greatest bass players (or basslines) ever

stanley clarke...

...the stuff he did with george duke was off the scale

robbie shakespeare...nuffsaid

my three favorite players:

Jah Wobble
Clint Conley from Mission of Burma
Bootsy Collins (circ. J.B.'s)

..that poofter from LEVEL42. He had an excellent 'slap and pop' technique!

but seriously:

WHITE LINES - Doug Wimbish
IN a JAR - Lou Barlow ( I think he really took the Peter Hook thing to the next step)

Holger Czukay
Jussi Lehtisalo
Max Brennan (coz Buick already had Mark King)
Cecil McBee
Henry Grimes
Coki
Hiroshi Nar

James Jamerson
Paul McCartney
Tina Weymouth

... so many

Ok then ...(not in particular order 'cept 70's to 80's) how 'bout

Tony 'Geezer' Butler
John Paul Jones
Percy Jones
Paul Rudolph (early Ferry & Eno)
John Wetton (Red period King Crimson)
JJ Burnell
Peter Hook . Most of the basslines on Unknown Pleasures

All British it turns out
(well, Burnell maybe the 'EUROman')

francesco said:

I LOVE BASS (and that include jazz double bass, electric bass or bass machines).

just listened Le Freak by Chic, surely one of the overplayed songs ever, and not even one of the best Chic song, but, damn, when at the middle of the song the bassline comes in evidence, it's totally bliss...

so, out of my mind:
Bernards Edward (chic)......
......
favorite bass players or basslines anyone?

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has to be the bassline at the end of chic's happy man.

Robbie Shakespeare - a true powehouse. If you ever get a chance to see him live, grab it with both hands.

hmm bernard edwards - has to be saturday by norma jean for me.
robbie shakespeare
cliff burton
stanley clarke
bootsy
carole kaye
squarepusher is pretty fkin fine too regardless of the indulgence.
ba

bassline wise - the thing marvelous cain and bizzy b . stripped back d and b to just a brilliant bassline.
reese - just want another chance.
beatfreaks - fire - bizzy b again .
journey in satchandinada - alice coltrane.
will come back to this got a headache.

Bill Laswell.

Mick Karn

the bassline from maurizio's m7!

Les Claypool.

Sick bassist...

Krust's mid 90s stuff, and SS's formation classics.

from jungle/hardcore:
Bay B Kane - Quarter To Doom
JMJ & Richie - Case Closed
that dancehall bassline that Potential Bad Boy - Warning samples
Altern-8 - Infiltrate 202

The Slits - Heard It Through The Bassline ( Just heard this recently for the first time)
Talking Heads - Slippery People (working on a re-edit, so stuck in my head...in fact they had a few good basslines, the Talking Heads)
The Clash - Magnificent Dance

Standard stuff... disco, funk, dub, hiphop etc.

Do like the old skool sweeping style portamento sub ala Cloud 9s Burnin'.

My all-time fave b-line is from a rubadub tune I can't remember the name of, the pattern was used in a bunch of jungle tunes - by Omni Trio, BLIM and Nico etc... Its so simple and funkily hypnotic.

badum badum bada-badum badum

As for tone/abrasion its pretty hard to match the range of subs over Dillinjas career.

Grrr, too much to think about here. Some not mentioned, off the top of my head:

James Jamerson - Motown session player, mindblowing, foundational, defined the instrument
Charles Mingus - needs no introduction
Charlie Haden - played with Ornette and Metheny, for starters
Deborah Scroggins - ESG

From the post-hardcore (US-style) world, since no dissensians are going to say much about these bands :

David Wm Sims - Scratch Acid, Jesus Lizard, monster tone, monster player
Fred Erskine - Hoover, Crownhate Ruin, June of 44, many more, one of the finest
Kim Coletta - Jawbox, incredible tone
Bob Weston - Volcano Suns, Shellac, tapes for Burma these days, great guy
Tom Zaluckyj - Tar
David Pajo - Slint, Tortoise, all of that. Bundy Brown probably goes here too.

favorite basslines? Bah, too many. Some favorites, mostly recent, off the top of my head:

Anti-War Dub - a classic example of bass as melody, totally gorgeous
Martyn - I Wonder Why
Sieso, the first side of the Villalobos EP, when the bass drops
Sleeparchive and Ikeda - lots of examples of atypical bass frequency here
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
Photek - Hidden Camera
Klute - Hang-up (from Total Self) - riDICulous

EDIT: Pretty much everything off of the Jahcoozi record from last year, beautifully engineered bass, wow.

No thread on classic basslines is complete without mentioning Queen - Another One Bites the Dust. Hehe.

This is the kind of thing where as soon as you reply, you remember fifty more examples . . .

tate said:

Charlie Haden - played with Ornette and Metheny, for starters

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And Don Cherry's Brown Rice. Fantastic b-lines throughout.