Last night I was having a few beers and enjoying the Faces boxset "Five Guys..." I was paying some attention to the bass lines, and I have to say that Ronnie's playing is really great, with some really beautiful melodic lines that enhanced (sp?) the songs. And I find his style somewhat similar to Wyman's, specially because of his melodic lines.

What do you think about the great Ronnie Lane's playing?? I know there are some bass players here, and I'd like to hear their opinions.

[There'll be no wedding today...]

I agree with you he was a great bassist (among other things - like heart, soul, & songwriting gifts), more melodic & less bluesy than Bill - hearing that Faces box on a couple tokes just provides one revelation, or great moment, after another. Ronnie's style to me is part Bill/part McCarney, big part himself...The deliberately 'sluggish' or 'flat' sounding rhythm on a song like "On the Beach" reveals a beautifully delicate sense of swing...And his melodic lines on the live Maggie May, Maybe I'm Amazed, Angel- and along with Kenny Jones you have a superb rhythm section. I find it interesting to contrast the Small Faces (1965-69) & their evolution then subtract Steve Marriott add Rod & Ron, a half different band (hence half the name), with their folk/blues/Stonesy looseness - Marriott had many of the same influences (r & b/Motown/etc) but it was different. The late-period SF tracks ('Autumn Stone', 'Wham Bam Thank You Man,' 'Donkey Rides Penny A Glass) begin to sound like Faces even before the break. And the Marriott/Lane songwriting combo was great, had its 'magic' that is bigger than the individual parts, but different from Stewart/Wood/Lane, or Lane's solo songs.
For anyone interested (esp. in the US where they never hit big except one single) the 2003 Sanctuary "Essential..." 2-cd set is a great start, better sound (more bottom, too) than the Fuel 2000 labelreleases - Essential has 1 cd for Decca (raw/max r & b/intense/amphetamine drivin) stuff ('65-67), inc. the whole first album, the 2nd CD has Immediate ('67-69) material, not quite enough, with more studio orientation a la Beatles/Stones circa '66-67, carefully crafted (always soulful) tracks, liquid & deep Lane/Jones, more exploratory songs/themes, great music...Ronnie Lane was a great rock & roller, an essential personality to Faces' albums (where he did at least get 3 or 4 lead vocals per album) & I like his Faces era soundtrack w/Ron W, "Mahoney's Last Stand" (Atco, 1976) (Stu's on there too), it has one really major, heartbreakingly beautiful song, "Just For A Moment"....I know I ramble, but the Faces catalog is so rich, the band a near songwriting democracy (despite the Rod's backup band perception), its good to see them finally getting re-recognized.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-06-10 21:46 by john r.

bruno, I have to disagree with you re. similarities between Wyman and Lane. Both are great but Lane plays like a guitarrist playing a fourstring instrum,ent with a pick. It's a very trebly, metallic, melodic sound. Wyman is straight from the Blues. I don't think Lane has much of the Blues. He is more country. Brit country. John is right: he is his own stylist. But Lane was great, no doubt.
IMO the greatest bassist to come from that whole Brit school was Greg Ridley.

Just a simple tought : a certain part of this swinging feel from the great 60's bass players was due to the absence of technical or human-driven gismos.

No compressor, no slap, no seeking of the big sound overuling the other instruments (and overuling the ego's band mates too).

Add the plucking sound instead of the hitting motion, a classical musical education in the early teens happily turned to RnB in the twenties, you got that swing feeling which is light years from hammer style.