Melodic rock bassists - know them?

[woodstockbirdybird]

I was beaten to the punch on all of mine, so I’ll second (or third) Mike Mills, Colin Moulding and Nick Lowe, and add Bruce Thomas from Elvis Costello’s band, The Attractions.

[Labdad]

Jack Casady, of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, was one of the first rock musicians to play the bass as if it were a lead instrument. His work was groundbreaking then, and continues to amaze today.

[DfrntBreign]

For a wide sampling of bass players, listen to the Deep End recordings by Gov’t Mule. When their original bassist (Allen Woody) died, the band started a project using Allen’s heroes. It grew into two studio CDs (The Deep End, Volume 1 and The Deep End, Volume 2) and a concert (released as The Deepest End 2CD/1DVD). Mike Gordon of Phish filmed the studio recordings and released the DVD as Rising Low.

Between the four CDs and the two DVDs you can hear:
Jack Bruce (Cream, West, Bruce and Laing, BLT); Larry Graham (Graham Central Station); Mike Gordon (Phish); Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers); Mike Watts (Minutemen, firehose); Roger Glover (Deep Purple); John Entwhistle (Who); Willie Weeks (Aretha Franklin, Little Feat, studio demi-god); Chris Wood (Medeski, Martin and Wood); Oteil Burbridge (Allamn Brothers Band); Stefan Lessard (Dave Matthews Band); Bootsy Collins (Parliment, “They call me Bootsie, baby”); Allen Woody (Allman Brothers Band, Gov’t Mule); Jason Newsted (Metallica); George Porter, Jr. (Neville Brothers, the foundation of New Orleans); Les Claypool (Primus, and too many to list); Rocco Prestia (Tower Of Power); Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, studio staple); Meshell Ndgeocello (herself); Jack Cassady (Hot Tuna, Jefferson Airplane); Chris Squire (Yes); Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead); Billy Cox (Band of Gypsies, Jimi’s friend); Dave Schools (Widespread Panic); Alphonso Johnson (Weather Report, Santana); Greg Rzab (Gov’t Mule); Victor Wooten (Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, solo); Rob Wasserman (I can’t know all of them, that’d just be weird); Paul Jackson, Jr. (co-wrote “Chameleon” with Herbie Hancock); Will Lee (David Letterman’s house band and other stuff); Conrad Lozano (Los Lobos)

(Just assume “Legend” and “many, many more” next to a LOT of these names.)

[Johanna]

The first name that came to mind is Chris Squire. He was the first bassist I ever heard playing it like a lead guitar, all the way through a song. Like in Close to the Edge. Well, any bassist can play a lead guitar solo, but Squire, like Howe, had his worked right in with the ensemble composition.

[zoogirl]

Check out Dennis Dunaway, bassist for the original Alice Cooper group. In particular, check out Dead Babies from the Killer album, Billion Dollar Babies from the album of the same name and Muscle of Love, likewise from the album of the same name.

He’s still out there and active too, in “BDS”.

[Marley23]

@Nonsuch

Although Waters is the credited bassist, much of the bass playing on Pink Floyd records (including the fretless part on “Hey You” and the intro/middle on “Pigs”) is actually Gilmour. Gilmour jokes that Waters would occasionally thank him for winning him “Best Bass Player” polls.

Huh. Who knew?

…Aside from tons of people who aren’t me, that is.

[pulykamell]

Peter Hook of New Order. He is the ultimate melodic pop bassist in my book. Seriously, check his stuff out and listen to those bass lines. He never overplays, he’s not overly technical or anything, but his bass stylings are sublime–the offer nice countermelodies that complement any song he’s playing. Great movement, great melodic interest while holding down the rhythm section and bass.

[Hey_It_s_That_Guy]

Would the late Mark Sandman from Morphine count? He sang and played lead two-string bass in a power trio that didn’t have a guitar!

[Sam_Stone]

Geddy Lee of Rush.

[TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW]

My favorite, who hasn’t been mentoined, is Michael Ivins of the Flaming Lips. He’s always played incredibly melodic basslines, usually very high up on the neck. He seems to get quite a bit of focus on Clouds Taste Metallic and The Soft Bulletin in particular.

[lissener]

I know he’s been pretty hateable that last many years, but the bass work Sting did with the Police was pretty dang sweet. The bubbling melodic bassline under “Spirits in the Material World” may just be my favorite electric bassline this side of John Paul Jones on The Sporting Life. Oh yeah, that’s another. An aMAYzing piece of dark, bubbly bass: The Sporting Life a collaboration between John Paul Jones and Diamanda Galas. In my lifetime top ten. Listen to the samples of “Devil’s Rodeo” and “The Sporting Life,” especially. (“Hex” even moreseo, but the sample includes only the intro, before the bass kicks in.) The whole album is pretty essential for bass lovers.

