Music Banter - View Single Post

morris_o_plenty · 11-08-2007, 11:20 PM

Posted by Seltzer:

"Interesting analysis... However I find that Nicko is far superior to Ulrich. Ulrich can't play with 2 bass pedals what Nicko can play with one. Nicko's just more tasteful and has better chops IMO.

I'd say:

Rob Trujillo >> Steve Harris >>> Cliff Burton - Burton was pretty decent, but his basslines weren't as good as Harris' ones. Rob Trujillo is actually an insane bassist if you listen to his stuff with Infectious Grooves. That guy is wickedly funky."

I guess your first point just depends on your preference. I do have to admit that Nicko is fantastic and his sound in Where eagles dare is INSANELY GREAT. I only picked Lars by a hair because of his sound during Live/concert sets was too powerful to ignore.

In the case of the bass, I really have to disagree with you. Not only is Harris better than Trujillo, I would label Harris as the best bass player EVER in any musical style. Why? Lets see, he has the most unique way of playing the bass (just hear phantom of the opera) and he makes it sound great. He is the one member of maiden that is irreplaceable. More importantly, ALL, as in EVERY SINGLE ONE, of his basslines is great. There is not one song in the entire history of maiden's career that you can say "the bass sucks." There were occassions, specially during the brief retirement of Bruce, that some of the other members sucked but that can't be said about Harris. If you play bass and tried to play maiden songs specifically focusing on Harris' unique techniques, you would understand truly how great he is. I'm not saying that Trujillo is a bad bassist, in fact he is a good one, its just that its hard for me to pick him above harris when all of metallica's songs now suck, his technique (not how good he is mind you, his technique) is pretty ordinary, and he doesn't dominate their songs. Ofcourse, this is just my opinion but you have to understand that Harris is a legend among bass players that are into metal. Just to get an idea of how complex it is to play Harris's bass lines, take a look at this link of somepeople who are as close to Harris as possible:

http
://you ube.com/watch?v=Xwrr2JveedM
://you ube.com/watch?v=lHD1y4v0ITw
://you ube.com/watch?v=GMacLXhSqDo
://you ube.com/watch?v=sr5GSKwM8Oc

the space is t (utube)

These guys actually do a great job of imitating Harris but the point i wanted to make was the complexity of his basslines which might not be evident to an untrained ear just by listening to their songs.

11-08-2007, 11:20 PM	#266 (permalink)
morris_o_plenty Groupie Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 3	Bass Posted by Seltzer: "Interesting analysis... However I find that Nicko is far superior to Ulrich. Ulrich can't play with 2 bass pedals what Nicko can play with one. Nicko's just more tasteful and has better chops IMO. I'd say: Rob Trujillo >> Steve Harris >>> Cliff Burton - Burton was pretty decent, but his basslines weren't as good as Harris' ones. Rob Trujillo is actually an insane bassist if you listen to his stuff with Infectious Grooves. That guy is wickedly funky." I guess your first point just depends on your preference. I do have to admit that Nicko is fantastic and his sound in Where eagles dare is INSANELY GREAT. I only picked Lars by a hair because of his sound during Live/concert sets was too powerful to ignore. In the case of the bass, I really have to disagree with you. Not only is Harris better than Trujillo, I would label Harris as the best bass player EVER in any musical style. Why? Lets see, he has the most unique way of playing the bass (just hear phantom of the opera) and he makes it sound great. He is the one member of maiden that is irreplaceable. More importantly, ALL, as in EVERY SINGLE ONE, of his basslines is great. There is not one song in the entire history of maiden's career that you can say "the bass sucks." There were occassions, specially during the brief retirement of Bruce, that some of the other members sucked but that can't be said about Harris. If you play bass and tried to play maiden songs specifically focusing on Harris' unique techniques, you would understand truly how great he is. I'm not saying that Trujillo is a bad bassist, in fact he is a good one, its just that its hard for me to pick him above harris when all of metallica's songs now suck, his technique (not how good he is mind you, his technique) is pretty ordinary, and he doesn't dominate their songs. Ofcourse, this is just my opinion but you have to understand that Harris is a legend among bass players that are into metal. Just to get an idea of how complex it is to play Harris's bass lines, take a look at this link of somepeople who are as close to Harris as possible: http ://you ube.com/watch?v=Xwrr2JveedM ://you ube.com/watch?v=lHD1y4v0ITw ://you ube.com/watch?v=GMacLXhSqDo ://you ube.com/watch?v=sr5GSKwM8Oc the space is t (utube) These guys actually do a great job of imitating Harris but the point i wanted to make was the complexity of his basslines which might not be evident to an untrained ear just by listening to their songs.