Taking Sides: Chris Squire's bass sound VS. Peter Hook's bass sound

Hook is the best bass player ever though, so he wins! (Squire is great though)

My fave bass player remains JJ. Burnell, though.

I don't find CS sounds much like Jean-Jacques Burnel...but i have no idea why some bass players do sound so distinctive - is it really just the sharper attack transient or increased 'twang amplitude'* that a plectrum gives over using fingers ?

Dave Q once suggested here that Hook should have been a bass-synth player, and i think there is definitely something of that much more grid-like/geometric quality as compared to Squire
(but i liked that quality, and H's sound was also excellent: the first thing i ever heard by Hook was the opening of 'Digital', and it still grabs me to this day)

iirc CS did a bit more fret-slidey* and note-wiggly* stuff, as per the form he was working in i suppose

why didn't more bassists didn't sound like JJBurnel ? Was it a really difficult thing to do ?

(*note in-depth technical understanding demonstration)

Josh is right about Squire being the rockin'est of the Yes-men. Impressive in retrospect that such meaty, aggressive basslines could've come from a bandful of veggies.

Enough solos? No such thing!! :)

Seriously, though, yes Fish out of Water is a great album...buy it today!

"I've always thought Squire was the first to do that kind of grindy, plectrum, tone that the Stranglers dude and any number of Touch & Go american indie/punk bands used...

John Entwistle was.

Entwistle's contribution was partially due to advancements in low cost metallurgy, vid the creation/sale of low cost Rotosound strings, which he eventually endorsed to both parties profit.

At about the same time, Rick Price of The Move started using the same strings on a Precision bass, resulting in a more clanky, lumbering tone.

Squire's contribution was somewhat more techological: The Rickenbacker bass had a 'stereo' outpur which Squire split into two signals; the treble one was compressed and therefore slightly distorted. Mixed with the low end signal, you got that interesting grichy tone.

Hook basically combined the Price approach with a Boss chorus unit while playing in the mid-range, where he got more attention.

god yeah, Pablo is totally OTM about Entwistle....my bad! Maybe Squire's always stuck out in my head so much because I thought it was such a weird, abrasive, kinda punkish element in the flouncy silk bed of Yes...the sand in the oyster....

Rick basses are nice, but they give you big burns on your right wrist when you play really hard with a pick! - it rubs yr skin right off....

he says that like it's a bad thing!

Yes they do

http://www.nme.com/media/images/PrimalsLive3171200_L.jpg

Bonus points for *not* playing a 4001/4003

Now, I really love both Yes and Joy Division and the basslines of both bands. But they are pretty different. What is being compared here? Why these two?

What about either of them vs Sting? Without really studying anything he did (or ever, like, listening to an entire actual album), it occurs to me that he possibly took a more postpunk/new wave approach (in the repetitive emphasis on riffs and absence of soloing and melodic development) while preserving some of the fluid quality that Squire had and remaining in the role of counterpoint to the guitar rather than becoming the de facto lead riff machine like Hook. (?) "Bed's Too Big Without You" is pretty good IIRC.

Also, I think that I would be able to appreciate U2 a lot more if their rhythm section had learned more from the interplay and dynamism of Joy Division's. A good rhythm section playing against Edge's/Michael Brook's/Eno's ambient guitar textures might have actually produced some of the best pop of the 80s, no matter what you threw on top of it.

"Rick basses are nice, but they give you big burns on your right wrist when you play really hard with a pick! - it rubs yr skin right off.... '

Take off the pickguard!!!

god i love this place

i'd probably love a sci-fi convention too

sundar's point ref U2 is intriguing - i'm trying to imagine JD bass/drums in there now

Pablo - yes i think 'hold out yr hand' is the best track too, but i also especially like 'lucky seven'(?) (until it goes on a bit) and BB's work on it

Josh - my memory may be faulty but i can't recall bass solo-ing popping up much in Yes, just alot of gtr/keyboard solos (anything in the drumsolo dept either?)

my favourite CS work in Yes: one particular section during 'close to the edge' where he sounds like he's close to snapping the strings

What else sounds like Fish Out Of Water? Love that album. Is there any Yes as good as that?

most of yes is as good as or better than that. fish out of water came out in 75 i think? the albums from around then and a little earlier all rule--fragile, relayer, close to the edge, and the yes album. the most squire-heavy yes album is drama, which came out later, in 1980. the elephant humping tone is all over "tempus fugit," "does it really happen," and "into the lens." plus squire's singing is more prominent than ever: he'd drafted the buggles to replace jon anderson and rick wakeman, and he helps a lot to strengthen trevor horn's vocals

"Drama" is the closest in feel for me to "FOOW", though the Squire solo album has the trump card of great drumming from Bill Bruford. The record really swings in spots.

also lots of love for tales from topographic oceans - long sort of dragging psychedelic songs

but back to the original question, you might like the McDonald and Giles album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAnN0SdeoA

Ian McDonald/ Michael Giles is all-time classic .. so fucking great

gotta love Peter Giles' bass on this too

part 2 of that song I just posted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pFAmlyuP8A

Come along with me
We can have some tea
Brewed by me for thee, my love

Out of those two, I like Squire best, but generally I think both have a bass sound that tends to dominate too much. I prefer the bass to be in the background.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL68VE-Qi7Y

squire all the way. but in fairness to pete, this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flVEoNuEYgE
is one of my favorite bass lines ever