Someone once said to me that “The greatest musicians don’t shout about their talent”. This is certainly true of Les Claypool. It is also true of his fellow members in the band Primus. Each of them are, in my opinion, the best in the industry on their particular instruments. Brian “Brain” valentino on drums, as well as Tim “Herb” Alexander. Larry Lalonde on guitar, and of course, Les claypool on bass.

Like the rest of the band, Les is so humble, and doesn’t take him self seriously that he, and they, almost become like a cartoon band. The genius of the music being played is sometimes covered up by the silliness that Claypool and his pals seem to manifest. Entertainment seems to be their number one goal. Pretense and seriousness (although i’m sure they take their music very serious when writing and practicing) go out of the window. Primus were and are a breath of fresh air…

I’ve been lucky enough to see Les play live twice. Both times struck me so hard that I wanted to play my bass right there, and this has stuck with me ever since. Les claypool is different. His bass lines and technique are so original that any aspiring bass player would be crazy not to investigate him further. All of the chordal downstrokes I use are because of Mr Claypool. The whole notion that you can write music on bass using chords was because of Mr Claypool.

So where to start investigating? Well, here are a few vids to start with. But these are just the tip of the iceburg that is Les Claypool.

Unfortunately, universal music groups won’t let us embed Primus videos from YT, so you will have to find them yourselves. Until then, here are some live ones…

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