Great Bassists (was100 Greatest Guitarists) - LONG!!

[John Swartz]

O.K., I'm WAAAAAYYYY late to the party on this one, but I'd like to
share my thoughts since I play a little bass.  I would've posted sooner,
but I've been in a class this week and haven't had time to post the
detailed reply that I wanted to - yes, that's a warning that this post
may be a bit long...

While I haven't studied all of the great bassists, and don't necessarily
identify with the music played by all the great bassists, I do
appreciate many of them.  I have many favorites.

Growing up, like many young males, I wanted to be in a rock band, and
like many young males, I was in a band or two in high school (no offense
intended to the ladies by the way - some of my favorite musicians are
women).  I originally played keyboards, and only took up bass when our
bassplayer quit the band (but left his bass in my parents' basement,
where we practiced) - the band figured they needed a bassist more than a
keyboardist so I fumbled my way around the fretboard.  Our band was
playing a lot of what was current in hard rock in the early 80s - BOC,
AC/DC, Ozzy, Stones, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Quiet Riot
(remember them? - "BANG YOUR HEAD!!!").  At the time I picked up the
bass, I had no real influences (since I didn't have any formal training
and hadn't planned on being a bassplayer), but started to pay a bit of
attention to the bassists in those bands.  Joe Bouchard naturally was an
influence, as well as Geezer Butler, Gene Simmons, Steve Harris, and I
think maybe Rudy Szarzo (of Quiet
Riot, Ozzy, and later Whitesnake) and Jimmy Bain (of Rainbow, but in
particular Dio) may have been my biggest influences.  After college in
the mid-80s, I gave up the bass for about 10 years, and in the early
90s, decided to take it up again and try to learn the instrument a bit
more.  This is when I started learning more about some of the great
bassists and listening more to their styles.  I didn't keep up with the
modern music as much in the 90s (how many of us who grew up in the
70s/80s did?), but a few bands would be interesting - aside from
"classic rock" these days, I listen a lot to the blues.

So, here's my list of some "great" bassists, in no particular order:

Paul McCartney - I paid little attention to the Beatles until the
mid-90s when I started studying the bass more.  Perhaps no virtuoso (and
technical ability is only one component of what might make any musician
"great" IMHO), but he had a strong sense of the power of the bass to
influence the feel of a song, and wove some wonderful counterpoint
basslines in the Beatles' music - go listen to *Sgt. Pepper* and
*Revolver* in particular, not to mention the bassline on "Come
Together". The guy was a genius at making the bass more than just part
of the "rhythm section".

Gene Simmons - Stop laughing.  Again, no virtuoso, but some of his
basslines are fairly complex, when you take into account the relative
simplicity of KISS' music.  Gene taught me the power of the slide
(Bawhoooo....), not to mention that the bassplayer CAN be the coolest
guy in the band - and I still want one of his "Punisher" basses...  "Dr.
Love", "Rock and Roll All Night", and "She" have some great basslines.

Steve Harris - I'm not sure virtuoso would be an apt term, but the guy
had speed and energy in spades - what would Iron Maiden's songs have
been without his galloping basslines driving the music along at
breakneck speed (although IM doesn't seem to fit the definition of
"speed metal") - listen to *The Number of the Beast* or *Piece of Mind*
in particular.  Steve also was perhaps a major reason that I started
playing bass with my fingers instead of a pick.

Joe Bouchard - Partly for sentimental reasons, since BOC is one of my
favorite bands.  Joe was not overly flashy, but he got the job done, and
added a lot of subtlety in BOC's music that again I didn't appreciate
until years later.  I know we've all heard "Don't Fear the Reaper" a
million times, but how many times have you listened to the BASS in that
song?  I didn't realize how much Joe was driving the song until I saw a
bass TAB in a guitar magazine and then went back and really listened.
Joe started as a guitar player, and I believe read somewhere that he
approached the bass more as a guitar.  I also love his playing on "Death
Valley Nights" "Seven Screaming Dizbusters" and (of course) "Hot Rails
to Hell".

Rudy Szarzo/Jimmy Bain - Perhaps lesser lights in the galaxy of
bassists, but I include them because I think they influenced my early
bassplaying - very solid, with bits of flash.  To this day I think the
TONE of Jimmy's bass on those first few Dio albums (*Holy Diver* and
*The Last in Line*) is the best I've ever heard (in particular the song
"Shame on the Night") - heavy and edgy.  And like Gene, Rudy showed a
bassplayer looking really cool - and hey, some of those songs on the
first Quiet Riot album were fun to play - "Metal Health", "Slick Black
Cadillac", "Run For Cover" ... oh the memories...

