I asked five of my closest friends who just happen to be five excellent bass players to come up with their five favorite bass lines. The question made two of them of angry. One response was "You suck. How can I possibly come up with five?" The other, while not so direct, simply ignored me and gave me 37.
Motown's James Jamerson was the hands-down winner in terms of most entries, with the usual suspects, Paul McCartney and John Entwistle coming in a close second.
I thought this would be fun in light of the recent comments regarding Bruce Thomas of the Attractions, who by the way, was held in very high regard by four of the five bassists surveyed and is represented twice, with "This Year's Girl" being my contribution as a hat tip to our friend Shriner, who got this idea for a mix going.
TRACKLIST
What's Going On- Marvin Gaye
And Your Bird Can Sing- The Beatles
This Year's Girl- Elvis Costello
Good Times- Chic
Pictures Of Lily- The Who
I Can Understand It- Carlton J. Smith
I Was Made To Love Her- Stevie Wonder
All By Myself- Daryl Hall
Teen Town- Jaco Pastorius
Personally- Jackie Moore
Darling Dear- The Jackson 5
Rain- The Beatles
The Lemon Song- Led Zeppelin
Public Image- Public Image Ltd.
Red Barchetta-Rush
Drowned- The Who
Lipstick Vogue- Elvis Costello
Reach Out (I'll Be There)- The Four Tops
Let The Praise Begin- Fred Hammond
Good Vibrations- The Beach Boys
Many thanks to Derek Davidson, Sal Iuvara, Sal Maida, Peter Roaman, and Allen Vella for playing their instruments and my little game.
zip
23 comments:
Great concept; great selection; great weekend ahead. Thanks,
IG
You didn't ask me? I'm crushed.
@simels. If I were you I would be too. My sincerest apologies. I went with guys I played with. Nothing personal.
Hello all....no, please remain seated,
Very interesting set.
But.....no Pretenders? Mystery Achievement!!! Pistols at dawn over this!!!!
Well, dawn's kinda early right? No need to be uncivil. How 'bout pistols for, say, brunch. Wait a minute...you live down in the city, right. Big hassle taking the bus there on Saturdays. Did I say, pistols? Cause I'm kinda scared of guns. Super-soakers, early afternoon and could you come up to the burbs?
Never mind...There. I'm shaking my fist at you. (no mystery achievement, huh?)
regards,
RichD
Hey, Wow...totally fantastic stuff here. I just wanna also
mention a dude we lost last year, Bob Babbitt. Funk Brother and another monster player that recorded so many killer tracks. Take a peek at some of these little gems:
http://bobbabbitt.com/Bob_Babbitts_Site/Discography.html
Thanks for the mix, Sal. Friday the 13th gots balls now!
BTW -- have you seen my new bass?
Got this three weeks ago and I am totally in love.
http://www.samash.com/fender-modern-player-jaguar-bass-f1702506x?cm_mmc=GoogleShopping-_-Bass-_-Channeladvisor-_-Fender+Modern+Player+Jaguar+Bass&utm_source=GSH&utm_medium=CSE&utm_campaign=Channeladvisor&CAWELAID=1594752675&catargetid=500002510000006117&cadevice=c&cagpspn=pla&gclid=CL69ncrFyLkCFSdo7Aodz0UA3g
And I hereby nominate me on my old college band's version of Marvin Gaye's "One More Heartache."
http://www.divshare.com/download/21445220-891
I'm on bass for the first half of the track. I play piano on the second half, and my old pal Bart Goldberg (who was playing the lead guitar in the electric section) switches over to bass. He's good too. :-)
Great idea, great list. I would add something with Mick Karn in there; maybe "Sons of Pioneers" or "Swing". Mick Karn, Prisoner of Obscurity.
Oh, and something with Sleeve Nimels.
Great idea. Very much looking forward to listening to this mix. Will play it loud. Have a great weekend. Thanks.
I hated playing bass in the garage. It was the shit job given to the crappier guitar player.
Of course I was totally wrong.
Now when our bass player can't make it, It's a privilege filling in.
No Jack Casady?
I join in as one with the fist shakers!
JA - Third Week in Chelsea, Have You Seen the Saucers (live), When the Earth Moves Again
JS - A Child is Coming (could be Phil)
HT - Water Song
No Phil Lesh?
[More fist shaking, more fist shakers, becomes chaotic, driven . . . appears for a short time that the fist shakers will out-number those with their hands at their sides . . . and then, calm. The rumour that there will be another mix seems to appease the crowd, but their arms are tired anyway.]
Friend of the Devil
Rather surprised (given that the wonderful Bruce Thomas features) that there's no Jam tracks, Bruce Foxton is a bass player I've always liked. Also no Yes? Chris Squire's melodic and very prominent bass lines are a great part of their "sound". And what about Barry Adamson of Magazine, Tony Levin or Graham Maby??
I asked 5 bass players to give me their 5 favorite bass lines. This isn't a definitive list, nor is it a compilation featuring 20 great bass players. It was compiled from the suggestions of the bass players I asked.
Well, there you have it! I am sure I will enjoy the mix!!!
Glad to have contributed to this week's mix theme.
Can't wait to hear it (and, yes, to adding Bruce Foxton to volume 2…)
Whoops -- Alex M is not Shriner (wrong account...)
I am Shriner. And I approve this message.
I would love to listen to this mix.....but the link is bad (404 error-file not found). Any way it can be re-upped?? Like the way you come up with interesting ideas for your mixes.
ATTENTION ALL-
Sorry about this but, there seems to be a problem with the host. All zip files at the moment, going back to the beginning, are unavailable.
Working on this. Stay tuned.
Again...my apologies.
The link isn't working!
I to am anonymous.
Thanks for the compilation. I'm a big fan of Robert Wilson of the Gap Band who passed away just recently, some lovely moves on his bass frets. Funk ain't my junk, but he played excellent basslines. Hope you get your zips back!
Argh. I never got this. My download stopped half way through...
I don't need to download Pictures of Lily ... I can just hum the bass line from memory. Ba-YOOM-ba-DA, ba-YOOM-ba-DA ...
24 hours too late methinks. Lookd like a great set.
Hope you get it all back, but they do have us all by the short and curlies don't they. Don't let the bastards grind you down.
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