100 Greatest Bass Players in Rock/Pop

[Easy Fighter]

When I started playing bass, rush, led zepplin, RHCP's were all banRAB I loved to play. The best songs I loved playing was from jeff ament of pearl jam. that first album, he played 8 string basses, fretless basses and 12 string bass (jeremy). I'm sure he wasn't the first to do this but it was a great mix.

[l.t.]

What!?!?! No this guy? No that Guy? WTF!?!?!? *elitist garble* WTF?!?!?!

P.S. Billy Sheehan's bass playing was at it's peak @25 years ago with an obscure little metal band called Talas.

[Lorna W]

Anti British?

I have Andy Rourke and Peter Hook in the top 50. :laughing:

They were just oversights, I'll update the list shortly.

[Frank the Retard]

Rock

[eugendes]

It doesn't have to be electric bass just as long as it's in the context of rock and pop music.

[lindseyp1977]

Even Mingus?

I think you're underestimating somebody alright.

And what you're describing, that's what a bassist is supposed to do, and being a good bebop bassist isn't exactly something just any average musician can do.

But creative input is also important, people knock Roger Waters because he didn't play the more technical bass parts in Floyd's later recordings, Gilmour did, but considering the iron fist Waters ruled with at that point, he most likely wrote those bass parts anyway, it's not like he couldn't play them live either.

[Lady]

Paul who? John Paul Jones perhaps?

[Razieh A]

I'm not trying to underestimate the the role of the pre-fusion jazz bassist in any way. As a matter of fact you're right; being able to intuitively keep up with a be-pop progression in a live improvisational setting is a challenge beyond nearly anything that I can imagine trying to do musically. I'm just saying that despite their talent, there wasn't too much distinctive about pre-electric jazz bass players. Jaco really paved the way for the bass to be a melodic instrument in its own right, and although he was never quite as melodic as Jaco, Stanley Clarke's personality shone brightly through everything he played. It was really amplification that made the difference. More than anything, it allowed the bass to cut through the mix and take a more prominent leadership role, something that was difficult to do before, with the exception of the occasional allotted bass solo. Still today there are a lot of very skilled acoustic upright bass players, but not too many who have been able to carve out their own distinctive niche with their style.

[-kaulitz]

For my favorite bassists, I'll take:

Phil Lesh
Roger Waters
Mike Gordon
Carol Kaye
Les Claypool
John Deacon

[nemo09]

John Entwistle and Chris Squire are my bet for the best bassists in rock.