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I love his style, Hes one of the people who definitely inspired me to play bass. I see alot of people shit on him for his technique. Just because hes isn't technical and people don't like his tone doesn't make him a bad bassist.
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Just a reminder that Metallica told Les Claypool that he was wasting his time with their band when he auditioned. They said he was too good for their band.
Korn got a bass player that filled a role they needed. They’re such a unique band and fieldy wrote bass parts that fit. Who knows, maybe a better bass player would have made that band less recognizable. I think he’s good at what he does! I agree with you OP.
I wish for an alternate reality where I can listen to the song Enter Wynona's Big Brown Beaver.
As well as Cliff Burton’s project, “Grimus.” Loved that Metallica song fade to race car driver
Those damn blue collared sand men, Kill em all!
I always thought of him as half bassist/half percussionist. In that term, he’s kinda versatile. Makes the sound of the bad for sure.
Les Claypool is the guy for me that play bass like it's a percussion instrument.
Bass is primarily a rhythm instrument so yeah.
Bass is usually about 50/50 about rhythm and harmony but it usually isn’t considered a percussion instrument by any standards
My guess is people don’t like the music Fieldy makes.
I mean people will trash Jaco because they don’t like his music. For the masses Jaco and Korn’s music maybe have similar levels of appeal?
But lots will give Jaco a pass for his technique and say “I don’t like his music but he is really good at bass playing.” If you don’t have the “really good at bass playing” part, then…
Some of us just hate Jaco’s tone and love everything else.
Weird, I like Jaco’s everything regarding music besides his own songs. Best of it was just Three Views of a Secret and Barbary Coast. Teen Town is really fun too. Otherwise he’s great in everything that isn’t his song.
I love his earlier stuff on his debut and on the tunes he wrote for Heavy Weather, but find his stuff from Word of Mouth onwards to be hit and miss.
My favourite side of him was his work with Joni Mitchell. Some of that stuff never fails to give me goosebumps!
Jaco got me into jazz. My dad introduced me to his playing when I was 16 and it blew my mind. Listening to his stuff and the people he played with got my ear used to the kinds of harmony you tend to hear in jazz.
I feel this way about Les Claypool.
Depends on the era for me. His tone is substantially different these days to the early Primus stuff. I much prefer the new sound to his old.
I like Korn. Not as much as I did in the 90s, mind you, but I still do. And I can't stand Fieldy's playing.
Even having Munky and Head with 7-string guitars, it doesn't fully compensate for the lack of low register that their kind of music needs. And the whole clack clack clack crap is terribly annoying.
And the fact that, as far as I've seen/heard, when he does play non-slap, his skills are limited at best...
Oh, I love Jaco's playing, his tone, his technique... he was better than I will ever be, that's for sure. I'm still probably not putting on Weather Report when I want to chill with some music. They may all be brilliant musicians, but they chose to make fuckin elevator music. Which, to me, is an absolute shame. They could have made any style they wanted, and they chose to make the music you listen to when on hold, or in the mall, or in a waiting room. Which I don't understand.
I'd say it's more the other way round. That style of fusion became popular so a watered down version got used in elevators.
You hear watered down hip-hop in clothing stores now, but probably wouldn't blame Biggie or Nas for making clothing store music.
Right, but I came along after the watered down version was already all over the place, so the good stuff it'd evolved from was what I had given me a negative impression, and it took something like the Flecktones that added some musical context so I could appreciate Weather Report. Mind you, I never denied that they were talented. I recognized that what they were doing was vey technical. It just... didn't excite me.
I was simply replying to:
Just trying to give a bit of context to hopefully help you understand why. Not trying to make you like them or anything!
You're totally entitled to your opinion but... calling weather report elevator music is a trash take. Fusion has made so many contributions to modern bass technique that you're really missing out if you can't at least appreciate all the subtle stuff going on there.
Appreciating it during an active listening session to understand and learn from it is one thing, and I've always been able to do that. I take great pride in my ability to appreciate a wide variety of genres and styles, and that I can get enjoyment out of them.
Ultimately, though, it's not what I am putting on the record player if I am the one making the decisions. If I want to put on a Jazz record, nine times out of ten it's gonna be Bird and Diz because that's what I want to hear.
