), and "Crazy Train" (Ozzy Osbourne) - I found that rather entertaining.

John



> -----Original Message-----
> From: gary shindler [mailto:bewlay68 at YAHOO.COM]
> Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 9:57 AM
> Subject: Re: BOC ravings
> 
> I saw Primus in concert about 10 years ago Bill and I am a bass player and
> respect Claypool but the mix was so high on his bass that I was upset you
> couldn't hear Ler Lamonde's guitar. I don't know if it was because they
> were outdoors by a river or what but the sound to me sucked.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: Bill Bradley <senator at UGCS.CALTECH.EDU>
> To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET
> Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 4:52:44 PM
> Subject: Re: BOC ravings
> 
> gary shindler wrote:
> > There's a Michael Anthony bass solo on Youtube with the Jack Daniels
> whiskey bass that supports your theory.
> >
>   Ah, but Stu Hamm and Les Claypool exist as counter-arguments
> 
>   Bill
> 
> > ________________________________
> > From: Tim Hall <tim at KALYR.COM>
> > To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET
> > Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 4:35:16 PM
> > Subject: Re: BOC ravings
> >
> > Jeff Thompson wrote:
> >
> >>> This time the band seemed to be "going through the motions".
> >>>
> >> That's too bad.  I saw 3OC back in 2000 or so, with Rondinelli and
> Miranda, and I enjoyed the heck out of it.
> >>
> >> Even suffered through a random incarnation of Starship, and Foghat,
> >> to get to it, and considered it worth it.  Certainly enjoyed it more
> >> than seeing them on the Club Ninja tour.
> >>
> >
> > I saw the 2OC last year in Manchester, and thought they were still
> cutting it live - and Eric was on pretty good form.  And they even played
> Astronomy, which was the first time I'd seen the song live.
> >
> > Could do without all the solos in Godzilla, though.  Drum solos should
> simply not be allowed unless your name is Neil Peart, and bass solos are an
> abomination no matter who's on bass.
> > -- Tim
> > http://www.kalyr.com/weblog
> > http://twitter.com/kalyr
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
>