• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

10 Bassists You'd be Surprised I Like....

#62
Roy Vogt said:
So I've been over in a Forum where it seems like the debate is going on between the Jazzbos and the Rockers about the relative merits of a well-known Jazz Icon (that would be Jaco). That got me to thinking. Most people on TB assume from my profile and posts I'm a Jazzbo-Fuzo guy all the way. Here's some of my guilty pleasures and why.
1. Gene Simmons-there, I said it. I appreciate his sense of humor, his business acumen, the fact he's built this Rock Band he started into a business empire, the way he comes off as a total mensch and family guy on his Reality Show. I even think his bass lines totally work in all those KISS songs.
2. Mike Watt-Old Man Punk himself. I appreciate his creativity, his take no prisoners attitude in the pursuit of his Art and the way he plays every note as if it's his last.
3. Lemmy-the Original Derek Smalls. I can really appreciate the intensity he puts into his Music and demands from his Bands. Quite invigorating, really!
4. Flea-I actually got to open for the RHCP with a band in the late 80s. Really intense, high-energy stuff. He's not afraid to learn new things, either, as evidenced by his study of Bach and counterpoint during the band's hiatus. When he jammed with Stanley and all those other bassists on Stanley Clarke's Night School DVD he showed he could hang on School Days with the best of 'em.
5. Rick Danko (The Band)-Great use of space and funk in Americana style music. No chops, just taste. A great pickstyle player.
6. Bob Moore-played on over 20,000 records. If you listen to Pasty Cline you'll hear Bob on Upright. That cool walking intro to "King of the Road" by Roger Miller? That's Bob, too. When I first moved to Nashville I thought that playing Country was easy and Country Record dates would be a snap. I was wrong, but studying Bob's playing taught me how to do it right.
7. Byron House-a true gentleman and a great bassist on everything from Mark O'Connor to Robert Plant's Band of Joy. Great tone, touch, feel and heart on Electric and Double Bass.
8. Chris Hillman-my first bass hero. Never mind that session guys played on those first Byrds records. He was why I picked up the bass in the first place. Let's hear it for First Bass Heroes.
9. Bobby Valentin-after my trial by fire on a Latin gig, the MD suggested I study Bobby and how he plays in his band. I took it to heart and he's in every Latin/Afro Cuban tune I play to this day.
10. Dee Dee Ramone-Lester Bangs made me furious when he wrote that The Ramones mattered because they could play Rock and Roll like no other band in the late 70s and that we didn't get it because we couldn't play it yet, but that we would learn. He was right.....
So there's my top 10 guilty pleasures-bassists no one would ever suspect me of liking. Anyone else want to chime in?
Click to expand...

Good list. Agreed on every single one.

I think by limiting the players we listen to, we only limit ourselves. I don't see any reason to limit ourselves !

:)
 
#64
Victor Wooten - he's a total dork stuffing way, way too many notes in to the most compositionally rudimentary jazz-lite imaginable but sometimes I get a kick out of mindless shredding, and he seems like a nice dude. That thing where he raps over slappy tappy bass parts is pretty cringe inducing though.

Phil Lesh - the acid should have worn off most everyone by now to the point where we can all agree that the Dead kinda sucked. Most of the jams reiterated the same tired nonsense over and over for decades, almost everything was 20 minutes of a two chord vamp, compositionally lazy, coasting on a marginal reputation, and the vocals. Dear god the vocals. Perhaps the most ear raping examples of bad harmony singing ever performed. But sometimes, just sometimes, on the old live tapes, if you fast forward through the singing, and find just the right improv parts, Phil Lesh would play some interesting stuff. Usually had a good sound too.

Flea - a genuinely gifted, talented, tasteful bass player. really, really good. Too bad his talents have brought us several decades of soundtracks for frat bro's to date rape to. Just awful, awful music. Sticking by an old friend is admirable but after 20 or 30 years of brain dead, out of tune, out of time, remarkably stupid 'singing' you think he would have moved on. nope, still plays great. still makes terrible music. you can find a bunch of isolated bass tracks on youtube, that helps.
 
