on a 6 string fretless bass, think about how difficult that is. i have played bass for 25 years on a 4 string fretted musicman stingray, les claypool is a god
Les Claypool is a cartoon character brought into the real world. If his on stage personality isn’t a dead giveaway, his skill with the bass is proof. No human can play bass like that.
Agreed!!! How remotely SAD that IS too!!! But DAY-UM.........You can't PICK a better opening to a song,than THIS ONE right HERE!!! Someday,I forsee young early 20-somethings forming a band with SOME growing up on RUSH and the others growing up on Primus and they'll "OOOZE" together like a FRANKENSTEIN CREATION!!! Ahhhhhh,whatta world THAT'LL be!!!
C'mon. There are SOME. Presidents of the United States of America. (Do a deep dive, you'll hear it) GWAR. Just for pure creative genius. The Style is a lot different but, again, do the deep dive. and lasty, Which i get a TON of crap for saying (even though im not even close to the first person to make the comparison) Tool. Tool is probably the MOST like Primus, out of all of these bands. No joke, its been talked about for a couple decades, in terms of their composition and stuff. The bands did a ton of shows together and were pretty close apparently. Also take most Primus fans, and I guarantee that the vast majority are tool fans haha. Although, this doesnt go both ways. Tool fans, as everyone knows, are sometimes wayyyyyy too serious.
I must say: as a lead bassist, trying to find the right guitarist, I cannot say how much Larry Lalonde is underappreciated! He's such a loose cannon of weirdo licks!
He’s not a “lead bassist” he’s a leading man and a bassist. He plays bass as a rhythm section instrument. Lead bass isn’t really a thing, Jaco and Cliff sometimes, but they are playing basslines a majority of the time. Les Claypool plays very busy basslines, but he’s still playing the fundamentals.
@Mallowmarker Don yea "fundamentals" while playing some of the most complex riffs on a goddamn bass. Also, puts fills and licks in between those riffs just as a lead guitarist would....next you're going to say, there isn't such thing as lead guitar, it's just melodic treble.
@@Skelsky There is lead guitar, and Ler doing the definition of that. Ler is playing over the rhythm section. Metallica is a good example James Hetfield plays complex rhythm part, Kirk Hammet plays leads over that. That’s the same way Primus works, Les and Tim hold the rhythm section down and Ler play Robert Fripp style leads overtop. Ler plays wayyy more solos than Les. Les Claypool said it himself, he’s not inspired by lead guitarist, he’s inspired by Larry Graham, Stanley Clarke, and Geddy Lee.
That's true Roger Waters is the most impressive bass player to me for that reason. not to take anything away from Les because this stuff is incredible.
It would be tough just to get through the spoken word opening lines of Tommy the Cat without flubbing them, much less play bass and dance around AND be in front of a live TV audience.
@@14AspenDrive For a while the band's slogan was "we're Primus and we suck", so now if you ever wind up at a Primus concert you'll hear a lot of chants of "Primus sucks!". It's kinda like a meme for the fanbase
lol if only it harmonized w/ something. He can sometimes but not always apparently. Some of his older shit he does that thing more often. I remember before doing music I thought what he did was impressive too. Lol it takes like not even a month to work your longs enough to hold it in to do that and it takes not even a day to sound better than that. personally I see why he stopped it, shit makes me cringe hard to. He just needs to step up his vocal game a little bit. Even tho his type of voice is only good for country, really, he can at lest try to expand his vocal range. Since hes been doing other shit besides country inspired shit.
It takes an especially talented freak of nature to be able to rapid-fire scat while playing an extremely complex bass line and not miss a single. frickin’. note. 🤘😎🤘
And while I'm reading this, the song has ended, and the ad that is playing is talking about "unclogging stuck poop," poop . . . poop . . . poop, the woman is repeating it over and over.
AND dancing around… AND commanding a stage like a boss, AND actually playing with the band, AND making faces…. ALL THAT while he plays a freakishly complex bass line of we can call it so, AND reciting /singing crazy cool complicated lyrics. I’ve always loved this wonderful nature’s freak.
My late dad worked with Primus in the early 90s and took me to many of their concerts as a young child, never got it, but now at age 35 I truly understand the gift he gave me by exposing me to this music
I had never heard of Primus when they opened for Rush in the Orlando Arena on March 2, 1992. I never would have believed that anyone could blow Rush away, but Les damn sure did. Took my oldest boy to see them for the first time when he was 6, and my youngest will be seeing them for the 3rd time in November for his 11th birthday. Damn, I'm a good father!!
