I cant decide between two but they both started out in the 60s, were massive in the 70s and are the two names that many bass players of today say influenced them hugely. Both now too are sadly deceased.
Mr John Entwhistle of The Who and
Mr Chris Squire of Yes.
Entwhistle used to play lead lines and his playing perfectly complimented Townsends guitar and Moons crazy drum style.Called the Ox because he used to stand there quitely pinning down the sound whilst the other three were going batshot crazy around him. Go back and listen to the early Who tracks and marvel at his playing.
Squire got the most amazing tones out of his Rickenbacker 401 and his harmonics were amazing. He stood out on pretty much everything he played with Yes but a good starting poing would be the Yes album.
Ah but I didnt give a second or third choice. I just had two first choices! And following from Gay’s lead (and nicking a quote from Lord of the Flies) “Bollocks to the rules!”
Steve Harris is the correct answer. The bass is the core of their music whereas most use it simply to support the rhythm guitar or the drums. It carries a lot of the melody and his playing is sublime.
surprised in the cliff burton you didn’t post ‘anaesthesia’
The only song I’ve ever played bass on in a band was this. Not exactly hard but a great example of how powerful a bass can be when not confined to the background. Still love this song.
Some good (if obvious) choices here. For something different I’m going to offer up Brian Gibson of Lightning Bolt.
And to pre-empt the ‘best drummer’ thread you can have Brian Chippendale from Lightning Bolt too. The noise these two make (especially live) his fucking shuddering. Skip to 5 mins in for bass stuff:
Sit down and I’ll tell you who’s the best, sit down with all the other bassists you’ve nominated and they will all tell you…to a man…the greatest was Jaco Pastorius.
If you want to be impressed…listen to the first 2 minutes…if you want to be amazed listen to the first 5…if you want to be totally convinced…all the way through.
Great album, but the live version that I posted is just amazing for me and also a great tune. Agree with Maiden Mr Harris the centre piece of the music for sure.
Agree that the answer has to be Jaco Pastorious - a virtuoso seldom seen on any instrument, let alone bass.
Faves mentioned above - Entwistle and Colin Hodgkinson.
Worthy of mention - Larry Graham, who invented the slapping style when with Sly Stone, also James Jamerson from the Motown house band (listen to the line on ‘Reach Out, I’ll Be There’)
And listen to this guy - Ron Carter, genius bassist in Miles Davis’s 1960s quintet (others were Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter & Tony Williams). Here playing with French rapper MC Solaar, looking like Jeremy Corbyn, but still sounding great.
Also one of the genuinely nicest guys in music. I met him last year at a hotel in Cookham Dean I was staying in, that happened to be owned by of Iron Maidens managers (funnily enough I didn’t know when I booked it), and the bar area is covered in Maiden memorabilia. Was completely in my element, and then Steve walked in with Andy Taylor. I was pretty starstruck as always been a big Maiden fan, but he was just quality. Bought him a few pints of Trooper and chatted for an hour or so.