Your fave bass player of all time, numero uno, the mutts nuts with a YT vid showing why

[Frank Blank]

@Bunion saves me having to choose between Mick Karn and Jah Wobble, so cheers and here's some classic Wobble...

 

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by Frank Blank

[nilorius]

32 minutes ago, itu said:

Thanks @nilorius. OK, these two players are my favourites from the 80's when I started to learn bassics: 

 

 

Johnson is a king in soloing - changing octaves !

[Barking Spiders]

27 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Still mimed though is it not?

Maybe but there's no quality live footage of him from his heyday with the original line-up - particularly playing Everybody Dance - and for the sake of being tasteful I didn't want to put up a vid of his last ever gig before he soon died

[ezbass]

41 minutes ago, Bunion said:

Only one choice, got to be mick Karn the guy was not only a fabulous fretless player but he was a showman too (that stage shuffle in the second clip)

I hate to call people genius but that dude could play a bass line to a track that you’d not think of in your lifetime 😄

 

 

That stage shuffle creeps me out every single time.

[Frank Blank]

3 minutes ago, ezbass said:

That stage shuffle creeps me out every single time.

Me too until he went base over apex one evening when I saw them, hilarious.

[Frank Blank]

46 minutes ago, Bunion said:

I hate to call people genius but that dude could play a bass line to a track that you’d not think of in your lifetime 😄

...and with no idea of musical theory either. I read an interview with Japan once, one of them remarked that the rest of the band would write a new song without him and when he turned up he'd have written a bass line just responding to the title and more often or not they would rewrite the entire song around his bass line because it was so good.

[Bunion]

7 minutes ago, Frank Blank said:

...and with no idea of musical theory either. I read an interview with Japan once, one of them remarked that the rest of the band would write a new song without him and when he turned up he'd have written a bass line just responding to the title and more often or not they would rewrite the entire song around his bass line because it was so good.

He played bass lines  like it was a violin or bassoon both of which he played first, he said this gave him the freedom as both can play lead melodies so this stepped over onto bass which he defretted to give more expression like the violin 

but we derail the thread 🤣😂
 

there are articles that state he didn’t bother tuning his bass he just played by ear 😯

Edited July 6, 2022 by Bunion

[Frank Blank]

2 minutes ago, Bunion said:

...but we derail the thread 🤣😂

In summary @Bunionand @Frank Blank

 

Mick Karn ✅

[scalpy]

Not a live video sorry, never found one that has the same atmosphere but this  is what Duck was talking about when he said he had a band powerful enough to turn goat’s pi55 into gasoline. 

 

[bnt]

One bassist who consistently perked up my ears was Paul Webb of Talk Talk, especially on fretless: not the most flashy but he produced these snaking through-lines that often defined a melody complementing the vocals. 
 

 

[Bassassin]

Much as I don't like to have all-time favourites of anything, I'd have to concede that the single biggest influence on the way I ended up playing, and (in the context of his former pop group) how I approach music in general, would be this dude:

 

 

[Bunion]

19 minutes ago, scalpy said:

Not a live video sorry, never found one that has the same atmosphere but this  is what Duck was talking about when he said he had a band powerful enough to turn goat’s pi55 into gasoline. 

 

You could try this one 😄

 

 

[Nail Soup]

I'll go with Steve Hanley, The Fall:

 

[scalpy]

1 hour ago, Bunion said:

You could try this one 😄

 

 

I had that on VHS as a teenager in the early 90s, but there’s something about that exact tempo, sound and performance on 99 that just gets me.

[40hz]

 

The incomparable king. Stuart Zender. Never overly flashy and completely 100% in the pocket at all times. With a tone and feel that are utterly to die for. My hero *stops fawning*

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by 40hz

[Chaosanator]

Not sure how to make this embed

 

https://youtu.be/twdSq22pDzo

Edited July 6, 2022 by Chaosanator

[Prosebass]

mmmm, forgot how to embed...

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Prosebass

[40hz]

To those that need to embed. If you're using mobile, it doesn't work properly. The way to make it work is;

 

Go to the desktop version of YouTube. Copy the link from there. Then paste the link into the body of the text box. It won't work if you use the URL box. @ped + Mods, maybe take a look at this? Been like this for ages! I always have problems with it!.

Edited July 7, 2022 by 40hz

[Chienmortbb]

There is a joke that the Secret Service often use a bass solo as an interrogation technique as everyone talks though a bass solo.  Its funny because its true. The player I most admire is probably Glenn Hughes  not only a great bass player but one of the best bass playing singers. However for the way he weaves a bass line into a song it would have to be Jack Casady.

 

Seem here at 69 and still struttin his stuff (1min 10secs)

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Chienmortbb

[Muzz]

There's plenty - Geddy for his song-defining lines, JJB for his sound, but if we're talking listening to just bass out of a band context, there's only one for me:

 

 

[PaulThePlug]

Lemmy... particularly with Hawkwind

Edited July 7, 2022 by PaulThePlug

[bartelby]

You're all wrong! It's Cronos...

 

I'm joking, btw...

[Barking Spiders]

10 hours ago, 40hz said:

 

The incomparable king. Stuart Zender. Never overly flashy and completely 100% in the pocket at all times. With a tone and feel that are utterly to die for. My hero *stops fawning*

 

Zender is a player I really like too, definitely a top ten.  - breaking news, just heard Johnson's resigned!

[Leonard Smalls]

4 minutes ago, bartelby said:

You're all wrong! It's Cronos...

Arf McSnigger-Chuckle!

[PaulThePlug]

Studded Armbands... so thats how you get the roadworn finish!