Entertainment For Lively Minds
Uh-oh...it`s a fretless bass
Posted by johnsimpson1965 on 15 June 2011 - 2:17pm.
I know there a few fellow 4-string manglers out there so this is for them.
The fretless bass. Much maligned and often rightly so.But i quite like this in a gentle sort of way , quite nice to play along to and it helps that its uber-jangly.
(The Church.."Now I wonder why" youtube)
But we all know how wrong it can be.....
(Paul Young..I`m gonna tear your playhouse down youtube live)
God bless Pino, he starts to motor about 4.40 into the performance, and secretly I quite like it.
So come on then, share your fave four string fret work with The Massive.
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Anything by
John Entwistle really. Or Bernard Edwards.
Entwhistle
Where does JE play fretless? I can't think of a single example, though my Who collection isn't comprehensive.
EDIT Note to self - read OP properly before posting :-)
The OP
just asks for favourite "4 string fret work" so I'm assuming the request was ANY bass player despite the initial fretless comments.
Let's try not to fret over this one.
Yes
That was my conclusion on rereading the original post.
You`re correct.
Any bass related opinions welcome.
I`ll add this.
Should I sell my Rickenbacker 4001?
Purchased thanks to quite a generous redundancy payment 7 years ago(thanks Mr Branson) but we just don`t get on. It sounds great though.
Get rid.
If you don't get on, just get rid. All Ricks are very Marmite. I love the sound, but couldn't own one. Life's too short to persevere with stuff you're not enjoying.
So you..
..don`t want it??
Ha!
No thanks. Lovely instruments, but I have a bass already, and I tend not to like Rick necks.
Mick Karn
His fretless work for Japan always seemed perfect for the music and he came up with some great bass lines. Irrespective of whether or not you care for their music (I love it) there's a great musical unit working here.
agreed...
more japan please - i always loved what other people dismissed!
One...
..of the great rhythm sections of our time. I was playing Tin Drum just the other day, and it's amazing. It really is.
I'm keeping it fretless
Mick Karn (Gary Numan)- A Subway Called You
Pino Palladino (Gary Numan) - We Take Mystery (To Bed)
Lou Howard (The Planet Wilson) - Mouth To Mouth
Lou Howard (Red Guitars) - Sting In the Tale
This one is...
probably my favourite song of all time, and my favourite Jaco bassline. I love his work with Joni!
JONI MITCHELL - REFUGE OF THE ROADS
A bass-playing friend
(and Jaco worshipper) expressed the opinion that Jaco's best work was on Hejira. As a non-playing admirer of Jaco's I must say he fitted absolutely perfectly on that album.
Said friend also opined that none of Jaco's solo albums were a patch on his work with Weather Report or on other artist's albums. I think I'd have to agree there.
I'd agree with...
him as well. I always preferred Jaco as a sideman (albeit a fairly prominent one!) rather than solo.
jaco and joni
There's some fabulous work on Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, right across sides 1 and 4 (the omission of sides 2 and 3 would have made for a masterpiece of a single album). The opening of side 1 is just gorgeous duet between Joni's unique rhythm guitar and dramatic bass playing announcing its presence as here to stay on this album. Much underrated tracks on this album.
it's worth posting the track
because I just love that bass run at 1:58. Don Juan is probably my favourite Joni album and I have waxed lyrical about it in the past, so I can't agree with the assessment that it should have been a single album (why limit it?).
And while I agree that a lot of Jaco's best playing was on Joni albums, he did some marvellous stuff with Weather Report. Listen to Black Market from the live album 8:30
Bill Wyman....
..said, on a recent 6Music podcast, that he invented the fretless bass guitar. Can anyone verify this?
Wiki
has it that Bill Wyman did indeed invent the fretless bass in 1961 but elsewhere it's claimed that Paul Tutmarc invented it in the 1930s. Wiki has Tutmarc making the first horizontal electric bass but it was fretted. Perhaps, this is just my speculation, Tutmarc invented an electric fretless upright bass but Bill "Metal Detector" Wyman got there first on the horizontal.
Jah Wobble
managed to create a really powerful fretless bass sound that obviously added a rich dub element to PIL's music. Metal Box still sounds alien but it's Wobble's bass that provides guide notes to what's going on.
Another great rhythm section at work here and a bonus clip of a gobsmacked Annie Nightingale at the end
I didn`t know..
..he played a fretless.
The debut single is one of my fave songs of all time.
Saw him at the Band on the Wall Manchester about 9 years ago.
He only played one song.
But it lasted 90 minutes.
Going back to fretted basses for minute, please welcome...
... the fret slapping skills of the much under-rated Colin Moulding, here performing his own composition 'What In The World' from the Dukes of Stratosphear's "25 O'Clock" EP.
Some of many
Jaco
James Jamerson
John Paul Jones
Duck Dunn
Randy Hobbs
Andy Fraser
Jeffrey Hammond Hammond (even though by his own account he could barely play it)
Ray Brown
etc
You are only as good as your drummer, they say, but a decent bass player is pretty essential too.
Top Bassing
Bruce Foxton:
Jam - Funeral Pyre
J J Burnel:
Stranglers - Peaches
Ali McMordie:
Stiff Little Fingers - Gotta Getaway
Let's not forget John
Let's not forget John Giblin, whose stellar fretless bass provides an effortlessly gliding, mournful undertow to John Martyn's Grace and Danger. And works amazingly well with what could be Phil Collins's finest recorded work, IMHO.
According to our friends at Wikipedia, he's also played with what looks like a Word reader smorgasbord of talent: Eric Clapton, Sting, Mark Knopfler, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds, David Sylvian, Kate Bush, Scott Walker, Al Green, Duncan Browne, Brand X, Joan Armatrading, John Lennon, Roberta Flack, Paul McCartney, The Everly Brothers, George Martin, Gerry Rafferty, Mavis Staples, Jon Anderson, Elkie Brooks, Fish, and (ahem) Chris de Burgh and (ahem-hem) Richard Ashcroft.
Ah but..
....he played with Simple Minds during their white "blouson" phase.
Well,
We all need to earn our daily brioche.
Late to the party
but anyway
Colin Moulding-Fretless for sure on the whole of English Settlement
Bruce Foxton-particularly on latter day Jam tracks
Paul McCartney-Under rated but suppose his other talents get in the way
Jet Harris/John Rostill
John Taylor
Kelly Groucutt
and finally Esther
Deacy himself Mr John Deacon
Oh My...
How could I forget
Greg Lake
or
Mike Oldfield
More Entwistle
John Entwistle and starry friends - the Ox kicks off about four minutes in. Sublime!
Jesus Christ.
Is that...
"Jesus Christ" in a good way, or "Jesus Christ" in a bad way?
:-)
I'll let you guess.
:-)
You're such a tease!
I guess... thumbs-aloft.
My favourite song with fretless bass on it
Simply lovely