Tina is so underrated it's criminal. Her basslines are perfect little gems. Listen to Wild Wild Life. killer.
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Merlo Podlewski from Jack Johnson's band plays lots of tasty, in the pocket, nontechnical lines. Absolutely love his stuff
There's this age old debate about what constitutes "good music" or a "good musician". For lack of better terms, there are 2 camps : the "technique" VS the "groove/soul" aficionados.
As you'd guess with my starting this thread, I'm of the mind that good music is a matter of feelings and, really, story-telling first and foremost. Regardless if you've had a formal education in music or not, regardless the speed and intricacies of your playing, in the end, if your music tells a good story that resonates with the listener, then you're a good musician. As such, a fiddler playing a hillbilly complaint using only 2 fingers on his violin can resonate a lot more with me than a virtuoso who rehearses 14 hours/day on his/her Stradivarius, but has a frigid, mathematical approach to music.
I'm being very black and white here of course, and not at all putting down dedication, training and virtuosity. But I find that there is too often snobbery at musicians who have the calling and the story-telling intuition to actually speak to people's souls, using their instrument with however limited means they have. They may be compared negatively to the virtuosi, but don't tell me they are not "real musicians", as is too often implied.
As you'd guess with my starting this thread, I'm of the mind that good music is a matter of feelings and, really, story-telling first and foremost. Regardless if you've had a formal education in music or not, regardless the speed and intricacies of your playing, in the end, if your music tells a good story that resonates with the listener, then you're a good musician. As such, a fiddler playing a hillbilly complaint using only 2 fingers on his violin can resonate a lot more with me than a virtuoso who rehearses 14 hours/day on his/her Stradivarius, but has a frigid, mathematical approach to music.
I'm being very black and white here of course, and not at all putting down dedication, training and virtuosity. But I find that there is too often snobbery at musicians who have the calling and the story-telling intuition to actually speak to people's souls, using their instrument with however limited means they have. They may be compared negatively to the virtuosi, but don't tell me they are not "real musicians", as is too often implied.
not sure I would call Bruce Thomas a "simple line" bass player. If anyone has gone back and tried to cop his lines note for note, you quickly realize he is often all over the fretboard and doing some pretty wonderfully musical stuff. Great, musical bass player IMO, but not "simple"
Sting is also a master of the deceptively simple but very musically astute bass line .. and considering he was the lead singer as well, ... .. not "simple" in my book.
JPJ was a very trained musician and arranger. Did session work in his teens and studied music at college (organist and choir director when he was 14 or 15). Also plays a slew of instruments besides bass - mandolin, sitar, organ/piano, lap steel, violin, cello ... etc. If you listen to Valhalla, the ascending scale runs on the B section of the verse .. not Jaco complex .. but not "simple" .. and the signature unison line with Page on Black Dog and the rhythmically crazy second part of the phrase ... not simple .. just very cool.
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JPJ is a personal favourite. He's anything but technically limited, yet most of the time he's unconcerned with showing it off. He does what the song calls for, whether it's 3 notes or 300. And most of the time it's the former rather than the latter.
Kim Gordon is awesome, but I have never been able to get into Sonic Youth, which is just a personal taste matter.
His work on the entire The Bends album is masterful, atmospheric. It got me hooked on Radiohead. Melody matters.
+1. Amazing bass playing here. Colin is another huge influence. His work on Ok Computer is also amazing.
I think one of the important things about Kim Deal is that even though she was a relatively new to the bass, she had a philosophy about the role of the bass and how it should be played. She plays what she feels, even if it's simple.
Speaking of Tina, I was a surprised to hear that her bass lines were overdubbed by a studio musician on that first album at least.
Simplicity was never the question. 'Technical' by modern standards? No. Excellent? YES!
The two aren't mutually exclusive. It isn't either\or. Some people mistake playing highly complex groves as being a virtuoso, or they have a very narrow definition of what a groove is, and therefore a narrow definition of what the bass is capable of.
Funny no one has mentioned J J Burnel as of yet.
Classic riff in "Peaches" and most others. The Stranglers were once considered a New Wave, or Punk band, but their hit "Golden Brown" was in 5/4. Progland gatecrashing! Always been a favorite of mine, due to his ingenious simplicity.
EDIT: He's even alternate picking! Maybe that's too technical?
Classic riff in "Peaches" and most others. The Stranglers were once considered a New Wave, or Punk band, but their hit "Golden Brown" was in 5/4. Progland gatecrashing! Always been a favorite of mine, due to his ingenious simplicity.
EDIT: He's even alternate picking! Maybe that's too technical?
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JPJ was a very trained musician and arranger. Did session work in his teens and studied music at college (organist and choir director when he was 14 or 15). Also plays a slew of instruments besides bass - mandolin, sitar, organ/piano, lap steel, violin, cello ... etc. If you listen to Valhalla, the ascending scale runs on the B section of the verse .. not Jaco complex .. but not "simple" .. and the signature unison line with Page on Black Dog and the rhythmically crazy second part of the phrase ... not simple .. just very cool.
So JPJ was the player I alluded to in an earlier post WRT my favorite player.
As for Black Dog - it should be noted - he wrote that riff. He wrote the riff to Good Times Bad Times as well.
