Your BASS or Guitar player Influences

[Cliff Edge]

35 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

I’m enjoying reading through this, there’s  many bass players I’ve never heard of  so I’m looking them up 

Same here. I have to confess to not being able to name a single bassist beyond McCartney and Wyman when I started playing bass. Probably shows you how long ago that was. And honestly I still couldn’t tell you who plays with what band, even if I am familiar with the name. I have often been asked who my favourite bassist is over the intervening years and I really don’t have an answer. I suppose I’m just weird. 

[ezbass]

44 minutes ago, oldslapper said:

Who got me started?

 

Bass:

Dee Murray

Kenny Pasarelli

Pierre Brock

Percy Jones

Andy Fraser

 

Guitar:

Paul Kosoff

Davey Johnstone 

Tommy Bolin

 

Singing: (Because it’s as important an influence on me as the above)

Paul Rogers 

David Coverdale

Glen Hughes

Great to see Kenny Pasarelli mentioned, I only know him through his work with Joe Walsh, but a name that has stuck in my consciousness.

 

Murray & Johnstone, what a combo, add in Nigel Olsson and that's the backing band from heaven. What a player Dee was.

 

Singers is a good addition to the conversation, Paul Rogers is right up there for me together with Paul Young (who cites Rogers as an influence). In terms of the way I actually sing, I'm influenced by all those, slightly warbly, baritones: Ferry, Sylvian, David Byrne, Richard Thompson, etc.

[ghostwheel]

Bass: 

Guy Pratt (back in 1995 I was given a double vinyl „Delicate Sound of Thunder“ made in USSR. Of course, I was blown away by the whole, but the bass was particularly great. On a day in 2022, I watched DSoD once again and wondered why don’t I just google this guy. That’s how I found Lockdown Licks. He made me buy a bass and learn English as I wanted to understand what he is speaking in those videos). That fabulous book of his brought some new names as

Bernard Edwards

and T.M. Stevens. 

Pino Palladino 

John Giblin 

Of course, there are much more bassists who inspire me to play. 

It'd be unfair not to mention Roger Waters. Perhaps, not as much as a bass player, but as a musician, who participated in creating of music I like so much. 

 

Guitar: 

David Gilmour (obviously)

Jimi Hendrix 

There are much more decent guitarists whose playing I like, but these two would be my inspiration if I gave the guitar a try one more time. 

[peteb]

A mate (of sorts) of mine is a very good bass player and used to tour with Paul Carrack in the late 90’s among others. He says that he had this discussion with Pino Palladino many years ago. Apparently Pino said to him “Everything you’ll ever need can be found in the playing of Jaco, Jamerson, Aston Barrett and Bernard Edwards and there’s a lifetime’s work there”.  That seems fair enough! 

 

Having never really studied any of those guys, I would say my top four were: Mars Cowling, John Paul Jones, Alan Spenner and Boz Burrell (you could also add Neil Murray and Andy Fraser). I suppose that kinda shows what my personal tastes were when I started playing. 

 

Edited December 20, 2024 by peteb

[cetera]

Impossible to list just 5 bass influences so here are 10....

 

Gene Simmons

Peter Cetera

Tiran Porter

Dee Murray

John Deacon

Rutger Gunnarsson

Martin Tiefensee

Kip Winger
Paul Goddard

Phil Lynott

 

Bonus extras:

Joe Puerta

Steve Harris

Eddie Jackson

 

Edited December 20, 2024 by cetera

[Rosie C]

Bass: John Taylor, Paul McCartney

Guitar: Ritchie Blackmore

 

Edited December 20, 2024 by Rosie C

[Jerry_B]

Bass:

 

David J

Glenn Campling

Hooky

John Nowlin

Dave Riley

Rainy Wainwright

Paul Gray

Leslie Langston

Alison Shaw

Dean Garcia

Sooyoung Park

Klaus Fluoride

 

John McCoy's bass on the first Space:1999 theme tune is what started it all.

 

Geetar:

 

Michael Schenker

Captain Sensible

Bernie Tormé

Dave Sardy

Steve Albini

Mark Francombe

Matt Cope

Jon Fine

 

Edited December 20, 2024 by Jerry_B

[tauzero]

Bass:

Trevor Bolder

Dennis Dunaway

Jim Lea

Steve Currie

Rather later, Pino Palladino

 

Guitar:

Marc Bolan

Jan Akkerman

Eric Clapton

Dave Gilmour

Mick Ronson

[Mykesbass]

For me it was one guitarist who ignited my love for rhythm playing, and thereby the switch to bass. Freddie Green, part of the amazing Count Basie rhythm section.

[Chezz55]

Bass - John Entwistle, Guy Pratt

 

Guitar - Hmmm, many but no-one in particular.

[Hellzero]

Here I go, more seriously and in the right order.

 

Bass:

Lemmy,

Mick Karn,

Pino Palladino,

Alain Caron,

James Jamerson.

 

Guitar:

Bo Diddley,

Jimi Hendrix,

Eddie Van Halen,

Wes Montgomery,

David Torn.

