Which Bassist "Made" a Band?

[BoogieZK]

Peter Steele with Carnivore and Type O Negative
Dug Pinnick - king's X
Troy Sanders - Mastodon
Les claypool - Primus
David Ellefson - Megadeth
Bootsy Collins
Blackie Lawless
So many others

 

[Roger Blackman]

You could argue that Paul McCartney didn't "Make" The Beatles but zillions would disagree.

 

[K2000]

There are so many... Graham Maby (Joe Jackson's band). Cronos (Venom). Will Shatter (Flipper).

To repeat the original question (it seems to be getting lost on a couple of people):

"Is there a bass player in your opinion who, without having been in a specific band, would have caused that band to be just mediocre?"

In other words, would Motorhead/Yes/RHCP/Iron Maiden (etc etc) have been just as great with "generic bass player"? The answer is obviously "no".

I think we can add Bill Wyman to the list...

 

[Picton]

Possibly, but I think a lot of people followed for Flea as well. When I first started listening to RHCP it was because of Flea, and I wasn't a bass player at the time.

I think I'd put it this way.

Given enough time and practice, plus adequate rehearsal, any of us could get up onstage to play bass with RHCP and the audience would still think it sounded like RHCP.

You can't say the same thing about the singer. That goes for almost any band I can think of. Any instrumentalist is more replaceable than the lead singer, more interchangeable, no matter what band you're talking about. And, frankly, that goes double when you're talking about the rhythm section.

That's not to denigrate drummers and bassists; it's a function of their role within the band. A few of them do transcend that role, yes. But not many.

 

[Slevage]

Yes

 

[Slevage]

Yes

 

[Axstar]

Is there a bass player in your opinion who, without having been in a specific band, would have caused that band to be just mediocre?

Put another way, while there may be flashy guitar players and superstar singers, would there have been a band that wouldn't have succeeded without the solid playing of a talented bass player?

I'm confused as these seem to be two different things. The first is asking for a band that might have been better if their bassist was better. Define better!

The latter is easier to answer: Gene Simmons! KISS wouldn't have been the same with a random bloke in jeans and a t-shirt, and Ace's limited guitar soloing skills wouldn't have held the band aloft alone either.

 

[4dog]

Dig - Mould played guitar, not bass, in Husker Du and his other projects!

i know inknow..i fixed it ..gimme a break !! lmao!!

 

[eloann]

It's a trickier question than it seems

If someone competent learned Flea's bass parts he could indeed reproduce them convincingly and the band would still sound like RHCP. However had Flea never existed these bass parts wouldn't have either.

Then there's the "extra-musical" stuff that's hard to quantify or even know about

That being said, a few names :
- Karnivool
- Faith No More
- Ark
- Kajagoogoo

 

[redwingxix]

The dude from The Doors

Don't forget the guy from the White Stripes. Very underrated.

 

[redwingxix]

Cream
Concrete Blonde
another big vote for Sublime and Maiden

Also, if you took Lenny Kravitz out of the Let Love Rule record, it would pretty much just be some Karl Denson sax solos.

 

[Clark Dark]

Bootsy Collins - Bootsy's Rubber Band
He made the band and created the space bass sound with effect heavy recordings that he duplicated live on stage. He "made" the band.

Larry Graham - Graham Central Station
The name of the band says it all.


Stanley Clarke

Marcus Miller

 

[ThinCrappyTone]

For me, of the bands I’ve listened to, these guys really stood out as essential to the band’s sound

...in no particular order:

Steve Harris / Iron Maiden
Geddy Lee / Rush
Flea / RHCP
Les Claypool / Primus
Chris Squire / Yes
Geezer / Black Sabbath

 

[oZZma]

Jah Wobble

 

[brocket]

Adam Clayton. On one side he has the Edge doing delay/reverb stuff, on the other side is Larry pounding out a rhythm. That's a wide range of musical space Adam has to cover, and he has a knack for playing parts that bridge the gap between Edge and Larry.

 

[Bruiser Stone]

No Primus without Les Claypool, and The Stranglers would choke without JJ Burnel.

 

[MVE]

John Paul Jones

+1
Yeah, everything JPJ has played since sounds a lot more like Zeppelin than anything Plant or Page have done. Even when Plant or Page play Zeppelin songs, they don’t really sound like “Zeppelin Songs”. When JPJ plays anything, it sounds like a “Zeppelin Song”.
He has very unique phrasing and always carries the feel and improvises arrangements of the song perfectly alongside whatever the singer or guitar player are doing. In a nutshell, that’s the “Zeppelin” sound.

 

[Inara]

Oh, and I'll add Stanley Clarke, with Return to Forever. He's just about as "required" for that band as Chick Corea is, imho ...

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

Louis Johnson / Brothers Johnson

Teena Weymouth / Talking Heads & Tom Tom Club

Paul S. Denman / Sade

Larry Graham / Graham Central Station & Sly and Family Stone

Joe Dart/ Vulfpeck

Phil Lynott/ Thin Lizzie

Flea/ Red Hot Chili Peppers

Bernard Edwards/ Chic

John Taylor/ Duran Duran & Power Station

Sting/ The Police

Michael League/ Snarky Puppy

Janice Marie Johnson / A Taste Of Honey

They are house bands so to speak ,
James Jamerson / Motown
Carol Kaye/ The Wrecking Crew.

He is actually from Making The Band
Jamareo Artis/ The Hulligans ( Bruno Mars)

 

[Williambrown134]

Marc Farner