I was practicing this morning and happened on a very simple bass riff, basically a single repeated note, and thought that’s familiar. It’s was the bass line to the Simple Minds song, Waterfront.
One note, a D played on the A string for the entire song! Ummm, I learnt another in, ooh, 10 seconds 
Anyway, what other songs are out there with crazy simple, but effective bass lines? Bonus points for a single note!!
The line sounds like eighth notes with a quick swing feel.
Surprisingly effective, for one note!
Chugging on one note is a time-honored staple of rock. The bass is essentially an extension of the drums, hence, the rhythm section.
There is my 1984. I frequented a pub/club called The Waterfront, so the song was played incessantly, as was This Charming Man.
Pretty sure Thunderstruck by AC/DC is a one note bass line. Horrible song but it fits the bill.
Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz is also incredibly simple, basically a repeating 6 note line with a couple slides thrown in.
Oingo Boingo - no one lives forever. Open E string all the way through.
Little more complex but really easy, and style points for using a Hofner
And any number of Judas Priest songs are just chugging
Many songs by Social Distortion. To start, try Cold Feelings. In fact, this is me, on my previous BB734A that I owned before my current one, waiting for my bandmate to cover the guitar part
Original song:
@howard you made me recall Sonic Youth. How could I forget?
I love that cover version so much. Kim Gordon is awesome. Best take on the Carpenters ever.
It is. I play this every day.
The Carpenters version was a cover itself, of a song by Delaney and Bonnie and Friends called Groupie (Superstar). The and Friends included Duane Allman, Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge, and Eric Clapton. The song is about an encounter between Coolidge and Clapton, both of whom performed on the original recording.
60s was full of weirdness.
There’s an Eminem song (Lose Yourself?) that is simply low D eigth notes - the entire song. IMO it’s actually challenging to play something that monotonous well for the whole song…
And I’m sure that there a whole lot of examples of playing root notes that follow the chord changes (Ramones comes to mind) - while its not “1 note”, it’s “1 note/chord”…
I agree. The mind wonders and suddenly you’re playing slightly off the beat and it sounds awful!
Old school blues can be very repetitive like
I love playing with this stuff.
Emphatic is what it is. To perfect effect.
How about “Once in a lifetime” by Talking Heads? Only two or three notes, pretty much the same riff throughout the song.
You listen to that willing the 4…!
Julia only did these last month. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehHaJ8tX0L4
