Where does Bill Wyman rate as a bassist?

Discuss!

 

I like his work on the 60's and 70's Stones works.
He always had a pretty distinctive sound.

He is a terrible writer though.
His book 'A Stone Alone' was pretty much unreadable, even though it contains a wealth of facts.
Never heard his solo albums, but imagine they are pretty bad.

 

He's right up there with Entwistle, Bruce & Jones.

 

Bill is very cool bassist but in stone's albums the sound of the bass is very "low" (volume with poor harmonics) and miss the art of his work.

@ prof. stoned
i have the lp "A Stone Alone" and is very good.

 

I've never held him in the same regard as JPJ or Entwistle. I feel that he's ok, not great but not bad.

 

The Bass on Beggar's Banquet "Stray Cat Blues" is awesome!

 

Average

 

There's a reason why when he left the band there wasn't a public outcry over the loss of The Stones master bassist.

 

yes that reason is that people are morons fixated on keith and mick

there wasn't much outcry when mick taylor left either and we know what that meant..

there wouldn't be much outcry if charlie watts left either..

all the average person knows about the stones is this:

drugs and alcohol
very old (too old to tour?)
mick jagger
keith richards
gotta see them one time

bill wyman is an awesome bassist and was very important to the stones because him and charlie watts fit very well together... there are plenty of stones songs were you can here the wyman/watts groove..

 

Well, I'm not sure that the general public would know one way or another if Bill Wyman is/was a good bass player.

The Stones had such a great groove though and he and Charlie were a great team and responsible for their share of that groove.

For what it's worth, I read an interview with Chris Hillman and he mentioned that he still misses Bill's bass playing with the Stones. He liked what Bill brought to the band.

I have to admire a guy though that gets to a certain age and walks away from the hoopla to enjoy some private life despite the pressure from Keith, etc.

He probably spends some time sitting in his car in front of the high school trying to pick out his future wife.

 

Bill always seemed like a perfectly fine musician to me, but he must hold some kind of record as "band member most frequently replaced on tracks by other band members." Doesn't he only play on something like half the songs from Exile on Main Street?

 

I think Wyman is an underrated bassist. Thanks in large part to the great drumming of Charlie Watts and the way the two worked together, he can seem like an underachieving musician. (Also, the nonchalant way he appeared on stage--stationary and detached--made him seem like more of a spectator.)
But sometimes the true test of a rhythm section's greatness is when you don't notice the individual players, but can't help tapping your feet anyway.
I saw the Stones on their "Some Girls" tour in '78 just a week or so after Wyman fell of the stage somewhere and fractured a couple of fingers on his fretting hand.
I was worried that it would mar the performance, but, lo and behold, there was Bill with two or three fingers on his left hand taped together, shot full of cortisone, and not missing a beat.
Pretty good, I'd say.

 

Bill was a technically middling bassist, but added a certain ineffable "something" to the Stones' sound. It is true however, that he often would eschew attending Stones recording sessions if he didn't feel like it; and Keith or Ron would happily do the bass bits. He was there for the touring, until he wasn't.

 

I was always under the impression that Keith played the bass on the studio recordings? Sympathy for the Devil comes to mind and so does Start Me Up.

Regardless of who actually played, the Stones' bass lines on their 60's-80's were awesome.

 

Bill's playing onstage in '78 and '81-'82 absolutely cooked - all over the place, punctuating off-beats that you'd never expect. He & Charlie were locked in during that period even moreso than usual.

 

Saw a reviewer once disparage Bill's playing as "utilitarian", which is how he sounded to me.

 

Hey Squealy, you ever looked at the credits to see how many other drummers there are on Stones records. In Wyman's case it was frequently because he just wasn't there at the time, can't say that in Watts' case.

 

He fit in well with Stones, but his ability was average at best, in my opinion. Not at all flashy or influential. Didn't have the sense of melody that McCartney had, the chops of a John Paul Jones or Chris Squire and certainly not the ingenuity or dexterity of a John Entwistle. He was more in the Peter Quaife (The Kinks), Chas Chandler (The Animals) or Frank Allen (The Searchers) mode. Unquestionably, he and Charlie Watts made a great rhythm section. It seemed just as he was developing a more personal style (Let It Bleed era) he was already weary of studio work and often took extended time off. Keith started playing a lot of bass and Bill either didn't care or had no say in the matter, so he often remained in the shadows for the rest of his stay. Ron

 

What?!? There was a HUGE outcry when Mick Taylor left!

 

I'd say he's solid and In the pocket.

 

According to all the rock historians, he's one of the best ever. Sorry, but I just don't hear it. I find his style pretty generic, and his tone is terrible.

 

One of the best (if not THE best)!

 

Wyman fit in with the sound of the band both live and in the studio. I suspect he didn't show up for many sessions for one simple reason--he wasn't allowed to contribute to songwriting or singing something he clearly had an ambition to do. As to whether he was good at it, that's another story that would be up to the individual. I have to say though I like his RHythm Kings albums.

Althought Wyman might not as been as important in the Stones as Lennon was in The Beatles, Paul, George and RIngo would record when John wasn't around or there were tracks where musically he didn't have a role and he really didn't play on it. That didn't make him irrelevant though.