[casapete]

Difficult to nail it down to 5 of each, but today it would be - 

 

Bass - 

James Jamerson

Duck Dunn

Paul McCartney

Bill Wyman

Bob Babbit

 

Guitar - 

Chuck Berry

Keith Richard

Eric Clapton

George Harrison

BB King

 

 

 

[StickyDBRmf]

Bass

Lee Dorman (when I heard Inna Gadda Da Vida I wanted to do THAT)

Larry Graham

Chris Squire

John Wetton

Percy Jones

 

Guitar

Hendrix

Zappa

Daevid Allen

Fred Frith

Larry LeLonde

[Roger2611]

Bass:

Bruce Foxton

Stuart Morrow (early New Model Army)

Peter Hook

JJ Bunel

Pino

Ali McMordie (SLF)

 

Guitar:

Jake Burns (SLF)

Billy Duffy

Andy Gill (Gong of Four)

Keith Levine (PIL)

[meterman]

Bass:

Paul Gray (Eddie & The Hot Rods era)

Paul McCartney (Beatles psych era)

Duck Dunn (specifically the Stax era)

Aston Barrett (anything he played on)

Dave Richmond (KPM library & sessions)

Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez

 

Guitar:

Steve Cropper (Stax era)

Curtis Mayfield 

Skip James

Manuel Galban

Bert Jansch

Jimi Hendrix

and maybe Traffic-era Steve Winwood

 

But there's others as well, like Wreckless Eric, who I saw on tv playing "Whole Wide World" using a cheap Woolworth's guitar with Ian Dury on drums, and aged 11 I thought "cor, that's like my cheap Woolworth's guitar, I wonder if I could do that?!" And, once I'd learned both chords, I did 😂

 

Or especially early Wire, or PiL, or lo-fi punk bands like The Desperate Bicycles or Swell Maps. I got the feeling that that kind of thing was within my grasp (which it was) and I ploughed on, discovering new influences all the time. Late 1970's was such a great time for music. Punk, disco, electronic music, the ska revival, soul, oddball one-off pop hits, amazing reggae and dub, funky Latin stuff, jazz, there was so much going on. All big influences on me.

[kendall]

Bass:

Jamie Stewart - Original Cult bass player

Steve Harris

Juan Croucier

Cliff Burton

John Taylor

Adam Ant

 

Guitar:

Fields of the Nephilim's chaps - love that chiming goth sound

Robbin Crosby

Dave Mustaine

Andy Taylor

[Ed_S]

On 20/12/2024 at 11:10, Cliff Edge said:

Same here. I have to confess to not being able to name a single bassist beyond McCartney and Wyman when I started playing bass. Probably shows you how long ago that was. And honestly I still couldn’t tell you who plays with what band, even if I am familiar with the name. I have often been asked who my favourite bassist is over the intervening years and I really don’t have an answer. I suppose I’m just weird. 

 

I must be, too. I've heard plenty of other bassists say that even before they played, they listened out for the basslines in songs they heard during their formative years... I never did (and still don't) so it makes it hard to cite influences.

 

If I twist the task slightly to be "pick 5-ish albums that made you want to play music in general, then look up who the bassist was", I get to...

 

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow - Craig Gruber

Bat Out of Hell - Kasim Sulton (also Dead Ringer - Steve Buslowe)

Brothers in Arms / Making Movies - John Illsley

12 Gold Bars - Alan Lancaster

Out of the Blue - Kelly Groucutt

[12stringbassist]

Jim Lea
John Entwistle
Tom Petersson
NIck Lowe
Macca

 

Guitar players
Dave Edmunds
George Harrison
Pete Townshend
Rick Nielsen
Noddy Holder

Edited December 24, 2024 by 12stringbassist

[dmccombe7]

Bass players :-

Geddy Lee

Jack Bruce

Neil Murray

Richard Sinclair (Camel)

Jeff Berlin

 

Guitarists :-

Brian Robertson

Alex Lifeson

Allan Houldsworth

Andy Latimer

Steve Hackett

 

[diskwave]

Strange mix maybe, its just the way I roll.

 

Bernard Edwards

Boz Burrell

T.M. Stevens

Scott Edwards (Philly session player)

Ronnie Baker  (ditto)

Alan Spenner

Jaco

 

And Jamerson, tho I shamefully didn't realise it was him till much later.

 

So many guitarists, impossible to list them.

 

[Mickeyboro]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

Bass players :-

Geddy Lee

Jack Bruce

Neil Murray

Richard Sinclair (Camel)

Jeff Berlin

 

Guitarists :-

Brian Robertson

Alex Lifeson

Allan Houldsworth

Andy Latimer

Steve Hackett

 

Have you tried Hatfield and the North for RS? I know he was also in Caravan but H&TN are my fav!

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, Mickeyboro said:

Have you tried Hatfield and the North for RS? I know he was also in Caravan but H&TN are my fav!

I first came across him on the Live Record by Camel and have listened to his other bands but i am a fan of Camel.

Dave

[lowdown]

1 hour ago, diskwave said:

Scott Edwards (Philly session player)

Ronnie Baker  (ditto)

 

 

Two giants of groove, soul and disco music (Scott Edwards also played on a fair amount of TV themes out in LA). The number of chart-topping tunes they played on certainly gave Jamerson and the likes a run for their money.

Incredible achievements by both, and they both had a terrific feel for the above genres. If you played in a disco band back then, you would almost certainly be playing plenty of their Bass lines.

I learned so much by transcribing and playing their contributions in various bands I was in during that golden period.

 

 

[Mickeyboro]

36 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

I first came across him on the Live Record by Camel and have listened to his other bands but i am a fan of Camel.

Dave

I like Camel too. But I just think Sinclair was at his peak with the Hatfields. And having interviewed him for a sleeve note it’s fascinating he felt inferior to the other three musicians.  Evidence that it’s always good to be in a band where everyone is supposedly better than you!

[diskwave]

8 minutes ago, lowdown said:

Two giants of groove, soul and disco music (Scott Edwards also played on a fair amount of TV themes out in LA)

And of course he of... 'I Will Survive' fame, which after nearly 50 years I still can't nail properly....He's been a massive influence on me.