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80s bass players

#22
Gary Beers with INXS....he and Jon Farriss (drums) were one of THE tightest (and funkiest) rhythm sections I've heard. I'm thinking especially of the "The Swing" album.

I also just love the bassline from "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division; a really seminal new wave tune. It's so haunting, and that bassline is super melodic and carries the whole tune.

Almost anything by Tina Weymouth/Talking Heads from the 80s is excellent.
 
#23
I kinda dug "Head over Heels" by Tears for fears...nice melodic line and pretty up front in the mix. Pino and JT of DuranDuran was pumping out some nice stuff, too. Probobly the biggest one was Mark King...had me doing airbass in the mirror in junior high before I even HAD a bass.

Yes, I was a real bass geek before I could afford to be one (still am, too!).

I'd like to hear that kind of bass-up-front creativity from a live bass player on today's pop stuff. Is it out there and I'm just missing it?
 
#25
Its just amazing how many bass players just suck these days on the pop channels! Well iam sure the studio session players that work for the big acts like madonna and stuff are wicked but there is so much of this blink 182 crap on air that iam going to buy xm radio! ohhh i bet it has a 80s station!hehe
 
#26
Originally posted by eric atkinson
Its just amazing how many bass players just suck these days on the pop channels! Well iam sure the studio session players that work for the big acts like madonna and stuff are wicked but there is so much of this blink 182 crap on air that iam going to buy xm radio! ohhh i bet it has a 80s station!hehe
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I seriously doubt that a bass player has ever darkened the door of a Madonna session! I've only ever heard fake bass on her recordings. In fact its my understanding that the album "Music" was all done entirely on a Korg Triton keyboard! Am I wrong about this? Anyway, its true that not many pop recordings today have any real bass on them. God I miss the 70's!
 
#29
I love Moulding and Rourke.

Another name worth mentioning is Bakhiti Kumalo. Think how different Paul Simon's "Graceland" would have been without his bass?

Actually, all you have to do is listen to "The Rhythm of the Saints" and you get the picture.
 
#34
I dig Dolby...& his videos. ;)
Loved that trombone solo on "Hyper-Active".


More '80s guys-
Daniel K. Brown-The Fixx
Martin Kemp-Spandau Ballet


...did Guy Pratt play with Martha Davis or The Motels?
 
#36
Speaking of '80s bassists, remember the TV show "In The Heat Of The Night"? (It's from the late '80s, so there! I'm not off topic!) Does anyone know who did all the tasty fretless work on that show? Not the theme but the music parts during the show. It was a great show only made better by that great bass work. JimK- I never cease to be amazed by your knowledge of who played what. Maybe you can shed some light?
 
#37
Originally posted by NewWaveBasser
Yo, Jim early on The Fixx had somebody else on bass... who was he I don't remember.
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Yeah, you're right...I don't know who it was, either. I did like what this 'mystery guy' played on "Stand Or Fall".

Thompson Twins-
I like that little 'fretless' fill on "Hold Me Know". ;)
 
#39
Thompson Twins didn't usually have a bass player - I remember reading interviews in the 80s in UK Musican magazines where they were suprised at how organic a sound they got from synths - but basically they were a one-man-band, with everything played and written by one guy - apart from the odd backing vocal and percussion part.

I remember liking their records and the bass parts and being suprsied to find they were actually synth - I thought it was fretless bass as well - I was actually playing fretless in chart-type bands in the early 80s!
 

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