OT: Concepts: "Flea is my favorite bass player".

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equipmentdork

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Ok,
Hear me out on this. I like Flea. He's good at what he does, damn good. His playing is exciting and he's a riveting live player. But...he's in a band with one guitar player and one singer and turned WAY up in the mix.
He is very hard to miss in a band like RHCP. His lines are busy because they CAN be and it serves the music. Choosing him is sort of an...obvious choice due to his profile.

So when someone says "Flea is my favorite bass player", and lots of people I know do, I kind of resist a polite chuckle. Now, there's no accounting for taste, and everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the problem I have is:

If Flea is "your favorite bass player", it means that these people are not:

Paul McCartney
John McVie
James Jamerson
Ron Carter
John Pattitucci
Mark King
Victor Wooten
Chris Squire
Bernard Edwards
Steve Harris

You see where I'm going with this, or am I just a noodge?

No wrong answers. Go!

Flea fans: I'm not saying he isn't good. He's awesome.


Dan
 
Flea is loved by so many people for a number of reasons, you mentioned just a few but I must agree with you. His tone is easily recognizable by anyone, including non musicians, his bass lines are busy and often intricate, his stage presence is outstanding, and he's batshit crazy in a good way.
That said, I like him but he's never been one of my favourite players. I play bass and had the chance to listen to plenty of great bassists over time, old and new, and I've never found anything particularly interesting in Fela's playing, as well as RHCP in general, which I don't like that much.
Like i said I like him, he's a good player with great chops and musicality, but I think most of his fame comes from his attitude, his looks, and the fact that he's in a very famous band.

The list of bassists you posted is very good, but imho Paul McCartney doesn't deserve even the last spot in that list. No offense, of course.
 
Not sure about some of those picks, a lot of the rock/funk ones that are appropriate to compare occupy a similar space in the music as Flea does (on the RHCP stuff i've heard, which is all 80s/90s)...Victor Wooten, Chris Squire, Mark King, Steve Harris, sometimes bernard Edwards and Jamerson too. King and Wooten are at times far, far busier, and Squire is an equally prominent pseudo-lead role with a trebly/mid-rangey tone. I've heard plenty of R&B/funk stalwarts and minimalist pocket oriented players say he's not a real bass player, overrated etc...


Don't get me wrong i get the sentiment about him being one of the easy "casual" or non-musician choices of favourite, and i like most of those players you've mentioned. I'm just not sure i see much distinction between Flea and most of them, or that is worth chuckling at any more than someone saying a very well known rock guy like Bonham, Peart, orX famous 40s-60s jazz drummer is their favourite. Not much of a fan of the Chilli Peppers outside of a small handful of songs, but i never had any issue with his playing; he was musical, clearly had a love and understanding of 60s/70s soul and funk, and then did something appropriate with it for a band that were a heavier, punkier, aggressive take on 70s funk mixed in with various rock influences.
 
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Flea is one of those musicians who in spite of being very popular is actually very good. Yes , he’s way up in the mix and people tend to think with something is upfront, it’s more impressive. He’s also a character. He has a wild personality and that gets him attention. He uses slap as a more aggressive way of playing pink and adding a touch of funk to it. Add it all up and you’ve got a damn creative musician. However.., I’ve heard him do some stuff live that was just incredibly stupid. Sloppy and incoherent. What does it all mean? It depends on what you’re looking for. You could be taken in by the flash or turned off by it. Or you could look deeply and appreciate his skill but realize it has limits. Everybody has limits.
 
[QUOTE="Hypercaffium, post: 2537798, member: 35749"

The list of bassists you posted is very good, but imho Paul McCartney doesn't deserve even the last spot in that list. No offense, of course.
[/QUOTE]


He’s extremely influential .
 
I think this is some phenomenon not only exclusive to Flea but to most famous musicians. People, most not musicians themself, like what they know and what they think sounds cool.

Of the people responding Flea as their favorite bass player, how many of them even know Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller etc?

Same goes for drummers, I'd guess Travis Barker would be the equivalent here, especially because he is even more famous since he married some Kardashian creature. How many average listeners have even heard of Steve Smith, Thomas Lang, Gadd, Williams, you name it.

No offense, but the average listener is not even able to appreciate the music of those guys because "I like randompopsong better". Take "Higher Ground" for example, simple but groovy lick, people like. Now you show them some crazy Wooten licks and they would most probably give you a confused stare as for them it sounds like a random "doodleloodleloodle".
 
Note:....I saw "The Flea Man" with the RHCP in the 80's....before they 'hit'.....
they wore socks.........only........and not on their feet.
 
