Entertainment For Lively Minds
The bass, the bass...
Posted by the_saint on 17 February 2010 - 2:42pm.
I was mulling the drums posting here, and for some reason kept thinking about Bernard Edwards' bass playing standing out on Chic's I Want Your Love. So I thought I'd post it, and see if anyone else has got a track where the bass is all.
Every time I hear this I'm hypnotized by how Edwards subtly moves his motif during the verses to keep it interesting; so simple, yet...
Also, how he anchors the chorus line by ending on a held low note, grabbing your attention (and begging you to dip that hip!), proving that it's often what you don't play that makes the music...
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One of the greatest records ever made...
that's all I have to say.
Trevor Bolder?
John I'm Only DancingUploaded by MoonageWebdream.
How about some nice twangy bass?
Margouleff and Cecil...
...have a whole lot to answer for in modern music, introducing, as they did, the Moog bassline in to pop music. A fine example herein...
Bruce Foxton
Loads of Jam tracks were built around the mullet-haired bassist.
Stranglers too, most of their most memorable riffs were from JJ's bass.
This one immediately springs to mind....
Hurts your wrists that one!
See also - The Ox in virtually everything The 'Oo did but especially Who's Next and Quadrophenia. Possibly the only band where drums and bass were lead intruments.
Though sometimes the simple ones are the best.
Adam Clayton's light and tender bassline in With or Without You really drives the song and carries much of the emotion.
I never thought I would see...
... "Adam Clayton" and "emotion" in the same sentence.
Now for the other side
Crimes against the bass
Almost unwatchable, uttlerly unlistenable, everything bad about basso profondo.
On the bass, Michael Anthony...
he wrote this. His attempts at integrating his newly-learnt Pastorius licks into his repetoire still needed more work.
Party Girl - Elvis Costello
Bruce Thomas takes care of the low notes (and throws some high ones in as well).
Hejira
One of my favourite albums, even though I'm not a big Joni fan.
Jaco Pastorius' bass is almost like a second vocal.
An ace of bass.
The Great Bernard
What I love about Bernard Edwards is that most of his stuff is fairly easy to play. The genius is how it's played; the phrasing, the timing, the sheer awareness of what's going on and how to modulate his lines around it all.
Let's have some more shall we?
you can never have too much Nard
Also...
Chic - Everybody DanceUploaded by coolfunk.
Seemples Minds
everything with Derek Forbes
Family with Wetton
King Crimson with Wetton
Ferry with Wetton
Chris Squire
Spinal Tap, especially Big Bottom and Jazz Odyssey
Watt-Roy and Dury
That's it, I'm too ashamed...
I'm throwing away my bass and taking up the Bolivian nose flute. That's possibly the worst low end thing I've ever heard.
Just pipping a Victor Wooten live solo I saw playing on DVD in a shop on Denmark street once. Now Vic's a top player when he's sessioning for someone or holding down the low end for the Flecktones but give him free space to try to cram about 27 million notes into every bar and... oh dear. It was the perfect piece of music apart from completely lacking a sense of rhythm, harmony, melody or timbre - what this clip lacked in those it made up for in ample self indulgence! The fact that he's usually a top, top, top player just made it all the worse.
How could I leave this behind
Spinal Tap's Big Bottom bass odyssey:
Brian Ritchie
The Bassist from the The Violent Femmes. My favourite playing of his is one Please Do Not Go, but as I can't find a good video of that...
Kiss Off!
Fuzzy bass