Top 5 Bass Players of All Time
February 13th, 2009 by Ivan Pena in Bombardier Manifesto
Version 1.1 – WITH MORE BASSISTS! – I’ve always wanted to write a post like this. I have been a student of the Bass Guitar for around 15 years and have always fought the “apparent unimportance” of bass players in contemporary music. Through this post I hope to once and for all assert the position of bassists everywhere in the highest echelons of cool.
1) John Francis Anthony “Jaco” Pastorius III — Jaco made the electric bass cool again. Not since Paul McCartney had a bass player commanded so much attention. I remember listening to Weather Report out of my parent’s tape collection.
2) Michael Peter “Flea” Balzary — He is a bad ass. Funky, tight and accurate. Plus, he is entertaining as hell to watch, a bad ass trumpet player and an accomplished actor. In my opinion, the spiciest of the Chili Peppers.
3) Victor Wooten — The man is a living god. He recently recorded the bible of bass playing with Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller in 2008.
4) Geddy Lee — Geddy is the centerpiece of the Rush power trio. He serves up complex bass lines that intertwine with his vocal melodies better than most bassist/singers.
5) Steve Harris — Leader and songwriter for Iron Maiden, no one can play triplets better than Steve Harris. Steve is often under-rated among bass players, but I grew up Maiden so, my bias is obvious. :)
Runner ups
Sting — Sting is a cool dude that sings AND plays bass. He has a smooth, serpentine style that you can instantly recognize.
Les Claypool — You can’t deny that the dude can play bass. No one has ever sounded like Les Claypool.
Paul McCartney — Paul is the coolest bassist of all time. I am not a “Beatle-thumper”, but you can’t deny that without Paul, none of the other guys ever stood a chance.
James Jamerson
Mike Gordon
Charles Mingus
Donald “Duck” Dunn
Enjoy. Share.
Ivan
About Ivan
Ivan Pena has an Advertising degree from UF, 8+ years in corporate and consumer marketing, 10+ years in graphic design and promotions. Ivan is also the leader of the group Soulfound and runs his own independent record label, Mohawk Bomb. In 2008, Ivan was named one of the Top 30 Under 30 by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. Check Ivan out on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ivanpena
February 13th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
also:
Mike Watt
Bruce Thomas
Clint Conley
Andy Metcalfe
Colin Moulding
February 14th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Decent list! I would have put Les Claypool much further up the list, but all around an agreeable list.
February 14th, 2009 at 11:07 am
I would add Dennis Dunaway from the original Alice Cooper band. 1968 – 1974. Amazing player and feel, great tone – and he is credited with inspiring many modern rock bassists, making the instrument “cool” again after everyone wanted to be Hendrix or Clapton.
February 14th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Great post! Bass players often go underappreciated in music. Have you ever seen that that doc about bass players, Rising Low? Pretty effin good, you should check it out.
Bassists I appreciate:
Reed Mathis, formerly of JFJO, currently of the Trio w/Marco Benevento and Matt Chamberlain, and Tea Leaf Green. Dude has motherfucking chops.
Mike Gordon – come on, you didn’t think I was gonna leave Phish’s bassist out, do you? He made me appreciate good bass playing. He knows melody and he knows funk and he knows space.
Bootsy Collins. Oh Yeah.
Chris Wood, Medeski Martin & Wood. He can do it acoustic, he can do it electric, and he can do it goooood.
And I gotta say Phil Lesh, too, on the subject of jam bands as he paved the way for many of today’s melodic bass players.
February 14th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Umm.. Mother F’ing James Jamerson!!
February 14th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
B.Treotch: yup, him too.
And Carol Kaye.
February 14th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
My list:
-Carol Kaye (Pretty much played on everything good in the 60s and 70s)
-Paul McCartney (Beatles)
-John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin)
-John Entwistle (The Who)
-Donald “Duck” Dunn (Booker T and the MGs)
-Kim Deal (Breeders)
Another cool list would be greatest bass lines of all time. For that, my pick would be Herbie Flowers twin bass lines on “Walk on the Wild Side.”
February 14th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Burn any list that does not contain Jamerson’s name. I suggest Duck Dunn as well.
February 14th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Bill Hicks is the greatest bass player of all time. No need to discuss this any further.
February 15th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Who is James Jamerson? and what about Mingus? are we talking just rock?
February 15th, 2009 at 10:27 am
*forgot about the Jaco and the Wooten. I got so into the comments that I forgot the actual post!
February 15th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
awesome list of new and old school players!!!!
February 15th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
GREAT F***ING LIST MAN!!!! jaco was the best though for sure.
