Thursday, October 8, 2020

Locked In

Now and again I've thought about posting a list of my favourite ten bass-players / guitarists / drummers - that kind of thing. And I never do, because it's fundamentally silly, as we all know. Fun, yes, but stupid. My favourite bassist is usually whatever great player I happen to be listening to at the time, and there're a lot of great players.

But it suddenly occurred to me today, when I was goofing off and listening to a bit of Cream from the brilliant 2005 reunion concert at the Albert Hall, that I'm pretty sure that the Baker - Bruce combination is the greatest rhythm section of any band ever simply in terms of complete tightness and that extraordinary sense of being entirely, seamlessly, locked-in to each other. Two virtuosic players who mysteriously don't get in each other's way. They drive the music inexorably but there's so much space, so much clarity in the glorious noise they create.

No shortage of evidence, of course, but this is surely conclusive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-D_jhVX8y4 .

And it doesn't hurt matters that Clapton is on fire on this one.

No comments: