Thread: The Fantastic Bassists of Rock.

I'll begin with Les Claypool of Primus.



Also famous for:

“In the early days all I hoped was to make a living out of what I did best. But, since there's no real market for masturbation I had to fall back on my bass playing abilities.”

Me.

Billy Sheehan's quite good.

Mr.Big were corny, but instrumentally the cat's twat.

Get real. No one gives a shit about bassists and you know it.

Think harder about your Sunday evening thread please.

Originally Posted by somtamslap

Someone posted this ...4 years ago or something

Still fresh with me

Oh yeah

The Who- My Generation Bass Solo - YouTube

The only time i ever heard a bass make a difference to a song was - 'Badge' by Cream many years ago.
Not sure that is relevant here on this thread and i'm not sure who played bass for Cream then.
Great track though.

Jack Bruce

^ Yeah, his name rings a bell here.
By the way you showed up John Entwistle earlier - what a way to go he did with a line of coke and a hooker in a Las Vegas hotel, hope i can go the same way.
Jack Bruce yes, thanks for that.

Here's the dogcatcher in action circa 87

Paul McCartney

Flea

Originally Posted by dobella

The only time i ever heard a bass make a difference to a song was - 'Badge' by Cream many years ago.
Not sure that is relevant here on this thread and i'm not sure who played bass for Cream then.
Great track though.

The Stranglers wouldn't have sounded the same without the distinctive sound of JJ Burnel's bass. Same for PiL and Jah Wobble. And Robbie Shakespeare (of Sly and Robbie) made a big difference to hundreds of reggae tracks.

Stanley Clark

a movie on bass - probably the best collection of bass players you'll see on one dvd



25 Of The Greatest Bass Players Explore The Deep End
RISING LOW documents what happened when 25 bass players as diverse as John Entwistle (The Who) and Larry Graham (Sly & The Family Stone) came together to record with Gov't Mule, a power trio fronted by guitarist Warren Haynes (The Allman Brothers Band). The trio suffered a devastating loss when their bassist, Allen Woody, died in August 2000. Knowing that no single person could fill this void, the band decided to feature a different bass player on each song of their new recording project, The Deep End.

Allen Woody
Alphonso Johnson
Bootsy Collins
Billy Cox
Chris Squire
Chris Wood
Dave Schools
Flea
George Porter Jr.
Jack Bruce
Jack Casady
Joey Arkenstat
John Entwistle Terry Graham
Les Claypool
Meshell Ndegeocello
Mike Gordon
Mike Watt
Oteil Burbridge
Phil Lesh
Rocco Prestia
Roger Glover
Stefan Lessard
Tony Levin
Willie Weeks

^ Gerry Garcia.

no one has mentioned the non-bass player Sid Vicious yet, so I won't either

some songs maybe you wouldn't miss the bass, this one would be nothing without it

turn it up, the 8min 33s EP version

Geddy Lee.
Pino Palidino.
Jacko Pastorias.

Read this article yesterday about Duff McKagan.

No drinking water consumed whatsoever for 10 years!

Fack! That's rudeness.

BBC News - Hardtalk - Guns N' Roses' bassist Duff McKagan's 'wake-up call'

Duff McKagan says he was drinking '10 bottles of wine a day' - and that was when he was trying to cut down his alcohol intake

An attack of acute alcohol-induced pancreatitis was the "wake-up call" former Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan needed to give up a lifestyle of heavy drinking and drug abuse.
Seventeen years ago at the age of 30, he ended up in hospital when his pancreas swelled to the size of a rugby ball and ruptured, leaking digestive enzymes into his body and causing third-degree burns.
"I found myself getting closer and closer to insanity as my drinking got worse, and my drug intake got worse. I knew something would give," he told the BBC's Hardtalk programme.
"Fortunately for me my pancreas did go, otherwise I might have just drowned in vomit."
He said he had begged the surgeon to kill him, the pain was so bad.

WHAT IS PANCREATITIS?
Occurs when the pancreas (a gland in the abdomen) becomes inflamed
Gallstones and excess alcohol are the most common causes
Extremely painful and usually accompanied by vomiting
"When they gave me morphine and the pain didn't go away, that's when I knew I was in real trouble. They did an ultrasound - my pancreas was huge. The surgeon said they would have to cut out part of my pancreas, and that's when I said 'Just kill me'.
"It was a real, real wake-up call. It was a gentle relapse off the alcohol. I was in the hospital for a couple of weeks and it gave me time to really think about how I got there."
'A good son'
Apart from his doctors telling him he would die if he didn't stop drinking, McKagan says getting well for the sake of his mother was his incentive to finally become sober.
"I'm the last of eight kids, my mother came into the hospital. She had Parkinson's, and her youngest son was in hospital with tubes running in and out of him. I was on my deathbed and I knew the order of things was absolutely wrong.

For the first few months I still had the shakes and I didn't know anybody sober - so I rode my bike, and first of all it was like self-flagellation
"I thought, if nothing else, I will make it better for my Mom. I will try to rise to the occasion of being a good son. That's really what started my whole upward swing."
In 1986 Guns N' Roses were living in a one-room rented flat, with no money - but within a year of that, their best-selling debut album took off and their lives changed.
McKagan said there was no "how to video or manual" to teach him how to deal with this sudden change in lifestyle.
He began drinking heavily because he thought it would help to prevent his panic attacks - which he had suffered from since he was a teenager. At his worst, he says he was drinking "a gallon of vodka a day", and then 10 bottles of wine a day "when I was trying to taper down".
He does not blame rock and roll for his addiction, but says that the band's huge success meant that he did not have "time to address my panic disorder, which was really the root of my drinking and self-medicating".
Thirst for water
After his pancreas had returned to a normal size and he was allowed to leave hospital, he did not go to rehab but instead got into mountain biking.

McKagan set up his own wealth management company
"For the first few months I still had the shakes and I didn't know anybody sober, so I rode my bike and first of all it was like self-flagellation, I was beating myself for failing my Mom and some of my friends.
"But it also started to make me feel whole, I was drinking water for the first time, I literally didn't drink water for 10 years. I started eating healthy food, and reading books."
He also came across some financial statements from his Guns N' Roses days in his basement which he didn't understand and was too embarrassed to ask anyone to explain to him - but it was another turning point which set him off on a quest to learn about finance.
"I was 30 years old, sober, a millionaire - and I didn't know what a stock or a bond was, and didn't really trust anybody in my industry, so I went to a class at a community college."
He became interested in academia and enrolled at Seattle University - a big step as he had never graduated from high school. Now he writes a regular column for Playboy called Duffonomics and has set up his own wealth management company to help musicians with their finances.
However, he also says that Guns N' Roses could not have made the music they did without the lifestyle they were living. "We had to go out on the edge to get the songs we got... Our first record was all about the life we were leading."

Originally Posted by the dogcatcher

Pino Palidino.

Pino is a close family friend of my welsh mate and is the first bass choice to have on stage for most of the English rock and roll legends.

And a really nice unassuming bloke as is his other Welsh mate Ned Edwards who was the lead guitarist and musical director for Van Morrison.

Lots of fret wankers on here.

Here's a man's bass player for you all.

Phil Lynott

youtube.com