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"Lead bass": a nonsensical term?

D

dougjwray

Jul 20, 2005
7,043
7,896
#1
You can file this under "Who cares?" if you like.
I've always felt that rock fans employ the term when they encounter bass which they can actually *hear*, for once, and which is interesting. Jack Bruce, Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, et al.
Of course, it derives from "lead guitar", which solos over the foundation of the music. The people I mentioned still operate within the foundation.
Was Ron Carter playing "lead bass" with Miles Davis? NHOP with Oscar Peterson? No. They were playing bass. How about Bach's left hand in his fugues?
I believe the term "lead bass" is used by people who just need to expand their horizons in music.
Thank you very much for your time, and have a nice day.
;)
 
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#3
Lead bass.

Back in the mid 60s when I was about 14 yrs old, my cousin and I walked about 4 miles to the Ohio State Fair. As we were getting closer, I could hear this bass. Bass! Bass! That's all I could hear. As we got closer, I started hearing the other instruments. (It was a rock band.)

It was at that point in time that I wanted to play bass. Because of it's power and how the bass frequencies carry over a long distance.

All in all, I like simple, straight forward bass that does what it is supposed to do for a song.

But..........I like lead bass too (sometimes). John Entwistle is a good example.

But sometimes, lead bass can be VERY ANNOYING and I ain't gonna mention any names!!!!!!!!!!!!

All in all, is there any "right or wrong" with music? It's up to each person to decide, right?

"Lead bass": a nonsensical term?​


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#5
While seemingly trivial what you are really talking about here is how little most listeners understand music. I was covering a music class for a colleague the other day. 11 year olds mostly. They were in groups of 3-4 on keys. Everyone was playing in the middle of the keys. When I went around and showed them and reminded them that they needed someone low middle and high it unlocked the music for them.

Also many people aren’t sure if they are hearing the bass or guitar when they listen to a band. I know I didn’t until I started playing.
 
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#7
This a term that only emerged during the period of rock music dominance, and only when there were musical substyles within that would encourage that style of playing. Yeah, you could say that Entwistle was the first true ‘lead’ bass player, beyond any other brief routine soloing which was a trickle down from jazz. Throw in the parallel stylistic breakthroughs from Jamerson and McCartney, which inspired players to struggle out of the roots/fifths straitjacket, and then Bruce, Squire, Wetton, and onward.

All I can say about fusion, which developed at roughly the same time as Prog, is that it was a reaction by younger jazz player to infuse rock ideas into a staid format, so you ended up with more boisterous playing, but with extended harmonic content, injected into the traditional ‘take a solo’ format. What I found interesting was the development, in the late 70’s, of a different ‘lead bass’ approach…that of Peter Hood, Barry Adamson, Steve Severin, and so on.

What I never understood was the point of “piccolo bass”. That’s an oxymoron, just a four string guitar.
 
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#10
dougjwray said:
You can file this under "Who cares?" if you like.
I've always felt that rock fans employ the term when they encounter bass which they can actually *hear*, for once, and which is interesting. Jack Bruce, Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, et al.
Of course, it derives from "lead guitar", which solos over the foundation of the music. The people I mentioned still operate within the foundation.
Was Ron Carter playing "lead bass" with Miles Davis? NHOP with Oscar Peterson? No. They were playing bass. How about Bach's left hand in his fugues?
I believe the term "lead bass" is used by people who just need to expand their horizons in music.
Thank you very much for your time, and have a nice day.
;)
Click to expand...

I don't think it's just bass that's audible, otherwise John Paul Jones would be one of these "lead bass players". But yeah I agree, it's a silly term.
 
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#20
dougjwray said:
You can file this under "Who cares?" if you like.
I've always felt that rock fans employ the term when they encounter bass which they can actually *hear*, for once, and which is interesting. Jack Bruce, Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, et al.
Of course, it derives from "lead guitar", which solos over the foundation of the music. The people I mentioned still operate within the foundation.
Was Ron Carter playing "lead bass" with Miles Davis? NHOP with Oscar Peterson? No. They were playing bass. How about Bach's left hand in his fugues?
I believe the term "lead bass" is used by people who just need to expand their horizons in music.
Thank you very much for your time, and have a nice day.
;)
Click to expand...
I agree. I think of it as a synonym for interesting bass.
 

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