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Favorite Bass players....


paul carruthers

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I apologize in advance if this is old hat, but I did an intense 4 page search & found nothing, so here I am. Now given that this is a Zep forum, it's prerequisite that JPJ is the goat, but who are some of your other favorite masters of the bass instrument.

 

If I had to rank my own personal favorites, my list would be:

Geddy Lee

Bill Wyman

Robert DeLeo

Jack Bruce

Brown Mark

Chris Squire 

Carl Radle

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few other rock & rollers, but as Tony Kornheiser would say, "That's it, that's my list."

 

 

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Apart from John Paul Jones, here is my Baker's Dozen (in no particular order):

James Jamerson

Paul McCartney

Bootsy Collins

Bill Wyman

Donald 'Duck' Dunn

Lemmy

Dusty Hill

Graham Maby

Bruce Foxton

James Dewar

Peter Hook

Robbie Shakespeare

Tina Weymouth

 

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46 minutes ago, Strider said:

 

James Jamerson

 

Good one, how could I forget this guy. Just about everyone on my own list has cited him as a major influence. Elvis Costello should have listed him as a co-writer on Get Happy lol

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1 hour ago, 1975NQ said:

Aston Barrett

Good one! Let's not forget the great John Deacon of Queen. And of course Jaco Pastorius.

You know, the other day I was in the car and 'Walk This Way' came on and I was like 'Damn, that bass track smokes!'. Gotta give a shout out to Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith, very underrated player.

Johnny B Gayden, who played with Albert Collins, is another great, under-the-radar bassist

 

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2 hours ago, badgeholder said:

Good one! Let's not forget the great John Deacon of Queen. And of course Jaco Pastorius.

You know, the other day I was in the car and 'Walk This Way' came on and I was like 'Damn, that bass track smokes!'. Gotta give a shout out to Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith, very underrated player.

Johnny B Gayden, who played with Albert Collins, is another great, under-the-radar bassist

 

Oh yeah, Tom Hamilton! That bass line is indeed a killer. And of course, "Sweet Emotion", maybe the most famous bass line in all of rock? 

I haven't heard of Gayden so did some YouTubing. I played "Frozen" with Albert Collins ... pretty dope

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22 hours ago, 1975NQ said:

Good one, how could I forget this guy. Just about everyone on my own list has cited him as a major influence. Elvis Costello should have listed him as a co-writer on Get Happy lol

Quite a few others that I didn't have room for but are also faves of mine...Phil Lynott, Chris Squire, Bruce Thomas, Steve Harris, Mike Watt, Kim Gordon, Jah Wobble, Brown Mark, Cliff Burton, Eric Avery, Norwood Fisher, Carol Kaye.

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2 hours ago, Strider said:

Quite a few others that I didn't have room for but are also faves of mine...Phil Lynott, Chris Squire, Bruce Thomas, Steve Harris, Mike Watt, Kim Gordon, Jah Wobble, Brown Mark, Cliff Burton, Eric Avery, Norwood Fisher, Carol Kaye.

Nice shout out to Norwood, such an underrated bassist, Dude f-in lays it DOWN like no other and can play any style, "Sunless Saturday" is like Rush meets Sly, and the interplay between that sick bass line with the drums and guitar is what's making it happen. Also - I love how he took "Fight the Youth" and saved it from being a stupid big hair 80's style rock song with that FUNK lol, And don't get me started on his live playing ... 

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1 hour ago, John M said:

I would add Rocco Prestia (Tower of Power) and Jeffery Hammond (Jethro Tull - from Aqualung through Minstrel in the Gallery)

 

I bring up Norwood and John M. drops this ^ (Norwood  was absolutely influenced by Rocco). John, I don't know if you like Fishbone or not but there's a fun track on the Mask soundtrack called "Let the Good Times Roll". It's Fishbone with ToP horn section. And now I feel the need to listen to East Bay Grease which will def make work a little more fun today.

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Might as well throw in Jamaaladeen Tacuma. It's Friday, it's NYE ...why not? Here's something from Jamaaladeen's short-lived funk band Cosmetic. He got signed to Rough Trade in 82, when post punk bands were all the rage. This sounds very "Ornette meets post punk" with all those angular guitars so I'm pretty sure he was listening to Rough Trade artists (The Fall, Pere Ubu, Pop Group, etc) while writing/recording this:

 

Edited by 1975NQ
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On 12/28/2021 at 4:00 PM, paul carruthers said:

Man, this just popped into my mind & I couldn't believe I forgot Roger Waters...  😳

He's def underrated as a bassist. Killer sense of timing and feel. I love what he did with "Echoes". "Have a Cigar" bass line is also pretty dope.

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