Best and worst sounding bass songs/albums

[Spector_Ray]

Originally Posted by jaywa

Wasn't Johnny Rod the guitarist? I thought their bass holder was Blackie Lawless.

No. Johnny joined as bassist when Blackie moved over to rhythm guitar. Bad move, IMHO.

Here's my meager contribution to this thread.

Best:
Ed Bass/Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime, The Thin Line
Mike Starr/Alice in Chains - Would?, Sunshine
Mark Andrews/Seduce - Been So Long
James Lomenzo/Pride and Glory and Zakk Wylde - Troubled Wine, Sold My Soul
Peter Baltes/Accept - Midnight Mover
Juan Alderete/The Scream - I Don't Care, Man in the Moon
Geddy Lee/Rush - Tom Sawyer
Ryan Martinie/Mudvayne - Happy, Not Falling
Justin Chancellor/Tool - Eulogy
Rex Brown/Pantera - Domination, The Art of Shredding, Walk
Blackie Lawless/W.A.S.P. - I Wanna Be Somebody
Dave Hope/Kansas - Portrait(He Knew)
Eugene Gales/The Eric Gales Band - Piece of My Soul, God Only Knows

I don't know who the bass player for Kirk Whalum on his recording of "That's The Way Love Goes", but that bass is righteous! If anyone knows, please let me know.

Worst:
I'll echo Fieldy
Metallica - AJFA

[Mr 600]

Shellac Action Park and 1000 Hurts
Plus, it's Steve Albini, so the drums sound out of this world!

[Salty Jon]

Good bass IMO:
Pretty much any Magma album. Whether it was Jannick Top, Bernard Paganotti, Moze, or any of the others, they were always well mixed and had great tones.
Most bands from the Canterbury Scene genre, for example Caravan's "Land of the Grey and Pink", "If I Could Do It All Over...", Soft Machine's "Third", etc.
Can't think of much bad bass at the moment.

[So Low Bass]

Originally Posted by Shawn80

My .02:
Best modern bass sound: Helmet on Aftertaste, Rex Brown on Trendkill.
Best old: JohnPaulJones on II and John Deacon on Jazz

An Excellent point. After almost 50 years of recorded bass, you're really comparing apples and oranges if you not careful.

*Speaking of Apple: Abbey Road has always tickled my ears... George's low "G" in Golden Slumbers

*Jesus Christ Superstar

*Steppenwolf

*Three Dog Night

*Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In -Joe Osborn

Most unappealing sound of GREAT playing:

*Hair

Can you tell that I'm an old apples guy? .... not that there's anything wrong with oranges. They both have a peel.

[BassistFreak416]

Originally Posted by Dave-Action-Fig

Meshuggah - (Re-)Nothing
This album sounds awesome! And of course the band is great.
The bass sound that inspires me a lot is from the song Spasm.
The riff is only bass (Probably 2/3 times doubled).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7udFMFlwOk
Watch HQ and the sound is MUCH better.

wow, i didnt think anyone would have thought of meshuggah. love most of their stuff, vocals kinda weird.

Livin on a prayer - Bon Jovi
Sunshine of Your Love - Cream (one of the first songs i learned on bass, its just so simple and awesome
Billie Jean - Michael Jackson (RIP, such a simple bass line but makes the song that great)
Anything Iron Maiden
Dont stop believin - Journey
Black Dog - Led Zeppelin
Youth of the Nation - P.O.D. (just because the bass had delay and made it sound awesome)
Losing my Religion - REM

[DoomandHeavy]

The bass of Macabre's Dahmer album is great, it has that awesome dry clicking sound.

[El Beardo]

Originally Posted by jaywa

WORST SOUNDING
- Any Metallica album before the Black Album

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwhat?!?!

