Who needs a bass player anyway?

[Geepers]

When Status Quo wanted to make this video, their bass player, Alan Lancaster, was living in Australia and couldn’t (wouldn’t) go to the UK for the shoot.

No problem. They made a mock up of him and went ahead and shot the film anyway.

Even people who have watched the video multiple times don’t pick it up yet it’s glaringly obvious, especially in the last half of the song.

All eyes on the front man I guess.

 

[Nashrakh]

The whole video is a super close up bonanza of the guitar players anyway, but that muppet is hilarious!

 

[Richjazzbass66]

The Doors made it happen without a bassist too, at least live

 

[HardNHeavy]

yep. keyboards could basically cover it all....

 

[BuddhaFingas]

Not me... I've got one.

 

[ultra60]

I became a fan around the time "Live" came out. That era was the heyday for double live albums. I thought it odd that they covered a John Fogerty song, and also named the album after the song. By the way, cool video. I'd never seen it. I still listen to "Live" from time to time, but not much else by them.

 

[Geepers]

I still listen to "Live" from time to time, but not much else by them.

May I suggest “Hello!” (1973) is the one album of theirs to have

 

[Five or Six]

Morison was pretty much one of the comparisons. There was a post about this a while back.

 

[Deleted member 394181]

May I suggest “Hello!” (1973) is the one album of theirs to have

Also: Quo, On The Level, For You Blue, two or three albums after too. I like the stuff before Lancaster left, best "Boogie" rock ever! Great to play along with, its really fun and will help you build up some stamina.

 

[Michedelic]

Morison was pretty much one of the comparisons. There was a post about this a while back.

It wasn’t so much Morrison, but Ray Manzarek’s way of doing things; the earliest Doors line-up had extra people including a female bass player who dropped out, and when the band as a whole couldn’t find a suitable replacement, Ray picked up on the then-recent Fender Rhodes Piano Bass, somewhat influenced by another LA band, The Seeds, whose bass player/lead singer, Sky Saxon, gave up on the instrument to focus on vocals. Keyboardist Darryl Hooper merely played lower notes on his Wurlitzer electric piano.

 

[tangentmusic]

John McVie couldn’t make the Tusk video shoot so they used a cutout of him

 

[Count Bassie]

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion didn't need one.

 

[Akiyama]

yep. keyboards could basically cover it all....

Yep but totally different feels, even with mono legato settings for synth bass.

 

[Michedelic]

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion didn't need one.

Nor the Cramps(initially), but either band was trying to go against the grain with primitive formats, then there’s Houndog Taylor. I’ve seen old publicity pics of obscure early rockabilly/hillbilly boogie/blues/instrumental bands where the bass went missing. There was a 60’s British band, The Equals, who had only one hit in the US but many others back in the UK, and while you can hear bass on their records, live they had three guitarists(!), and one was not an oldschool 6-string bass as far as I can tell from videos. Never could figure that one out.
Even on the song that generally(by default)gets cited as the first rock’n’roll record(although that’s certainly debatable), “Rocket 88”, there’s no bass, but a distorted guitar playing a boogie woogie line in its place.

 

[Akiyama]

Prince, the profound musical genius that he was, under the engineering guidance of Susan Rogers, didn't need a bass on one of his top hits.

 

[pklima]

I'm a big fan of me not having to be in videos. Not that I'm shy or lack narcissism, but there's one video I am in and it was a very exhausting half day.