It's still channeling the fuckin smooth jazz hour on NPR. Even if they are the best musicians on the planet, which Jaco was possibly the best bassist of his day, it's still... that style.
It's a fuckin bologna sandwich. You can use the best deli style bologna, the best white bread you can get your hands on, and the best cheese out there but it's still a fuckin bologna sandwich, you know?
Hah! I laugh because I 80% agree (there are some bangers out there but they are few and far between). I think it was really just a sign of the times and the state of jazz during that time period.
So, the first real jazz musician I listened to in high school was Maynard Ferguson. My high school band director really liked him, and had him come play at a local theater. It was a brilliant show.
I remember after seeing that, hearing about Jaco Pastorius and looking up Birdland, then finding the Weather Report version. Which was pretty cool - I was super excited to hear them, as I hadn't before, and I was still very new to playing bass and had read a few articles about him in Bass Player magazine (oh, the early 2000's...). I begged my Mom to order a copy of the CD version of Heavy Weather, and my main memory after my first listen through was supreme disappointment.
It took me finding Bela Fleck and Victor Wooten, and getting into the Flecktones and some of Wooten's solo stuff to really get the context to better understand bass virtuosity as expressed by Jaco, and that didn't happen for me until a bit later.
Booker T and he MG’s got to live both sides of that coin.
He sounds like tic tacs
It’s pretty obvious from videos like this that he is a “feel” player, and is not particularly disciplined or knowledgeable.
I honestly think that’s fine in the context of Korn.
I grew up on their first two albums, didn’t know what he was doing, and thought it was absolutely insane.
Now, I get it, and I’m sick of it.
Doesn’t make them any less successful or influential.
Wow dude can barely articulate his instrument…
May not be the most technical or theoretical but there's no denying his style is unique. At least imo. His playing style helped me learn to slap in my early days. Instilled in me that bass is both a melodic and percussive instrument
Hahaha! Perfect example video.
Thanks for the video. Like most in this thread I think his playing works well with their music but man is that rough out of context. Sounds like something you’d hear at GC from a kid that just found out about slap.
lol, fully agree
I like(d) Korn, but was never a big fan of Fieldy’s contributions. It was “unique”, but it was also uniquely silly. He just turned up bass and treble and cut all the mids on his SR bass….on every song. Then, he played a basic percussive root/octave…on every song.
Im not a hater, good for him, he seemed to have a good time and the music was popular. It just would have been more interesting to have a bassist with a bit more versatile approach, to me
His tone works great because the guitars are SO mids-heavy and when they started there were two guitar players. It makes sense.
Complaining that a bass player mostly sticks to the roots is like saying your Uber is a bad driver because he didn't even drift once
You have a very basic idea of music.
You have a very basic idea of musicianship
If you equate root notes to driving the way you seem to have, I’d say you haven’t and will never make anything interesting.
Can tell you haven't actually listened to them if this is your assessment.
I'm trying to balance the votes, but he's either going 1-5 or 1-5b. Not many other intervals. Doesn't matter either way, their music needs what he's doing and not a bunch of notes. Could you imagine Ryan Martinie playing for them?
Oh, he did, and played Fieldy's lines.
https://youtu.be/oPgekwvlACA
Well, he was asked to play the songs, not rewrite the songs.
Young Reggie Arvizu hearing the Lars Ulrich/Vinnie Paul kick production of the late 80s/early 90s-
"THIS!! But on bass".
Being a good bass player in my opinion is playing bass lines that best serve the song. Not to hot, not to cold, but just right. Thats hard to do. Because sometimes the lines that best fit the song are simple and maybe some people would say boring, or sounds like tick tacks.
Felidy does have a simple and more percussive style. But it worked. Its a perfect complement to 7 string guitars tuned down five steps. Im not a huge fan of korn or feildy but I respect them.
And for anyone hating on felidy just remember you know his name, love it or hate it you know his music, and you are talking about him right now.
They're only tuned down one step in 7 string tuning
My guess is they were talking about the low B, and trying to say tuned down five half steps compared to E Standard.
