100 great bass players

[Nothingman]

Surely it is entirely subjective and therefore completely pointless. 

 

Not enough places given to Hooky though. 

[AndyTravis]

Checking in To see if anyone’s made the “that can’t be right, I’m not on it” joke.

oh good - all’s well.

[jacko]

1 hour ago, Barking Spiders said:

 No disrespect to the jazzers and fusion virtuosos, but while they may have had the chops the music they played was and still remains niche. I mean Jaco is well known within the bass/jazz-fusion world but outside of this I doubt many would ever have heard of him. 

The list is published in Bassplayer magazine. I'd hazard a guess that only bass players will ever see it so it doesn't matter that no normal person will have heard of him. 

[cetera]

No Peter Cetera, Tiran Porter, Rutger Gunnarsson, David Paton, Dave Hope, John Giblin etc etc etc.

Personally, I rate 'musical/melodious' bassists like these much more than some of the 'technique-heavy/notes for the sake of notes/can't remember anything about what they just played' bassists in that list.... ho hum.... same as it ever was.

[lemonstar]

I don't know if John Wetton was technically that adept but I've got a strong emotional memory of his playing with later day Crimson - maybe helped by the musical context and his singing which I always think is under-rated. Quiet a lot of names on that list I've never heard of anyway and the ones I know - not many really hit me in the heart straight away when I think about them - some do but I'm going off what is instantly in my head and it's all about what these players brought to the music for me - well - the music I've listened to over and over over several decades.

Edited April 27, 2020 by lemonstar

[Barking Spiders]

2 hours ago, cetera said:

No Peter Cetera, Tiran Porter, Rutger Gunnarsson, David Paton, Dave Hope, John Giblin etc etc etc.

Personally, I rate 'musical/melodious' bassists like these much more than some of the 'technique-heavy/notes for the sake of notes/can't remember anything about what they just played' bassists in that list.... ho hum.... same as it ever was.

Yep, whether it's a guitar, bass whatever it's all about memorable / recognisable and distinctive lines. I've heard lots of bass from many big names in technical virtuosity but nowt sticks in in my mind, which is why I far prefer the likes of JJ Burnel, Derek Forbes and Michael Dempsey over these two handed/no-handed, triple tapping, sweep picking, 50 notes a second merchants.

[thebassist]

Peter Hook is so good he's in twice at number 77 and number 78.

[jacko]

1 hour ago, thebassist said:

Peter Hook is so good he's in twice at number 77 and number 78.

And just to show how meaningless these lists are he wouldn't make my list at all.

[spectoremg]

Is Dee Dee Ramone in it?

[Al Krow]

15 hours ago, thebassist said:

Peter Hook is so good he's in twice at number 77 and number 78.

Well that's going to be a slap in the face for many folk! 😁

Edited April 28, 2020 by Al Krow

[AndyTravis]

19 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Well that's going to be a slap in the face for many folk. 

He’s done more than some - at least you can tell if he’s on a record.

My mate toured with him when his son went off to play with the smashing pumpkins, he’s no slouch on the bass at all and said it’s surprisingly tricky to get it right on some of those lines.

I admire the bloke - by his own admission could barely play and went to the upper registers so he could hear himself and be heard.

I like him - there’s also the Hooky BB coming soon. I can get on board with that.

[Barking Spiders]

15 hours ago, jacko said:

And just to show how meaningless these lists are he wouldn't make my list at all.

But at least his playing is instantly recognisable/distinctive. For my money that's probably the most important asset in a musician. While all these highly technical players are great at what they do I can't tell one apart from the others

[jacko]

21 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

But at least his playing is instantly recognisable/distinctive.

only if you know /like his music. I never got interested in either joy division or new order so didn't get into peter hook and certainly wouldn't recognise his playing. As a few have already said, I don't particularly follow virtuoso 'solo' bassists anymore (did all that many years ago) and if I don't enjoy a band's music then I'm not going to pay particular attention to their individual instrumentalists

[mikel]

I don't know why when they are thinking about doing one of these lists they cant simply call it "My favorite bass players" or "The 100 most influential bass players....probably" Its all subjective. What constitutes "Greatest" anyway? Fastest, longest solo, most genres played, best stage moves, longest hair, most endorsements? Who cares, you either like the music or you dont.

[Barking Spiders]

5 hours ago, mikel said:

I don't know why when they are thinking about doing one of these lists they cant simply call it "My favorite bass players" or "The 100 most influential bass players....probably" Its all subjective. What constitutes "Greatest" anyway? Fastest, longest solo, most genres played, best stage moves, longest hair, most endorsements? Who cares, you either like the music or you dont.

Yep. I don't get the point of 'greatest' polls, Oscars, Brits, Palme D'or , Grammies, yadda blah etc.  Like who's to say what the best song or album is in a given hour or who's the greatest goalkeeper of the last 1,000 years. Most of the time the views of pro critics or industry insiders is nearly always at odds with the general public anyway.

[thebigyin]

On 23/04/2020 at 11:35, Al Krow said:

From bassplayer magazine. Thought this looked really interesting, particularly with the included clip from each - I'm going to be enjoying working through the list during lock down.

Here's the link in case of interest to anyone else:

https://www.guitarworld.com/features/the-100-best-bass-players-of-all-time

Have they missed anyone off the list that you would include?

Jamerson at No1 that'll do for me

[Al Krow]

The potentially most controversial aspect for me is that there are only two women on the list. 

Having said that, none of the "omissions" mentioned on the posts so far have been of female bass players, so maybe it's just a reflection of the state of play and nothing more?

[nige1968]

31 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

Yep. I don't get the point of 'greatest' polls, Oscars, Brits, Palme D'or , Grammies, yadda blah etc.  Like who's to say what the best song or album is in a given hour or who's the greatest goalkeeper of the last 1,000 years. Most of the time the views of pro critics or industry insiders is nearly always at odds with the general public anyway.

Quite.

[thebassist]

7 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

But at least his playing is instantly recognisable/distinctive. For my money that's probably the most important asset in a musician. While all these highly technical players are great at what they do I can't tell one apart from the others

I agree - the gazillion notes per second thing is impressive visually but musically, it does nothing for me.

[neilp]

On 27/04/2020 at 17:47, jacko said:

And just to show how meaningless these lists are he wouldn't make my list at all.

Nor mine. Herbie Flowers might though

[RedVee]

19 hours ago, spectoremg said:

Is Dee Dee Ramone in it?

No it's the top 100!

[peteb]

5 hours ago, Al Krow said:

The potentially most controversial aspect for me is that there are only two women on the list. 

Having said that, none of the "omissions" mentioned on the posts so far have been of female bass players, so maybe it's just a reflection of the state of play and nothing more?

I counted three - who else would you have included?? 

[peteb]

The problem I have with these lists is that they claim to identify the ‘best’, rather than the most important or most influential. They have Paul McCartney as the third best bass player ever, which is a joke as he just isn’t. But the third most important / influential bass player?? Absolutely…!

I know that it is all subjective, but given the above criteria, there are not many on the list I can argue with too much (even if they have ignored a few of my favourites). 

[Al Krow]

How about Tina Weymouth? And if we're going current Kinga Glyk.

[peteb]

1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

How about Tina Weymouth? And if we're going current Kinga Glyk.

Top 100 ever??