Is Adam Clayton any good?

pintspiller

I would love to get paid fuck-loads for doing next-to-fuck-all. Preferably eight root notes to the bar, but one would be fine. Anybody interested?

Zoonyboy

Are any of them any good?

DesVegas

Hell yeah they are. The have some wonderful melodies, well bono and edgey

ICBM

They're all great musicians - both individually, and more importantly as a band. (Even Bono - being a twat in other ways doesn't preclude that.) None of them are virtuosos, but that's not what matters.

It seems to be standard practice for musos to put them down, but I've never once heard any covers band play a U2 song in the style of the original and have it sound remotely right.

You don't sell 170 million albums over the best part of 40 years of songs you wrote and performed yourselves unless you're at least good either.

garfy

ICBM said:

They're all great musicians - both individually, and more importantly as a band. (Even Bono - being a twat in other ways doesn't preclude that.) None of them are virtuosos, but that's not what matters.

It seems to be standard practice for musos to put them down, but I've never once heard any covers band play a U2 song in the style of the original and have it sound remotely right.

You don't sell 170 million albums over the best part of 40 years of songs you wrote and performed yourselves unless you're at least good either.

To me that's the whole point. He's no Jaco, Bruce, Entwistle etc but he's Adam Clayton, rock solid bassist in one of the biggest bands in the world. Their tunes are known worldwide and at the heart of them is a driving (if simple) bass line that really works.

slacker

I've got most of their albums and seen them live three times. I've also started out playing bass in bands. As stated many Times Mr Clayton plays simple basslines that suit the song and the band and does it well. IMHO the only person who does it better is Derek Forbes. 

ghostwhistler

I used to be a fan of the band, but not these days. However, i've always found Adam not to be someone I personally admire. That's my opinion. NOthing wrong with playing simple lines or anything like that, in fact a couple of his lines are decent (Do You Feel Loved, Lemon). My issue with him is that he just feels like someone who doesn't have a real love of the instrument. He's a little sloppy in places (some weird note choices in Pride mean he's playing B minor over the guitar break that's in B major). That's just my personal opinion, fwiw.

Cirrus

ghostwhistler said:

 He's a little sloppy in places (some weird note choices in Pride mean he's playing B minor over the guitar break that's in B major). That's just my personal opinion, fwiw.

That's an interesting one. That record was produced by Brian Eno, who I believe knows a thing or two about harmony. And from documentaries I know a lot of time was spent developing that song. Do you think the bassline is there by mistake and represents an instance where Adam's lack of care for the music made him make a wrong/ sloppy choice? I'd repeat my challenge from above; what would you change to make that bassline better?

Personally I think it's a very conscious and deliberate choice to introduce tension in the music. I hear that D in the solo section as a very smart move to break up what until that moment has been a very safe harmonic structure.

Danny1969

Yes the B \ D \ E thing is deliberate I think and only goes to show that the key of a song only gives you a fair indication of what notes are in the song .....

Love his bass on this track

ghostwhistler

Cirrus said:

ghostwhistler said:

 He's a little sloppy in places (some weird note choices in Pride mean he's playing B minor over the guitar break that's in B major). That's just my personal opinion, fwiw.

That's an interesting one. That record was produced by Brian Eno, who I believe knows a thing or two about harmony. And from documentaries I know a lot of time was spent developing that song. Do you think the bassline is there by mistake and represents an instance where Adam's lack of care for the music made him make a wrong/ sloppy choice? I'd repeat my challenge from above; what would you change to make that bassline better?

Personally I think it's a very conscious and deliberate choice to introduce tension in the music. I hear that D in the solo section as a very smart move to break up what until that moment has been a very safe harmonic structure.

I suspect they didn't realise. You can't really here the D# that's being played because that guitar part is quick and heavily processed. Maybe Eno knew and thought it was all an oblique strategy, who knows.

I don't think Adam knows or knew theory at that time, I doubt any of them really did.

