Yeah they toured with a bassist but most of the recorded material is just drums, guitar, some keyboards.
Kinda like Ween. another band that didn't have a bassist (in their early years).
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Rock bands with no bassists
- Thread starter bolophonic
- Start date
Yeah they toured with a bassist but most of the recorded material is just drums, guitar, some keyboards.
Kinda like Ween. another band that didn't have a bassist (in their early years).
The Doors recorded their first album using the Fender Rhodes Piano Bass on every song. Producer Paul Rothchild thought the keyboard Bass didn't have enough attack so made the decision to have Larry Knechtel come in and play Bass Guitar over the top of the Piano Bass which if you listen closely doesn't always exactly match up with what Manzarek played. A few of the songs like Break on Through, Alabama Song, and Crystal Ship feature Piano Bass alone. Carol Kaye claims to have played on Light My Fire. On that song the Bass Guitar matches the Piano Bass precisely. On the second album they stopped using the Piano Bass in the studio and started recording every song with a Bass player present playing live with the band. For the most part the studio Bass player played lines composed by Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger. The only songs after the first album to use Piano Bass are When the Music's Over, Indian Summer, and probably Cars Hiss by My Window.
Only two bands that came to mind when reading the title of this thread for me were:
Explosions in the Sky. (Friday Night Lights soundtrack) Ok, maybe they're post-rock, and instrumental at that, but I always thought bass frequencies were lacking in their recordings by only having drummer and a handful of guitarists wailing away with reverb drenched lead lines, even if it was enjoyable. Never saw 'em live.
Zao. Metal core band. For a short period they made 1 album "Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest" and toured without a bassist only out of necessity; they detuned to Drop C and focused on more open riffing. It was somewhat unheard of at the time; I think the result was cool, unfortunately never caught them live during that time. Adding a bassist back seemed to give their guitarist(s) more freedom later on though.
Conclusion: I don't understand starting a rock band without a bassist!
Explosions in the Sky. (Friday Night Lights soundtrack) Ok, maybe they're post-rock, and instrumental at that, but I always thought bass frequencies were lacking in their recordings by only having drummer and a handful of guitarists wailing away with reverb drenched lead lines, even if it was enjoyable. Never saw 'em live.
Zao. Metal core band. For a short period they made 1 album "Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest" and toured without a bassist only out of necessity; they detuned to Drop C and focused on more open riffing. It was somewhat unheard of at the time; I think the result was cool, unfortunately never caught them live during that time. Adding a bassist back seemed to give their guitarist(s) more freedom later on though.
Conclusion: I don't understand starting a rock band without a bassist!
How about rock bands with bass but no guitar? What do we think about them?..... Apart from Death From Above 1979 I can't think of any other bands that do that.. but still!
Here's a list with over 250 of them....#61 is Dos,a duo of bassist/singers.
How about rock bands with bass but no guitar? What do we think about them?
The high kicks.
It's really funny how folks still believe the Doors rumor.
Reminds me of the one about Hendrix that folks used to tell when I was in my teens...some weird crap about him putting acid in a head band onstage, and the acid dripped into his eyeballs, which inspired him to write purple haze....Of course, then you read one of maybe 6 or 7 accurate books about him and realize he didn't drop acid until AFTER writing the song.
By that point in his life he'd done enough OTC/prescription amphetamines to last a lifetime, but he didn't touch acid until a few months after PH was written.
If you use your ears and actually listen to the Doors albums, you will hear an obvious bass guitar sound, like you stated.
Heck, there's some later songs, like Shaman's Blues that are BASED on the electric bass part.
It's weird how many people take the statements of others as fact and ignore the factual evidence that is available.
One thing to remember about the Doors, also, is that until Manzarek died there was a lot of money
"In the Garden of Eden by Mr. I. Ron Butterfly."
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I would disagree 100%, especially in this case.
Unless you listen to Doors live bootlegs more than their studio albums, you've ALWAYS HEARD THEM with a bassist. Per their producer, and Densmore himself, their sound wasn't quite full enough without one.
Since, honestly, not even the MOST ARDENT Doors fan listens to their live bootlegs, 99.9999% of the time anyone listens to them, they have a bassist. Period.
Every time you've heard them on the radio, they had a bassist.
Every time you've heard them on a movie soundtrack, they had a bassist.
Etc. Etc.
I guess you can pretend that's not true, in order to try and somehow semantically win an internet argument, but that's all you are really accomplishing. A transparent attempt at winning an internet argument.
When you factor in songs like Shaman's Blues, LA Woman, Love Street or a large number of other examples where there is a BASS part clearly being played by a bassist, the entire argument falls down. Those studio folks legitimately contributed to the creative process. Listen to the songs, the evidence is clearly audible.
Much like MANY of the things the Doors did, "not having a bassist" was basically a false "PR" statement.
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It's also important to point out that owning a bass, doesn't make a person a bass player.
I think you might be a little too excited about the Doors to be having a conversation about bands besides the Doors.
Ain't that the truth.
Sleater Kinney are again current and they have the bass drum and toms of J. Weiss and they tune to C# or something
I'll almost consider Doo Rag, because they were playing cardboard boxes and suitcases for drums and the guitarist was singing into a vacuum cleaner hose when I saw them. All those other bands just need a bass guitarist and voila!
