The first real bass line I learned was for “Midnight Hour”. It worked. Oh, and “Sunshine Of Your Love”.
When Abby Road was first released, the bass line for “Come Together” was pretty attention getting. Sometime after the White Album was released, Lennon griped to one of the engineers that they were never getting enough of Paul’s bass on their records and the engineer came up with a way to do it.
I love these kinds of threads. Lots of good nominations above.
But Eddie’s right, “any bass line played by Rob Wright” is the correct answer for me this week. I’m glad I didn’t grow up in his neighborhood. I would have given up playing out of despair for my paltry ability after hearing him. My picks (spoilered for dirty words):
Two Lips, Two Lungs and One Tongue/Rags and Bones - beautiful playing, crushing tone, all over the neck. HE’S NOT A MAN! HE’S A MACHINE!
I came to post that. It’s my favorite RHCP song.
David Essex - “Rock On.”
Me too, but mine from Duran Duran is the bass line from Girls on Film. John Taylor’s just amazing in pretty much everything they do.
I would’ve picked another song as at least the bass line that’s heard by the most people today, but I learned that the riff from Seven Nation Army isn’t a bass at all, but
So not a bass. But damned if you can go to a sporting event without hearing that riff everywhere.
“Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again” Sly and the Family Stone
“Bernadette” The Four Tops
“Badge” Cream
and because it’s just so darn fun to play…
“Boris the Spider” The Who
When I’m Sixty-Four – The Beatles
Ramble On – Led Zeppelin
Well of course we don’t just include the bass guitar in this, do we? This bass line is a combination of keyboard and bass guitar
Booker T - Green Onions
Left Field - Phat planet. You might know this bassline from another place wait until 44 seconds in.
Maybe you should check out Iron maiden Fools Gold - Stone roses Papa was a rolling stone - Temptations Me and baby brother - War
Walk on the Wild side - Lou Reed - but we all know it was Herbie Flowers who came up with it
Another one bites the dust - Queen - I can't see it here, I'd have thought it was one of the best known bass leads ever.
Pretty much any Soul Coughing song, but I’d suppose, “Super Bon Bon,” is the most recognizable.
We’re this far in and no one’s mentioned this one yet?
“For the Love of Money”- the O’Jays (bass by Anthony Jackson)
Silly Love Songs by Sir Paul. I don’t like the song that much, but go listen to it if you don’t believe me. It’s not a solo. It’s the whole song.
Another “splunge” bassist was Kenyon, from the hyper-glorious Man is the Bastard.
Niacin - Elbow Grease
Agreed. You might even say that’s one where the bass line conveys the message or meaning of the song: “So what if I write silly love songs—I played bass for The Beatles.”
No love for Crimson and Clover?
[quote=“casdave, post:69, topic:753099”]
Another one bites the dust - Queen - I can’t see it here, I’d have thought it was one of the best known bass leads ever.
[/QUOTE]Post # 6
“You can’t really dust for vomit…”.
While I agree this is pretty good, my favorite is The Chili Pepper’s cover of “Higher Ground”. Flea is a maniac on the bass!
MtM
I’ll have to second “Tempus Fugit” by Yes mainly because I’ve pretty much heard of all of these songs despite not being particularly cognizant of the full range of output of the bands or artists. But I was a fan of Yes and didn’t know anything about this song until I was listening to the bass lines extracted from songs on Chris Squire’s (RIP) website, so I highly doubt most people have absolutely any idea about this song. I don’t know if it’s the best, but the bass stands out much more than most songs, having a lot of passages as the lead instrument.
Well, my first thought was “Anything by RUSH” simply because Geddy Lee was originally a lead guitarist who got pushed into the Bass role by a former band so his bass work seems very lead-inspired. *Limelight *comes to mind. But, then again, there’s a lot of songs where Geddy doesn’t dominate with his bass while leading with his voice. They really do balance a lot of material quite nicely.
But while I was thinking “bass playing like a lead” I thought,
[ul]
[li]Yes: *Long Distance Runaround *(that’s a fretless bass, by the way)[/li][li]Boston: Rock N Roll Band[/li][li]Boston: Cool The Engines[/li][/ul]
and before I close my contribution, the one that really grabbed my attention on first airplay was
[ul]
[li]Smithereens: Blood and Roses[/li][/ul]
…which seemed prescient to the Grunge turn
–G!