Who's Your Favorite Bass Player?

Here's a list of the many influential bass players I admire, for various musical reasons:

Geddy Lee (Rush)
Paul McCartney (The Beatles, Wings, solo)
Mike Mills (REM)
John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin)
Chris Squire (YES)
John Entwistle (The Who; recently deceased)
Paul Gardiner (Gary Numan, Tubeway Army)
Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel)
Bernard Edwards (Chic; sadly, deceased)
Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Jaco Pastorius (deceased influential jazz great)
Louis Johnson (Brothers Johnson; slapping & popping pioneer)
Michael Lachowski (Pylon)
John Taylor (Duran Duran)
James Jamerson (the late bassist who helped create the 'Motown Sound')
Sara Lee (Gang of Four, B-52's)
Tom "T-Bone" Wolk (Saturday Night Live Band, Hall & Oates)
Will Lee (David Letterman's band 'The CBS Orchestra')
Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club)

Many, many more....

(I'll keep adding to this list in my post as they come to me.)

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William 'Phoebus' Mull

NewDoom.com
MindlessGames.com
Gaming is a state of mind.
If you're mindless, please take mine.

CXliff Burton from Metallica. hough he's dead and has been for a long time.

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Member of the NewDooM megawad team. Map 14: Jail Break.

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Hint to all Katana owners: Never sit on yours, It'll give you a very sore ass indeed.

Adam Clayton from U2 especially the base on 'with or without you' that base intro is just awesome to me, sends a shiver down my spine sometimes

Joe Peat from Mystery Juice (not famous and not a favourite band, Joe is awesome on any instrument but chooses to play bass because its easier to get work)

Metallica has been dead pretty much since Cliff died, but I am sure you already knew that.


Rush's Bassist
Primus'
King Crimson's

And I love that old Funky Mo-Town type Bass but can't think of any one player at the moment.

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Satan's Girl Scouts

http://files.frashii.com/~sp00nz/Doom/

"There is no emotion; there is peace."
"There is no ignorance; there is knowledge."
"There is no passion; there is serenity."
"There is no death; there is the Force."

quote:

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Geddy Lee (Rush)

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Damned right!!!!!!!

Ok lemme see....... Besides Geddy Lee..

Steve Harris of Iron Maiden

ahhhh crap gotta run. Will finish list after.

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Vilecore@The Megawad

The NewdooM Community Project

Same as Ninja with Cliff, Chris I-can't-spell-his-second-name from Muse, there's a couple of bass players I know who are pretty cool but aren't famous so no point in putting their names here and David Ellefson from Megadeth. I don't really know many bass players really, not that I don't appreciate their importance, they really are important in my view for a good band, but since I play guitar myself my list of fav guitarists is better.
But... I have to disagree slightly there with you XDelusion. Anyway, no point me getting annoyed, that's not my thing, and I know plenty of others who'd go crazy at that!

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"One look in her lusting eyes, savage fear in you will rise, teeth of terror sinking in, the bite of the she-wolf" - Megadeth.

1. Danny Lohner - NIN and A Perfect Circle

Danny Lohner just rulez, 'nuff said.

2. Twiggy Ramirez - ex-Marilyn Manson

(had supposedly "left" the band last the may before last, because of where Manson was taking the band, but I heard he was actually kicked. It's strange considering that him and Manson use to be best friends.)

3. Tim Skold - KMFDM and current Manson

I don't know much about Skold but he is an awesome bassist from what I've heard in Manson and KMFDM's music.

This is what I was afraid of.
Please DON'T pretty much just post the name of your favorite band, and tack their bass player in there as an afterthought; many of you don't even know their names and couldn't care enough to do a little research about it before posting.
This thread is for those who are bass players, or those who listen intently to the bass lines in music, have well-formed opinions about who they like, and a great deal of knowledge about it.
If you don't care about the bass player, and aren't influenced by them specifically, I encourage you to rethink your answers or just don't post about it, and save it for a "What's Your Favorite Band?" thread; but that would just be redundant at this point.

