Roger Waters as a bassist- underappreciated?

Some live Roger on bass parts I love:
Astronomy Domine: his bass work adds some real darkness and power to this song and it seems to be the foundation for his bass line on the intro to Time.

Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun: Another ominous, dark bass riff the caries this song through outer space -perfect!

Careful With That Axe Eugene and the almost tick-tock quality of the bass line as they count down to the big scream and pandemonium.

 

Didnt suggest you should care, but it is relevant to a thread discussing if he is very good as a bassist. He is not really competent enough to be hired for a gig as a bass player. He is good enough to play a bass part that he writes for himself taking his limited technique into account.

 

I'd use "Matilda Mother" as an example of quality Roger bass playing, and there's no question that it's Gilmour. All of "Piper", actually.

If it's Roger on "Comfortably Numb", there are some nice little melodic touches going on under the guitar solo. It's not complicated stuff but it works.

 

In fact if I were looking for a bassist for my band for either a gig or a recording session for one of my originals, there are three I regularly play with that I would call before him, and one of them used to play in a Pink Floyd cover band (and we actually went to see Roger's last tour together)

 

I'm saying this as a Pink Floyd fan: the Waters/Mason combination is one of the dullest rhythm sections of all the great bands. While they were never virtuosos, they made up for in the early years with vivaciousness ("Take Up They Stethoscope and Walk"). As the material morphed into stadium rock after Animals, they became quite predictable, relying on the same plodding 4/4 beat that didn't help the worsening material.

That said, both guys are exceptionally witty and well-spoken (even if Waters is almost always an insufferable pr*ck when he's not being witty).

 

I think he had the potential to be an incredibly distinctive player, especially early on, as evidenced by the many examples already mentioned (mostly Syd/Saucerful-era). His playing on later material -- say, '70 on -- is certainly competent, and occasionally exciting, always perfect for the songs. An approach along the lines of someone like Jack Bruce wouldn't have worked at all.

One of my favorite Roger moments -- in the midst of possibly my favorite Floyd moment ever -- is his swinging aggression in the funk breakdown of "Echoes" on the Pompeii film. After that, it seemed like taking the role of chief conceptualist/lyricist/songwriter meant that pursuing a unique approach on the bass went by the wayside.

 

Sorry, but who cares about your band?

 

I am discussing evaluating someone's ability as a bassist, which I most regularly do for the purpose of deciding whether to use someone on a gig or session. And he is not on the level of folks who care enough about my band to often play for me even for free.

If none of those three were available I might use him, but would have to dumb down the setlist to make it so he could cut it. And it's kind of relevant that he isnt as good as my friend who plays with a Floyd cover band.

 

His bass playing is definitely unique, and I cannot imagine another style of bass playing in the group. The clangy, sometimes frenetic grooves add the elements of doom to the atmosphere, especially in Raving and Drooling/Sheep, Time, and even Careful With That Axe Eugene. He knows when to add the deep, fat notes, and when to pick up the pace and give the song an edge. C'mon, give the architect student a break!

 

My old bass player probably had better chops than Rog, too, but the opportunity to say "Holy lord, I'm making music with Roger Waters of The Pink Floyd!" does have its appeal.

 

It's hardly relevant if you would hire Roger for your cover band.
I bet none of the musicians you ever worked with ever came up with one single, iconic bass line though. It takes technical skills but zero originality and imagination to be a cover band player. It's a different ballgame.

No one would hire David Gilmour for a cover band either. He's great at one thing, sounding like David Gilmour. He couldn't do Van Halen, Hendrix or Zeppelin covers. Do you feel Dave is an inferior musician?

 

Well, it seems a very weird, sort of HR-department way of evaluating a musician. If you can't consider the recorded performances that are surely his, or the many live recordings that exist of his tenure with the Floyd and conclude anything other than he's "not really competent", then I guess you don't really like the Floyd very much. But I know the drill, it's all about Gilmour.

There's tons of great artists whom I don't think are technically great musicians. I can see a good bar band any night of the week, I can't see 1970-era Pink Floyd. My longstanding opinion has been that Pink Floyd is one of the least instrumentally accomplished rock groups in history - Gilmour is really the only one who passes muster on a technical level - and yet look what they achieved. Keep your bar-band pros, I'll take inspired amateurs gone pro.

Roger's crushed, I'm sure. He really needs that gig.

 

I suspect that if any of us actually played with him, we'd come away with a better appreciation of his ability than we may have now.

 

Actually we just finished a 19 track CD of my original music, and I would definitely take lots of the bass parts on that over any of Waters' parts. That is one of the gigs I would have preferred my main player for. He teaches classical bass as well as playing in orchestras, jazz bands, musicals, rock bands, solo recitals and was nominated for a Grammy. Super talented guy who came up with great parts. No way I would have preferred Waters on the session. If you were interested I could let you hear some.

 

Sounds boring to me. And you're doing self promotion in a thread about Roger Waters. Hooray.

 

If you read all of my comments you would have noted that I went to see the last Waters tour. It was a great show. Visually overwhelming and he had a kick ass band playing great music.

 

You said we had a cover band, so I clarified.

 

I read all your comments. Dunno why you went to see an incompetent bassist in concert but hey, it wasn't my dime. Probably lots of his bad lyrics about Daddy too. Bummer!

 

Roger would never be hired as a session bassist, but he was creative. Rick Wright said he was the first bassist to play it like a lead guitar (and then the video clip went to "Let There Be More Light").. He seemed to like octave jumps, and playing funky stuff. Sometimes he'd use the bass to imitate a clock ticking (Time)..

Trivia: The first time he played bass live on "Comfortably Numb" was Live 8.

 

Now THAT is funny!

 

Impressive visual show. Lots of great music played by a great band. He didnt really dance or look hot but other than that it was as good as the Britney show I saw a few weeks ago and tix were cheaper. Both did lots of lip syncing and neither did much instrumentally.

 

He always played the doctor before, and the Live 8 performance was a reunion sans the on-stage threatrics.

 

It’s also kind of relevant that Roger Waters has no idea who you are, and would likely have zero interest playing music with you.

 

Not sure that is relevant but it is definitely true. Thanks for making this more about me and my music

 

I dunno. Nick Mason is at best a barely competent drummer. What a rhythm section, eh?

It’s also hard to evaluate Waters as a bassist because Gilmour played a lot of the bass parts in the studio.