Greg Lake's Finest Bass Moments

[WytchCrypt]

Many think of Greg Lake as a singer 1st and bassist second: Seriously, competing with the bass parts Emo could play with his left hand is some tough competition ...anyway, I've been listening to some early ELP lately and have been floored by some of Greg's bass playing...but I'm sure others can add more to my list of some of Lake's finest moments as a bassist.

1) The Barbarian - his fuzz bass opening is incredible and really sets the evil tone for the piece - possibly for the rest of ELP's finest moments...
2) The Curse of Baba Yaga - that wah-fuzz intro is so damn ballsy...then he kicks off the fuzz and lays down that fantastic bass line...

What other Lake bass parts are your favourites?

[soundsweird]

That first track on KC's debut features some pretty good playing by everybody...

[Garden Dreamer]

The Endless Enigma.

[trurl]

The Endless Enigma.

Specifically the Fugue... Trilogy in general has a lot of great playing.

[mogrooves]

Take A Pebble
Epitaph

[mkeneally]

Fugue was the first thing to pop into my head - KE9 2nd Impression is pretty out of hand also.

[grego]

Second Impression - just beautiful lines. The tone is thin, though. On rehearsal his bass sounds better.
Bitches Crystal
Barbarian
Fugue
Take a Pebble

[polmico]

I've got the Emerson, Lake and Powell live album on right now. I'm not sure if these are his finest bass moments, but he sure does sound strong on it. "Pirates" shines all around, and I've never had much affection for the song.

[Paulrus]

Fugue was the first thing to pop into my head - KE9 2nd Impression is pretty out of hand also.

Those are my picks as well.

But I remember back in the early 80s going to a bass clinic and asking the guy afterwards what he thought of Greg. He snorted and said, "Greg Lake? He's a guitar player." I remember being somewhat annoyed by his answer at the time, but it DOES explain a lot of Greg's prowess on the bass.

[cavgator]

Those are my picks as well.

But I remember back in the early 80s going to a bass clinic and asking the guy afterwards what he thought of Greg. He snorted and said, "Greg Lake? He's a guitar player." I remember being somewhat annoyed by his answer at the time, but it DOES explain a lot of Greg's prowess on the bass.

Which is ironic, considering that Greg doesn't plass bass like a frustrated lead guitarist trying to compete with the melodic instruments for notes. I think Greg is a vastly underrated bassist who provides the bottom and can keep pace with Emo's left hand. Tony Levin is another tremendous bassist that knows the difference.

[Paulrus]

Which is ironic, considering that Greg doesn't plass bass like a frustrated lead guitarist trying to compete with the melodic instruments for notes. I think Greg is a vastly underrated bassist who provides the bottom and can keep pace with Emo's left hand. Tony Levin is another tremendous bassist that knows the difference.

Well, I did ask him and the guy's favorite bassist was Will Lee (David Letterman, etc.), so read into that what you will.

But I think the fact that Greg was responsible for the bass from a relatively early point in his career (in King Crimson, no less) helped him develop a healthy sense of the bass's role in a band. The guitar technique certainly helped him on trickier stuff like "Rondo".

[wideopenears]

Will Lee is one of the greatest bassists ever, IMO
.
Greg did some good stuff...but I find his tone troublesome (or treble-some) at times....he tends to favor a real "clicky" pick sound...the 40th Anniversary thing I saw recently on AXS channel had a bit of that....I like Greg's Crimson work quite a bit. Karn 2nd Impression and Fugue are my high points.

[Watanabe]

A little lick he plays on take a pebble just as Emo's piano is really kicking in.

[Rufus]

Pirates

[klothos]

The song Love when he played with The Shy Limbs or some kinda name like that. Very Entwistle-ish

EDIT - I found it:

[GuitarGeek]

Will Lee is one of the greatest bassists ever, IMO
.

I don't know about one of the greatest, but he's a top flight studio musician who's probably played on more records than you can count. Oh and since the Letterman connection was brought, consider that the trombone player in that band is Tom Malone, who played on Zappa In New York (and he was in The Blues Brothers band too, I think he's the only band member he doesn't have a funny line in the movie).

[yeselpkrimson]

The song Love when he played with The Shy Limbs or some kinda name like that. Very Entwistle-ish

Except that's one of "Alan Bowry's Finest Bass Moments"... with Greg Lake on guitars & lead vocals.

www.greglake.com/Discography

[klothos]

Except that's one of "Alan Bowry's Finest Bass Moments"... with Greg Lake on guitars & lead vocals.

www.greglake.com/Discography

awesome...thanks for the correction and heads up I did not know that after all these years

[grego]

Forgot to mention Living Sin. One of his great bass jobs.

[dgtlman]

This

[BravadoNJ]

Fanfare!

[trurl]

Fanfare!

I know Greg loved playing Fanfare live because he could chug that open A with one hand and eat two whole boxes of donuts with the other one.

[WytchCrypt]

I know Greg loved playing Fanfare live because he could chug that open A with one hand and eat two whole boxes of donuts with the other one.

[yeselpkrimson]

I know Greg loved playing Fanfare live because he could chug that open A with one hand and eat two whole boxes of donuts with the other one.

At least he didn't get any crumbs on his carpet.

[wideopenears]

ROFL.