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Top Five Bass lines You Think Every Player Should Know

#26
StraffordMike said:
I look at it like this, someone's hanging at my place,he doesn't play by the way, knocking back a few cold ones, and he says "play something I know."

Another one Bites the Dust
My Sharona
Running with the Devil??
Intro to Sweet Emotion?
Money/ Floyd
I'll bet 90% of the public could name any of those tunes in 4 notes or less.
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This.
It's the only chance of an answer to the original question. There's too many set of circumstances to account for.
I feel that a situation where someone says, "play something I know" will come up more so than any other situation. And at that point, it's trying to impress someone with just riffs.
That being said, I'd add a few songs to the list. But this is just pertaining to a situation like mentioned above.
-Michael Jackson - Beat It
-Violet Femmes - Blister in the Sun
-Temptations - My Girl or Ball of Confusion
-Alice in Chains - Would?
-Black Sabbath - Iron Man
-Green Day - Longview
 
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#29
StraffordMike said:
I look at it like this, someone's hanging at my place,he doesn't play by the way, knocking back a few cold ones, and he says "play something I know."

Another one Bites the Dust
My Sharona
Running with the Devil??
Intro to Sweet Emotion?
Money/ Floyd
I'll bet 90% of the public could name any of those tunes in 4 notes or less.
Click to expand...

I like this approach. For me, in addition to be known by the aforementioned dude/gal, they should be fun to play. Extra point s if the song kind of "makes sense" just with the bass. Given the kind of people I hang with, I'd go with:

1. Money (Pink Floyd)
2. I want you back (Jackson 5)
3. Ramble On (Led Zeppelin)
4. 46&2 (Tool)

...aaand breaking some of my own rules:

5. A song for our parents (Explosions in the Sky)


Sh*t, now that I finished the list a dozen more come to my mind :laugh:
 
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#30
Nuclear Burn - Brand X - Unorthodox behavior ( Percy )
Gambia - Tony Williams - Wilderness ( Stanley )
Vibe - Steps Ahead - Vibe
Sphere of Influence - Billy Cobham - Spectrum 40 live
Sly - Herbie Hancock - Headhunters

YMMV
 
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#31
gbrooding said:
I am not saying these are songs that will get played by cover bands. I am saying that I feel these bass lines are some of the best lines I have heard. The bass line to Rise by Abe Laboriel became one of the more sampled bass lines in hip hop. The line by Bernard Edwards in Good Times influenced many famous songs(Rapper's Delight, Another Bites the Dust, etc). Check these songs out and let me know what you think of the bass lines in each song, I personally think they are fantastic.
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With the exception of Rise (and I just checked it out and it's great! Thx!) I've heard all these songs enough that I could probably play them all cold. Every one is definitely worth knowing but top 5? I dunno....

If anyone walked up and asked me the list would be 5 classic tunes in 5 different genres. Just being a fav with a great bass part or being highly recognizable ain't enough. They'd all have to be songs whose bass lines were genuinely definitive. I'll think about it but it's probably not possible to do in just five songs.....
 
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#36
Jeff Bonny said:
With the exception of Rise (and I just checked it out and it's great! Thx!) I've heard all these songs enough that I could probably play them all cold. Every one is definitely worth knowing but top 5? I dunno....

If anyone walked up and asked me the list would be 5 classic tunes in 5 different genres. Just being a fav with a great bass part or being highly recognizable ain't enough. They'd all have to be songs whose bass lines were genuinely definitive. I'll think about it but it's probably not possible to do in just five songs.....
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Wait, I thought you said you've heard NONE of these songs? Oh well... my take was not on the 5 best tunes or songs, but what I felt were MY top 5 bass lines. Still stand by that. Rise and Good Times led to so many other bass lines and samples that they are easily in the top 5 for me.
 
#38
gbrooding said:
Wait, I thought you said you've heard NONE of these songs?
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No, what I said was: "I've been playing over forty years doing gigs in a bunch of genres and I know NONE of these tunes....I might have played one or more on a gig at some point but certainly none get called regularly." Do you "know" every song you've ever heard? Me neither. Dude, I'm not hacking on you so don't take it so personally....hearing Rise made my day...I'm glad you posted. But the OP's question is fatally flawed in that it doesn't take in to consideration variables like genres, cultures or ask WHY you should know these songs. I guess if you're gonna list 5 songs....5 above all the thousands and thousands you have to choose from I want know the thought process....which I kinda wrung outta you already lol.
 
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#40
Jeff Bonny said:
So why exactly should I know these particular songs?
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There are a lot of tunes that are good to know for no other reason than they're good warm-ups or general exercises. Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out" is good for building stamina, for instance, "Sir Duke" is a nice warm-up that gets you all over the neck, and "Birdland" is good for working on harmonics.
 
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