Nail Soup

Wow, great mix of reggae and ......... not sure what? But it sounds great!

How about Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica Album? For example the opening track "Frownland" contains 7/4, 5/4,12/8 and 8/4 - usually two of them at once. That's according to the guy in the second video.....I could never work that out for myself 😕😕. Here is a 30 minute analysis of the song. Actually the first 15 mins talks about the album in general, recording process and lyrics. The last 15 mins go into the musical structure of the song. In minute detail. Way beyond my level but fascinating to watch!

Got one of the team onto it now. And as a bonus, we'll pull his bass up to chest height while we're at it.

When I read a statement like "wake me up before you go go is crap but the bassline is great" in a discussion forum I assume a) that they intended it as statement of their opinion and b) that they assumed that no-one would read it a statement of fact, because it's a discussion forum. And that's OK with me. If they made the same statement in Wham's Wikipedia page then it would not be OK with me. And lastly, I assume that if someone uses the word 'pants' in a thread title then it's meant to be fun.

Not quite sure which dance track say is best.... but this would be a hot favourite. In fact I'd go so far as to put my normal reserve to one side and declare it a 'banger'!

Yeah - could be!

I love Hong Kong Garden by Siouxsie and the Banshees... but the stuff the bass does high up on the G string really jars for me. It's not so much that we lose the bottom end - that could be part of the texture of the song. It's that it does not follow the chord change, and seems to randomly stop playing at some points.

All three ofthe artists in OP were 'Pop Stars1 in the eighties.... but had previous form as 'serious musicians' before that....so if you know that it is not a surprise to see there stripped down performance. It would surprise me if someone who I regard as a front for producer-led music did a great self-acompanied acoustic performance...Sinnitta , Kylie etc. I wonder how many such artists could?

I'll state my personal position first of all - I play 4 string, in the main the music I'm into (if it has a bass guitar) was made on a four string, and I'm happy to work within the constraints of a four string. In art constraints of a medium are not a bad thing IMO. Give me a four string bass and I'm as happy as a pig in you-know-what. I can always change if the need arises. In the last couple of years since I started reading basschat I have learned that a 5/6 string can be used to play in keys not easily accessible to a 4 string, can 'put the notes under your hand' and works well with some styles such as solo improvisation. Onto the OP question, which I take to be asking how much the 5/6 string has contributed to the general developement of music. There was an interesting thread on here about how different technologies have driven the developement of music - e.g Microphones, Electric Guitar, Overdrive, multi-track, synth, sampler etc. I think all of those plus the Bass guitar made big contribution, but the change to more than 4 strings is did not make a similar contribution. The basic styles and methods of bass guitar (walking lines, root 8's, melodic bass, lead bass, funk bass, slap and so on) were developed on 4 strings or inherited from double bass as far as I know. So I would conclude that 5/6 strings have not made a massive contribution to the way 99% of music actually sounds.

Probably my favourite from the Upsetters camp - Pound Get a Blow Despite the possibly humorous interpretations of the title, it is actually about the 1969 Jamaican currency change from Pounds to Jamaican Dollars.

Before Golden Brown, the Stranglers had another, lesser known, song in 13/4 - "Peasant in the Big $h1tty" (I think it's 13/4 anyway) The whole song is pretty weird, not just the time sig... and it is sung by the recently departed Dave Greenfield.

Here's one from an unlikley candidate....... OK, it's not the whole or even main part of song, but Rockaway Beach by the Ramones has the instrumental riff (comes after the choruses) in 5/4 time over a 4/4 drum beat. Caused a fair bit of discussion when my covers band first did it.

[................. looks up from counter....] Oh, hello there! I'm Nail Soup and I'll be looking after The Repair Shop while Jay Blades is away. Now don't tell Jay or the BBC, but while I'm here we will run a bassline special. Do you have a much-loved song but the bass-line needs some attention? Perhaps the player should have stuck to roots during the verse, maybe an intrusive fill should be polished out... or could simply need a good de-clanking. Let me know the song................... and what you would like our expert team to do to the bassline.

So what is the snare doing in this song - Dress by PJ Harvey..... (I like it by the way)

You might be able to persuade a covers band to do that instead of "Sex on Fire"

Sounds like he is simply playing the snare on beats 1 and 3, instead of the normal backbeat of 2 and 4. You know - the way some people clap along to music.

No, but I think I found one that really takes the biscuit https://metro.co.uk/2015/06/01/21-british-biscuits-ranked-from-worst-to-best-the-definitive-list-5224653/

Betty Harris - There's a Break In the Road. Just heard this on 6 music... it seems to pop up there quite often. Brilliant track all round, but the drumming is something else.

Well, the Eurovision song contest started in 1956

I never do this. But after reading some of the explanations above I'm tempted to start!

Had a quick look, and what can you do - it's a bunch of well-known decent songwriters in a randomish order. Good for a light read, can't be taken too seriously. But I have no problem with Dylan being number 1. I agree (well to a lesser extent!) with fretmeister- Lennon and Mcartney are pioneers, but let's not that let us over estimate their abilities.

Careful though- too many kebabs could give you heart attack.

I believe Trip Advisor gave it the top ranking

The Uptown Top Ranking (totally love that song BTW) reminds me of the kebab shop I saw in the Spanish town of Altea. Well it amused me enough to take a pic anyway!

Take Mark E Smith of the Fall for example... a few songs are extended rants, but more often puts a lot into a single pithy phrase. I like both though!