I don't recall his name but the bassist from Cake. He's funky and smooth. Listen to their cover of war pigs.
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Pick a bassist. Any bassist. Open this thread.
- Thread starter Hamlet7768
- Start date
Les Claypool. Two songs come to mind, both One Better and To Defy the Laws of Tradition. The songs sum him up.
Marcus Miller... all of them
Nathan East... all of them
Victor Wooten... all of them
Larry Graham... all of them
These guys built their reputations based on dozens, hundreds even thousands of recorded performances not just "one" song.
Nathan East... all of them
Victor Wooten... all of them
Larry Graham... all of them
These guys built their reputations based on dozens, hundreds even thousands of recorded performances not just "one" song.
As said earlier ... JPJ on the lemon song amongst other Zep stuff ...
Also the recording of Moondance by Van Morrison - a top bass line (don't know his name!)
Also the recording of Moondance by Van Morrison - a top bass line (don't know his name!)
Chris Squire on all of Close to the Edge. Siberian Khatru came up the other night while my wife and I were listening to Slacker, and I turned it up and told her that is the most awesome recorded bass sound I know of.
As far as why I think it defines Squire, it's mostly the sound and the way he uses it. The bass is very bright, but has a really nice layer of fuzz on it that sits just so and doesn't blur the fatness of the bottom or top ends. I assume he bi-amped it (wikipedia backs this up and says he re-wired his mono RM1999 into stereo), and I bet he took the bridge pickup to a distorted channel, and let the neck pickup ring clean.
And it was mixed just perfectly at the time. His bass sound has varied over the years but CTTE was the water-mark.
And then there's what he did with the instrument with that sound. The bright, punchy runs on the verse of Siberian Khatru, the heavy, organ-pedal sounds on And You and I, and the sheer artistry of the lines on the title track are tremendous. Squire is not my favorite bass player (but he's one of my faves), but that album epitomizes everything I really like about the bass guitar. All of the melodic motifs that make bass lines interesting to me, all of the tremendousness of its sound (what is more fun that getting a really good sounding bass, cranking it up, and just letting that low E shake the room?), all of those things are there on Close to the Edge.
Now, pick another bassist and I'd probably say Jaco on his solo CD, and specifically the track "Come on, Come over." At least in the beginning of the song, Jaco's approach to the verse is pretty simple, but it is as tight as a drum. Often people ask what was so special about this guy, and you hear the endless noodlings and the dizzying runs and you think just another guy with pyrotechnics. But Jaco could lay down a MEAN groove, and that track on his CD is the epitomy of it.
I loves me some Geddy Lee bass playing, of course. I think my favorite Geddy sound is Hemispheres, and my favorite Geddy song is probably Hemispheres. It is very similar to Close to the Edge in scope and style. I also really liked Ged's sound on Farewell to Kings. The bass sound and line on Madrigal is really outside of his normal range of stuff and shows how deeply he had mastered the instrument even back then.
Tony Levin on Peter Gabriel's So is also a really good one to listen to for just amazing bass sound and style. "Don't Give Up" was one of my favorites from that era, but really that was Levin around the time he discovered/created the funk fingers sound, and a lot of what he was doing was delightfully experimental.
My favorite Macca bass lines are from Sgt Pepper . . . "Lovely Rita" was proabably the first bass line I ever learned that had some real complexity to it. It just seemed to go along for the ride with the song, dizzingly happy with itself and moving wherever the mood took it. And again that sound was groundbreaking.
I am going to have to stop. I just covered the early stuff that interested me.
As far as why I think it defines Squire, it's mostly the sound and the way he uses it. The bass is very bright, but has a really nice layer of fuzz on it that sits just so and doesn't blur the fatness of the bottom or top ends. I assume he bi-amped it (wikipedia backs this up and says he re-wired his mono RM1999 into stereo), and I bet he took the bridge pickup to a distorted channel, and let the neck pickup ring clean.
And it was mixed just perfectly at the time. His bass sound has varied over the years but CTTE was the water-mark.
And then there's what he did with the instrument with that sound. The bright, punchy runs on the verse of Siberian Khatru, the heavy, organ-pedal sounds on And You and I, and the sheer artistry of the lines on the title track are tremendous. Squire is not my favorite bass player (but he's one of my faves), but that album epitomizes everything I really like about the bass guitar. All of the melodic motifs that make bass lines interesting to me, all of the tremendousness of its sound (what is more fun that getting a really good sounding bass, cranking it up, and just letting that low E shake the room?), all of those things are there on Close to the Edge.