I thought they were just exaggerating for effect.
Correct
I very much enjoy Korn. Is he the best, definitely not, but he fits the style and gets the job done
I agree whole heartedly. Dude created a new style of bass playing and a new tone. Anyone that does that will get backlash.
I like a lot of their stuff because it's different. It's like Munkey and Head took notes from Tom Morello while doing drugs, and took guitar sounds to a new level. Their drummer added 808s, so Fieldy had to do something different.
The fact that other NuMetal bands incorporated a DJ to create these noises gives a lot of credit to 3 dudes with stomp boxes making these new outlandish sounds.
He's not my favorite, or even top 10, but dude has my respect.
Idk if you listened to that live clip, but 80% of their sound was coming from the dubstep synth backing track. That's not coming from stomp boxes lol.
Its a shame really, Breaking the mold gets you flak and he also gets flak because he's in a numetal band
In all fairness, just because its different, that doesn't automatically make it good.
Quite a lot of folks find his tone very grating and unpleasant, myself included, and most producers would never throw a sound like that on an album but its part of Korn's "thing" so they get a pass. I was around back when Korn was new and not liking it back then, still don't now, I think most of their guitar tone is ass too and I never liked Jonathan Davis's singing style. Coal Chamber had a similar bass sound though with a more conventional playing style, didn't like that either.
So, you know what I do about it? I just don't really listen to Korn, problem solved. If you're not into something, carry on. If you are, by all means. If other people don't like something you like, why do you feel the need to defend it?
I saw Ozzy live in I want to say 94 or 95, and Korn opened for them.
You know how an entire arena of people are having normal-volume conversations and the combined sound is deafening? Yeah, all but about 30 people were talking during the Korn set, and you could almost not hear the band. Good on them that they found success after that, but that is my strongest memory of Korn.
People who are objectively influential, but definitely less capable at their craft than many, always attract an amount of controversy.
How we feel about these situations is also dependent upon how we view the world, and what criteria we associate with concepts such as 'good', 'bad', or otherwise.
Personally I don't begrudge any influential person their following, regardless of how I feel about their capacity; with exception to situations where that person's attitudes are harmful.
Is this Lars Ulrich's reddit account?
Couldn’t be. They made a succinct point.
Comment deleted by user
I say this as a lifelong Metallica fan...I strongly disagree.
His drum parts are mostly good for Metallica (though I personally think he really swung too far towards 'simple' in the Bob Rock era and many of those songs would have been improved by more interesting/complex drum parts), but he's not good at actually keeping time. There's a live version of Metallica with Miley Cyrus doing Nothing Else Matters and literally every drum fill is rushed.
Lars' main strength in Metallica is as an arranger, and he has written some really excellent drum parts, especially on MOP and AJFA, but he is actually a bad drummer in that he can't do the most basic task required of every drummer, which is to keep time.
I've heard when they play live, James keeps time and Lars follows, which could explain why he has so much trouble staying on the beat?
Have you listened to their recent live songs on their YT? Really tight right now. But in the past I agree.
He writes good drum parts but the best drumming on any Metallica is when they've had guest drummers like Joey jordison or really anybody who isn't Lars
Funny you should bring that up — i still can’t believe that 20~ years later people are still making napster jokes whenever his name comes up. It was funny for like the first six months, tops. Shit half of reddit probably has no idea what napster actually was
Before I played bass I didn't know what bass was until I listened to jaco and Ryan martini.. Fieldy is a percussionist. Not very much a bass player imo. Its hard to listen to korn as a bass player now. All I hear is clackity clack clack and no mids or articulation.
Ahh, the box of tic tacs falling down the stairs bass tone.
Korn is hugely influential and Fieldy is a part of that. Freak on a Leash is such a banging track and probably singlehandedly launched Nu Metal.
For me it was the vocal performance that made that whole album. I'd honestly never heard a person sing like that before. The weird beatboxing/scatting on Twist is one of the most interesting vocal performances I have really heard, and I don't think anyone's ever really done something quite like it before.