Stu Hamm/Billy Sheehan - Now we're talkin' virtuosos - I went to a Joe
Satriani concert just to see Stu play.  Both of them expanded the way
you can use the bass in both a lead and supporting role.  Yeah, they
were flashy to excess at times, but when you play with the guitar
virtuosos that they played, they obviously knew how to play in the
pocket as well.  Sheehan has some nice work on the first Mr. Big album,
and Stu's "The Urge" is excellent.

Geezer Butler - Again, someone I didn't appreciate as much until later
in life, this guy knew how to riff with the best of 'em.  Listen to the
intros to "War Pigs" and "Fairies Wear Boots" - now that's BASS!

Danny Miranda/Jon Rogers/Greg Smith - What bass-related discussion on a
BOC forum would be complete without mentioning BOC's other bassists?
While neither had an influence on my bass development, these guys
(Miranda in particular) have great talent.  Rogers never seemed to be
really appreciated IMHO (maybe the fans just couldn't quite except
someone other than Joe), but he really started the shift in BOC's live
sound toward what it is today - changing the original basslines that Joe
created -- in part losing some of the subtlety (which on a live stage,
especially in the club settings that BOC was now playing, is probably
o.k.), but also adding a bit more modern progressive edge to it.  Danny
would later continue this tradition, throwing in some more funk and jazz
influence here and there, while still driving the beat (with BOC's more
"pounding" drummers like John Miceli, Chuck Burgi, and Bobby
Rondinelli).  Danny IS "Monster Bass".  Greg was with BOC so briefly
that I almost forgot him, but I did see him live and he was an animal -
although his 80s heavy-metal hairband look kinda clashed with look of
the rest of BOC (who, by 1995, looked just a bit older...).

Duck Dunn, Tommy Shannon (Stevie Ray Vaughn's bassist) - Two guys that
can hold down the BLUES.

Geddy Lee - A virtuoso, and probably isn't properly remembered today for
some fantastic basswork - I particularly like stuff on Rush's *Permanent
Waves* and *Moving Pictures*

T.M. Stevens, Flea, Robert Trujillo (particularly his work with "The
Infectious Grooves) -- when you want it FUNKY, these guys can slap and
pop with the best.

Here's a list of other great bassists that I've heard, with no
particular comments:

John Paul Jones, Pete Way, Jaco Pastorius, Roger Glover, Greg Lake, Flea
(funky!), Noel Redding (Jimmy Hendrix), John Entwistle, Tom Hamilton
(Aerosmith), Duff McKagan (Guns and Roses - more great bass TONE),
Bootsy Collins, Kenny Aaronson, Bootsy Collins, Michael Manring, Randy
Jackson (Shooting Shark), Mark "The Animal" Mendoza, Phil Kennemore
(Y&T), and Ric Fiberraci (never heard of him?  He's - and try not to
laugh - the bassplayer for Yanni).

Oh, and I like Derek Smalls (Spinal Tap) too... ;-)

One other point about the development of bass in music.  To me, it seems
like the 80s was a decade of less creativity on the bass when compared
to the 70s or 90s.  In the 70s, you had the bass becoming more up-front
in the mix, and the development of funk and a lot of bass in that decade
seemed to really "move".  In the 80s, when heavy metal took over, bands
were dominated by the guitar, and there seemed to be much more simple
basslines with bassplayers in a more subordinate role (Steve Harris of
Iron Maiden would be a notable exception - there are others) - Cliff
Williams of AC/DC may be the classic example.  In the 90s, when grunge
came along, a lot of the guitarists (partly by design, partly because
some of them, when compared to guitarists of the 80s, sucked) took more
of a backseat - meanwhile the tone of the bass became edgier (with more
popping and slapping from the funk crowd) and really held the sound
together.  I'm not sure bassists in the 90s got enough credit for that
(certainly not as much as the guitarists in the 80s), but I certainly
hear it.

Anybody still reading this?  ;-)

John

PS:  R.I.P. John Ritter - a guy that made me laugh many many times -
even if I thought I was only watching "Three's Company" to see a little
T&A (hey - I was starting puberty when the show first came on the
air...), and who made me not only laugh in later life, but identify with
the notion of raising teenage girls (which I will be officially doing in
only a few short years).