Duran Duran’s John Taylor and Yes’ Chris Squire: two bassists, each with their distinct way of ruling the mix. When UCR sat down with Taylor, they couldn’t help but ask him about Squire’s influence and style. The bassist revealed:
“I met him maybe twice, and that was just because his daughter was a fan of Duran for a moment. But I love Chris Squire’s bass playing. He’s like the square peg in that band. It’s like he’s the punk in Yes.”
Squire, the only member of the band to feature on every studio album, unfortunately, passed away just over a month after revealing that he was suffering from a rare form of leukemia in 2015. Even though the bassist was only 67, he left a signature sound that Taylor explained as:
“I find that when he’s in the rhythm section, they’re always worth listening to. He’s like some weird hybrid of Paul McCartney and Sid Vicious. He’s highly musical. I miss him, actually. He was a great, great musician.”
Since Squire’s and Taylor’s bass playing isn’t considered the norm, fans might want to see Duran Duran live to experience what a bass that is high on the mix sounds like as the band prepare to kick off their latest U.S. tour leg in support of 2021’s ‘Future Past.’ Regarding what fans thought of the LP, John said:
“I think that the hardcore fans appreciated it. You know it’s not going to land the way our albums did in the ’80s. It’s going to take a while. But that’s the nice thing about doing lengthy tours like this is that you get to slowly unpack the newer songs, just a handful here and there.”
You can listen to the album below.