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William 'Phoebus' Mull

NewDoom.com
MindlessGames.com
Gaming is a state of mind.
If you're mindless, please take mine.

I'll probably get laughed at for this one....but I really enjoy the bass lines of Hootie and the Blowfish. (eeks!) I know it's not heavy metal and what not...but what the hell.

Dean Felber - Hootie and the Blowfish
Mike Dirnt - Green Day

(yeah yeah, laugh all ya want)

Nick Oliveri from Queens of the Stone age has a really good bass sound, especially when mixed with some distortion. Mainly on the first album, where the basslines fit into the songs in quite an unusual way in some places and play a larger part in driving the songs than usual.

Barry Adamson has some good ones, really rolling almost effortless sounding.

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Check it out.

This is, of course, objective but in my most humble and accurate opinion is as follows:

By far in first – Geddy Lee (That’s Rush, for those of you that don’t venture out much musically…)
• Geddy is in the Bass Hall of Fame for Guitar Player Magazine
• Has been voted Best Rock Bassist more than 6 times
• Geddy won "best Rock Bass player" in the 1993 "Bass Player" readers' poll.

John Paul Jones – Led Zeppelin
His influence on the music we listen to today is unmistakableÂ…

Chris Squire – Yes
Groundbreaking prog-rock style setting performer. He did things that had not been done before in the 70Â’s.

Louis Johnson - Brothers Johnson
His percussive style reintroduced the bass as a more rhythmic instrument. And influenced thousands of players.

John Entwistle – The Who
“Entwistle's bass attack forced the Who into its high-volume assaults. "We had only two melodic instruments, my bass and Pete's guitar," he explained. "So I devised a way of playing with a very trebly sound, as if my bass were a rhythm guitar. So when Pete was doing chord work, I could get in a melodic line from the bass side. But to do this we needed 100 watt amplifies with four cabinets each." Entwistle became the first musician to play the high-powered amplifiers developed at Jim Marshall's West London drum shop. Without this combination-excessively loud Marshall stacks turned up way past the point of distortion in competition with one another, and bass guitar offering a thundering melodic challenge to the six string variety-there wouldn't be any metal or grunge, and probably no punk, either.”

Rinus Gerritsen – (who?) Golden Earring (Radar Love…)
Dutch Player from the 70’s – 80’s that was notorious for his heavy low-ended style.

Sir Paul McCartney – Needs no Props….

Geezer Butler – Black Sabbath
Is the original influence on most all modern day metal and heavy rock bassists

Sting – The Police
Very versatile from reggae to ska to 80Â’s pop power ballad. He has a percussive, pulsing rhythmic playing style that has always been distinctive.

Les Claypool – Primus
Groundbreaking and inventive

John Deacon – Queen
Underrated bassist that orchestrated many of QueenÂ’s complex pieces.

Stefan Lessard – Dave Matthews Band
Very talented and gifted player that has only been playing as long as heÂ’s been in DMB.

This list is only an “off the top’ effort. I’m sure that there are plenty of others. Most of these are from several years ago or more . Music today is less and less discernable as far as individual members. Besides, bass lines are now so easily synthesized and computer generated that it’s no longer possible to recognize individual efforts – i.e.I love Crystal Method / Filter / Prodigy / Chemical Brothers / Aphex Twin – all have excellent bass lines but can anyone tell me who is responsible for them? With technology being what it is these days (Protools – digital recording and editing being the industry standard) non-musicians are producing music that is based on their skill at sampling and mixing – not necessarily “playing” anything….

Just My $0.02 worth...

(Remember - If you don't like my opinion it's worth what you paid to read it on here...)


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A waste is a terrible thing to mind...

Phoebus: Sorry, I just figured if I posted there real names that peole would not know them then, that's why I posted the band name, so if they were curious, they could just look up the band, and check them out.

She-Wolf, list them anyhow, I'm always interested in checking out something I have not heard before. And no I am going to wig because you don't like my musick either. ha ha

Ok as for my corrections.

