Busy, Roving Pop Basslines?

[JimK]

The song is not complex, but there is a very busy bass player... Wham - Wake me up before you go go:

Dion Estus is the bassist.
I played this back in an '80s cover band...one of my favourites from the set.

 

[JimK]

Previous Monkees tunes and What Am I doing Hanging Round as well. Bass for pleasant valley and what am I doing was played by ex Turtle Stanley Livingston. Great tunes

It's Chip Douglas (ex-Turtles bassist) that became bassist/producer for those post-Kirschner Monkees' albums.

 

[JimK]

Was that Carol Kaye or Joe Osborn playing on those tracks?

I'm not sure Kaye did anything with The Monkees (I'll probably get a scathing e-mail from someone telling me I am an idiot...like I did in the early daze of TB when I said I was in Jamerson's camp on the Motown sides).
Anyway, looking through my Monkees' liners-
I see Chip Douglas, John London, Red Callender, Joe Osborne, Max Bennett, Bob West, Larry Taylor, William Pitman, Russell Savakus...Peter York & even keyboardist Larry Knechtal gets some bass cred.

Ooops, I do see a track credited to Kaye & Ray Pohlman-
"Laugh" from More Of The Monkees

 

[AlexanderB]

Dion Estus is the bassist.
I played this back in an '80s cover band...one of my favourites from the set.

I do not personally care for that style of playing at all, but I like ABBA, and they have a lot of basslines that are "all over the place", only occasionally hitting the root.
Here is another example - this time with Agnetha Fältskog, one of the ABBA lead singers. I guess she brought most of the former ABBA studio musicians. I believe it is Rutger Gunnarsson avoiding the root like the plague...
Brilliant musician, not just my cup of tea.

 

[Scottkarch]

Different genres have different flavors of busy.

Bruce Thomas w/ Elvis Costello. Busy, propulsive chord tones with just a couple passing notes.



Marcus Miller on Grover Washington's "Just the Two of Us." Busy tasteful counterpoint and support for the melody.

.

Graham Maby on early Joe Jackson, for example "Fools in Love"Busy chord tones, like Thomas, but here echoing reggae elements.



Squeeze's "Tempted" (Keith Wilkinson on bass, IIRC.) Busy, w/ nice tension and release. A lot of slash chords w/ bass under inversions in keys and guitars.

Awesome set of songs. We just started playing pump it up. What a fun monster.

 

[Old Blastard]

It's Chip Douglas (ex-Turtles bassist) that became bassist/producer for those post-Kirschner Monkees' albums.

Sheesh! I meant Chip Douglas but Stanley, who played, Chip on My Three Sons came out instead. Age hurts.

 

[JimK]

My Three Sons?!?!?!
Thanks for the laff...and the memories!

 

[jjc225]

One of the great "busy" bass lines from a pop song is Brian Rading's playing in "Absolutely Right" by the Five Man Electrical Band.