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John Entwistle vs Geddy Lee?


Texas King
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The big bassist duel  

66 members have voted

  1. 1. John Entwistle vs Geddy Lee

    • John Entwistle (The Ox)
      13
    • Geddy Lee
      53


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What you think? Which bassist is your pick?

I think The Ox is slightly better, in fact the best rock bassist of all time, Geddy can come closely second to him.

 

Don't worry King. The Ox blows Geddy away!

 

 

John is a better singer too.

 

Signed,

 

"MY WIFE"

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Geddy leaves most bass players in the dust, including Entwhistle.

Well...the Who never covered RUSH. Just sayin'...

 

 

 

:LOL:

 

Out of curiosity, I went to looked at the albums each band put out over the years when both bands were active ..

 

Starting from 1974, Rush has put out 19 studio albums, not including Feedback

 

Beginning at the same point, The Who put out 4 studio albums with Entwistle ( .. a fifth was recorded with Pino Palladino in '06 )

 

Not being a big fan of The Who, this surprised me ....

 

So over the span of Rush's entire career, The Who with Entwistle recorded four albums ...

 

No real point here, I suppose :LOL:

 

 

 

.

On what planet did The Who only produce 4 studio albums? :blink:

 

As I mentioned, I set the starting point for when both bands were active

 

Rush put out 19 studio albums ( not including Feedback ) in the same time period that The Who put out 4 studio albums

 

The point was brought up that The Who never covered Rush - that's what sparked my interested

 

The Who was not very prolific after 1974

The Who relied on compilations and repackaging for its entire existence.

Good thing RUSH never did anything like that.
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Geddy leaves most bass players in the dust, including Entwhistle.

Well...the Who never covered RUSH. Just sayin'...

 

 

 

:LOL:

 

Out of curiosity, I went to looked at the albums each band put out over the years when both bands were active ..

 

Starting from 1974, Rush has put out 19 studio albums, not including Feedback

 

Beginning at the same point, The Who put out 4 studio albums with Entwistle ( .. a fifth was recorded with Pino Palladino in '06 )

 

Not being a big fan of The Who, this surprised me ....

 

So over the span of Rush's entire career, The Who with Entwistle recorded four albums ...

 

No real point here, I suppose :LOL:

 

 

 

.

On what planet did The Who only produce 4 studio albums? :blink:

Between 1965 and 1973, the Who put out six studio albums, where RUSH put out zero. RUSH's lack of productivity during that era makes it impossible for me to choose Geddy.
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I think that if they had a fight tomorrow Geddy would leave him for dead.

 

@Tony R Come on, be real! This your statement lacks a lot of objectivity.

Also I can say if Victor Wooten and Geddy Lee had a fight tomorrow maybe Wooten would kick his ass.

 

whoosh

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None of you have actually said who's better, because there's no such a thing. Sadly, a lot of people don't understand that music is not sports (where you can actually compare two players) but rather an art. In sports you can easily compare between players, since the best player is the one with the best score, which makes him the better one. As you see, unlike music, the main parameter here is technique. Are there scores in music playing? I guess not. So if you do want to compare musicians, there's a certain way of doing that.

 

Saying "John is better" or "Geddy is better" is simply childish. One of them IS better in your opinion? Great! Now tell us please, better in what? Since musicians and music are defined by a few parameters, you should take those into your consideration. For instance, if John is better than Geddy (or Geddy better than John), is it in music theory? musicianship? scales and modes knowledge? technique? composition and song writing? Groove? Feel?? At this point it's not so easy to say who's better anymore, is it?

 

I assume many of the answers here are based on playing speed, since people usually fall into thinking the fastest player is the better one. For those of you who think John is better, because he plays fast, you just think he's better in playing fast. If that's what OP means, then his question should've been: "Who's better in playing fast?". But if we are talking about playing speed here, that's a hard question because Geddy has his fast Up/Down stroking technique (yes, the flamenco) which gives him the ability to reach 32 notes at higher speeds, creating fast rhythmic runs. Could John play that way and reach those speeds? Maybe, but he didn't. Could Geddy play the way John played? Also, I guess not. Aside from speed, Geddy implements music scales, arpeggios, groove and modes a lot in his playing, more than John did, so you can say his music knowledge is pretty much more extensive. Does it make him better? maybe.

 

Anyone can focus on technique and play fast. It's not that hard to gain speed if you practice enough. Busy = Better? Overplaying = Better? Lots of "Fast" musicians tend to overplay, which makes them less great. But is it what you look in music? if so, go watch Billy Sheehan or John Myung. They both can play faster then Geddy and Entwistle combined. But are they better musicians? Now that's the real question, and remember we're talking here about art, and no two musicians are the same.

Edited by Sticklight
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@Sticklight

 

OK, I carefully read what you wrote here. But what you think about Victor Wooten? Is he a better bass technician than Geddy?

 

Absolutely. IMO Victor Wooten is better in terms of technique. He can really shred the bass and his slapping his amazing. Aside from that, his knowledge in music theory and creating melodies is huge. However, I think it's not fair because he is a trained, professional jazz musician. He has received musical guidance starting at the age of 2 (it's true) which helped him become the amazing musician he is, more easily than a self-taught musician would. You can easily say it's really not fair for Geddy haha. The jazz players are the bosses in the music industry because of the professional training. Geddy, on the other hand, has managed to master his playing abilities all by himself and study music by years of hard practice, using his ears and feel. He has pushed himself and reached a high level without using any instructional or professional education. What's even more amazing about him is the way he implements jazz elements into his playing, which is why I respect him so much. Very few self-taught Rock bassists can do that.

 

Both are amazing players and you can say Victor is a better musician if we look at jazz, technique and music overall. But can he deliver the feel and the mood that Geddy creates with his unique tone and passages, creating the music we like so much? can he deliver us the exact thing Geddy delivers us, that got us to like his playing in the first place? I highly doubt that.

Edited by Sticklight
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It is a bit of a pointless comparison, let us just say they are both brilliant, which is true.

 

However JE was fast and flashy and brilliant but he did not have Geddy's melodic sensibility. Geddy can play beautiful tasteful and melodic lines when required as well as melting the frets.

 

I just refer to the intro sections of The Trees and Red Barchetta as a couple of examples

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But JE died in an orgy of cocaine and hookers in a hotel room

 

It was so sad wasn't it?

 

Erm.... hang on no it was OK

 

That is the way I would like to go.

 

Ask anyone - how would you rather die? In a chair in a old people's home with a tartan blanket in a pool of your own urine waiting for your next bowl of soup?

 

Or would you rather go after a massive heart attack in a hotel room having it off with attractive girls half your age and snorting toot???

 

Erm......... let me think??

 

For the record I am not promoting or condoning drug taking or using call girls in any way shape or form

 

Just saying

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