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Jack Bruce's Best/Favorite basslines?

#10
He never plays the same line twice, one of the things I admire most about his music. He's always reinventing things and playing what sounds right, not trying to regugitate what happened one day 45 years ago.

So my favorites are different. I've heard at least five versions of "White Room" with Jack on bass, and they're all different yet consistent. The consistent parts are the general shape of the line and how it functions both as the harmonic underpinning of the song and tying the rhythm to the melodic/armonic parts, plus maintaining the line as a voice in itself. So, having dispensed with the idea of a bassline being limited to only one performance or recording, my favorite Jack Bruce lines are...

"Badge" for its utter simplicity yet distinctivness

"White Room" for its variatons and melody while driving a great song

"Letter of Thanks" because it's so off the wall!

"Grease The Wheels" for its nasty Scotch funk

John
 
#12
MysticMichael said:
I quite like:

  • White Room (with Cream)
  • Badge (with Cream)
  • Apostrophe (with Frank Zappa)
Click to expand...


Hey! You stole my list! :)

Actually, I never knew how cool the bassline to "White Room" was until I saw Jack on one of those Pay-Per-View "Guitar Heroes In Spain" TV shows circa 1991 and he just tore the living snot out of that line. I went back to the original recording and, whaddya know, that's what he played with Cream too!


Oh, and his bass playing on John Mclaughlin's "Are You The One? Are You The One?" is absolutely gut-bustingly awesome. I presume the basic line was written by John, but Jack plays it like he owns it, and then takes a killer solo to boot. Highly recommended.
 
#15
Tales of Brave Ulysses
Deserted Cities of the Heart
Dance the Night Away
Strange Brew
all stand out... but I cannot think of any of Jack's lines that aren't exactly where they should be. I've never focused on his playing or style, but he's one of the guys that when I cover that my lines are almost exactly his lines (I rarely play covers note for note... only signature bits and pieces).

More than note choice... I love where Jack places his lines. The way he anchors and/or pushes the feel is what makes him so great to me.
 
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#19
To me, there are two sides of Jack's playing with Cream: in the studio, and live.
The studio cuts feature beautiful parts which he develops and varies brilliantly, yet sound so spontaneous... you can tell he's an improviser.
The live cuts feature no-holds-barred improvising which nonetheless has logic and shape... you can tell he's a composer.
"Deserted Cities of the Heart", "Pressed Rat & Warthog", "Those Were the Days", "Dance the Night Away" and "World of Pain" really demonstrate the aspect of his studio playing that I mentioned. Also, "P.R. & Warthog" has an instrumental middle section wherein he plays a long, Bach-like line that has always killed me.
"Crossroads", "I'm So Glad", "Sweet Wine" and "N.S.U." are my favorite live Cream cuts (for Jack Bruce).

You have to hear his solo albums, too, particularly "Harmony Row" and "Songs for a Tailor"-- the way he weaves his bass through the music is really something to hear. "Tickets for Waterfalls", "Victoria Sage", "Morning Story", "You Burned the Tables", "Boston Ball Game 1967" and "Escape to the Royal Wood on Ice" just scratch the surface.

Carla Bley's "Escalator Over the Hill" features a lot of great musicians, among them a trio made up of Jack, John McLaughlin and Paul Motian. Great stuff. (Jack also sings a duet with Linda Ronstadt, of all people.)

He's the first person I ever heard who made a bass "talk"... his playing has so much personality and intelligence. And balls.
 

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