Favourite songs where the bass line is the hook!

[Dazm66]

Papa was a rolling stone.

 

There’s a clip of Marcus Miller doing a cover. He plays the first two notes and the audience knows what it is!

[lowdown]

 

[Kyndainverse]

House of Jealous Lovers - Rapture
Cannonball - Breeders

Gigantic - Pixies

Inner City Blues - Marvin Gaye
Stars and Sons - Broken Social Scene
Genius of Love - Tom Tom club
Heart Attack - Tune-Yards

You're No Good - ESG

[Kyndainverse]

Lazarus - Boo Radleys

[Kyndainverse]

Last one 
Peace - Taylor Swift

[Rumple]

Steal Your Kisses - Ben Harper

Money - Pink Floyd

Fell In Love With A Boy - Joss Stone

Pusherman - Curtis Mayfield

Lovely Day - Withers Bill

Let's Dance - David Bowie

Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel

Express Yourself - Charles Wright

[Reggaebass]

I’ll go for this one too 

 

[Roger Phillips]

Owt by the late Jaco.

But the first to mind is Chas Chandler's opening bars to the Animal's version of "We gotta get out of this place"

Roger Phillips

[ahpook]

On 24/10/2023 at 20:51, Barking Spiders said:

and my 3rd fave New Order track

 

 

Aha ! The first song that popped into my mind was also a bit of Hooky

 

 

[SumOne]

Pretty much all my favourite songs have a bassline hook, it's one of the many advantages to liking dub music! 

[MichaelDean]

On 25/10/2023 at 18:58, Jackroadkill said:

Sad old Goth I may be, but I challenge anyone not to dig the bass (riffs and sound) in this song:

 

 

This reminded me of Pixies - Gouge Away

 

[steantval]

 

[steantval]

 

[steantval]

 

[Rich]

On 25/10/2023 at 07:46, Reggaebass said:

I’ve got hundreds of great reggae basslines but most here don’t like reggae so I’m going to go with one that I think makes the song 

 

I love reggae 😁 share your faves plz

 

[itu]

5 minutes ago, Rich said:

I love reggae 😁 share your faves plz

Yes, please.

 

(Sly & Robbie are one of my all time fave rhythm duos: not all notes, just the right ones in right places.)

[casapete]

Perhaps an obvious choice, but surely one of the most hook worthy bass lines ever ( as well as being near perfection IMO)

 

This extract from Wiki sums it up really -

The opening bass notes are recognized around the world. As Smokey Robinson says, "I can be in a foreign country where people don't speak English and the audience will start cheering before I even start singing "My Girl." They know what's coming as soon as they hear the opening bass line. [He sings the famous line created by bassist James Jamerson:] 'Bah bum-bum, bah bum-bum, bah bum-bum.'"

 

 

 

[Earbrass]

In this one, it's guitar and bass in unison - does that count?

 

 

 

[Dazm66]

Forgot this one 

 

[Reggaebass]

9 hours ago, Rich said:

I love reggae 😁 share your faves plz

 

9 hours ago, itu said:

Yes, please.

 

(Sly & Robbie are one of my all time fave rhythm duos: not all notes, just the right ones in right places.)

Thanks Rich and itu 🙏, I have so many but I’m going to pick 3 off the top of my head which are different in their own ways , one from Flabba Holt with Johnny osbourne, from 3.25 you can hear the Bassline more isolated, the timing ,note lengths and space changes are so good 

and one from Robbie Shakespeare from one of the later albums Love Restart, the whole album is really good I would recommend it, some really nice Basslines 

and one from Clinton fearon who was in the gladiators and is a good bass player himself , Mato Cirade a reggae  bass player from France plays for him now , this is a good one to play and not quite as easy as it might look, I could go on and on 😁, hope you enjoy 

 

[Jackroadkill]

 

I'm very partial to this one, too.

[LeftyP]

 

[Dan Dare]

Chic's Good Times has to be on the list, with that bootiful golden bass line from Bernard Matthews, sorry, Edwards. The song ain't much, but it's a killer bass part.

[Rich]

On 28/10/2023 at 00:06, Earbrass said:

In this one, it's guitar and bass in unison - does that count?

 

Cooler than the coolest thing ever. 😎 

[Grahambythesea]

We gotta get out of this place - The Animals