80s pop bands with killer bassists

[ddhm]

No mention of Paul Young and Pino?

 

[ExaltBass]

Richard Page with Mr Mister (currently on his 3rd season with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band) is one of my favorite vocalists, but also is a very tasty bassist!

 

[gjbassist]

No mention of Paul Young and Pino?

See post #31.

 

[gjbassist]

The Waitresses had some nice bass grooves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UX2afsTqFI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SzjDOk_u9I

"Christmas Wrapping" probably has the best bass line of any Christmas song!

One of my favorite 80's/90's bands, The Smithereens:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxzOaI4Pfkw

Invalid Link Removed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqML7WbOun8

 

[JimK]

Horace Panter- The Specials
Les Memes- Haircut 100
Mark Bedford- Madness
…all coming from an approximation of Ska.

Mickey Craig- Culture Club

Patrick O'Hearn- Missing Persons

 

[bachlover]

Just posted on Most Underrated Bassists a guy I'd forgotten about, Graham Maby from Joe Jackson's band. He had a great sound and a style that was up front and a key part of Jackson's sound back in those days. Still Like tunes like I'm The Man and Is She Really Going Out With Him that epitomize his style/sound.

 

[Jimmi Clarke]

Ewan Vernal of Deacon Blue is a monster player! Very tasty!!

 

[Pentatonic]

Another one for Japan-Mick Karn, just great.

+1 - Unbeleivable player!

 

[Roscoe East]

Tim Archibald played some killer basslines with New Man in the '80s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zues1Wx33Gk

Crappy songs, but killer basslines.

 

[abstractart06]

Earth Wind And Fire

 

[Groove Doctor]

No mention of Paul Young and Pino?

You beat me to it. Good call.

 

[randyripoff]

And of course David Barbe lifted lots of his beats on african music.

I heard some recordings of African music a few years after Bow Wow Wow came out. Many of the songs were note for note covers of Bow Wow Wow songs, or vice-versa. Which came first, I couldn't tell you.

 

[nysbob]

I enjoy Victor Krummenacher's work with Camper van Beethoven.

 

[Pandastylebass]

John Bentley-of Squeeze

 

[Altitude]

80's pop band with killer bassist = Level 42.

How did it take 14 posts to get to that answer?

Also, there's more than a little Afro influence in some of their early instrumentals. Listen to "Foundation and Empire" from the live "A Physical Presence" album, for example.

 

[Ewo]

How about this, for nimble, clean fingerstyle?

Wikipedia says that's Norman Watt-Roy on the track.

(Added: the tune was released in 1979. Close enough to the 80s, yeah?)

 

[Altitude]

Richard Page with Mr Mister (currently on his 3rd season with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band) is one of my favorite vocalists, but also is a very tasty bassist!

Is he playing bass with Ringo? I am also a big Page fan, but I noticed that he didn't play much bass in any of the projects he's done since Mr. Mister.

 

[Pentatonic]

Nick Lowe.

 

[6jase5]

I so love Tony Levin with King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Gabriel and so many others. My favorite is the Crimson stuff with Fripp....so NOT pop but amazing..

Crimson Live at Frejus got me in to bass.

 

[Milk]

I heard some recordings of African music a few years after Bow Wow Wow came out. Many of the songs were note for note covers of Bow Wow Wow songs, or vice-versa. Which came first, I couldn't tell you.

he lifted it from Burundi drumming.

There's an excerpt from an interesting 1981 article about it in NY times:

"The original source of this tribal rhythm is a recording of 25 drummers, made in a village in the east African nation of Burundi by a team of French anthropologists. The recording was included in an album, Musique du Burundi, issued by the French Ocora label in 1968. It is impressively kinetic, but the rhythm patterns are not as complex as most African drumming; they are a relatively easy mark for pop pirates in search of plunder. During the early 1970s, a British pop musician named Mike Steiphenson grafted an arrangement for guitars and keyboards onto the original recording from Burundi, and the result was Burundi Black, an album that sold more than 125,000 copies and made the British best-seller charts... Adam and the Ants, Bow Wow Wow, and several other bands have notched up an impressive string of British hits using the Burundi beat as a rhythmic foundation."