The Bass Player's Selling Clothes (He Never Would Have Wore)

death metal is filled with technically gifted bass players rendered inaudible by the guitarists and drummers.

coming back to Televison's "Marquee Moon" after obsessing in my youth over Verlaine & Lloyd I was knocked over by how crucial the rhythm section is to motorvating their punk guitar hero thang, so Fred Smith.

I like Naomi Yang too, because I love a bass taking melody lines, especially so woozy and clearly untrained.

Stanley Clarke - In the morning, when I take a shower, I wish that instead of water, Stanely Clarke's bass playing fell on my head.

Paul McCartney - You want to hate him for it, it's so good.

Roger Waters - Very good example of listening to what he doesn't play. "Money" gets a little busy, but it's funky and rocks bells.

John McVie - Always seemed to have the right lick at the right time.

Kim Deal - For making stuff like GGGG EEEE CCCC EEEE sound so good.

There are so many others. You all are already naming them.

John Entwhistle is interesting, with Moon's timekeeping all over the shop the Ox's melodic style ought not to work, but somehow it does. After nearly 30 years of listening to the Who, I still can't work out how.

Hooky is a one-off and not really valid, as he plays a baritone guitar anyway. His role in New Order is very different from that of a conventional bassist - he's got to provide melody only as there's usually a sequenced bassline. When there isn't you got Steve Morris's robo-drums to lock the whole thing down.

A bass guitar, like any musical instrument, is simply a set of sonic possibilities. I think that the timbre of the bass makes it a great bridge between the drums and the melody in pop and rock music, and that good bass playing is simply good melodic percussion -- whether it should be loud or quiet, busy or simple, will depend on what else is going on in the music. This is the skill that Kim Deal, Lemmy, John Wetton, and Bernard Edwards share.

What makes the playing on "Maggie May" bad playing to me is not that it's melodically busy -- 'cause then I could never defend Chris Squire with a straight face -- but because it's got no connection to rhythm of the music implied by drums, guitar, and mandolin -- it sounds like a guitarist playing licks, and that's what it is.

Peter Hook (whom I really dig) doesn't play six-string bass anything close to exclusively, and most of the high playing on the New Order records is just going up to the high thin ones on a regular four-string (ever see the "Perfect Kiss" video?)

Also, I have to take issue with Roger Waters as an example of a great bass player, he's atrociously bad, just listen to any PF boot from any era, Gilmour played bass on a lot of the albums, particularly Animals.

Mick Karn
Percy Jones
Pino Palladino
Bootsy Collins

Also a fan of the fretless as you can see.

That guy who played on the early Savage Rose albums - Jens Rugsted. I think he's a pedal steel guitarist somewhere in Northern Germany, last I heard.

Uli Trepte (Guru Guru, Spacebox) - He is fucking fantastic.

Bill Wyman, of course. Very solid; never given his due.

Not a rock player, not even an electric bassist, but Ronnie Boykins (Sun Ra Arkestra) was amazing.

Tina Weymouth (early TH is my favorite) - At least in early TH (my favorite) her passion outweighs her skill, a plus to me, and while the skill's developing she's already proving a god-given knack for groove, rhythm and simple catchy melodies. The reggae influence is palpable. "Psycho Killer" is one of my favorite bass lines.

Kim Gordon - Distills a foundation for which to build those trebly noisy guitars upon, and maintains a personality. I'm not sure where she learned to make those easy repetitive lines, but I imagine it's from dub. Again, her parts are simple and pure.

Kim Deal - Really unsung imaginative bass playing, her knack for a melody--using as few a notes as possible and maximum rhythmic pulse-- is uncanny, will often pull against the rest of the band, Pixies or Breeders alike.

Doug McCombs - A bass player's bass player. In EDD he always seemed to me to be a punk rock bassist with a jazz brain. The sonic logic with which he plays is his strength, a harmonic and rhythmic undertow, but he knows when and where to pull back.

Good point, Colin, but asssuming Jamerson allowed himself to be forced to play with the rig you describe, I suspect he would tone it down a bit. I like to think the Jamersion aesthetic is playing all that busy stuff with the dead strings so he is "hiding in plain sight." If he was more "visible" he might do something different.

Also, it seems to me the Squire is all too often playing 'licks' while Jamerson, for all his flash, was still playing bass 'lines.' Prove me wrong.

Use your ears! More than that I cannot say.

OK, I can say a bit more -- listen to "Close to the Edge" and "Fragile" really carefully and pay attention to the interplay between Squire and Bruford.

Also, have you ever really paid attention to those Motown mixes? Jamerson is COMPLETELY in yer face, mixed much louder than ANY other bass player of the time. "Dead strings" don't mean "shy and retiring", y'know?

Ditto for Rick Danko, Bill Wyman.

Peter Hook is probably my favorite bassist ever, for his simplicity and knack for melody (as someone said about Kim Deal)....

Geddy Lee get pegged as a wanker, but if you actually listen closely I think he's pretty great....usually very tuneful and rarely overly busy (although more busy than most).....He's usually fairly appropriate for what's going on in the song.

Also add: Cliff Burton, John Entwistle, and the very very underrated Joe Lally from Fugazi and Chris Kirkwood from Meat Puppets.

Timing is all for a bass player, as far as I can see, regardless of busyness or sparseness or whatever. A slack bass player can really fuck up an otherwise great track or band. A player who's tight w/the drummer, or who knows about the one is what I like.

(Not that I'm suggesting that Kaye isn't one of the great all time bassplayers because she obviously is, based on the stuff that nobody disputes she played).

didn't he use foot pedals to play that stuff live? i think they were called "taurus" pedals or something like that...that impressed me much as a lad when i saw them.

