Albums that make you rethink bass

[Kmonk]

Quadrophenia

[Marley's Ghost]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

For me it was Foxtrot, but I bought the album after seeing Genesis on their first US tour as an opening act for It's A Beautiful Day in April 1972. Hearing Watcher Of The Skies (and seeing Peter's silhouetted bat-winged and caped figure bathed in black light) for the first time was a religious experience! Mike Rutherford's RM1999 and playing was a turning point in my musical life.

Yup, Rutherford is hugely under rated, and with all the guitars layered around him he struggled to break through. But the lines on Watcher of the skies are extraordinary.

[topcat2069]

Mick Karnes work with Japan and Gary Numan...

[Roscoe East]

I wouldn't include the early formative albums that helped shape my musical identity as a bass player, because those are the albums that made me think bass.

The albums that subsequently made me re-think bass are probably

- Jaco Pastorius on his eponymous Epic debut (w/ black&white cover)
- Mick Karn on The Waking Hour by Dali's Car
- Tony Levin on Discipline and Beat by King Crimson, as well as Security and So by Peter Gabriel
- Doug Wimbish on Stain by Living Colour

[GtenderG]

A few albums really were bass-centric right from the start and made think about the bass as an instrument and what part it plays in the music. Also, these albums pulled me in new musical directions.

Fragile - Chris Squire
School Days - Stanley Clarke
Aja - Chuck Rainey

[rtav]

In sequence:
1. Fragile - Chris Squire - Roundabout and Heart of the Sunrise made me think of bass as something more than a kick drum intonation device.
2. 2112 - Geddy Lee - My first Rush album back in 1978, I was absorbed by Geddy's playing. A game-changer.
3. Eat 'Em and Smile - DLR (Billy Sheehan). Hearing Billy and Steve Vai double each other in the lines in Shyboy blew me away back in the mid-80s. TOTALLY changed my playing.

[foq1978]

All Morphine albums.Like Swimming, in particular.

[powderfinger]

A lot of Tony Levin's work with Peter Gabriel in the 80s made me re-think bass, and it's role in holding down the "low end". Levin's basslines/style/tone were anything but typical, esp. for the time period.

Also, this has probably been said a million times, but McCartney's playing on Abbey Rd., at the time, probably made a lot of people rethink what the bass was all about. She's So Heavy, Come Together, Something... those were some tasty basslines for their day, and heck, even today. Far removed from the guy in the background thumping roots and 5ths....

[powderfinger]

Oh, and anything by Korn.... that made me rethink bass as well. Made me realize that you could make a bass sound like a chainsaw cutting through a trash can.

[mr sprocket]

Originally Posted by pgolliher

Graceland. Bakithi Kulmalo's fretless phrasing is really cool and unique. I listened to those fills of "diamonds on the soles of her shoes" about a hundred times on headphones.

Love this whole album.

[jdfarrell81]

Lee Perry and the Upsetters - "Blackboard Jungle"

Man is the Bastard / Bastard Noise - "The Red List"

Black Flag - "The Process of Weeding Out"

Om - "Variations on a Theme"

Cliff Burton's solo on "Kill 'Em All"

[jphovercraft]

Jack Bruce - Cream - Disraeli Gears, Wheels of Fire
Jack Casady - Jefferson Airplane - Crown of Creation
Paul McCartney - Beatles - Abbey Road
John Wetton - King Crimson - any
Tony Levin - King Crimson, Peter Gabriel - any
Paul Jackson - Herbie Hancock - Headhunters
Jaco - Weather Report - Heavy Weather
Tal Wilkenfeld - Jeff Beck - Live at Ronnie Scott's

Jack Bruce got me started, all the rest were game changers for me ...

[LowEndMan2112]

I'll list everything in chronological order (i.e. one thing lead to another).

1. Rush - 2112 (Geddy)
It made me realize that there was more to rock music than I had been previously paying attention to.
2. Weather Report - Heavy Weather (Jaco)
I've got to take this one over his debut, Jaco, because he was forging new paths within a larger group context where he wasn't always the one calling the shots)
3. The Oscar Peterson Trio - We Get Requests (Ray Brown)
Ray's rhythmic, harmonic and melodic sensibility just took me for a spin.
4. The Bill Evans Trio - Sunday at the Village Vanguard (Scott Lafaro)
The communication between the three musicians on top of Lafaro's phrasing and comfort around his fingerboard is something else.

[JetBlackJazz]

Hemispheres by Rush

Lemme' rephrase that; everything by Rush.

[Art Araya]

Romantic Warrior - Return to Forever
Moving Pictures - Rush
Heavy Weather - Weather Report
Live at the Village Vanguard - Bill Evans Trio

others that I'm sure I'm forgetting...

[Art Araya]

Originally Posted by chief redcok

Wow surprised no one mentioned any of the Herbie albums with Paul Jackson like Head Hunters, Thrust, Man-Child, Flood... that guy made me rethink about what a bass could do..

I liked Jackson's playing A LOT! But he didn't make me rethink the role of bass and what could be done on bass.

But I almost included him on my list!!!

[pat5150]

Originally Posted by mc_muench

See my post...Om or any Doom in general. Come to the slow side, the DOOM side.



Rev DOOM

Or how about Sunn O))))

[hibachiduck]

Originally Posted by bearhart74

If you like those guys you should check out Gogol Bordello
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ_XX52-Xdw

I don't really see the connection between Streetlight and Gogol Bordello, but I'm a fan of both . I've been listening to Gogol Bordello since a friend turned me onto them after seeing them at Bonnaroo.

[jdfarrell81]

Originally Posted by pat5150

Or how about Sunn O))))

SunnO))) definitely made me rethink the creation, use, and manipulation of bass frequencies, but not bass as an instrument.

[dirgesp]

Going to have to say Dan Briggs playing in Trioscapes and Colors by BTBAM. Also Evan Brewer - Alone. The fact that every sound on that record was a bass was amazing. Otherwise, Weather Report, Heavy Weather. Don't really need to explain that one.