Who Was Your First...

[lpbfender]

Entwistle, Lake, JPJones

 

[steamthief]

Graham Maby. When Look Sharp! was released, it sounded so fresh, and it seemed to me that the bass line was the hook in just about every song. Almost forty years later, I still love it.

 

[zon6c-f]

Has anyone mentioned Carole Kaye?

We all probably heard her and didn't know who was playing bass on those tracks

 

[smtp4me]

JPJ...

Then Geddy

 

[Mike Sorr]

If you don't know who this is, we can't be friends:

ok, here's another clue:

Saw Cliff at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC back in the day. Metallica headlining with Raven and Anthrax opening.

 

[Mikey F]

Jack Bruce
John Paul Jones

 

[DirtDog]

Honestly, the first time I became aware that bass guitar was an instrument was because of this dude.

Link Removed

I spent my formative young years playing drums so didn't have a bass player influence until later. But I'd say John Entwistle and JPJ is where I started although the first songs on bass I played were Beatles tunes.

 

[TheGreatSealof]

Sir Paul. Then, James Jamerson.

 

[David Vector]

Geddy. Though, interestingly enough, it was his discussion of his synth work on Grace Under Pressure in an issue of Keyboard that first sparked my interest in him and in Rush. Appreciation of the bass work quickly followed, of course.

 

[Mike Sorr]

Mine was unquestionably Steve Harris. Funny story, Steve was an influence before I even knew who he was. I had a friend who was a drummer in a metal cover band back around 1981-82. I wasn't really playing any instrument seriously back then, just fooling around on guitar a bit with no direction, but I knew I wanted to play music. His band, Prowler, opened their set with Ides of March/Wrathchild. I had never heard of Iron Maiden and barely knew what a bass was. But when his bass player ripped into the opening notes of Wrathchild, I was hooked. I had to play bass. I went and bought a 1978 Precision Bass that a friend's dad was selling for $300, picked up the albums Iron Maiden and Killers and wore the grooves off the vinyl until I could play those lines better than Prowler's bass player. I became a Steve Harris fanatic...which eventually became a bit of a problem that I had to train myself out of.

This is where it all started for me...

 

[NullPorch]

Even though I had already started playing bass, I remember the first time realizing that the bass guitar could actually be the coolest part of the song was listening to Sleep. Specifically, I remember watching their video for "Dragonaut" and just having my mind double blown by how great the bass riffs were, and the fact that the bassist was the frontman singing. Oh, and the heavy psyche sounds were, of course, mind imploding for my young, largely innocent, and impressionable mind.

 

[jalapejoe]

My two guys are NOT the greatest bass players but my uncle use to play quite a bit of them when I was young and that is what got me into bass big time. Gene Simmons KISS and Mel Schacher GFR. For Mel it was that song Inside Lookin Out
that bassline where he just slides down really low, holy smokes that just blew me away, coolest thing ever! Gene mostly his menacing look and prowess on stage, liked the music at the time too (was 9 in 1980)

 

[monsterthompson]

A lesser known bassist, but a guy who was/is a player and a showman, Jens Funke. Probably the first bassist that who made me reconsider bass. I was a guitarist when I first saw him perform. I never really tried to cop anything like his style, but he left an impression about what role a bassist could fill in a band.

 

[Resonance129]

Don't think I realized how much he'd captured my ears at the time, but Dennis Johnson of "Chase" was probably the first bassist I listened to that made me really LISTEN to the bass line. He always did some really unusual, but funky stuff that almost forced me to pay attention. Great timing and feel for the type of music he was playin, but you could almost hear the organization in his music, if that makes sense. A good bassist, in my opinion.

 

[Madhouse27]

Foghat Live was one of the first albums that I bought for myself as a kid. Craig MacGregor literally introduced me to what bass guitar was all about....and what a bass player is supposed to look like.

 

[Captain Chaos]

I think it was that guy from anti-flag and some guy at Sam Ash playing a stingray 14 something hears ago.

 

[tangentmusic]

 

[Pbassmanca]

This guy.. hands down.. Raymond Berry Oakley. The original bassist for the Allman Brothers Band.

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Does that sweet arse J bass have a second pickup at the bridge or is that a mute?

 

[Ethan117]

Mr. Dan Briggs of BTBAM was the man who inspired me to take my bass playing from "I'll do this every few days or so..." to "I wanna learn every song I can and spend every last shred of my free time doing so".

I haven't heard many bassists who make metal such a low end playground.

 

[Rattman]

Does that sweet arse J Bass have a second pickup at the bridge or is that a mute?

I used to know that... Obviously, I need to revisit "The Tractor" and dig up that important detail..
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