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Who started it all for you?

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As you can see my optimum sound is reggae lows and power with a fuzzy overtones and attack....
 
Jack Bruce...
I had been playing drums since the age of ten and in 1968 at the age of 19, I heard Jack Bruce's playing on "Crossroads" off the 'Live' record from Cream's "Wheels Of Fire" album and that's what did it for me. I still get goose bumps when I hear that track. I will digress here a bit...but it's been said and read by me that some consider the second guitar solo on that track by Clapton to be the best "rock" guitar solo ever recorded. I don't know about that, but it is pretty amazing. )-(
 
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While I think I always appreciated bass, it was hearing Verdine White on EWF records when I was in Junior High that really got me listening to bass lines. I got turned on to EWF in 1975, hearing "Shining Star" on the radio, then hearing a snippet of "That's the Way of the World" on some guy's boombox as he went down a crowded school hallway; I thought the guys singing sounded like angels. I promptly bought the album (on 8-track! click!). Then when Gratitude came out later that year I really started hearing the bass lines. Alas, I had no money or support (or clue), so it wasn't until I was in my early twenties that I actually got a bass and started teaching myself to play. Though I played a lot of jazz in college and mostly work playing Latin and Latin jazz music, I'll forever be grateful to Verdine for the inspiration and EWF for all the joy they have given me.
 
I was turned on to basslines before, but among many Randy Jackson sticks out for me. His work with Narada Michael Walden himself, plus others Walden produced in the late 70s and 80s really impressed me. His dexterity and way out front tone was awesome. Also Ross Valory, Marcus, Mark Adams (Slave), Louis Johnson...
 
started it for me because i had my first`axe(s)' back in the 60's(silvertones or teiscos relabeled=?) harmonicas, lessons,british invasion,beatles(cartoons) on sunday morning where we'd quit playing`army' to go inside and watch the shows(we used real weaponry from the army surplus store,myself i had a 22 with the bolt removed,that'd get ya arested nowadays),,

uhm yeah!,stones,,,surf tunes,the beach boys(saw em live in `66),Ventures,vanilla fudge,inagoddadavida baby!,,,Liverpool Beats hahaha i wuz the kid with the radio playing day and night in gradeschool so ah ya!,it's all about rock'n the place not about `who' for me i find myself pushing 60, loving my basses and nobody is taking that away from me=EVER

i got into dirt bikes witch derailed my musicality for decades,,,

if i had to say one guy turned my crank hot TODAY it would be Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys,why might you ask?; because he made it all look so simple and sound so freakin good and he even SMILED while he played/sang;),next week i'll be studying someone else so ask me again,,oh=oh! the lil surfer girl is calling me gotta run!(peace ya'll just enjoy the ride);)
 
My musical awareness really took its first major upswing when I was about 10 or 11 y.o - this was around 1969/1970. To that point I liked everything I was hearing - especially the rock bands like The Beatles (I was about 4 when they were on Sullivan, and I do remember seeing the telecast). By the time I was 11 though, there were certain bass players that I really liked - Entwhistle, Mel Schaeffer, Jack Bruce, Jack Cassady and Leo Lyons were probably my favorites. From there, my attention started to focus more on the progressive rock bassists like Chris Squire, Jon Camp, Greg Lake and John Wetton - which led into the fusion era and my love of Stanley Clarke, Ralph Armstrong, Jaco Pastorius, etc.
 
I came to the bass during the great disco / funk explosion of the 70's :) At the time I didn't know the names of most of the bassist, but later found out it was people like Bernard Edwards of Chic, Mark Adams of Slave, ETC. But it was Stanley Clarke's School Days that really made me say "I gotta play bass!!" :) I been swimming in the deep waters ever since :-).
 
I just thought the outfits and the Vox bass were so cool....

but I was like 10.... still..... some good bass parts on the early records, dont know if he actually played them.
 

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Chris Squire.
Which is funny, because once I started to play, he was not at all an influence on me. But I was a teenager, in an altered state, listening to "Close to the Edge" and I could hear and distinguish the bass for the first time, and it was mindblowing to me. And I remember thinking "if listening to music can do so much to my state of mind and emotion, what must it be like to be the person playing the music?"
That's what got me started.
Thanks, Chris.
Geddy Lee. I was playing Rush basslines on my guitar before I ever got a bass. He continues to inspire me, but I've certainly switched focus to different genres.
+1 Geddy Lee and Chris Squire are the two bassists who made me want to play bass. "Close to the Edge" and "All The World's a Stage" were turning points for me which led me listen to all of the earlier albums for Yes and Rush. I have been a longtime fan of both. I was (and still am) blown away by their incredible bass playing and their ability to sing vocals at the same time.
 
Paul McCartney.

I was in elementary school in the late 60's, and was a huge Beatles fan. Because of Paul, I learned that the bass was that funny-looking instrument with only 4 strings, and it made that really cool sound.

I didn't pick up music as a hobby until my teens, but when I did I chose electric bass. At that time I was listening to guys like John Entwistle, John Paul Jones, and Roger Glover, but the whole reason I listened to the bass line first was Sir Paul.
 
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