Roger Waters as a Bassist

dave2 · Post by **dave2** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 5:10 am

I do not understand so many people on message boards (not this one), who constantly trash Roger for his bass playing. I think Roger is an excellent bassist who is among my favorite bassists in rock. His style is very different from many other bassists. He has a real bluesy feel in his playing. He does really innovative things like the groove section of echoes (Live at Pompeii). I think his sound is a big factor in Pink Floyd albums. Each members playing fit really well together. Some of my favorite bass playing of Rogers is on:

1. Echoes ( Pompeii)
2. Have a Cigar
3. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (Pompeii)
4. Shine on you crazy diamond
5. Not Now John
6. One of these days

These are just a few examples of Rogers innovative style of bass playing. If anything Roger is often overlooked as a bass player, and is underrated.

Johnny Rotten · Post by **Johnny Rotten** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 6:00 am

David played bass on:
Pigs 3DO
Hey You
Fat old sun
another bass in One of these days
sheep
Fretless bass on echoes (roger plays normal and slide)

moodyblue · Post by **moodyblue** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 8:22 am

Yeah i think Roger did compliment the sound nicely on some of the albums, more the earlier ones but he doesn't seem that interested in being a bass player to me. Very simple technique i would say, i believe he started using the "bouncier" Rickenbacker basses then changed to Fender precisions, more solid sounding bass guitar IMO.

pinknewbie · Post by **pinknewbie** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 9:04 am

Johnny Rotten wrote:David played bass on:
Pigs 3DO
Hey You
Fat old sun
another bass in One of these days
sheep
Fretless bass on echoes (roger plays normal and slide)

Wow! I never knew that

Post by **henno** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 12:18 pm

just listen to that bass beat on the begining of 'Let there be more light' from Saucerful...
Question rogers bass playing do ya?? you should be ashamed..
the man was 20 years ahead of his time.

moreblues · Post by **moreblues** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 3:46 pm

i don't give a shit to all that technical jargon, i only understand the music that i hear and i can confidently say that as far as bass is concerned, Roger Waters is number one, was, is and always will be.

Mentalist · Post by **Mentalist** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 5:04 pm

MmmHmmm.

Roger Waters is perhaps the only bassist I've ever really payed enough attention to learn from.
I play bass in a band and I love slipping in Waters style bass lines without my bandmates knowing.
He is quite distinctive, and seems very much into the playing in the earlier live shows.

I played the Echoes 'decending/ascending' riff a few weeks ago and the drummer perked up his ears - "Ooh, I like that!" he said. I was well chuffed and informed him it was by The Floyd.
Great, distinctive bass lines, and Waters is more than capable of playing them.

I think he just got too content to strum an acoustic or pluck the odd bassline towards the end of his PF career. That's all, I don't know why people hold it against him.

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dave2 · Post by **dave2** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 5:37 pm

I couldn't agree with you more. The bass in echoes is really an awesome riff. In Live at Pompeii, the groove part is fantastic. Both Waters and Gilmour play the same riff , and they really play off each other really well. Both their styles fit together really well. Waters also does a thing during the middle where he does this cool thing with the bass (the camera zooms in on him doing it). Also for those who have seen it, the end of echoes part 1 ends with Waters doing this really cool thing with the bass , im not sure how he even does that. Does anybody know what he does there? But Im glad people agree that to be a great bassist , you don't have to be flashy and do all these technical things, its about what you play and how it sounds.

Post by **mosespa** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 6:32 pm

dave2 wrote: 4. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (Pompeii)

Maybe you have a different version of Pompeii than I do...in MY version of Pompeii, Roger sings this song with one hand cupped over his ears and the other hand touching his microphone.

Now...unless Roger's playing with his toes or something, that doesn't leave him any appendeges to play bass with.

Flame-Sky Diver · Post by **Flame-Sky Diver** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 6:42 pm

I think he does play the bass in the middle of the song for a short time.

MikeWaters · Post by **MikeWaters** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 7:43 pm

Wow.... roger is good. You all have obviously not heard of JACO PASTORIUS!

Jangus · Post by **Jangus** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 7:55 pm

I dont think hes very good. He played a few good riffs, but his playing wasnt very good.

zag · Post by **zag** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 10:07 pm

.......tone-deaf bassist

but i agree, he fit well in

CHR15 · Post by **CHR15** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 6:15 pm

i think roger is a terrific bassist, but he seems to hold back alot. Especially when he's singing, but that's the way it should be. I've seen him play quite well at times and at other's it's quite basic. but yea he came up with some very memerable bass lines. His noodling is really cool, fit really well with the band in my opinion. I know for me personally i'm a guitarist, but i own a bass and almost all the bass riffs I know are from floyd. That's what i enjoy playing most.

His real strength though is as a writer, and that's more important than being the best bassist in the world.

Post by **mosespa** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 8:02 pm

Leave us not forget that Dave played quite a bit of bass on the recordings.

Hey You, Pigs (3DO), the first bass (and the middle section bass) of One Of These Days are most definitely Dave Gilmour...I'm pretty certain that he played the bass on Brick One, too...but I can't really prove it.

Pretty much any "melodic" bass line could conceivably be attributed to Gilmour.

Roger Waters as a Bassist

Roger Waters as a Bassist

Re: Roger Waters as a Bassist