#65
JimmyM said:
You guys are naming a lot of bassists who are really good but not well known. Those aren't guilty pleasures. Guilty pleasures should make a jazz guy cringe a little.
Click to expand...
I believe Roy was trying to get at whatever a cat listens to that is outside of their own thing. It might be equally a guilty pleasure for Gene Simmons to cite Dave Holland as someone he listens to, for example.

Of course, I could be wrong.
 
#66
projectMalamute said:
Victor Wooten - he's a total dork stuffing way, way too many notes in to the most compositionally rudimentary jazz-lite imaginable but sometimes I get a kick out of mindless shredding, and he seems like a nice dude. That thing where he raps over slappy tappy bass parts is pretty cringe inducing though.

Phil Lesh - the acid should have worn off most everyone by now to the point where we can all agree that the Dead kinda sucked. Most of the jams reiterated the same tired nonsense over and over for decades, almost everything was 20 minutes of a two chord vamp, compositionally lazy, coasting on a marginal reputation, and the vocals. Dear god the vocals. Perhaps the most ear raping examples of bad harmony singing ever performed. But sometimes, just sometimes, on the old live tapes, if you fast forward through the singing, and find just the right improv parts, Phil Lesh would play some interesting stuff. Usually had a good sound too.

Flea - a genuinely gifted, talented, tasteful bass player. really, really good. Too bad his talents have brought us several decades of soundtracks for frat bro's to date rape to. Just awful, awful music. Sticking by an old friend is admirable but after 20 or 30 years of brain dead, out of tune, out of time, remarkably stupid 'singing' you think he would have moved on. nope, still plays great. still makes terrible music. you can find a bunch of isolated bass tracks on youtube, that helps.
Click to expand...
Ummmm...:eek:
 
#68
bucephylus said:
I believe Roy was trying to get at whatever a cat listens to that is outside of their own thing. It might be equally a guilty pleasure for Gene Simmons to cite Dave Holland as someone he listens to, for example.

Of course, I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

That's hitting the nail on the head! It's interesting-I started putting clips from these guys on my Facebook page and the only way I can get away with it is to counter one of these guilty pleasure guys with an obvious choice to keep everyone happy!
Dee Dee Ramone followed by Jimmy Haslip, Gene Simmons followed by Stanley Clarke, three guesses as to who Victor Wooten will follow......;)
 
#70
Roy Vogt said:
That's hitting the nail on the head! It's interesting-I started putting clips from these guys on my Facebook page and the only way I can get away with it is to counter one of these guilty pleasure guys with an obvious choice to keep everyone happy!
Dee Dee Ramone followed by Jimmy Haslip, Gene Simmons followed by Stanley Clarke, three guesses as to who Victor Wooten will follow......;)
Click to expand...

...and the second two don't count? 8^}. I'm with the Owl.
 
#72
OK it wouldn't be right for me to read all these mini-lists and not add my own. Just because I know you all want to see what I think. :)

(in the order in which they popped into my head while writing this)

1. Cliff Burton. Some folks will call him mainstream and wonder why he goes into the list of "surprising" bassists. But in his time, he was completely overlooked by the "mainstream" world. If you weren't one of the early Metallicats or Bay Area Bashers, you didn't know who he was until his death - but his style revolutionalized modern metal.

2. I agree about Gene Simmons. Nuff said.

3. Crist Novoselic. Not the most technical body of work, but perfect for his place and time. Nirvana would've been a completely different band without him.

4. Jeff Ament. Same reason. "Ten" would have had a totally different sound with any other bass player. Probably less melodic, less mesmerizing. In my estimation, he made that album; the rest of the band helped.

5. Nikki Sixx. I saw him mentioned in another post, but he generally doesn't get a lot of creds around here. Again not the most technically challenging body of work - he ain't Jaco - but he holds down a flowing rythm without being overbearing, and I learned a lot in my early years by listening to him.

6. yeah, Randy Meisner. Too good not to be mentioned.

7. Dave Hope (Kansas). For "Carry On Wayward Son". Song changed my life, just in its technical work. Awe-inspriing bass changes, in my opinion. I heard he's a priest now.