Damn... I am so jealous. That must have been amazing! I remember when I bought the tape of Roll The Bones. However I did see Rush for their 30th anniversary tour. Still not as cool as seeing Primus open for them.
***** That's awesome, I actually wish I could see Rush without Primus, I've been a Rush fan forever (I was 11 when "2112" came out) and I didn't appreciate the show nearly as much after seeing Primus. Last time I saw Primus was May 2012 in Nashville, me and my then-8-year-old were right by the stage, about 15 feet to the right of Les' mics. My boy had to use the restroom, and we're coming back into the auditorium when Les is pointing out the kids in the audience, and he says "I don't know what happened to my little buddy right there, he must've went to get a Slurpee". We get back to our seats and everyone is telling him "HEY!!! Les was just talking about you!!!" Les sees him and walks over right in front of us, and somehow I get my shy, completely awestruck boy to half-ass wave at him, and Les stands there for the entire next song. Greatest moment of my life, without a doubt. I know my boy will never, ever forget it.
Don Ellis Wow man... that is a cool story man. I like hearing stories of musicians like that. It really sucks when you meet someone that you idol and he or she turns out to be a complete Jack-Ass. (cough cough Mike Portnoy) P.S. you certainly deserved the father of the year award that year man!
I will never forget seeing this for the first time. They had my attention at YYZ, then that bass riff in Tommy the Cat! Bought Sailing the Seas of Cheese the same day.
Brian L. Huerta yes. Sending up the end show credits was a total fussing disgrace. Fireworks going off in the background on 5/16/19. Guess the Warriors won again???
That's saying alot because of Nirvana and RHCP. But hard to disagree with it. They remind me alot of Zappa's mothers of invention. And that is a tremendous compliment.
@@rman52 yeah but look at how all three of those have aged, Nirvana and RHCP are such tropes they are almost parodies of themselves now. Primus still stands tall as pure art
@@michaelgeary9370 Nirvana ended with Cobain's demise. Unless you consider Foo Fighters somewhat of a continuation. True on RHCP not being relevant anymore. Primus and the other side projects of Claypool are the best of what's left of rock for sure. Like Zappa before him, Claypool's brilliance doesn't age. I hope he does more work with Buckethead down the road. He fits the same mold. So they are perfect collaborators.
when i first heard primus i didnt really like them that much and thought they were really fucked up. but after going back to their music 20 times after i thought that i havent stopped listening to them, god their so fucking good.
I love Primus simply on the fact that whilst people may not be 100% on board with Les Claypools sound, his coordination and technical skill in bass playing is mind-blowing. Couple that with the smoothest synchrony with the drummer and distilled mad sounds of the guitar and you've got what can only be described as head bopping hill billy jazz that I can't get enough of 😂❤️
Not a big fan of his sound here, but he just got better and better. He is instantly recognizable not only because of his alien technical abilites😂 but also his signature sound. Very sick, I love it.
I was lucky enough to live by him in Sebastopol, CA. Great man. Nicest man. So nice he played with my TooL wrench tattoo on my arm when Herb was recovering from a heart attack. TooLs drummer took over for that tour. Greatest bass player next to Geddy
The nineties were an insane era, we did not realise it back then sadly. The drummer wears a Public Enemy shirt. Kids today will not get it and it would never happen today. We have never been more divided.
As a Tool fan, I arrived at this video via a Danny Carey+Primus video. YYZ confused me at first, then he started singing and wondered what on earth was this?!!!!??! But then I realised my foot was tapping and my head was nodding along to the music! What a rhythm, really entertaining!😆
How Les Claypool can play one of the most complex basslines of all time WHILE speaking at about 1000 words per minute is, quite simply, an unexplainable miracle of nature. Best bass player ever to pick up the instrument. No one can match his style, inventiveness, and skill. NO ONE. Not Geddy Lee, not anyone.
I agree with you. I think that there are bass players with greater technical skills than him (one above others is Victor Wooten) but as far as creativity, uniqueness, presence and just sheer musicianship Les Claypool is absolutely one to behold, nobody is or will ever be on his level.
I'm amazed at how Les can sing this song AND play the bass!! I remember the first time I heard them in the 90's when my teen son had it blaring on his car stereo, and I said "turn that sh-t down" lol. NOW, 20 years later, I have come to appreciate Primus and their talent and can NOW understand why my son played it wide open and danced around like a whirling dervish.
holly shit this guy is a genius he can talk so fast even when playing those amazing lines on bass i can't talk that fast period and to play bass like that at the same time god dayum this guy is genius
Les Claypool is one of the greatest musicians that's ever lived! Great band altogether though really, amazing guitar and drums. Badass rhythm section!!!!!!!
