Let’s share some awesome bass lines with each other! They can be all-time favorites, or just what you’ve been spinning lately. Single songs, or whole albums. Solo bass pieces, or just really solid bass lines inside a song.
I’ll get the ball rolling…
I love David Bowie to pieces, and it’s hard to pick a favorite album, but I think I finally have… and it’s Let’s Dance. (I may or may not be plotting to get the dance steps from the album cover tattooed on me at some point)
There are so many great bass lines on this record, but China Girl has been my favorite lately, that scalar pattern that comes in at (timecode) is so fun to sing along with (usually in my Jack Black root-en-doot-en-doot voice).
Okay, your turn! Share your favs, or just the last bass line you heard that got you excited. Make sure you include a Youtube link so we can all check it out, all you have to do is paste the link into your post and the forum will automatically embed it like you see above.
I like some of the other picks… David Bowie, Grand Funk Railroad, The Real Me…
I freakin’ love the bass line in Heartbreaker during the verse section. Feels sloppy but powerful. Love the tone too. So analog… and so much space for all the bass frequencies to be heard… with a fair bit of compression.
By verse section I mean where the vocals come in. And when there’s no singing the distortion also gets me… more ridiculous analog tones… I’ve also always been an old school sucker for when the guitar and bass double up on a strong hook.
I only found out recently that John Paul Jones (and Jimi Page for that matter) were big-time studio musicians before Led Zeppelin… and even though Zeppelin has this feeling of raw, chaotic and wild if you listen closely to those guys their playing is a lot more seasoned and refined than might one notice at first glimpse.
I love all kinds of music but I’ll share one of the songs that made me want to learn bass. It’s from Deon Estus and was popular while I was in high school. He’s a remarkable bassist and has played with a number of bands and artists. This is from a solo effort.
Good call! I should put that in the next course, such a classic bass-heavy song. Although not sure if it’s appropriate to play it without a big sparkly double neck bass.
Nice bass playing! You’re probably already hip to him but you’d probably enjoy a lot of Marcus Miller records if you like the smooth groovey stuff with good bass playing.
That’s Nathaniel Phillips on bass, tearing it up with those sweet 10ths in the chorus and the nasty slap bass. I first heard this song because Victor Wooten played a bit of it in a bass/guitar battle with his brother Regi… I think it was on the Bass Day '98 DVD?
Yes! I was just thinking about Larry today during a gig, there’s a slap spot where I try to channel him as best I can with some slidy octave stuff. Here’s one of my favs:
Okay here’s another favorite of mine. I still remember the day I got my Victor Wooten transcription book and then sat down in front of this piece of my music stand. I was there for like 7 hours.