Houndog said:
Hypercaffium said:
The list of bassists you posted is very good, but imho Paul McCartney doesn't deserve even the last spot in that list. No offense, of course.
Click to expand...
He’s extremely influential .
Click to expand...
We're talking about favourite players, and Paul McCartney isn't one for me personally. Honestly, you can be "influential" in a lot of different ways, it doesn't mean you're necessarely good at what you're doing and/or your stuff is particularly interesting. Imho, of course.
scheme said:
...because he is even more famous since he married some Kardashian creature.
Click to expand...
LOL, that was fun. :icon_lol:
 
RHCP have had a pretty long run as a major concert draw and big album sellers, but the era they really rose to national prominence was the early 90’s. Flea was the obvious choice to be the favorite bass player of fans of 90’s alternative rock.

While most of the big bands of the time had great bass players most of them played a more supporting role or were mixed to blend with multiple guitarists. Before Blood Sugar Sex Magick, bass was pretty much the lead instrument in most RHCP songs and remained very prominent afterward.

In their era, the only hugely successful bands who's bass players were featured as prominently in my mind were Tim Commerford with Rage Against the Machine and Eric Wilson with Sublime, but as successful as those bands were they appealed to a more niche audience.

A lot of kids learning to play bass back then wanted to play like Flea. I don’t remember any talking about how much they wanted to sound like John McVie
 
To Hypercaffium. That’s because you’re thinking like a drummer! L O L! Seriously, You are missing what makes Macca great. It isn’t his skill or his chops. Anybody playing bass for about a year can execute what Paul McCartney has played. His genius is in the parts he comes up with. There are mimi compositions in themselves, which makes sense, because he’s a great composer. His parts, have melody, counterpoint, harmony, and perfectly executed Voice leading. These are elements of music beyond technique. And they are worth studying.
 
Hypercaffium said:
We're talking about favourite players, and Paul McCartney isn't one for me personally. Honestly, you can be "influential" in a lot of different ways, it doesn't mean you're necessarely good at what you're doing and/or your stuff is particularly interesting. Imho, of course.
Click to expand...
Of course. You are way wrong, but you are welcome to an opinion. You either have to be the best or you have to be first, and McCartney was first. Only Jamerson was more first than McCartney, but Paul had his share.
 
plangentmusic said:
To Hypercaffium. That’s because you’re thinking like a drummer! L O L! Seriously, You are missing. What makes Matt great. It isn’t his skill or his chops. Anybody playing bass for about a year can execute what Paul McCartney has played. His genius is in the parts he comes up with. There are many compositions in themselves, which makes sense, because he’s a great composer. his parts, have melody, counterpoint, and he is Adrian harmony, and perfectly executed Voice leading. These are elements of music beyond technique. And they were studying.
Click to expand...
Actually Hypercaffium plays bass, and I’ve known him for years on Talkbass. Good guy…terribly misguided when it comes to McCartney ;) but we like what we like.
 
1988fxlr said:
RHCP have had a pretty long run as a major concert draw and big album sellers, but the era they really rose to national prominence was the early 90’s. Flea was the obvious choice to be the favorite bass player of fans of 90’s alternative rock.

While most of the big bands of the time had great bass players most of them played a more supporting role or were mixed to blend with multiple guitarists. Before Blood Sugar Sex Magick, bass was pretty much the lead instrument in most RHCP songs and remained very prominent afterward.

In their era, the only hugely successful bands who's bass players were featured as prominently in my mind were Tim Commerford with Rage Against the Machine and Eric Wilson with Sublime, but as successful as those bands were they appealed to a more niche audience.

A lot of kids learning to play bass back then wanted to play like Flea. I don’t remember any talking about how much they wanted to sound like John McVie
Click to expand...
JimmyM said:
Of course. You are way wrong, but you are welcome to an opinion. You either have to be the best or you have to be first, and McCartney was first. Only Jamerson was more first than McCartney, but Paul had his share.
Click to expand...
When it comes to the bass guitar, you could say that there is Paul McCartney, James Jamerson … and everybody else. They pretty much set the stage for the way it was played from there on out.
 
BennyK said:
B.B. Dickerson RIP, bass player for the band War is a favourite of mine and also Andy Fraser from the original Free band .

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I didn’t know BB died. When did that happen? Big fan of both him and Andy.
 
JimmyM said:
Actually Hypercaffium plays bass, and I’ve known him for years on Talkbass. Good guy…terribly misguided when it comes to McCartney ;) but we like what we like.
Click to expand...
Fair enough. I guess my point was that drummers tend to think in terms of technique first in regard to judging a musicians skill. Maybe because he found Paul McCartney‘s parts easy to play he doesn’t think much of him. And was missing the bigger picture?
 
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