February 15th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Family Man – He brought the Wailers to a new level
February 15th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
James Jamerson is Nos. 1-10 on any list like this. The rest of field starts at 11. Listen to any of the Motown hits. (McCartney worships him.)
February 15th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Good list but….
The Maiden guy over Mingus and Willie Dixon? Keep on rockin dude.
some others who are solid but not yet mentioned…
David Hood- Muscle Shoals guy who has played with everyone. Sig tune I’ll take you there” by The Staple Singers.
Allen Woody from Gov’t Mule.
Larry Graham from Sly and Family Stone.
Jack Bruce, Ron Carter, Willie Dixon, Jack Cassidy.
February 15th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
george porter, jr
February 16th, 2009 at 2:51 am
Lee Sklar anyone?
I also agree with Donald “Duck” Dunn
Steve Bailey on rhythm and
Wooten on lead is really cool.
I hate to say it, but Les Claypool is a big reason why I play the bass.
There’s my five.
February 16th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Surprised this went 17 comments before George Porter Jr. was mentioned. And yes, Claypool should have been in the top 5.
February 16th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
um..stanley clarke and oteil burbridge, anyone?
wilson
February 16th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
i’m a little biased, but i’m shocked that mike watt hasn’t been mentioned more in this discussion.
and, lists like this are so subjective. most mentioned are great players, but they all have their place. mingus can’t play like les. les can’t play like jaco. jaco can’t play like jamerson. you get the point. maybe a better way to go about it would be the top 5 bass players who have influenced me as a player and who has influenced you. just an opinion, and you know what opinions are like…
February 16th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
I was going to mention Clarke, but convinced myself he was on the list, I suppose I should have read more carefully.
I knew two tug wads who had tickets for the Tampa Return to Forever show last year, and simply didn’t go. I know longer talk to them.
And by the way, someone needs to man up and state the obvious here,
Cactus,
Cactus Gordon.
February 17th, 2009 at 12:08 am
It was tough to leave Stanley Clarke out of the list. I put Wooten in instead of him. Come to think of it, Clarke was more of an influence on me than Wooten.
February 20th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
What happened with CHRIS SQUIRE????
February 25th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I was getting through the list and I was thinking: “WHAT THE HELL NO DUNN AND NO JAMERSON? SON OF A”…. Historically you are missing a few significant ones, guys that changed the instrument and music as we know it:Berry Oakley (Major pentatonic melodicism mixed with Country and Jazz), Larry Graham (arguably invented Funk bass as we know it)and a tie between John Paul Jones (he wrote all the heavy Led Zep riffs, not Page) and Jack Bruce (ditto for Cream, arguably the band that changed everything, and he was the lead vocalist) Good list though. Not disappointing.
March 16th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
blue oyster cult bass player and john mcvie for fleetwood mac.
March 27th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Stanley Clarke
Abraham Loborial
Jaco Pastorius
Marcus Miller
Ron Carter
Charlie Mingus
James Jamerson
Victor Wooten
Paul Mcartney
Larry Graham
Louis Johnston
Duck Dunn
Rocco Prestia
Chris Squire
John Entwistle
These gifted bass players along with several others that are too numerous to mention are the players that have really influenced my playing. I wouldn’t put them in any order though. I don’t beleive their is a best bass player. Everyone brings something different to the table. Stanley Clarke for instance has many tools in his tackle box. Others bring that special something that only they seem to bring to the instrument. The best bass player in the world probably hasn’t been born yet.
April 5th, 2009 at 12:25 am
It’s not a real list if it doesn’t have Jack Bruce on it.
May 5th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
CLIFF BURTON. he is the greatest metal bassist no doubt and arguably the best of all time. his use of the wah wah and distortion is incredibly creative. he made a bass sound like nothing before. Flea’s good too. RIP CLIFF
May 6th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Cliff… Yeah he was awesome, but his light was extinguished too soon. Plus, he can be barely heard on those Metallica records. I wish he was still around. “Pulling Teeth” is still my favorite recorded bass solo.
July 1st, 2009 at 2:40 am
two words:
JEFF BERLIN!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 18th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Yeah. That’s a good list of amazing players. But let’s face it; NO ONE can make a hands-down “best bass player’s” list of all time.
Take for example some of the OTHER legends that have been COMPLETELY neglected here: Stanley Clark, Mike Laird, John Entwistle, Victor Bailey, Cliff Burton, Rufus Reid, Mark King, John Patitucci, Billy Sheehan, Matt Freeman, Mark Sandman, Bootsy Collins, Marcus Miller, Abe Laboriel, Jason “Red” Brown, Jimbo Wallace, Joe Fick, etc. … I could go on for hours. I’m sorry, but there are too many great influential players in the world to try and narrow it down to 5.