[Jonathan_Chance]

I agree with the Geddy Lee thing, of course.

I think you’ll find a good bit of this in three piece bands (Rush, The Police, and so forth) as it forces the guitarist to fill a lot more ‘space’ with rhythm and that drops more of the melodic responsibility on the bassist. Bass can’t fill as much space as a guitar playing rhythm but it CAN carry a melody.

Oh, John McCrea from Cake is another one. He’s not the primary bassist but I’ve heard him say he does his songwriting on bass so he can get the melody down that way before filling the song out.

[Evil_Captor]

When it comes to melodic, try Paul Goddard of Atlanta Rhythm Section. All of their songs have a certain lilt, bounce and sway that comes from the bass lines. In fact, the bass solo on “Champagne Jam” is one of the more listenable bass solos I’ve ever heard.

Also, dittoes on Alice Cooper’s bass. I’ve always thought early Alice Cooper was a much better band than its vocalist deserved.

[Zeldar]

@Marley23

I’m a big fan of Berry Oakley (the original Allman Brothers Band bass player). A very melodic and aggressive player who pushed the guitarists in a live setting, but never had to go out of his way to draw attention to himself.

Berry’s who I thought of when I saw the thread title.

[zoogirl]

@Evil Captor

Also, dittoes on Alice Cooper’s bass. I’ve always thought early Alice Cooper was a much better band than its vocalist deserved.

HEY!!! :mad: Them’s fightin’ words! Humph!

[Yookeroo]

@pulykamell

Peter Hook of New Order. He is the ultimate melodic pop bassist in my book. Seriously, check his stuff out and listen to those bass lines. He never overplays, he’s not overly technical or anything, but his bass stylings are sublime–the offer nice countermelodies that complement any song he’s playing. Great movement, great melodic interest while holding down the rhythm section and bass.

I love Peter Hook. Maybe my favorite bassist.

[mack]

@PeterWiggen

Also I think Lesh plays a Modulus. Here’s a link.

…and before that a bunch of highly customized Gibson and Alembic basses in the 70’s. He describes one of his setups in The Grateful Dead Movie. It’s hideously complicated, complete with a dedicated signal path for each string.

Phil is using a new quadrophonic bass, the electronics of which were designed and built by George Mundy and the body and pickups by Rick Turner [of Alembic]. The new bass has the same versatile qualities as the old bass: three pickups (bass and treble low-impedence pickups covering all the strings, and a quad pickup which has a separate signal for each string); on each of the bass and treble pickups there are controls which enable him to select 1) the band width of the filter, 2) the center frequency of the filter, 3) the kind of filter being used, and 4) mix unequalized unfiltered direct sound with the filtered sound. The variety of sounds which can be achieved on the bass is the result of the many different combinations of these variables which can be used. The new bass has a frequency response with a crisper tone, and two quad pickups instead of one, the new one being a frequency-detector pickup. The main addition to the new bass is a Digital Decoding Circuit such that ten push buttons on the bass allow Phil to select any one of sixteen quad spatial arrangements of his speakers, and eight in the stereo mode.

http://www.dead.net/cavenweb/deadfile/newsletter19soundrap.html

http://www.philzone.com/leshlinks/phil-lesh-bio.html

**Danny Thompson’s ** playing for Kate Bush on Hounds of Love is remarkable. Upon looking him up on All-Music it turns out he’s played with a whole bunch of folks I like.

[mack]

Also I remember reading that **John Paul Jones ** had a lot more input into Led Zeppelin’s signature riffs than one would think. I think he’d fall into the ‘melodic’ camp, in general.

[pulykamell]

@mack

Also I remember reading that **John Paul Jones ** had a lot more input into Led Zeppelin’s signature riffs than one would think. I think he’d fall into the ‘melodic’ camp, in general.

I also love John Paul Jones. Just check out his beautiful rhythmical and melodic work in “Ramble On”–one of the greatest rock bass parts of all time.

[Cluricaun]

@mack

…and before that a bunch of highly customized Gibson and Alembic basses in the 70’s. He describes one of his setups in The Grateful Dead Movie. It’s hideously complicated, complete with a dedicated signal path for each string

Ever so slight nitpick…Phil’s main bass set up in the 70’s was an Alembic modified Guild Starfire Bass Ever so slight especially because my link is from Alembic’s web site.