Darcy Reexamined

[George A Pasles]

A few months ago, someone argued with me about Darcy's bass playing, as
I'd suggested she wasn't that great, striping down the album's fills in
favor of root notes. Well, I saw them last sat. in philly and yes, it was
an amazing concert, but dammit I was right. In every song, cherub rock
especially, I noticed the lack of movement in her left hand. She does pick
fast, yes, but as I'd said before, fast picking of a single note is not
difficult at all. This is not a flame. I really like them. But I think I'm
right here. I'm just surprised that a band that cited Balck Sabbath as
their primary influence has such an unmelodic undertone.

[Jesse Richman]

In article <4rrmjq$q...@netnews.upenn.edu>,

Well, while i do agree with you about Darcy's basslines, but i also feel
obligated to point out that the best bassists not only have the talent to play
wicked, running-all-over-the-fretboard basslines, the best also have the
restraint not to do it constantly. Many times, a song is better off with a
strong, driving bassline, even if it isnt real fancy...OTOH i do think Cherub
Rock would be great with some mad basslines during the refrain

[Kori Henderson ii]

Well, in her defense, Billy wrote most of the basslines so it's not
really her fault. He was there bass player in the early early days,
before darcy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Zombie~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RWJ...@prodigy.com "I just write about my fucked up life.
Whats left of it. That's why the next album will be an EP"- Billy
Corgan, SP

[Benjamin Ackerman]

>Well, in her defense, Billy wrote most of the basslines so it's not
>really her fault. He was there bass player in the early early days,
>before darcy.
>
>

when you say in the early days before darcy, i beleive you are talking
about like one or two gigs....thats not really the early days....as for
bass playing, both darcy and billy are strong bass players.....my
evidence to support the claim that darcy is a great bass player is her
little bass solo in tribute to johny ....thats freaking awesome.....and
the great basslines off of mellon collie.... the sliding thing in in the
arms of sleep to the overdubbed two tracks of bass on 1979 makes for some
great basslines.....my proof that billy is a great bassist is siamese
dream.....every song on that album has a bassline that completely fits
and even expands the song....cherub rock is great because the bass line
is just the two octaves of E while billy and james play the octave riff...
.hummer has an awesome bassline....in soma, the bassline is great in the
second chorus where billy doesnt play the lead fill, but the bass kinda
hints at it allowing the song to slowly change feel, but doing it
gradually to keep continuity....there isnt a song on siamese dream, or
gish, or mellon collie i might add, that doesnt have the perfect bassline
to fit that song and i think this is attributable to both billy and darcy.
...ok...thats my 37 cents
-ben

[Kori Henderson ii]

>when you say in the early days before darcy, i beleive you are talking
>about like one or two gigs....thats not really the early days.

actually, it was just billy and james w/billy on bass for about 6 months.
and on 20 smash hits darcy dosen't even get a bass credit, just a
backing vocals credit while I THINK billy got it.

[Isaac Petruccelli]

It's D'arcy. And I think she is a great bassist. Short
solos that are really cool. But, isn't the bassist's purpose to
keep the beat? And she certainly does so.

[George A Pasles]

Jesse Richman (hric...@fast.net) wrote:

: Well, while i do agree with you about Darcy's basslines, but i also feel

: obligated to point out that the best bassists not only have the talent to
play
: wicked, running-all-over-the-fretboard basslines, the best also have the
: restraint not to do it constantly. Many times, a song is better off with a
: strong, driving bassline, even if it isnt real fancy...OTOH i do think Cherub
: Rock would be great with some mad basslines during the refrain

Yeah, definitely. I agree that a range of bass styles certainly beats
any single way of playing. I guess I was just responding to the newsgroup
discussion of whether she or Billy should record the basslines. I suggest
Billy, because of his range of techniques. Definitely a bassist who plays
only fast things quickly becomes tiresome, but the same can be said of the
opposite. Thanks for the comments. Rational discussion on the internet?
This is a first.