Man, Pino is the MAN. What a great choice. No doubt his work with Pete Townsend on White City (there are very few bass/drum grooves as cool as Give Blood) got him the gig. Pino is known in the bass playing world as one of the finest electric fretless players anywhere. His specialty is rock and r&b. He's played with everyone from Tears for Fears and Paul Young (man, check out his killer work on Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down) to Townsend and Elton John. Most recently, he has been really blowing people away with his tremendous four-string old skool r&b grooves with D'Angelo. He is one of my all-time faorites on any bass but probably my biggest single influence on the fretless. The guy is a monster player.
TraJ, I know you asked Jeff. Chiming in anyway. Best rock bass player ever. He gets that just for the leads on My Generation. But he gets it again and again for all his bass lines and he gets more for the great songs he wrote and sang. This is the year of the 'quiet one' dying. In their ways, John E. and George Harrison were my sentimental favorites from their great bands. They were the ones whose solo efforts I cheered the loudest and their deaths are among the saddest for me, as celebrities go. But I'm very glad to hear that Pete's bass player from White City is playing the tour. White City rules. Old man out. B. Jones
You know, I really think Entwistle was a brilliant player. His chops were just devastating. But, I was never a big fan of him, personally. I was always more of a fan of groove players rather than guys with the all-out chops of Entwistle - at least when it came to rock. Jazz is a whole other story. Of that era, in rock and roll, my favorites were John Paul Jones (Led Zepplin), Bill Wyman (Rolling Stones) and Paul McCartney. They were all much more melody and groove oriented than Entwistle who was really a powerful bassist and gifted technitian. My favorite players of the 60's era, however, were really the r&b guys like Willy Weeks, James Jamerson and Donald "Duck" Dunn. Weeks and Jamerson were Motown regulars and Dunn was the house bassist in Muscle Shoals, Alabama where all of the legendary Atlantic Rhythm and Blues was born (Aretha, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Ray Charles, etc). Dunn is known more commonly as the bassist for the Blues Brothers. I was much more into the groove players of that era than the chops guys like Entwistle or Chris Squire (Yes) or even Jack Bruce (Cream), even though there are some really killer Bruce lines I love. Damn, thanks for asking. I could talk bass players all damn night!
Jeff, Nice post. But I wouldn't call Entwistle just a chops guy. Unless Pete wrote all his melodies. His bass melodies were unparalleled. Haven't heard bass play that role in rock before or since. And to follow him throughout his career, so quiet, so humble and then to be rewarded with a song like The Quiet One... He was a special player and a special guy. But again, nice post.
Batman: Just to add, I would certainly think that Entwistle ranks among the greats in rock music bass playing even though he is not my personal favorite. He certainly defined the instrument for a whole generation of players like Geddy Lee and Billy Sheehan who became famous for their proficiency on the instrument (aside: I was influenced by both). Intersting thing about Palladino is that, despite his tremendous skills as a groove player, the guy has SERIOUS chops. There is a Tears for Fears song that is groovin' along great (with Manu Katche on drums - another monster) and suddenly, out of nowhere, Palladino rips off this fill that is just unreal. I nearly drove off the road the first time I heard it. He should have NO problem handling Entwistle's parts technically though there is no one who could fill those shoes. What was so amazing about Entwistle was that he re-defined the SOUND of bass as well as the playing for rock players. Most guys at the time played with the oldest, deadest strings they could find and ran them through big, monster amps. Entwistle played strings that were so new they sounded like piano wire which is how most players like their strings in the modern world of bass playing. He also used really small speakers for his high end to give him that extra bite that other guys avoided like the plague. It totally changed how bassists sounded in ALL genres, not just rock.
Actually, among most bassists, he is considered, first and foremost, a power and chops guy. Guys like McCartney are more closely associated with melodies than Entwistle. Part of it is the fact that the Who was a powerful rock band and their songs weren't hook-driven like pop and r&b artists, but that certainly doesn't diminish Entwistle's influence in the rock music world.
Thanks for the insightful replies, Jeff. I agree with you that Paul McCartney and others have played great melodic bass which was more melodic than the Who's lines. What I like about Entwistle was that he played bass melodies like guitar solos, whether he was out front or buried in the mix. I'm not a player, but bass is usually the most interesting instrument in rock to me and that's one of the main reasons I was drawn to the Who. Well, that and the fact that Pete Townshend was about my favorite rock songwriter for about all my teen years. Looking forward to the tour. On another note, Jeff. Seems like I've read that you play. Are you with a band now? What local bands do you like?
I've been playing since I was 14. My songwriting partner and I have been writing and recording over the past couple years but I've been out of the live playing thing until recently. He and I put together some people for what I think will be a cool project called Mercer Street. It's not rock. It's more like acoustic-y, funky, folk-pop or something. It's been fun rehersing it and it should be a cool gig once we take it out live.
I saw this show in Mountain View, CA. The Who was really good. Townsend had his brother in there to sing the high part of the three part harmonies. They rocked hard. My favorite part though was the opening act. My favorite band opened for them, Counting Crows. It kind of sucked that they only played for like 1/2 an hour, but they were off the hook. Mostly old stuff, which was a pleasant surprise with the new album coming out. None of my favorite songs though (Mrs. Potter's, Saint Robinson, Mr. Jones, A Long December, Colorblind), the highlight was probably Murder of One, then Hanging Around.
Hey....Counting Crows are my favorite band as well. Pick up the new album yet? I'm sure, like myself and many others, you may have been listening to much of the stuff online anyway. Regardless, it's great. Gotta go with Miami, Up all Night and maybe Richard Manuel as my faves, with A Murder of One as my favorite song out of all of them. Pretty good cover of Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell on HC as well. Anyway, nice to see another big crows fan on this board. I can't wait til they tour again. (Nice sig...)
I think Isabel is a big CC fan as well, not to mention the poster called counting crow. I ordered the new album off of Amazon, but it hasn't arrived yet.
Yeah, i knew about countingcrow, of course. Didn't know about Isabel. Anyway, most fans really like it. Did you listen to the online feed at Amazon when you ordered it, or were you able to hold out and wait for it to arrive? I couldn't make it until July 9th, so I listened to much of it before I bought it. Of course, i heard about 5 or 6 songs at the concerts in Austin and San Marcos last year. Let me know what you think when you hear it, if you get the chance.
