Bought the new Rush DVD the other day. Heard "Spirits In The Material World" by the Police today....Sting of course...I love the bass line... and of course, he's the most famous bass player next to Paul in the world. And now, by chance, I'm watching a Primus DVD. Bass galore there.

Who is the best bassist from the 70's? The 80's? The 90's? And I'm not talking songwriting ability, because Sting and Paul would win most of these catagories. Strictly ability. Who do you say "wow" to?

And please, limit this forum to bass players only. I'm one of the biggest music fans on this forum, but my opinion is not here. Actually, my personal #1 and #2 I did not even mention.

What up, bassist?????

70's belong to Jaco, 80's i would probably give to Stanley clarke, and 90's to vic wooten.

OK, I get that.

Let me rephrase the question: Who among the "better known" bassist is usually considered the best?

oh...sorry. i guess you'll have to wait for someone who doesn't know anything about music to come along and mention geddy lee or flea.

(there should be a winky face by this post, i don't really mean to be a dick.)

[This message has been edited by Professor Frick (edited 7/15/2006 1:27a).]

[This message has been edited by Professor Frick (edited 7/15/2006 2:04a).]

Jaco was awesome. Go back even further for Charles Mingus. I like Jazz too, but I am not a snob.

If we're going for more rock & roll choices, I would suggest the following:

John Paul Jones
John Entwistle
Geezer Butler
Les Claypool
Allen Woody
Flea
Paul McCartney
Billy Cox

[This message has been edited by Old Style (edited 7/15/2006 1:53a).]

The 90's probably have to go to Flea.

Flea rules!

add cliff burton to OS's list

Professor...by seeing the text of my topic, I was assuming replies would assume "rock-oreinted" bassist. I've seen Stanley Clarke before, and thought he was amazing. Clarke and his few peers are great, just maybe for another topic.

my bad.

dp

[This message has been edited by Professor Frick (edited 7/15/2006 11:57a).]

Anyone remember the video to Genesis' "Sussidio"?

There was this bass player, a grizzly of a man, who had some extenstions taped on his fingers(looked like pencils) and he was playing that complicated bass line.

Flea

Geddy

Sting (he was such a gifted bass player that the young punks in England would come for miles just to see him play back in their early days.)

Claypool

That was Phil Collins. Don't know who played that line. I always thought it was one of those Mini-Moog bass things anyway. Kind of a rip off from Stevie Wonder's "Innervisions" sound.

Tony Levin. He plays with Peter Gabriel, too.

Billy Sheehan needs to be mentioned...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Sheehan

I always thought this guy was a pretty good bass player

Mikey goes into the "Underrated" category. Actually, if you look at it, many of the great bassist are also great singers. And he's a very underated vocalist...amazing ear for harmonies. Not every great vocalist has to be a front man.

Glad to see some people appreciating Michael Anthony. He is a great guy who is definitely underrated.

Victor Damiani- formerly of cake
no pic avail.
Robert Deleo- STP

Jack Bruce - Cream

Alex Katunich - formerly of incubus

Nick Oliveri - best known with Queens of the Stone Age


[This message has been edited by JFK_00 (edited 7/15/2006 10:12p).]

[This message has been edited by JFK_00 (edited 7/15/2006 10:13p).]

[This message has been edited by JFK_00 (edited 7/15/2006 10:14p).]

Is it just me or do Alex Katunich and Nick Oliveri look like identical twins?

Crap. You already edited it.

[This message has been edited by Old Style (edited 7/15/2006 10:15p).]

crap! google image it. I'm tired of muckin around with texags.

Don't know about being the "best", but I like Nick. What's he up to these days?

JFK, I always think about DeLeo when the question comes up. He's not real fancy but he did a good job of making their music more three dimensional.

Oh yeah, I've also heard a little of Trip Walmsley. I was very impressed with the little I heard. I'll do a little research to see what I can find.

PS. Check out some of his stuff:

http://www.tripwamsley.com/totma.htm

[This message has been edited by bluestainedivy (edited 7/15/2006 11:32p).]

We have been robbed for 20 years now of bass greatness following the bus crash that killed Cliff Burton. I dont know were Metallica would be now if he were still alive, but I do know that we wouldnt have load/reload.



It's the one that says badmother f--ker

Chris Squire of YES...

older guys:

JP JOnes
Entwhistle
Geezer
Jack Bruce

"New" guys:
Claypool
Cliff Burton
Justin Chancellor - tool
Flea

I'm a huge Zep fan so I'm partial to JP Jones. Listen to Lemon Song. His bass play is incredible. I know the discussion is about playing the bass, but he was such an underapprecaiated part of zep's arrangements as well as keyboards.

I don't know what you guys have been listening to, but Michael Anthony is far from a great bass player.

Jerry Peek, used to play with Steve Morse.

Some good ones that haven't been mentioned (I don't think ):

Billy Talbot - Neil Young/Crazy Horse

Kim Deal - Pixies

Doug Pinnick - King's X

Dee Dee Ramone - The Ramones (genius in simplicity)

Nile Rodgers - Chic

norwood fisher --- fishbone



mike gordon --- phish

what about the super freak himself?