Here are here guitar sessions:

Unchained Melody, You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling - The Righteous Brothers
La Bamba - Ritchie Valens
The Beat Goes On (Dano bass guitar), He's A Rebel, I Got You Babe, Baby Don't Go, All I Want To Do (backbeat elec. guitar)- Sonny and Cher
Surfin' USA - The Beach Boys
What A Wonderful World, Summertime - Sam Cooke
What The World Needs Now - Jackie DeShannon
Bang Bang, Alfie, Needles and Pins - Cher
Danke Shoen - Wayne Newton
In the Misty Moonlight - Dean Martin
Comin' In the Back Door - Baja Marimba Band
Mexican Shuffle - Herb Alpert
Do You Love Me - The Isley Brothers
Little Old Lady From Pasadena, Dead Man's Curve, Surf City - Jan and Dean
Long White Room - Nancy Wilson
In Crowd (Dano bass guitar) - Dobie Gray
Smooth Operator - Sara Vaughn
Johnny Angel - Shelly Fabares
My Cup Runneth Over, Try To Remember, Sunrise Sunset - Ed Ames
Deep Purple - April and Nino
Birds and the Bees - Jewel Akens
Husbands and Wives - Roger Miller
Let's Dance - Chris Montez
Zippity Doo Da - Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans
Highland Fling - Marti Barris
1st 2 Frank Zappa LP's (12-string)
Needles and Pins - Jackie DuShannon
Most of the Phil Spector-produced hits with
The Righteous Brothers
Ronny and the Ronetttes
The Crystals - And Then He Kissed Me ((Elec. 12-string guitar)
The Paris Sisters
The Blossoms
Many of the early O'Jays hits
Many other early hits with David McCullum (mostly el. 12-string guitar), Harry Nilsson, Chipmonks, Duayne Eddy, Dick Dale, Pat Boone, Rosemary Clooney, Ed Ames, Paul Anka, Sonny & Cher (mostly el. 12-string guitar fills), 25 Guitars lps, Ray Charles, Willie Bobo, Bessie Griffin, Ike and Tina Turner, Ritchie Valens, Sam Cooke, Kris Kristofferson, Ann-Margaret, H. B. Barnum, Sarah Vaughn, Jan & Dean, Isley Bros., Fred Smith, lots of funky soul stuff, as well as the pop, and jazz with Chet Baker, Jack Milman band, Golden Boy lp (w/H.B.Barnum), Cannonball
Adderly mid-60s, Mongo Santamaria, Howard Roberts, Rene Bloch, and some others..

And gygax! sure makes a good case for Carol Kaye, impressively.

As per Squire, he really may've happened to be part of the band he suited the most. The same thing, I think, can be said for Geezer Butler.

Well, Macca's been oftentimes great bassman as well.
And I could as well admit here that I've loved Mike Mill's bass on a number of (older) songs.

I like most of the players mentioned here but it's probably obvious that my personal prejudice tends to be against the following combination:

too many notes + too bright strings.

In fact I can think of single players who ever so slightly shifted the balance of these elements in their playing throughout the years, so that early on in their careers I like them, but later they've just gotten too good technically for their own good. I'm not saying musicians should practice and get better at their instruments, I'm just saying that maybe they should complement this with some other kind of musical wisdom.

A good case in point is the man who invented bright strings as far as I know- the Ox, John Entwistle. I love his playing on the all the early hits, and even up on through Who's Next or Quadrophenia. But sometimes in other contexts like live settings he's just got his facility so advanced, with his three-fingered right hand technique, and can play so many notes, that it's all a blur to me and I end up losing the groove. It's just not as forceful and effective as say, My Generation or Can't Explain.

Things I do like:
Jack Bruce's playing on Badge, particularly the intro.
Jack Bruce's playing and singing on Politician, especially the way the bass and vocal get out of whack.

Bruce Thomas's stuff especially on This Year's Model and Armed Forces.

The way Bernard Edwards ever so slightly keeps varying the rhythm of the part he's playing on I Want Your Love.

The way Anthony Jackson did the above to the max on For The Love of Money.

Who is it who plays on I'll Take You There, David Hood?

Robbie Shakespeare, Family Man Barrett

Jazz players I like (all on upright) in no particular order
Scott LaFaro
Mingus Mingus Mingus
Jimmy Garrison. The way he plays with Elvin makes Elvin seem much less outside than he might otherwise. Maybe outside is not a good choice of words.
Pierre Michelot, kind of the house bass player for anybody playing in Paris, but usually teamed up with Kenny Clarke.
Wilbur Ware
Charlie Haden - his training singing country music has served him well.

Freudian slip: shouldn't practice

also, my vote for Geezer Butler, the other best part about early Black Sabbath.

In terms of prog bass players, John Wetton is always good

I believe she ALWAYS used a pick.

I've just been listening to some Etta James stuff with David Hood on bass. He's good!

Sir Horace Gentleman (The Specials).

Whoever played bass on The Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad," one of the most unforgettable bass lines ever.

Two of Nick Lowe's finest moments:

Watching The Detectives
I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass

Among the finest and most original bassists, to my ears, are Chris Squire, Jannick Top (I know: "Who?", lol), and John Wetton during his years with King Crimson.

I would agree with those who have the intelligence to realize that assessing the quality of the playing is not only subjective, but inextricably linked with the type of music being played. Those who dislike Squire's playing, I suspect, simply dislike progressive rock, and those who criticize their betters, and decry virtuosity, are in all likelihood merely envious of and intimidated by their technical ability.

all filled out the songs nicely as well as adding a bit more.