I agree. Good call.
I’ll 4th him. He plays that thing like a lead guitar.
I’ll also throw out the name of Laura Love.
Hooky is great. Saw him with New Order last year in NYC. Many of the songs where the bass is the lead instrument had the bass parts played on synths (i.e., Subculture). Watch Gillian and Steve - they’re often playing the low end on keys (if you’ve seen a live performance of Blue Monday you’ll notice this).
I’m not sure if Sting fits in this category. I don’t think he is a predominantly melodic bass player, but there were several Police songs, now that I think about it, are quite melodic. “Walking On The Moon,” “Voices Inside My Head,” “O My God,” “I Burn For You…”
I hesitated mentioning him but I think he fits - Mark King of Level 42. With a lot of their songs the bass is the melody. He’s a slap bassist, so it’s a percussive melody, but you’d hum the songs by picking out the bass line. Most famous for the 1985 hit “Something About You.”
How about Kim Deal’s stuff with The Pixies? The basslines were melodic, and a large part of the songs on the first two albums. The bass is less emphazised on the last two albums.
Does Les Pattinson from Echo and the Bunnymen count? His playing is very melodic.
For those in the know, the ultimate melodic bassist of all time was Slam Stewart. The most singable bass parts in the world, literally composed with the human voice in mind. He merged his voice and bass into one sound.
Mike Watt who now does his own stuff, but used to play in Firehose. He plays right along the vocal lines quite often. Very melodic with tons of great accents here in there that you really have to listen to carefully to appreciate. He’s a very underrated bass player.
I’ll second Michael Ivins of the Flaming Lips.
Make that ‘here and there’.
I’m not sure I would count Kim Deal’s basslines as melodic. Don’t get me wrong, I love her stuff, but most of the bass lines that immediately come to mind of her work with the Pixies, the Breeders, and the Amps, follow the bang-out-the-root-note-in-eighths school of rock bass playing.
True, but a bit difficult to replicate his work on an electric bass in a rock context. 
I’d think much of Chrissy Hynde’s bass playing for the Pretenders fits in here.
Also, heartily second Chris Squire.
He actually started out in the Minutmen, one of the best indie bands of the 80s.
Whoa, wait a minute. Chrissy’s a rhythm guitarist. Original bassist was Pete Farndon, until he was booted from the band (and subsequently OD’ed). Tony Butler, Malcolm Foster, Andy Hobson, and even Andy Rourke formerly of The Smiths… but to my knowledge, not Chrissy.
Pete Farndon was a great bassist for the short time we knew him, though.
After taking a road trip this weekend, I just want to drop back in and second the bass player from Cake.
- Peter Wiggen
I didn’t read the thread in its entirety, but I didn’t see a mention of the bassist for Modest Mouse. Very melodic lines. Listen to ‘Blame it on the Tetons’ off of Good News for People Who Love Bad News as a representative example. He plays lines that make the song, but are unexpected. He has a fantastic sense of note placement as well.
Sorry, too late to look up his name, I’m off to bed.
I see your point. I was thinking of how the bassline from, say, Gigantic has the same melody as the song, but then again it’s not the same as how Paul McCartney plays.
Eric Judy, if I’m not mistaken. I think he’s great, he adds a lot without interfering with the leads.
Another performer with an interesting style is Tina Weymouth, from Talking Heads. She knew nothing about the bass; David Byrne would just show her what she needed to play, and then she’d work riffs up from that groundwork. She developed her own style in time, although even their early albums have a very distinct sound.