The bass player in my band is one of my best friends. He's been playing bass for over 40 years. About once a year I send him that meme where a girl is crying and it says "He said he was a musician, but he's just a bass player!"

Haha. But seriously, one note at a time on strings the size of ski ropes?

The thing about most bass players is you don't notice them when they're playing, you notice them when they stop playing for a measure.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix are two of the best guitarists of all time in my opinion, but they did it most of the time with only one other non-percussion instrument on stage, and that was the bass player. I doubt they could hang with flea, but those two guys deserve some credit.

Mark King is better than Flea.

I'd like everyone to take a minute and watch this masterpiece. Gives me chills every time.

Aggie Therapist said:

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ElephantRider said:

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ABATTBQ11 said:

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Unpopular opinion, but the Beatles aren't that great

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I second that.

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I third that. Just doesn't move the needle for me.

Taylor Swift has done more for music than the Beatles ever did.

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This is much closer to being true if you say Max Martin instead of Taylor Swift

Jack Bruce
Donald "Duck" Dunn

Already lots of great names on here. Hard to argue with putting Flea, Claypool, and Burton into the top of the rankings. I've also always been a huge fan of Ryan Martinie from Mudvayne.

StinkyPinky said:

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Jaco Pastorius

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This would be the correct answer if you remove the term "Rock". Such a tragic ending to a genius level musician.

Steve Harris is my #1 both due to being a song writer and just the incredible complexity of his bass lines.

Geddy Lee is outstanding as well considering he has complex bass lines + sings + keyboards.

well_endowed_ag said:

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It's a pet peeve of mine when somebody makes a "best of" musicians list, and the top of the list is populated by musicians who are clearly not the best, but the creator of the list feels like they deserve credit because the bands they were in were super popular or influential.

If you're going to make a "best of" list or name a "best" musician on a particular instrument, then actually name the best musician(s). Maybe Paul McCartney is the most influential bassist of all time, but that's a different list. He's clearly not the best. Flea himself is far better.

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Are you equating 'best' to most technically proficient? If so, that is dumb and useless.

There are musicians out there who are far more technically proficient than any famous influential person, but no one cares because they didn't make an impact.

The holistic definition of "best" has to include impact/influence, along with technicality, innovation, transcendence, imagination, originality, resourcefulness, etc..

While not off the charts technically, Paul has a ton of a lot of the other stuff.

Quote:

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The thing about most bass players is you don't notice them when they're playing, you notice them when they stop playing for a measure.

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Turn off the taylor swift and listen to more interesting music.

I hear basslines all the time in my random mix of playlist songs. Lots of metal, but other stuff as well. Something like rocket man, or to relate to op, beatles - something.

62strat said:

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Quote:

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The thing about most bass players is you don't notice them when they're playing, you notice them when they stop playing for a measure.

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Turn off the taylor swift and listen to more interesting music.

I hear basslines all the time in my random mix of playlist songs. Lots of metal, but other stuff as well. Something like rocket man, or to relate to op, beatles - something.

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Here is the original version. Taylor's bassist adds bass to Blackened.



Metallica Blackened from ...And Justice For All (Bass Cover) (youtube.com)

maroon barchetta said:

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Geddy loved McCartney and Jack Bruce and The Ox and John Paul Jones and especially Chris Squire. Tons of younger bass players love Geddy.

He also praised Jeff Berlin.

Jaco is not a rock bassist but is considered by many to be Top 5.

Billy Sheehan
Victor Wooten (not really rock)
Stu Ham

There is no "best". Not on any instrument. There are just great musicians that bring different things to the table and are great at what they do.

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Only mention of Stu in the thread...

Only person that ever pretended to play bass in high school and college.

Not the "greatest" but Simon Gallup of The Cure has to be up there and is one of the most underrated and influential bassists of all time in my opinion.

Paul McCartney names his pick for "favorite bassist to ever play funky and often overly complex bass parts in support of a shirtless front man whose lyrics always rhyme but make no sense".

Paul McCartney is probably the most influential because of the popularity of The Beatles, but I don't think that makes him the greatest. If I had to pick, I'd probably go with John Entwistle. Les Claypool maybe for talent, but Primus just wasn't popular enough for him to rank #1. Flea is up there as well. He probably has more iconic bass lines than anybody, but there are plenty of guys that can outplay him. There's probably some jazz guy that could outplay any rock bassist in history.

Spot on review.

Bruce Almighty said:

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Paul McCartney is probably the most influential because of the popularity of The Beatles, but I don't think that makes him the greatest. If I had to pick, I'd probably go with John Entwistle. Les Claypool maybe for talent, but Primus just wasn't popular enough for him to rank #1. Flea is up there as well. He probably has more iconic bass lines than anybody, but there are plenty of guys that can outplay him. There's probably some jazz guy that could outplay any rock bassist in history.

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Like Chuck Rainey, Steely Dan bassist who's played on tons of jazz recordings.

Or Stanley Clark.

The problem with trying to limit 'best' to technical proficiency, is that it will always be skewed toward those whose music happens to be complex enough for them to show off all those technical skills. Bass just doesn't in general lend itself to a lot of 'showing off'.

Also, if that's the metric, then Flea wouldn't sniff the top 10 or 20.

I'm gonna say Leon Wilkeson from Lynyrd Skynyrd needs to be on the list. Not huge technical bass parts, but stuff that just got the songs perfectly.