Tony Levin - King Crimson (some albums I.E. Discipline)

Geddy Lee - (Rush)

Les Claypool - (Primus)

Graham Lewis - Wire

Sorry I don't play, and I know some of these guys work my be simple and uncomplex, but there is something about the noise they make that really appeals to me, and seems to take the Bass where most bands don't dare, or never dreamed. I think it is sad that 99% of the rock musick out there does not put much emphasis on the Bass and Drums, for me those are what make the musick. I think Pig Face has caught onto this idea from time to time, ecspecially where the drums are concerned.

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Satan's Girl Scouts

http://files.frashii.com/~sp00nz/Doom/

"There is no emotion; there is peace."
"There is no ignorance; there is knowledge."
"There is no passion; there is serenity."
"There is no death; there is the Force."

This is all very interesting because I myself play bass and enjoy the instrument very much. As my all time favorite and most influential bassist's to me I would say are:

1)Flea- Red Hot Chilli Peppers
This guy just rocks the bass in my opinion, nuff said

2) John Entwistle- The Who
While this isn't my particular favorite band I have listened to them and I must admit this guy innovated bass playing Its very depressing when a legend dies.

3)Krist Novoselic-Nirvana
This band and bassist are what made me want to learn how to play and are very infuential to me. If you have never heard of this band or just haven't bothered listening I suggest you do it is some of the best music I have been graced to hear.

4)Timmy C.-Rage Against the Machine
Not only is this a band that expresses my political, views they have some very nice funk bass sounding lines that really go with the message their spreading. Also a band that inspired me to play bass. If your a rights activist of any kind you will appreciate this music and the message it spreads.

Thats it for me there are several others not listed that have really influenced me but these 4 are the most prominent.

Page 6 They're a local band that I know who come along to band society at uni, I've seen them a couple of times and will see them again later this week at another gig. (I'm playing at the gig too. ) They have a CD they recorded I've got tracks from if anybody wants to hear them. The other bass player I know is in a band that just formed this year called FireExit (I meant the space to be left out.) and haven't released anything yet though and are looking for a new singer. In either band I do find myself paying a bit more attention to the bass because I have found that some other records seem to leave it out a bit and I nearly did choose bass over guitar but I's struggle with bass because my hands are a bit small and bass has a funny way with me that if I practised I'd fall alseep. (Don't ask me why!) As for the other bassists. Cliff Burton - heard Orion, or Pulling Teeth? I really recommend that you do if you haven't heard these two in particular because they are great. I'll get onto the rest I've got to go.

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"One look in her lusting eyes, savage fear in you will rise, teeth of terror sinking in, the bite of the she-wolf" - Megadeth.

Pulling teeth is amazing. I heard that ages ago and haven't heard it in a long time.

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Vilecore@The Megawad

The NewdooM Community Project

bass???? Why not a -real- instrument?

I really like Steve Saxby from Training for Utopia. You can hear his stuff best on Plastic Soul Impalement, since the album is recorded with the bass sounds turned way up. He's darn good, especially when you consider how chaotic the whole album is.

quote:

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Tom "T-Bone" Wolk (Saturday Night Live Band, Hall & Oates)

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I remember someone named T-bone waka or something but I thought he played guitar

John Entwistle - The Who (Just listen to the riffs in My generation!)
Paul McCartney - The Beatles, Wings, solo
Charles Mingus - All-time great jazz upright bassist.

Between my stints as a drummer and a guitar player, I briefly played bass. Did you guys know that Jimi Hendrix first auditioned as a bass player for Chas Chandler (of Animals fame) when Chandler, as a producer, was putting together a band. He immediately recognized Hendrix's potential, and switched Noel Redding to Bass and Hendrix to guitar. The rest, as they say, is history.

quote:

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Pulling teeth is amazing. I heard that ages ago and haven't heard it in a long time.

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Yes...Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)....long time too I haven't heard it. Cliff Burton is my fav bass player. Ever since I heard him play for the first time I was blown away. He plays the frickin' thing like a bloody guitar!

R.I.P., Cliff...

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