He gets a lot of shit for that percussive bass sound. Also, apparently he's kind of an asshole in real life. Maybe not so much after he found god & all that, but def before. You don't even have to read stories online about that, just read his book. Also, get on YouTube and listen to that Fieldy's Dreams record. I don't even think he was sober yet when he decided to cancel making a follow-up Fieldy's Dreams record. Even not being totally clear-headed, he knew it was a bad idea lol
That said, Korn is a sick band live. I haven't paid money for a Korn record since Take A Look In The Mirror, but I'd go see them tomorrow if I could. I'm not at all surprised that Fieldy has taken a long break from the band. Aside from any substance abuse problems he may have, his bass has been buried in the mix for like 3 or 4 records now? Why is he even in the band, I can't hear him.
This one time when I was a kid, I threw a handful of marbles into the washing machine and turned it on. It made the same sound that Fieldy makes with his bass.
CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK
Less boring than the same fingerstyle, I like fingerstyle but it even gets boring sometimes. He has a unique style and serves the music very well.
I'm old enough that I remember the Korn's video for Blind coming on MTV for the first time and I thought it was fucking LIT. I was playing bass at that time and thought it was some groundbreaking shit. Still think there is some dope bass on that album, even regular fingered/fretted parts beyond his slappy style. You have to respect originality.
Their first album was so different than anything my friends or I had heard at the time and his bass playing and tone were a huge reason. In 1995 there was no numetal. You could hear the west coast gangsta rap style in his bass lines. I haven’t listened to them in a very long time but I’ll give props to that album.
The end of blind is catchy. But it's still the whole "mix" that makes it that way. Any other environment the bass is questionable.
Yes. That is how music works.
But if people hate someone's bass tone, playing style and band then it's pretty obvious that they're going to cop shit for it.
Also if you've seen the video of him giving a bass "lesson" for one of his songs where he can't even tell you the names of the notes, then yeah I think that makes him a bad bass player.
I still remember the first time I heard them. My mate was so hyped about that first album and he put it on and all I said was "what the fuck is that clanky noise?" His tone sucks. Their band sucks.
But he's way more famous than I'll ever be, has a signature bass and tours the world, so good on him for finding a niche.
I know the video you're talking about, i think its more like he's fucking fried his brains with drugs, Korn did way too many of them. Trying to give him benefit of the doubt he plays in A D C G F
Like... A D C G F and not just D standard tuning? You're not making a typo, right?
He plays a 5 string tuned down to A.
This, and same with the other comments just typo, sometimes you don’t even know how you typo that way
Pretty sure it's a typo
A, D, G, C, F
Doesn't make sense with the whole step down tuning otherwise
Ehhh, don’t let that be the reason. I know more than one fantastic bass player that knows absolutely zero things about theory
In the video they're talking about it's not even the names of the notes. He's saying the wrong number of FRET he's playing.
Dude can't count lol.
To be fair, if I’m not in standard tuning then I have to stop and think for a bit about what not I’m actually hitting.
There’s that too
It's not the reason, it's one of many why I think he's terrible.
Fair enough
Ehhh, don't gloss over basic musical understanding and call it art. There is a line and that's absolutely it. He can make music you enjoy and still be a relatively poor bass player. Those things aren't mutually exclusive.
Ok then 🤷♂️
How are they fantastic? If you know zero theory - you can't communicate with band members, you can't create lines suitable for somewhat complex songs and you're probably stuck in one genre/style.
Just because someone learned Deen town using internet tutorials doesn't mean he is a "fantastic" bass player.
Lmao what kind of straw man is that? I don’t even know what “Deen town” is.
The person I’m thinking of is not only a great songwriter on his own, he’s incredible at coming up with catchy lines for other people’s parts/songs on the spot, has perfect time, has a very original sound that’s all dialed in for a genre he likes, and formed a band around his (obscure) bass as the lead instrument. He has no trouble with complex time signatures, yet doesn’t know what a time signature is and doesn’t care.
All the shit you listed off sound like prerequisites for being a fantastic bass player in a cover band. Luckily he has zero interest in that
You're way underestimating how fair musicians can go by just playing together for a while. It's not like it's that hard to figure it out by ear and memory.
Yes, but that doesn't make you a "fantastic bass player".