Listen to Chickenfoot its all Mike and the bottom is being pounded through the fuckin floor. Just like the first 10 albums. Three is when Ed really lost what was left of his mind.
Mike sounds great on the CF album. In fact, I found his playing with CF to be even more interesting than some of his stuff with VH.
If the bass playing sucks and has no groove, chances are Ed is playing it...because that's how he plays bass...not great.
Not a rip on Ed the genius guitar player....but certainly not a very good bass player.
Like Fuddman says, that's the biggest sign of a guitar player playing bass, they just follow the guitar lines, a good bass player does not.
I read an old interview with Mike and he was asked about Eddie's bass playing (probably after Ed played bass on Sammy's 1987 solo record). Mike responded Ed can "pick up a bass and blow away alot of players" but Ed "needs to learn how to hold down the bottom end".
Why are you guys overly dissecting who played what on the biggest pile of Van Halen dung every recorded? Fuck if were associated with that album, I'd deny playing on it too.
Actually, I do wonder about how much of Fair Warning is Mike. As well as the Sheehan rumours first surfacing, it was also Ed's talk about sneaking into
the studio after hours to do things his way - could be it was a lot of the bass tracks he was talking about. I can see some of them as being him. Pure
conjecture, I know, and people will tell me I'm high, but that's beside the point. Does it matter much?
Actually, I do wonder about how much of Fair Warning is Mike. As well as the Sheehan rumours first surfacing, it was also Ed's talk about sneaking into
the studio after hours to do things his way - could be it was a lot of the bass tracks he was talking about. I can see some of them as being him. Pure
conjecture, I know, and people will tell me I'm high, but that's beside the point. Does it matter much?
Meh. It's not too unrealistic. I just stopped speculating because it's not really worth it, plus my personal believe is that Mike is on the whole thing.
I will say this, "Push Comes To Shove" has Mike written all over it, and since it's the best bass song on the album, it's refreshing to know he gets at least THAT much out of it.
__________________ vhrocks2005 (7/11/05-5/25/09)
If I text, "Bob Howry is annoying the shit out of me," will security take him away too? -digitalbenjamin on bleedcubbieblue.com, discussing the text number for Wrigley Security, 7/20/10.
Actually, I do wonder about how much of Fair Warning is Mike. As well as the Sheehan rumours first surfacing, it was also Ed's talk about sneaking into
the studio after hours to do things his way - could be it was a lot of the bass tracks he was talking about. I can see some of them as being him. Pure
conjecture, I know, and people will tell me I'm high, but that's beside the point. Does it matter much?
I've heard Ed's bass playing on the last Hag album before he joined and, I gotta say, it ain't Ed playing back on FW judging from that.
Yeah. Ed plays bass like a lead guitarist, Mike plays bass like a bassist. The differences are evident. And I never thought Ed was a great bassist either, no substance at all.
__________________ vhrocks2005 (7/11/05-5/25/09)
If I text, "Bob Howry is annoying the shit out of me," will security take him away too? -digitalbenjamin on bleedcubbieblue.com, discussing the text number for Wrigley Security, 7/20/10.
Yeah. Ed plays bass like a lead guitarist, Mike plays bass like a bassist. The differences are evident. And I never thought Ed was a great bassist either, no substance at all.
You can say that again! I also thought that "Year to the Day" was a song that Mike played on... it seems to have that "solid" blues groove feel to it, locked into drums, fills and all. I always thought "Fire in the Hole" was an MA bass track, but then D_Sobo authoritatively shot it down, so what do I know ?
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So, I've seen these guys live:
July 1993 - Eddie/Alex/Mike/Sammy
Sep 1998 - Eddie/Alex/Mike/Gary
July 2004 - Eddie/Alex/Mike/Sammy
Oct 2007 - Eddie/Alex/Wolfgang/Dave
VH III is an abortion, no one should have played on it.
It's funny that people still don't think Mike played everything up until that shitass album.
For the record, Ed's bass playing is nothing to write home about, he sounds like a guitar player playing bass. Which means...not that great.
Barry Oakley sounded like a guitar player playing Bass, and that's right from the mouth of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, by the way. Tal Wilkenfeld also sounds like a guitar player playing Bass, as did Alan Woody (probably to capture Barry Oakley's style on classic ABB songs). My point is it's all in the ears of the beholder and completely subjective. George Porter, Jr. is another example of such a player. I not knocking your opinion, Brett, I just disagree with it.
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"People say Cream gave birth to Heavy Metal," says Baker. "If that's so, we should have had an abortion."
And I can totally hear PCTS, STIL, And esp. Dirty Movies as Ed - harmonics?
Not unique to any one player, but where was Anthony using harmonics before
or since. Unless someone has solid info from someone who was THERE, it's
all specualtion and, again, really doesn't matter. But I interpret Ed's
comments about sneaking in to do FW like he wanted as fixing what he
"never liked" about Mike's tone/playing. Just a hunch. What else would it be?
Not being allowed to play awesome guitar all over the record?
all i have to say is this. if mike was so bad and ed is god of bass too. mike sure nails the record live. if he did or didnt play on the records he nailed it live so either ed isnt that great of a bass player or mike played everything till the control freak took over on 3.
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