Famous Monotonous Bass Lines

[Blackbird]

Any song by Lloyd Cole & the Commotions.

 

[seanm]

Can't believe Gloria by Van Morrison hasn't been mentioned.
Just Like Me by Paul Revere.

I can't either. I quite often use Gloria to go out into the audience to check the sound. I can easily talk to people and still keep playing in time.

Gloria goes over HUGE on the dance floor though, so I don't mind playing it.

 

[SodPen]

Rollins Band - Illumination.

One of the first songs I learned... and one of the first songs to make me curse lactic acid buildup.

 

[jpeck02]

Can't get more monotonous than Gloria Gaynor. I Will Survive. Verse, Bridge, Chorus. All the same. No dynamics.

 

[Eikari]

 

[Jools4001]

Ha! My cover band loves this song. It is my least favorite of our setlist, but it does allow me to really listen to and appreciate my other band members while I try and look cool hammering away this bass line.

Ha! My cover band loves this song, and so do I; because it lets me stretch out a bit from hammering away on the F# and invent my own lines without overplaying it.

 

[rmars]

Road House Blues- The Doors. Guys I play with draw it way out and it's lame.

Rapture- Blondie..... There's a long version...like 8-10minutes...ouch

Disco Inferno. Once again the long version, solo/jam section. It's really long...11 minutes.

 

[rmars]

.....Draggin' The Line - Tommy James....

I didn't even know that song till a few years ago, now after playing it for 3yrs I despise it. Ultra-lame.

 

[Hues]

Hold Your Head Up - Argent
How Many More Times - Led Zepp
Mystery Achievment - Pretenders
Live With Me - Rolling Stones
Riders On The Storm - Doors

Smiling Faces - The Undisputed Truth
....All three notes of it.

 

[MD Stingray]

Still like it though.

 

[AndrewM]

Runnin' With The Devil - Van Halen

 

[P. Aaron]

25 or 6 to 4

One of those songs where everything else around it is changing all over the place, while the bass continues that classic run.

AND IF the drummer is a less than enthusiastic player, you suffer Hell's damnation of dragging them along.

 

[BadExample]

WOW! How much happy smoke does it take for someone to sit there like a dead fish while this is being played? Geez, why not leave a couple of joints for after the concert?

 

[Frozen J]

I wasn't sure which was funnier. The costumes, or the severely uninterested crowd!

 

[Mystic Michael]

Green-Eyed Lady by Sugarloaf

MM

 

[Mystic Michael]

I wasn't sure which was funnier. The costumes, or the severely uninterested crowd!

Thing is, they weren't considered "costumes" at the time...

MM

 

[andruca]

IMHO Pauls Spencer Denman is THE MASTER of monotonous, yet utra groovy bass lines. Anything, you name it, No ordinary love, Sweetest taboo (remarkable!), Smooth operator, Paradise. Sooooooo talented...

 

[StudioStuntz]

"Join Together" - The Who

 

[mndean]

Green Onions. Bass by the late genius of simplicity Donald "Duck" Dunn.

It's not Dunn, it's Steinberg.

P.S. An OT aside re: Booker T. and the MG's - what bass is that on Be My Lady? The tone is really scooped.

 

[LowNloud1]

My new band just added what I think is one of the most monotonous bass lines I have ever heard. "Get Back" by the Beatles. I mean, Really, Paul? Were you sick that day or did the sound guy played your bass while you played the piano? Argh!

I find myself thinking about what I am going to do tomorrow or wondering if it is raining outside while I am playing it. This song makes a lot of the songs nominated here sound good to me!