July 24th, 2009 at 12:25 am
george porter, jr
george porter, jr
george porter, jr
and george porter, jr
better than almost everyone up there & able to play as well as the remaining few
flea sting & the guy from iron maiden above mingus?
btw I love phish but cactus? c’mon, put him in a band without trey and he is a pro and that is it, same goes for most of the guys listed
July 26th, 2009 at 3:40 am
You’re dumb. That was the worst list I’ve ever read. You picked Steve Harris over James Jammerson because he play good “triplets”? you’re forgetting Pino, Bootsy, Tim Commerford, Marcus Miller, Cliff Burton, or even Leonard “Hub” Hubbard. You need to stop jockin the cocks of some these forgetful bass players and give credit where credit is due. All of the players I’ve listed have influenced and pushed the envelope of how a bass player should play.
August 30th, 2009 at 12:43 am
Jaco is amazing, but I will always ALWAYS love Flea. He’s the man who made me pick up a bass. I fell in love with the bass thanks to him.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Home http://www.alstrand.com
Introduction
How Did He Become An Icon? 1966 Post Beatles
Thanks Pre-1963 1967
Five String Taste
Influential Bass Players of the ’60s 1963 1968
Driving Rain
Large Scale vs. Small Scale Basses 1964/1965 1969
What Do Others Say? contact the author Bibliography
My thoughts on Paul’s playing on John’s songs
WHAT DO OTHERS SAY?
George Martin
” There’s no doubt that Lennon and McCartney were good musicians. They had good musical brains, and the brain is where music originates – it has nothing to do with your fingers. As it happened, they could also play their own instruments very well.
And since those early days they’ve all improved, especially Paul. He’s an excellent musical all-rounder, probably the best bass-guitarist there is, a first-class drummer, brilliant guitarist and competent piano player.”
Sting
” It’s hard to separate McCartney’s influence on my bass playing from his influence on everything else-singing, songwriting, even becoming a musician in the first place. As a child, I would play my Beatles albums at 45 RPM so I could hear the bass better. He’s the Guvnor.”
Will Lee
” Growing up in Texas in the early ’60s I was so obsessed with the Beatles’ music that I didn’t feel like a fan, I felt like I was in the Beatles. About the same time I switched from drums to bass I became aware of who gave the band its charm and personality, from visual tunes like “Penny Lane” to the group’s repartee with the press. It was the same fellow who was able to take a poor-quality instrument like the Hofner bass and create magic on it. I especially dug Paul’s funky, Motown-influenced side, evident in the bass line from Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey,” or even in the syncopated part from “A Day In The Life.
Paul’s influence on bassists has been so widespread over numerous generations that there’s no denying he’s in everybody’s playing at this point. We’re all descendants.
He played simple and solid when it was called for. But because he had so many different flavors to add to a song, he was able to take the instrument far beyond a supportive role. Paul taught the bass how to sing.”
Stanley Clarke
“Paul definitely had an influence on my bass playing, not so much technically, but more with his philosophy of melodic bass lines – especially as I hit my teens and the Beatles’ records became more adventurous. On tracks like “Come Together,” the bass line WAS the song. I’ve always liked that. The only other person I knew of who was doing that was James Jamerson. That was one of the reasons I was inspired to write “School Days”: so I could just play the bass lines and people would hear a whole song.
I had the honor of being contacted by Paul through George Martin to play on Tug of War, and I also appeared on Pipes of Peace [both on Capitol]. Paul was very nice. He asked me to show him how to slap. During Pipes we got a groove going in a studio jam, and it ended up making on the album as “Hey Hey.” He graciously gave me a co-writing credit, and it’s still a thrill to see my name next to his above the music in the song book.”
Billy Sheehan
” The reason I got involved with music in the first place was because I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. I watched all the girls going crazy, and I figured this was the best business in the world to be in. Later on, when I got more deeply into music, Sgt. Pepper was a break-through record for me. I must have listened to it several hundred times. What intrigued me was how totally musical every aspect of it was, especially Paul’s melodic, fluid bass lines.
When my band Talas was starting in the mid ’70s, [the Beatles' tribute show] Beatlemania was big, and we used to play entire gigs of just Beatles tunes. I’ve learned so much from Paul about playing, writing, and playing and singing at the same time that I should probably start sending him checks.
Most bassists get into the flashy players, but I think the reason Paul is often overlooked is that what he was doing wasn’t really obvious. It was so brilliantly woven into the context of the songs. One of my favorites is the bass line from “Rain.” I still use it to test the low end of an amp. That Paul happens to play bass is a great boon to all of us, because he made us realize that there are no limitations to being a bass player.”