[J. Crawford]

Best:
Tal Wilkenfield- Transformation
Victor Wooten- Palmystery
SMV- Thunder

Worst:
Fallout Boy

[Lewis.558]

I love the sound of John Deacon, he's amazing. And he is a hell of a player with fingers (Millionaire Waltz) and with pick (Under Pressure)

[bassvi]

Originally Posted by So Low Bass

An Excellent point. After almost 50 years of recorded bass, you're really comparing apples and oranges if you not careful.

*Speaking of Apple: Abbey Road has always tickled my ears... George's low "G" in Golden Slumbers

*Jesus Christ Superstar

*Steppenwolf

*Three Dog Night

*Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In -Joe Osborn

Most unappealing sound of GREAT playing:

*Hair

Can you tell that I'm an old apples guy? .... not that there's anything wrong with oranges. They both have a peel.

Old apples here too, and I've always thought that bass part in "Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In" was awesome and wondered who played it- now I know.

The recorded bass on James Gang's "Rides Again" sounded great to me, I think the player's name was Dale Peters and the producer was Bill Szymczyk.

[PopaWoody]

Originally Posted by Lemoore-on

Journey, "dont stop believing" the bass just sounds ugly in that song.

Hmmm ugly as in good? I love the tone, that comes out of that piece. Gritty kind of feel that is almost out of place, yet so easy to pick out with your ear.

[bstringkyle]

Best.

Any thing by Iron maiden, Rush, Led zeppelin, RHCP, Jaco, Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller, Stanley Clarke, Black Sabbath, Queen, and James Jamerson

Metallica-Master of Puppets
Dream theater-Metropolis Pt. 1
Tal Wilkenfeld-Transformation

worst.

Metallica-Black album
anything by Korn
anything by Fall out boy

[ark amps]

Dave Hope (Kansas)-Leftoverture 1976

Michael Manring-Thonk 1994

Geddy Lee-Permanent Waves/Moving Pictures 1980/81

Paul McCartney-Pipes of Peace 1993

[KPAX]

Huh? Nirvana's bass tone kills. Krist had awesome tone on basically everything.

Originally Posted by Warpeg

Best:
-RATM's Self-titled album: I think this album is one of the best and earliest examples of a "burpy" hard rock bass tone.
-Primus, Pork Soda: Love it or hate it, it had a wide variety of interesting tones that were balanced well with the drums.
-Rush, "Tom Sawyer": I just love the lightly overdriven bass tone and how well it stands on it's own in the mix, without standing out.

Worst:
-About half of the 1980's rock: Guitar was king and bass was just not as important. Bass tones were hard to hear on many album mixes.
-Nirvana: just...ugh...either the bass was too loud, too quiet, or had a nasty tone.

just my $.02

[ark amps]

Originally Posted by KPAX

Huh? Nirvana's bass tone kills. Krist had awesome tone on basically everything.

I like his tone too

[mbernard110]

Mudvayne's first lp, LD50, has some killer bass licks that stand out really nicely in the mix, even though I'm not into a lot of heavy stuff.

[sarlscharisma]

Best:

Beatles - Abbey Road, Guitar Gently Weeps, Heltersketer, Lucy in the Sky, to name a few
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Stone Roses first album
White Wedding - Billy Idol
Immigrant Song - Led Zep
Unforgettable Fire - U2
1st 3 Stranglers albums
Ashes to Ashes - Bowie bass player
Rock on - Herbie Flowers
Roger Waters doing pretty much anything with his P Bass, Ric
Anything by Colin Greenwood after The Bends

Worst:
Any Oasis bass tone
Any Manic Street Preachers bass tone
Level 42
Nirvana

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by sarlscharisma

Worst:
Level 42

This is the best example of the subjectiveness (subjectivity?) of this topic. Mark King's tone is definitely dreadful for an old-school blues band, but it's perfect for what he normally does.

[williamk]

Originally Posted by bassvi

*Hair*

my god, i was actually gonna name this as the best of all time...!

[jaxom]

The first couple off the top of my head...
Peter Gabriel's - So & Us
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians - Ghost of a Dog