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Great bass lines in punk


SteveXFR

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I was massively into punk from my pre-teen years. Being stranded at the parties of my parents' adult friends in the bedrooms of their slightly  older kids in the early 80s unlocked my interest in bands like The Damned, The Clash, The Pistols and the Buzzcocks. Personal view but I found the punk sensibility in acts like Elvis Costello, The Police (first three albums especially), The Jam etc far more credible than the cartoon punk bands that a lot of people pass off as punk. To me I found bands like Siouxsie and the Bansees and Television far more "punk" than GBH. Than again I was a little kid growing up in a small market town in Wiltshire so I guess I was never the target audience of the Exploited!

Over the years I have played a range of styles but the punk vibe has always been in the background (& that doesn't mean I don't practice or want to be good!).

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1 hour ago, Cat Burrito said:

I was massively into punk from my pre-teen years. Being stranded at the parties of my parents' adult friends in the bedrooms of their slightly  older kids in the early 80s unlocked my interest in bands like The Damned, The Clash, The Pistols and the Buzzcocks. Personal view but I found the punk sensibility in acts like Elvis Costello, The Police (first three albums especially), The Jam etc far more credible than the cartoon punk bands that a lot of people pass off as punk. To me I found bands like Siouxsie and the Bansees and Television far more "punk" than GBH. Than again I was a little kid growing up in a small market town in Wiltshire so I guess I was never the target audience of the Exploited!

Over the years I have played a range of styles but the punk vibe has always been in the background (& that doesn't mean I don't practice or want to be good!).

this is my sort of punk as well, always makes me smile when punks are caricatured as having mohawk haircuts and leather biker jackets, that didn't come in until a couple of years later (especially the haircuts) with shouty bands like GBH, and Exploited, early punk bands dressed in all sorts of ways and tended to have relatively long hair, by todays standards anyway

Having a punk uniform goes against the punk ethos really

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Ahh.. late to the party as ever!!

The Rezillos first album is packed with joyous bubbly bass lines that are a joy to play. I do love My Baby Does Good Sculptures.

Huge Damned fan and hearing the intro to Neat Neat Neat on Stuart Henry's Luxembourg 208 punk show one Sunday evening was like a switch flipping in my head. Music came alive and I wanted to play that intro. It was a seminal influence on me picking up bass playing.

A squillion others that most have been mentioned already so won't reiterate.

For some UK 1st gen hardcore, how about The Exploited - Don't Pay The Poll Tax. The bass in the intro is just nasty!!

 

 

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On 05/03/2021 at 19:23, Old Man Riva said:

I think that Paul Gray used a Rickenbacker and an Overwater (Thunderbird style), and Algy Ward used a Thunderbird.

(Paul Gray used a Thunderbird in UFO...)

Algy used P basses when with The Damned. The T'bird was used in his band afterwards - Tank.
Paul absolutely used Ricks for most of his career but did use T'birds with UFO. There is footage of him with a Jazz in the very early days of The Rods. And the Overwater did appear at some point.

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1 hour ago, Skybone said:

Pretty much all of the Killing Joke back catalogue.

 

I absolutely love Killing Joke, right from their really early stuff up to their latest album. I think they've covered a few genres including punk, new wave, metal and industrial. 

I've never got on well with playing their bass lines, I think Youth's bass has always been very repetitive and mostly very simple. Very effective but not so much fun to play. 

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1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

I absolutely love Killing Joke, right from their really early stuff up to their latest album. I think they've covered a few genres including punk, new wave, metal and industrial. 

I've never got on well with playing their bass lines, I think Youth's bass has always been very repetitive and mostly very simple. Very effective but not so much fun to play. 

Primitive by the Joke  says it All.  Youths Bassline sums it up and simplistic genius 😃🤟👊

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On 04/03/2021 at 21:01, Nail Soup said:

Most Stranglers bass lines.

I use a couple of Stranglers bass lines for technique practice.  'Hanging Around' for crossing strings and 'Goodbye Toulouse' for speed.  Great bass lines and not as easy as you would think, especially (for me) with a pick.  

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On 10/03/2021 at 09:10, Leonard Smalls said:

Sort of new wave, but always liked what Mike Watt does...

Mike Watt is a goshdarned bass legend IMO. I loved fIREHOSE and got to see them at the short lived Junction 10 in Walsall, after an earlier attempt to see them play in scout hut in Derby (!?) was cancelled. 

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37 minutes ago, Mickyk said:

They lifted the main  riff  from The Jam's -In the City.And the "Bogie till i'm sick " lyric all smacks of Punk for me, but you could be right. 

It's good that the thread has progressed from debating what counts as punk to what counts as a punk parody :lol:

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2 hours ago, Mickyk said:

They lifted the main  riff  from The Jam's -In the City.And the "Bogie till i'm sick " lyric all smacks of Punk for me, but you could be right. 

Some minor and highly cryptic clues rarely found in punk:

'Boogie'

'Waistcoats'

'Synchronised waving of guitars up and down'

'Keyboards'

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