Brian on bass skills.. Why no bass parts on a Queen album from him?

"Brian has no interest in playing bass guitar or drums otherwise he would have done so by now,"

Well it would seem he's had enough interest to get a bass built and play on a good number of tracks

Never see any pics of Brian and the bass guitar?

Togg: Do tell me the Queen tracks Brian played bass on then?

[QUOTE] [b]happystar wrote:[/b]

Togg: Do tell me the Queen tracks Brian played bass on then?[/QUOTE]

I'm not Togg but I can answer: 'Dancer' (synth bass), 'The Hero' (demo), 'Headlong' (demo - synth) and probably a few more, not to mention a lot of 'The Cosmos Rocks' (labelled as Queen + Paul Rodgers).

Now, the point I was making was that Brian did play a lot of bass outside Queen. Judging by the credits:

- Resurrection
- Driven by You
- Last Horizon
- Just One Life
- The Business
- Why Don't We Try Again
- On My Way Up
- Cyborg
- The Guv'nor
- The Wilderness
- All the Way from Memphis
- Dream of Thee (if it's got bass... can't remember)
- Dangerland
- Anthem
- I Can't Be Your Friend
- Defying Gravity
- You Have to Be There
- Love It When You Call
- Save Me (Kerry Ellis version)
- Diamonds Are Forever
- No-One But You (Kerry Ellis version)
- I Loved a Butterfly (Kerry Ellis version)
- Love in a Rainbow
- One Voice
- Born Free
- The Kissing Me Song

Which amounts to ca. 26 tracks. We could easily make a doulbe-album with songs that feature Brian on bass (not counting 'Cosmos Rocks').

Why would he play bass when John Deacon is stood right there holding a bass guitar? Anyway, can you imagine how horrendous the triple repeat thing would sound on a bass which is something Brian would definitely have done?!

You could, as a guitarist, spend a month practicing a song on bass and trying to get it to sound as bass-player-like as your ability allows,

or you could just hand the bass to the bass player.

I would imagine in the early days when they put demo's together he would also have mapped out a few Bass lines on tracks he was putting together, whether it made it to a full scale demo we may never know, but often as a composer you mapp out a full demo with guitar,bass, drums and keys to help you write, then hand it over to the band.

[QUOTE] [b]john bodega wrote:[/b]

You could, as a guitarist, spend a month practicing a song on bass and trying to get it to sound as bass-player-like as your ability allows,

or you could just hand the bass to the bass player.[/QUOTE]

Agreed. But Brian certainly played Bass on The Cosmos Rocks and some of his solo material and "some" Queen stuff. Seb's list is worth a look.

Yes being a Bassist is a skill that has to be learned, but being a guitarist you would already have the mechanical skill and an understanding of how a fret board works. I don't think Brian would be the sort to pick up a Bass, play a root note and call himself a Bass player, he would however spend time to understand and learn to play like a Bassist would.

Amongst many other things, the one thing that The Cosmos Rocks lacks is a bassist....not 'someone playing bass', but a BASSIST (these are two very different things). There is not one memorable bass hook or line on that album - Brian and Paul played a lot of it (with Roger adding some too), and it just marks time - there's nothing inventive to it and it's almost an afterthought.

There was actually very recent piece by Brian either on his soapbox or other social media outlets where he talked about recording, and referred specifically to some bass recording he was doing but saying that he needed to get someone else in to do it because Justin Shirley-Smith openly tells him that his bass playing isn't good enough!

Another example is the band Thunder - they lost their bassist in 1997 and so the guitarist (Luke Morley) played all the bass parts on the album they were recording at that time (he writes all their music too so sounds ideal) - when they did get a bassist (Chris Childs, who would be perfect for Queen btw!!) he remarked in interview that he was amazed that it was a guitarist playing the bass as it was better than it had any right to be!

ps - I'm not sure - as per the original post - that Brian is a great drummer; I've never seen or heard him play, and a lot of his solo stuff is programmed by him on drum machines. He does create some inventive parts (more so than his bass playing) but I don't know that he actually plays...would love to see something contrary to this though!

I wouldnt mind betting Brian has never even sat behind a kit, he doesn't strike me as someone that has any affinity with the drums, would love to see evidence to the contary

It's interesting to read about them having a go on other instruments, having fun and fooling around during down times and the visuals that go with it.. 'Togg' I couldn't imagine Brian either, being the type who would sit behind the drums, even if it was in studio just to have a play around.. Freddie on the other hand, I could quite easily see Freddie having a thumble on the drums though and making a dick of himself.
As to bass, Roger would have that rhythm/funk mentality over Brian to make the bass seem easy to master or to at least to play a certain sound on his own songs on Queen albums. Wonder what Johns advances were when it came to playing around on drums in studio? Would he have the most idea out of the four on how drum parts would sound when writing his songs, to the point of sitting on the drum kit to show Roger how it should roughly sound if Roger wasn't quite getting the idea to the point of, he could had some drum credits to his songs..?

Thanks Seb
Will have to listen to those songs to hear just how Brian sounds on bass unless they are not the most memorial bass lines in the bass world

I believe Brian also played bass on "Have A Cigar". That's the Pink Floyd cover on the Mission Impossible II soundtrack.

There's a section in the bridge that has the bass part featured so ( if it's indeed Brian), you can examine his technique and tone in detail.