John Lennon
“Paul was one of the most innovative bass players ever. And half the stuff that is going on now is directly ripped off from his Beatles period.”
September 30th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Bass Player
Windy City Wingman Lays Roots With Wilco
In the family tree of alternative country-rock, John Stirratt’s roots go deep. When he got the call in 1993 to take over bass duties from singer/ songwriter Jeff Tweedy in alt-country supergroup Uncle Tupelo, he began a working relationship with Tweedy that led to Wilco, one of the genre’s greatest success stories. It’s a tale marked by multiple personnel changes and high-drama record-label relations—the band was dropped from its label, Reprise, after delivering tapes for what would become 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The making of that watershed album is the subject of Sam Jones’s documentary film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.
Amid the changes, Stirratt’s warm tone and dynamic fingerstyle and pickstyle attack have formed the foundation of Wilco’s seven albums (including two with singer Billy Bragg), which have ranged from raw and rootsy (1995’s A.M.) to richly textured and intricate (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot). The band’s latest, A Ghost Is Born, witnesses Stirratt at his best, especially on the loping bass-driven single “Handshake Drugs.” Stirratt’s thumpy pickstyle line—played on a flatwound-strung Hofner—forms a balanced countermelody to Tweedy’s throaty vocals. Elsewhere, Stirratt’s playing is more staid and supportive, especially on the driving “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” an homage to Krautrock duo Neu!. With Jeff Tweedy at the helm and Stirratt in the engine room, the Chicago-based six-piece is currently touring with guitarist Nels Cline, drummer Glenn Kotche, keyboard player Mikael Jorgensen, and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone. When he is not touring or recording with Wilco, John plays with the Autumn Defense—a band formed with longtime friend Sansone—and with his twin sister in their group, Laurie & John.
Credit: Zoran Orlic
John Stirratt plays half the time with his fingers, the other half with a heavy-gauge Planet Waves pick. When he’s playing fingerstyle, he keeps the pick tucked under his pinkie and ring fingers so it’s easy to access. “I play with my right hand pretty close to the neck,” Stirratt explains, “and when I’m picking, I mute the strings a lot with the heel of my hand. In the studio, I put sponges or Styrofoam near the bridge to mute the strings so there’s no sustain.”
You and Jeff are the only original members of Wilco. How has your playing changed with the various lineups?
We were a four-piece in our previous incarnation, so I felt naked at times. I love having all of the musical information to feed off in this bigger ensemble. With the bigger group, my playing has gotten a lot more melodic, because in a smaller setting, my role is to just hold it down. Now I’ve got more room to move around, and I don’t have to stay on the root as much, because chances are someone else is covering it.
Wilco has always been a band of multi-instrumentalists. Do you ever share bass duties?
On Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and the new album, we had Leroy Bach in the band, and he’s a fantastic bass player—he played on a few tracks, like the ones with bowed upright. In Wilco we’ve always been generous about passing instruments around—I’ve done a lot of the basic tracks on piano or guitar. Having a different voice in the low end from track to track is great. On arabella, my sister and I had a fantastic bass player from Nashville, Brad Jones, on upright and electric. He plays a Gibson EB-2 and a Gibson Les Paul Studio bass through a SansAmp; he’s got a fluid, growly style.
What is the greatest strength you bring to Wilco?
I think I can hear what songs need. In learning to be a songwriter and singer first and foremost, I’ve come to realize the bass’s responsibility. Also, Jeff and I have been singing together for so long, I bring a lot of harmony to the band. That’s a big part of it, for sure. Over the years, the harmonies were either written by me or by [former Wilco bandmate] Jay Bennett. He’s an inventive writer of harmony and countermelodies and I learned a lot from playing with him.
Which bass players have had the most impact on your playing?
Paul McCartney is one of the greatest bass players of all time. If you listen to what he was tracking live in the studio, it’s unbelievable. With his tone and musicality, he was a huge influence. He covered all his harmonic responsibilities really well, but his lines were absolutely melodic and inventive. Also, Rick Danko of The Band was a huge influence on me. I love the idea of a bassist providing the high vocal harmony.
What is your favorite song to play live?
“Hummingbird” has great changes, and it’s one of the most inventive pop arrangements we’ve done, so that’s fun to play as an ensemble. On the other hand, there’s “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” which basically has a one-note line for the whole ten minutes. But there’s a whole world of dynamics that I explore with that song. Every stage is different, and by playing with dynamics, you can turn the stage itself into an instrument. It’s fun to see how that song works in different spaces night-to-night. It really has a life of its own.
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