I saw this thread earlier, and don't want to rush straight in with obvious answers..... Sometimes what seems a simple bass or guitar part has odd time signatures or changes out of the normal expected pattern which will make playing them awkward and easy to make a mistake. What would normally be a 4 bar repeating pattern will have a subtle change on the 3rd bar, or a strange out of time pause....... NMA have more often than not avoided standard 4 bar/12 bar passages it seems to me...... Unorthodox is a word often used.
Songs like Island, or Breathing have some lovely bass parts. I love stuff like KNIFE and Today Is A Good Day, real direct, attacking bass patterns. Get Me Out is a really easy one go at, suits my style of playing I thing anyways.......... A personal favourite of Nelson's tenure will always be Space. Not overly complicated, but subtle and clever tones make it work.
Moose played some really nice bass lines aswell, White Coats throbbing bass line works perfectly, stolen from a slot machine or not in mid section. I would have loved a go at The World, the bass on that is nice n aggressive.
Stuart's basslines are something else again as has been said a million times. No Rest obviously bass solo greatness, Ambition again is a no brainer as a stand out,Grandmother's Footsteps, Heroin, Great Expectaions is a great big northern soul bass line, very clipped and taut but the bassline is 3/4's of the song. Christian Militia is a punishing assault on the bass players left hand no doubts...... In truth the first 2 lp's would not sound anything like they do with any other bass player, same for Smalltown England..... Different game entirely..... Hats off to Moose for stepping in and in 5 weeks being on the road........ His contribution can't ever be played down for that alone......
Things like Rob's graceful sweeping intro to Green And Grey are not for for beginners, and I refuse to sully it with any attempt.
That said I taught myself Sleepwalking years ago and love that instrumental SO MUCH!!!!!! It was played to me on my guitar by the man who wrote it and is a memory I'll cherish til my dying day........
Justin's guitar, especially his finger picking his become something pretty special over the last 33 years, he says himself he's a song writer who surrounds himself with more capable players, be he's no slouch. Marrakesh is a perfect guitar/vocal ballad, as is Love Songs before it....... Kneivel sits in that frame aswell.......
Marshall is a force of nature........... I don't even NEED to say any more......
Dean's guitar playing on the Jez n Dean gigs is pretty impressive aswell..... He does some pretty interesting and dynamic things with the full electric sounds to make them work as a duo.
Dave always did solid stuff and his best playing for me, is probably on Carnival strangely enough.
