Question:
I can’t agree with your more. He is pretty cool. I really like his blues roots because I am interested in blues bass. His style is unique. Oh, and one thing. N.I.B is a cool solo, but what the hell? Did he make it up on the spot, was he playing the bass with his penis, was he fucked up? It’s, like, really…SLOPPY! I like it anyway…wah wah wah wah WAH wah wah wan Wah wah…etc… Bye. Moses
Response:
The present issue of Guitar For the Practicing Musician has a nice interview with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler. Now, grated, the songwriting of Black Sabbath hasn’t really been that good since Sabotage, but Geezer’s playing has always been great. The depressing thing is that he hasn’t really gotten much recognition until recently. He did an interview for Bass player recently which was about time IMHO. Why is he important? Well, all you have to do is listen! Jack Bruce did some similar things with Cream it seems, but Geezer was even MORE experimental, especially early on when he had a wide open space to work with. Here is a list of some songs and techniques applied, but don’t think these are the only songs he uses these techniques for: War Pigs: bending Electric Funeral: bass chords The Wizard: bass chords Slipping Away: distorted bass solo breaks w/vibrato NIB: bass solo w/wah wah and distortion for the main song A good way to see him in his prime is the only true Sabbath video available from one of the few last gigs they did with Ozzy in ‘78. Geezer uses a Rick. which spits out some very guitary tones, and his playing is manic, he throws his hand at the bass. Sometimes he also uses a pick, not unlike John Paul Jones’ "depends on the song" usage of picks vs. fingers. Geezer influenced the late Cliff Burton (who also used a Rick) and may also have influenced Lemmy (although they are kinda contemporaries). The most entertaining part of much of the DIO era Sabbath material is Geezer’s "I’ll play anything but the root" mentality. Not only does he move around a lot, he does like to play up in the guitar range more than the lower end stuff. His bass is mixed to one side of the speaker on Paranoid so that you can even just listen to the bass alone and it is great. IN a way he was an innovator of the "slap" technique. But in order to get that bright sound from the string slapping up against the frets he flails his hand at the strings and doesn’t use the controlled slap pop methods of funk players. This style results in random "bright" hits which helps his bass stand out in the mix and helps add further to the rhythm accents. This technique was used by Steve Harris quite a bit later on with his Precision basses. Harris intentionally overpicks to get the bright slapping sound. However, the early Geezer stuff is especially cool in the tone, it is almost a wah sound, almost distorted, rubbery I would call it. Always moving in and out between the sharp accents of the slapping and the almost nasal regular tone. His playing is also especially good on Master of Reality. The way he slightly changes his riffs to intermix with Iommi is impressive, not just a note for note an octave lower, he mixes it up creating an effect of "in and out of synchronicity" feel. There were years of inactivity in his life which is too bad for someone of such importance in the heavy metal community. In the interview he says he thought of calling it quits several times. It is good that he is getting SOME recognition now. I’d say he is at least up there with the Chris Squire’s, Jack Bruce’s and JPJ’s IMHO.