Now, pick another bassist and I'd probably say Jaco on his solo CD, and specifically the track "Come on, Come over." At least in the beginning of the song, Jaco's approach to the verse is pretty simple, but it is as tight as a drum. Often people ask what was so special about this guy, and you hear the endless noodlings and the dizzying runs and you think just another guy with pyrotechnics. But Jaco could lay down a MEAN groove, and that track on his CD is the epitomy of it.
I loves me some Geddy Lee bass playing, of course. I think my favorite Geddy sound is Hemispheres, and my favorite Geddy song is probably Hemispheres. It is very similar to Close to the Edge in scope and style. I also really liked Ged's sound on Farewell to Kings. The bass sound and line on Madrigal is really outside of his normal range of stuff and shows how deeply he had mastered the instrument even back then.
Tony Levin on Peter Gabriel's So is also a really good one to listen to for just amazing bass sound and style. "Don't Give Up" was one of my favorites from that era, but really that was Levin around the time he discovered/created the funk fingers sound, and a lot of what he was doing was delightfully experimental.
My favorite Macca bass lines are from Sgt Pepper . . . "Lovely Rita" was proabably the first bass line I ever learned that had some real complexity to it. It just seemed to go along for the ride with the song, dizzingly happy with itself and moving wherever the mood took it. And again that sound was groundbreaking.
I am going to have to stop. I just covered the early stuff that interested me.
John Paul Jones-The Lemon Song.
Sir Paul-Hey Bulldog.
Bruce Thomas- Pump It Up.
Berry Oakley- Whippin Post.
Lee Sklar- You Smiling Face.
George Porter Jr.- Punge.
Rocco Prestia- What Is Hip.
Pino- Chicken Grease.
Duck Dunn -Soul Man. or Hip Hugger.
Garry Tallent- Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. Best song for Garry? Probably "The E Street Shuffle" from "Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J." (1973)
Soo groovy!
Soo groovy!
Pete McCullough - Streetlight Manifesto Bass Player... and any song, give him a progression and he'll show you a walking bassline 
I agree with Max on all the above.
I would also throw in Squire's tone and approach on the entire "The Yes Album", as well as Geddy's stuff on "Farewell"
Andy Rourke (the Smiths) - Hand In Glove
Even though most of the music I've emulated over the years in my playing has been more "bass centric" stuff (either power prog, modern funk, or rockabilly) his body of work had been one of my personal favorites for the longest time. He plays the type of bass that is so palatable to the non-bassist, but then when you get to playing it, it's a decent challenge. Moreover, it's fun to play those unexpected patterns he lays down. Fantastic underrated bassist...and Hand in Glove is the prototypical line that he comes up with. If there were no bass line to that song, you would never come up with what he plays but it works so perfectly (as with just about every song he plays on). Big props to Andy Rourke.
Even though most of the music I've emulated over the years in my playing has been more "bass centric" stuff (either power prog, modern funk, or rockabilly) his body of work had been one of my personal favorites for the longest time. He plays the type of bass that is so palatable to the non-bassist, but then when you get to playing it, it's a decent challenge. Moreover, it's fun to play those unexpected patterns he lays down. Fantastic underrated bassist...and Hand in Glove is the prototypical line that he comes up with. If there were no bass line to that song, you would never come up with what he plays but it works so perfectly (as with just about every song he plays on). Big props to Andy Rourke.
Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order, etc.) - Love Will Tear Us Apart
He owns that middle of the neck. Great tone. I guess that's where it all started. I probably would have gone with a New Order tune, especially Love Vigilantes, but I didn't want to piss off Hooky. That's one of the tunes that, much like Squire, encouraged me to get away from the muddly bottom end. That was a refreshing contrast to all those new wave synth driven bass lines.
He owns that middle of the neck. Great tone. I guess that's where it all started. I probably would have gone with a New Order tune, especially Love Vigilantes, but I didn't want to piss off Hooky. That's one of the tunes that, much like Squire, encouraged me to get away from the muddly bottom end. That was a refreshing contrast to all those new wave synth driven bass lines.
