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Thread: Mike Rutherford the Bass player !

  1. #1

    Mike Rutherford the Bass player !

    In interview he has described himself as an average bass player & first and foremost a songwriter .Was he just being modest ?

  2. #2
    To my ears he played bass like a guitar player would play bass, at least in the early years (pre-ABACAB). Not bad, just different. I like his playing on the early Genesis stuff; it worked well for their music.

  3. #3
    Member Phid3aux's Avatar
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    I love Rutherford's playing and I especially love the simplicity he was willing to utilize. He is definitely honouring the song, not the fact that he is a musician and can litter the track with allsorts of runs and decorations...

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    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    I always found him far more impressive on bass than guitar. He sounds fantastic on Duke.

  5. #5
    He got really good. Robbery Assault and Battery for example.

  6. #6
    I love his style on bass. Very unique.

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    Just listen to "In The Cage" to remind yourself how great he was(/is?) on bass.

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    Studmuffin Scott Bails's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Progatron View Post
    I always found him far more impressive on bass than guitar. He sounds fantastic on Duke.
    Quote Originally Posted by Hurm View Post
    Just listen to "In The Cage" to remind yourself how great he was(/is?) on bass.
    Agree with both of these.
    Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally

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    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    And "Can-Utility"!
    Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.

    *** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***

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    Progga mogrooves's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rufus View Post
    In interview he has described himself as an average bass player & first and foremost a songwriter
    His bass playing is always in the service of the song; that makes him a good player......
    Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes

  11. #11
    I always liked that bass line he plays during the synth solo on Colony Of The Slippermen. I particularly love the way he drops into it out of ...In That Quiet Earth on the Mama Tour video.

    Hogweed is another one where he plays a great bass line.

    Does he play bass guitar on Can Utility? I thought he played 12 string and bass pedals on that.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    Does he play bass guitar on Can Utility? I thought he played 12 string and bass pedals on that.
    there's a riff he does during the instrumental section where he quickly repeats a high note for a few measures before the organ solo. definitely a bass guitar - no way he does that with pedals.
    "She said you are the air I breathe
    The life I love, the dream I weave."


    Unevensong - Camel

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    I like his lead bass playing in Fountain Of Salmacis.

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    Quote Originally Posted by JIF View Post
    I like his lead bass playing in Fountain Of Salmacis.
    BINGO! JIF. You beat me to it. In my assessment of his bass playing,it's this song that shows what he can do. Be aware that on The Lamb he is playing the Micro-Fret bass

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=6wdorcQcE7Q


    ,which is sorta like John Lennon's Rickenbacker,meaning it's designed to play difficult lines and patterns because the neck is smaller than say his Rickenbacker 4 string that he used on Nursery Cryme.Also, I am a huge fretless fan as most of you know and it only took me 30 years to find out he plays one in the No Reply At All video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=DisZ6qmNdbo I should have known and I didn't and that bugs me a little.
    Last edited by Rand Kelly; 03-17-2013 at 03:01 AM.

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    He's an amazing bassist. His work on "No Reply at All" is absolutely stellar.

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    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Never thought of Rutherford as a Squire or Steve Harris, just apt as the Genesis bassist...
    And often I thought that he was a bit buried i the mix of the Gabriel-era until W&W... sooooo it was never obvious that he was a Stanley Clarke or John Entwistle

    I've been meaning to check out fromcloser if Ruther was more audible in newer remasters/remixes, but it's something I always push back...

    never bothered listening/analysing closely the post W&W though... I suppose he got better as a bassist with time, but since the music got simpler as the 80's wore on...

    But no, I don't think Ruther was being humble about the comment in the OP... just lucid...

    He probably set out to be guitarist at first, but settled for the bass sonce Ant and Hackett were indeed stronger tghan he was on 6 strings
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

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    Rand, I meant specifically the section that has the lyric "away from me, cold-blooded woman, your thirst is now mine".

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    seconds. out.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Trane View Post
    He probably set out to be guitarist at first, but settled for the bass sonce Ant and Hackett were indeed stronger tghan he was on 6 strings
    Not sure what his initial goals as a guitarist were, but in the early days, both Ant and Mike were guitarists. I think as they became more of a professional band, playing more electric oriented music, Ant gravitated toward being the "lead" guitarist, and Mike gravitated toward being a bassist. I think at the time, Mike figured out that his strong suit as a guitarist was the 12 string stuff, so I think he gladly let Ant become the "guitar hero" as it were, with him taking more of a support role.

  20. #20
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    Not sure what his initial goals as a guitarist were, but in the early days, both Ant and Mike were guitarists. I think as they became more of a professional band, playing more electric oriented music, Ant gravitated toward being the "lead" guitarist, and Mike gravitated toward being a bassist. I think at the time, Mike figured out that his strong suit as a guitarist was the 12 string stuff, so I think he gladly let Ant become the "guitar hero" as it were, with him taking more of a support role.
    Ant also played 12 strings.... and I don't know how "gladly" this happened...
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  21. #21
    Just watched 'Suppers Ready ' on YouTube & the bass is more prominant & higher in the mix than the studio version!

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    I think he absolutely nailed the R&B feel on 'No Reply At All', his bass playing is one of the few things about that arrangement I find at all successful.

  23. #23
    He's awesome on Dukes travels, that bit at the rcescendo

  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    I think he absolutely nailed the R&B feel on 'No Reply At All', his bass playing is one of the few things about that arrangement I find at all successful.
    I do think it was on Abacab that he really discovered how to be a "Bass Player", in the conventional sense of the word. All that groovin' to Phil's soul music had to rub off on him eventually.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Paulrus View Post
    I do think it was on Abacab that he really discovered how to be a "Bass Player", in the conventional sense of the word. All that groovin' to Phil's soul music had to rub off on him eventually.
    Lee Sklar plays on Face Value,maybe Mike was influenced by his playing by the time Abacab was being conceived.

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