In interview he has described himself as an average bass player & first and foremost a songwriter .Was he just being modest ?
In interview he has described himself as an average bass player & first and foremost a songwriter .Was he just being modest ?
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.
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...
I always found him far more impressive on bass than guitar. He sounds fantastic on Duke.
He got really good. Robbery Assault and Battery for example.
Just listen to "In The Cage" to remind yourself how great he was(/is?) on bass.
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.
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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.
"She said you are the air I breathe
The life I love, the dream I weave."
Unevensong - Camel
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.
He's an amazing bassist. His work on "No Reply at All" is absolutely stellar.
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.
Rand, I meant specifically the section that has the lyric "away from me, cold-blooded woman, your thirst is now mine".
seconds. out.
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.
Just watched 'Suppers Ready ' on YouTube & the bass is more prominant & higher in the mix than the studio version!
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.
He's awesome on Dukes travels, that bit at the rcescendo
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