What is the first bass line you ever remember hearing?

[MrAB4003]

For me, it's "Rimshot (Intro)" by Erykah Badu. I was a toddler when this song came out in 1997, but I still remember hearing it for the first time. My Mom was (and still is) into R&B music. She would blast this song and the entire Baduizm album. I was able to feel the bass as it reverberated through my body. Now I didn't know what bass was at such a young age, but I later learned that it was a loud bass guitar making those low noises coming through the car speakers.



Tonight, I learned that the bassist was Hubert Eaves IV. Shout out to Scott and Ian from SBL!

 

[bass12]

The first song that made me ask, "What's playing that part" was "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" by Culture Club (the bridge section in particular).

 

[cxcxcx]

I'm old. Toss-up between Carol Kaye's bass parts on "The Brady Bunch" reruns and Anthony Jackson's bass part on "Ease on Down the Road" on the film version of "The Wiz" starring Michael Jackson and Diana Ross.

Both are pick players and played pickstyle on those recordings, but I never ended up playing pick full time.

 

[Low Commotion]

Jack Bruce with Cream on Crossroads. I was a huge Cream fan and especially Eric Clapton. One day I noticed the bass line in Crossroads - when Clapton goes into his solo. Jack Bruce's playing is outstanding.

 

[bassdude51]

Ha ha ha......man am I old! I had to think about your question for awhile. Probably, these 2 songs although one was for a TV show.

Perhaps the first one was Fever, by Peggy Lee from 1958 and I would have been 6 yrs old. Her voice, the lyrics and the stand up bass line!

Next was the theme for the tv show, The Wild, Wild West. With kind of a pronounced bass line.

Even back then before playing bass, these songs really had a "bass effect" on me.

 

[ProbablyTooLoud]

 

[ximun]

A huge classic. I was 15 when I started playing the bass, to fill the need in a band of my friends, I wanted to be part of the project even if I was not that much into music.
And I was always struggling to hear the bass and separate it from the other instruments. Except this one.

 

[jutty17]

The bass line to Boz Skaggs Low Down. I was somewhere around 5 years old, no idea what a bass was, or who David Hungate was, but something about that sound stuck with me. I consciously remember paying attention to that part of the music and comparing other songs bass lines (although I didn't recognize it that way at the time) to that one. Not bass related, but the piano/vocal for Barry Manilow's Copacabana was another one, and I credit those two songs for my life-long obsession with music.

 

[groovaholic]

The theme song to "Barney Miller":


This is also the song that got a young Cliff Burton interested in bass:
Metallica's Cliff Burton inspired by cop show Barney Miller | Louder (loudersound.com)

The video I linked has examples of the theme song from multiple seasons, and it's interesting to listen now and hear the evolution in both the part and the tone used.
It goes from a relatively simple part using a "P-Bass with flats tone" to a busier part played on a fretless J-Bass, with a Jaco-inspired tone.

But at all points, it's cool and funky.

 

[Matthijs]

That's when I thought: that thing with the four strings! Thats it!

I was eleven and blown away. 46 years later and I'm still in awe of that band.

 

[TheReceder]

Still one of my favorites
Not Fragile (youtube.com)

 

[Reedt2000]

Used to spin my mom's original pressing of Dark Side of the Moon when I was a little kid, this is the first baseline I remember distinctly



Followed closely by Zepplin's Ramble On

 

[smoothbrain]

Sixteen Tons by Merle Travis




Of course, the version with Tennessee Ernie Ford really hit the bass bone for me.

 

[Slade N]

It might have been from this record but I cant say for certain -

But I do remember stopping and taking notice of this groove, bassline and changes as a kid so it's possible it was first -

 

[mambo4]

it was either Dad's Beatles records , the Barney Miller theme, or this

 

[ElectroVibe]

Barney Miller theme.
But...for knowing it was a bass: Our House by Madness

 

[Wyrdlow]

I don't remember it, but as a child I'm told I asked, "What instrument is doing that?" referring to Klauss Voorman's intro to You're So Vain.
My realization of what a bass guitar actually did - and that I wanted to do it - is Down Down by Status Quo. When Alan Lancaster came in it blew me away. I still think it's one of the best intros ever.

 

[frankie5string]

When I was about 6 years old, around 1982, I found a copy of the Broadway production of "Hair" from 1968 with Jimmy Lewis on bass...



The lyrics didn't mean much when I was 6, but the orchestration was pretty cool for what it was and I eventually got to talk to Galt McDermot about it.

 

[Freight Train]

"Is that a short scale, or are you glad to see me?"

 

[Jack Butler]

Probably "the chain" by Fleetwood Mac. Close second "my generation" by the who. Honorable mention to several 70's tv shows like Barney Miller and Sanford & Son.