Which Bassists were your inspiration when you started playing?

[Skylear]

I'm generally curious to see which bassists inspired everyone when they were first starting out

For me I grew up with Ride the Lightning and Master Of Puppets playing through my Stereo 24/7 and when I first picked up my Mother's Yamaha RBX170 Red and Black Sunburst in September of 2015 I immediately looked up how to play Fade to Black, my favorite Metallica song, and spent the next month learning the song back to front and down to every Fill

 

[danesdad]

Geezer.

 

[Rumble Thunder]

Geddy, Chris Squire and McCartney

 

[bholder]

Jack Casady, Jack Bruce, Greg Lake, Tim Bogert, Felix Pappalardi, Phil Lynott, John Wetton

 

[garp]

At the time I started playing in my teens, I thought that my biggest inspirations were probably John Paul Jones, Roger Waters and Sting. But in retrospect, I think I was actually more influenced by the many nameless, faceless bass players that I had listened to on AM radio long before I ever started playing. Those folks turned out to be bassists like Bob Babbitt, Ronnie Baker, Wilton Felder, James Jamerson, Carol Kaye, Joe Osborn, Carl Radle, Chuck Rainey, Willie Weeks and Klaus Voormann.

 

[BradE]

Tony Visconti - The Man Who Sold The World
Gary Thain - Uriah Heep Live
Dennis Dunaway - Billion Dollar Babies
Paul McCartney - everything, some songs more than others.

 

[2saddleslab]

The late, great Keith Ferguson from The Fabulous Thunderbirds.

 

[the_home]

Jack Casady, Phil Lesh were most influential growing up (although I played guitar at the time). When I moved over to bass it was probably Roscoe Beck (listened a lot to Robben Ford) Walter Becker and Chuck Rainey (lovin' the bass funk on Steely Dan's classics).

 

[JimK]

Been asked this before on TB-
My 1st bass was in 1972...I was 100% in with Hard Rock & Led Zep was "my" band. So, JPJ.
Jack Bruce & Entwhistle seemed unattainable.
I also tried to copy Gary Thain, Dennis Dunaway, Andy Fraser, etc.

3-4 years later, I'm more interested in R&B/Soul/Funk/Jazz-
Chuck Rainey, Will Lee, Gary King, Anthony Jackson, & Alan Gorrie.
I wore those early AWB albums out.

Pre-1972?
Jermaine Jackson.
Variety Shows were a big thing back then...the J5 were always on. JJ just looked cool.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Dennis Dunaway.

 

[saabfender]

Geddy Lee
Tom Hamilton
Prescott Niles
Tom Scholz
Roger Waters

 

[7dollarbologna]

Bob Daisley
Geddy Lee
Steve Harris
Geezer Butler

 

[bass12]

I just liked bass in general and would play along to whatever I liked song-wise, but I guess the first bassist I really got into was Mark King.

 

[sgtpepper]

Alex Katunich aka Dirk Lance
Paul McCartney
Mark Hoppus

 

[Algo]

Ben Kenney, Dirk Lance and Flea for the most part, also Tim Commerford albeit at his Audioslave stint atm.

 

[lfmn16]

Geezer, John Paul Jones, Mel Schacher. I played the first three Black Sabbath, Zeppelin and Grand Funk Albums until they were worn out. I wound up having to buy new copies of many of them.

 

[bassstrangler]

Deja thread.

Same answer I always give:
Simon Gallup of the Cure
Peter Hook of Joy Division
I'll also add Geezer because thinking back I learned a lot of Sabbath tunes early on.

 

[Hundred proof]

Local player ... Memphis ... I was playing guitar at the time, one day he said go buy a bass, and I'll teach you some stuff ... the rest is history.

 

[Deleted member 268085]

James Jamerson. Only I didn't know his name at the time.

I started on classical piano at 8. It was those Motown records that got me hooked on bass in high school. They taught me to play with feeling.

 

[FatStringer52]

Jamerson, McCartney & Schacher.