Of course it's entirely subjective, but it's just sloppy IMO.

crunchman

slacker said:

I've got most of their albums and seen them live three times. I've also started out playing bass in bands. As stated many Times Mr Clayton plays simple basslines that suit the song and the band and does it well. IMHO the only person who does it better is Derek Forbes Smalls. 

Fixed the mistake for you 

Edit: strikethrough didn't work for some reason (or the smily).  Probably the ancient decrepit browser at work.

earwighoney

Adam Clayton's work on Sunday Bloody Sunday is great.  

I forgot how great the guitar solo is on that song.  

ESBlonde

Much of the time U2 is percussion and Bass with that bloke singing over the top. To be able to support that musically is some party Piece.
The bands ethos is around spareing instrumantation and The edges technology induced riffs. The band famously decided to get a band together, then learned how to play afterwards.

pintspiller

ESBlonde said:

The band famously decided to get a band together, then learned how to play afterwards.

A lot of bands were like that. Stooges, Ramones. Okay, two.

EricTheWeary

It gets said but it's often bollocks. The Edge was,  by his own account,  a pretty competent guitarist before U2 started. It gets said about UB40 but the two guys who ended up singing and playing guitar were the sons of a singer-guitarist,  hmmm. I'm prepared to believe it about the Ramones though... 

pintspiller said:

ESBlonde said:

The band famously decided to get a band together, then learned how to play afterwards.

A lot of bands were like that. Stooges, Ramones. Okay, two.

Snap

THing that gets me about the "is anyone any good" type discussion is that we can only evaluate the skills in a given context. For example Adam Clayton - he might be the most amazingly talented bass player, with licks aplenty, but has no need to deliver that because of the band he plays in.

The only type of musician who will get to really demonstrate a range of ability and skill is a session player. In a band, you need to deliver what the band need: that might be bang in the pocket simple bass playing.

Stick Adam Clayton in a room and ask him to play something special, he might amaze you. Just cos he doens't need to do it on record, doesn't mean he isn't a great player.

EricTheWeary

BB King played some very nice jazz chord work, Hank Marvin and Tony Iommi study gipsy jazz but you gotta play what pays the bills if you are a pro musician. I suspect Adam sleeps well at night, on a big pile of money...

Snap said:

THing that gets me about the "is anyone any good" type discussion is that we can only evaluate the skills in a given context. For example Adam Clayton - he might be the most amazingly talented bass player, with licks aplenty, but has no need to deliver that because of the band he plays in.

The only type of musician who will get to really demonstrate a range of ability and skill is a session player. In a band, you need to deliver what the band need: that might be bang in the pocket simple bass playing.

Stick Adam Clayton in a room and ask him to play something special, he might amaze you. Just cos he doens't need to do it on record, doesn't mean he isn't a great player.

DesVegas

One would imagine when you play in a band or write a song you do so with your best ability

Snap

@DesVegas not necessarily at all. I think it depends hugely on what you are writing. I can only use my own amateur (very) experience - but I don't decide to put in a virtuoso performance on each track I record. I set out to record a good track, not to record a showcase of technical skills.

Good job really.....cos I don't have any!!

hence the amateur part!

ICBM

Snap said:

THing that gets me about the "is anyone any good" type discussion is that we can only evaluate the skills in a given context. For example Adam Clayton - he might be the most amazingly talented bass player, with licks aplenty, but has no need to deliver that because of the band he plays in.

The only type of musician who will get to really demonstrate a range of ability and skill is a session player. In a band, you need to deliver what the band need: that might be bang in the pocket simple bass playing.

Stick Adam Clayton in a room and ask him to play something special, he might amaze you. Just cos he doens't need to do it on record, doesn't mean he isn't a great player.

I think the records are already enough evidence that he's a great player.

Being a great bass player is more about good timing, groove and tone than it is about flashy technique in my opinion. You can play a very simple part and still fulfil - or not - those conditions. He does, therefore he is.