Roger Waters as a bassist- underappreciated?

And the bassist doing our gig tomorrow used to play in "Loonies on the Grass" doing all Floyd

I dont mind the criticism (though I welcome the defense) I put myself out there with strong opinions and information about myself and it comes with the territory.

My 11yo daughter was at a TV production camp this week and, when asked what role she wanted to have in TV productions she said "talent" and got the response "because you clearly have so much talent." She was hurt by it, but my message to her was "it just shows you have gotten beyond talking to folks in the 'everybody gets a medal' environment to talking to folks who seriously evaluate talent for consideration, and if your goal is to put yourself out there for consideration as talent you need to expect to encounter folks trying to belittle you as not everyone will applaud you, and if you aren't prepared to deal with that, you should probably set a goal other than being 'talent' "

 

Not there, but shortly thereafter, from the Bbmaj7 chord to the A7 chord. The bass plays a descending triplet run, though now that I listen to it, it's not quite as chops-y as I remembered (I thought it was two triplets in a row, but the first is clearly just swung eighths). I don't recall hearing that fill in live performances, though it's entirely possible I've overlooked one!

 

For all the players I've seen live or on TV, nobody enjoys playing bass more then Roger Waters. He has such exuberance, sometimes almost child-like. (Like Pete Rose was in baseball.) Roger Waters loves to lay down the thunder.

 

Great playing from them all here:



Plus- enhanced by French dancers!

 

Sept.6 : Happy Birthday, Roger Waters .... 75 years old today.

 

There was no "Echoes" on the '77 tour.... but Snowy was on that tour and yes he did play some bass.

Fretless bass on "Echoes" ? news to me.

I say Yes , Waters has generally been under-appreciated as a bassist... but in the long run it seems that playing bass wasn't so important to him, and that's kinda too bad.

 

You mean strictly in the context of Pink Floyd, not his solo tours, right ? That hadn't occurred to me, and that is an interesting bit of trivia.

Gilmour played some bass on The Final Cut ? Surely that's possible, but I'd never thought of that before and am wondering if that's an assumption or is there some evidence...
Andy Bown plays some keyboards on TFC (as well as on the Pros And Cons album) but he was also bassist in the WALL surrogate band 80-81 .... so perhaps he has some uncredited bass on TFC ?

I'm curious for more detail on that ...

 

I have to wonder if that black Precision bass Waters has been playing since at least the Animals tour is the only bass he owns

 

Sept.6 ..... another year gone by ..... and Rog is 76 today ......

 

How do you rate Roger Waters' gong playing?

 

I like Roger Waters’s bass playing, and as an artist, but he alienates me when he says he doesn’t hear anything special in Gilmour’s guitar playing.

 

Has he actually ever said that?

 

It was something along those lines, and I’ve always been a Roger fan, it thought it was a bit much.

 

I've read every interview, and Roger has ALWAYS said what a great guitarist Gilmour was, even when they weren't talking.

 

Gilmour

 

I found this from Nick Mason this year;

"It's a really odd thing in my opinion. But I think the problem is Roger doesn't really respect David.

"He feels that writing is everything, and that guitar playing and the singing are something that, I won't say anyone can do, but that everything should be judged on the writing rather than the playing."

 

His playing on Live At Pompeii was brilliant... The funky part in Echoes was great. Also listen to the rest of Echoes, the verses... His playing is all over the place (in a good way) he doesn't really play the same thing twice. The bass player in my Floyd tribute has told me he's having to simplify the bass in that song, as he can't remember all the little phrases etc.

 

He still plays the same bass he had for the Animals tour

 

I would say he's a hard-working bass player. Not naturally gifted, but he gave his best, and he could deliver some excellent bass parts ("Have A Cigar" comes to my mind right now). David was probably a better bassist, though.

 

He is certainly a competent bass player on the excellent Syd Barrett solo album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. I'm not sure what he did beyond that.

 

Those are definitely two different basses. Check the headstock.

 

I think he comes up with better bass lines than almost all other rock musicians. And he's a better writer than almost all other bass players. Therefore I believe that he is the "most valuable bass player" in rock music. I can only think of one person that could arguably be more valuable to their band.

 

Video of Roger Waters rig run down... Colin Lyon states that the bass he uses now is the one he's used since the late 70's. he might have changed the neck, hence the different headstock decals.... Gilmour has had about 3 or 4 different necks on his guitar.

 

I think Roger respects David as a guitar player. I don’t think he respects him as a songwriter. And I can understand and agree with that sentiment.

 

I don't.
Because you can respect a songwriter even if he writes ****. Respect and critical judgement are two separate things.