[Music] What are Some of Your Favorite Bass Lines?

If you'll be my bodyguard, I can be your long lost pal.
And when you call me, Eddie... Eddie, will you call me AL...

I just saw the video of the song above on ch.39 the Tube in HD... Hilarious with Chevy Chase...
Ya'll wouldn't know any of the ones I know in Spanish.

 

Can't remember her name, but that chic that played bass on Pet Sounds and a couple other Beach Boys LP's is my favorite. Just the tone and melodic ease...

 

i love paul mccartney's bass lines:

something
rain
i want you

 

About time somebody mentioned Peter Hook. The difference between Hook's work with New Order and most everything else listed here is that he didn't really play a "bass line", he was playing the melody on the bass.

Now, when they were still Joy Division, he laid down some vicious bass lines:

"Dead Souls"
"Digital"
"She's Lost Control Again"
"No Love Lost"

 

"The Real Me"
"Getting in Tune"
"My Generation"
"Dreaming from the Waist"
"You Better You Bet"
"Happy Jack"
"Substitute"
"The Quiet One"
"Baba O'Riley"

John Entwistle. The best.

And don't forget the most influential bassist of modern music:
James Jamerson
(My Girl, Can't Help Myself, and practically all other Motown hits pre-1970).

 

James Jamerson was the "Man"! Didn't realize much of this:

Jamerson's discography at Motown reads as a catalog of soul hits of the 1960s and 1970s. His work includes Motown hits such as, among hundreds of others, "Shotgun" by Jr. Walker & the All Stars, "For Once in My Life" by Stevie Wonder, "Going to a Go-Go" by The Miracles, "My Girl" by The Temptations, "Dancing in the Street" by Martha and the Vandellas, "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" and most of the album What's Going On by Marvin Gaye, "Reach Out I'll Be There" by The Four Tops, and "You Can't Hurry Love" by The Supremes. He is reported to have played on some 95% of Motown recordings between 1962 and 1968.

Jamerson's musical contribution was the instrumental signature of the Motown Sound, and he innovated the syncopated bassline while working for the label. His bass grooves are to this day unmatched in effortlessness and tone, and yet everyone from John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin to Billy Sheehan the virtuoso bassist claim him as their primary influence. Several Motown producers, most notably the Holland-Dozier-Holland team, preferred to have Jamerson in on as many of their recording sessions as possible.

Post-Motown, Jamerson played on many hits in the 1970s, including "Rock the Boat" (Hues Corporation), "Boogie Fever" (the Sylvers) and "Theme from S.W.A.T." (Rhythm Heritage). He performed on nearly 30 No. 1 pop hits -- surpassing the record commonly attributed to The Beatles. On the R&B charts, nearly 70 of his performances went to the top.

 

That's Carol Kaye, one of the first real innovators on the elecric bass.

And, yeah, Jamerson was brilliant. I remember when I heard the story about his performance on What's Going On. He had been at a gig and was drunk. Gaye told him he had to come to the studio to record this song. Jamerson agreed but he was so drunk he couldn't sit on a stool. He LAID FLAT ON HIS BACK to play that song with that freaky one-finger claw technique he had.

Most guys can barely perform that correctly sitting up and sober. That' just sick.

If you want to see more about him, rent or buy Standing in the Shadows of Motown. It is a brilliant documentary that began as the film version of the bio that was done on Jamerson by the former editor of Bass Player Magazine. It turned into a re-uniting of the "Funk Brothers," the musicians responsible for all of the incredible musical hooks of the Motown era. The thing that amazed me about that film was hearing the music for the songs, you INSTANTLY know what song it is.

Today, you have to hear the singer and the hook to know the song. Back then, all you needed were the first 3 or 4 notes and you knew immediately what it was. Just so incredibly distinctive.

That documentary is HIGHLY recomended.

 

Sorry to buck the trend here, but ...

Everything In Its Right Place - Brad Mehldau.

 

Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth) - Cliff Burton

and almost any song by The Police (Every Little Things She Does Is Magic, Roxanne, Spirits In A Material World, etc.)

Stomp - Kirk Franklin & God's Property

I Could Fall In Love - Selena


Hearing most of these on a set of 15's in a mini-truck back in the day was killer, dude.


Great Thread!

 

Silly Putty - Stanley Clark (covered by Les from Primus)
Behind my Camel - The Police

 

The Beatles - Rain, Taxman, probably some others I will think of later since I am just going off the top of my head right now.

Joy Division/New Order - The Kill, Lonesome Tonight, Love Vigilantes, Weirdo, Broken Promise, Doubts Even Here, She's Lost Control, Shadowplay

The Smiths/Morrissey - Rusholme Ruffians, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore, Well I Wonder, In The Future When All's Well

Big Country - Belief in the Small Man, Where the Rose Is Sown(extended Mix)

High Noon - Almost any bass parts on any song. Kevin Smith is a stand-up bass playing machine

Elvis Costello/Attractions - Beyond Belief, New Lace Sleeves

Paul Simon - You Can Call me Al

The Stone Roses - Love Spread, I wanna Be Adored

Devo - Mongoloid

The Clash - White Man In Hammersmith Palais, The Magnificent 7, Guns of Brixton, Robber Dub

The Jam - That's Entertainment

The Pixies - Gigantic, I've been Tired

There are a lot more, but that is all that I can think of right now.

 

get it on, bang a gong - t-rex

anarchy in the uk - sex pistols (bass is really just the melody from sugar sugar by the archies)

fraggle rock theme (bass is really just the melody from the dolly parton song two doors down)

ceremony - new order

white lines - grandmaster flash (yes, it was sampled, but i don't know where it was taken from)

turn turn turn - byrds

 

Anything by Flea...... Dude blows my mind away.

Some others that come to mind right now:

Jet City Woman - Queensryche
No More Tears - Ozzy

 

Anything by Mike Mesaros, but particularly "Behind the Wall of Sleep" (not the Sabbath tune).

Anything by Doug Colvin.

Anything by Steve Youth

"Money" - Roger Waters
"Makin' the Bombs" - Zander Schloss (He's so underrated...that he's not even rated.)
"The Day Walt Disney Died" - Mike Cornelius

 

I know it's really simplistic, but "Come As You Are" by Nirvana was always one of my favorites

 

He admittedly stole that from Killing Joke's "Eighties".

 

I'm sure I don't know as much about this topic as many of you, but I'd have to say anthing by 311 (P-Nut), RHCP (Flea) or the bass guitarist for a smaller group Sister 7/Little Sister.

 

I've always thought it was taken from a Joy Division song.

 

Reading these remined me of a couple:

Pump It Up - Elvis Costello and the Attractions (Bruce Thomas)
Spirits in the Material World - The Police (Sting)

Spirits is, IMO, the most rhythmically complicated pop song every written. The rhythm section is playing this ridiculously complex synchopated part during the verses while Sting sings in a separate synchopation over it. To this day, I seriously have no earthly idea how he was able to sing and play that part at the same time.