8. Duff McKegan. Actually it's hard to classify him as one of those outsider bassists whom people might be surprised to learn that you like. Like Burton, a recorder of seminal hard-rock bass lines, but for a time he had trouble getting people to take him seriously.

9. Betsy Smittle. You probably don't know her, but I bet you've heard of her brother. She toured for some time with Garth Brooks and appears on most of his earlier live recordings. Basically she took bass lines that were written by and for other bassists and made them her own, while holding down some of the most widely recognized songs in Country music, and a lot of my own Country-bass education came from studying her work.

10. Whoever plays bass on "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean" by Waylon Jennings. Can't recall his name right now. But those old Waylon records have a feel all their own, and a lot of that comes from those bouncing root/fifth lines with their little fills here and there. Again, I learned a lot from listening to them.
 
#73
iamthebassman said:
Well, of course you're entitled to your opinion, even if it's based on incorrect info. Sid was a big deal for me when I started playing bass in the late 70s. Did it matter to me that he played on a minimal amount of recordings? No. As far as I knew at the time, he was the bass player in the band that kicked my ass into getting my first band together. And hey, more people own a record he played on than own one I played on! Live, was he way f-ed up? Yep. I've seen plenty of musicians onstage too f-ed up to play, so what's new? One who comes to mind is a guitarist I had the misfortune of enduring his partial set here in Texas. "Partial" because he was so screwed up he staggered offstage after a few "tunes", followed by his band, not to return. He now has a statue here!! :)
Click to expand...

Not misinformed. Sid did not play on the album, both Johnny and Steve have confirmed that over the years. Glen Matlock was the original bass player and wrote the best songs for the Pistols. He toured with them a couple of years ago, finally back in the band.

Yes, back in the day you probably wouldn't have known that he wasn't on anything recorded, just like it took decades to recognize Jamerson. But there was plenty of knowledge that Sid was all show.

Now, I won't try to argue that Sid may actually have tried to learn to play bass, but there is no way you could say he really was a bassist. If I use Sid as the standard, then Stu Sutcliffe was the greatest bassist ever in the Beatles.

I have plenty of people in my life I have admired only to find out they werent what I thought later one. I don't still idolize them nor consider them influences But that is me. When I learn something truthful that sheds light on a subject, I appropriately adjust my admiration or opinion.

Sid was a caricature. Most people think of his picture and image, nothing more. And, lest we forget, the Pistols did one, very short tour, were dysfunctional well before the end, and Sid was a mess for the entire time.

Yes, just my opinion, but having met him and been in his drug induced presence, nothing there for me.
 
#77
ugly_bassplayer said:
Yep that is killer stuff, I just said the pseudo instructionnal video was sad.....I was fully aware of The Band.
Click to expand...

I am just a pocket player blues/r&b appreciator, and know from listening, that this was a serious high production video.
But if he could actually play these notes while singing too, and this aint just lipsync to pre recorded separate tracks, then I say "He got chops". (fretless even?). Not to mention following one of the greatest female singers in the Gospel soul R&B area ever, which would make my vocal cords tighten up to near failure. who knows how many layers were overdubbed etc. If you look at that you tube video of the train car jam with Garcia, Joplin Danko etc you will realize how much abuse of intoxicants came in to play too.
All I know is I respect his lines within their songs. Very tasty.
I can't sing and play bass at the same time.
The Band, The Weight - YouTube
 
#79
OK, just posted the Motorhead clip on my Facebook (followed by a Victor Wooten Amazing Grace to balance things out). This should wake folks up a bit!
I've been following Lemmy since I read about him in New Music Express and Melody Maker when I was a kid in Texas in the early 70s. I have an old copy of Space Ritual on vinyl around here somewhere....
 
#80
mntngrown said:
If you watch when he starts singing he is not actually playing the lines. Sync police!
I wish I could have seen them live.
Click to expand...

That's odd-they must have come in and fixed parts in the studio afterwards. I did see the Bob Dylan/Band tour in 1974 and it was great. Before The Flood is a great document and exactly how it went down.
BTW, Mavis Staples is absolutely gorgeous in that clip from The Last Waltz. No wonder Dylan had the hots for her.....
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back