Top 100 Basslines

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Darren mentions In Trance As Mission. I remember humming that bassline to myself in the queue for drinks at a cricket match once and the bloke behind me says: Is that In Trance As Mission by Simple Minds? You can imagine the surprised yelping and gasping that ensued.

If nothing else, this anecdote certainly illustrates the distinctive nature of that bassline.

― Daniel (dancity), Monday, 9 June 2003 07:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

United Grooves Crew ft. God's Gift - Mic Tribute (UGC Remix)
Diana Rakeem (sp?) - Sweeter Than Wine
Richie Boy & DJ Klasse - Madness in the Street
88.3 - Wishing on a Star (Aphrodite Mix)

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 9 June 2003 11:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Baby I Love You So" - Jacob Miller
"Tube Disasters" - Flux Of Pink Indians
"Turn To Red" - Killing Joke (Hasn't Alex ventured onto this thread yet?!)

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 9 June 2003 12:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

seven months pass...

mobb deep - quiet storm

― kjlsfd, Monday, 12 January 2004 18:59 (twenty years ago) link

"Lucretia My Reflection" -- The Sisters of Mercy
"Ceremony" -- New Order

― rainman (rainman), Monday, 12 January 2004 19:38 (twenty years ago) link

Best Macca bassline = the break-it-down in "...Monkey".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 12 January 2004 19:46 (twenty years ago) link

"Ceremony" -- New Order

I believe you are mistaking the bass for the guitar (or I'm calling you out on an uninspired choice). Great song nonetheless.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 12 January 2004 19:50 (twenty years ago) link

i can't believe no one said "the trooper" by iron maiden.

― sean marvin (williamtell), Monday, 12 January 2004 19:58 (twenty years ago) link

"Mrs. Gredenko" by Police
"Down on the Corner" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
"Statues" by Husker Du
"Come As You Are" by Nirvana*
"Orion" by Metallica
"Here Comes Your Man" by Pixies
"Lovely Day" by Bill Withers
"Couldn't Get It Right" by Climax Blues Band
"Jump Into the Fire" by Nilsson

There are so, so many R&B and Disco songs that still amaze me. Too many to list. It's amazing that as bass-oriented Dance songs are, the bass players aren't internationally idolized like their Metal guitar-playing counterparts.

* Actually, just add every song from Bleach to this list.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 12 January 2004 20:34 (twenty years ago) link

"Come As You Are" by Nirvana
Oh, no .. everybody duck.. Here comes Alex ....

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 12 January 2004 20:37 (twenty years ago) link

Coffee and TV by Blur must be mentioned (I know Mr. James has already been mentioned, but he's really one of the best young rock bassists around)

― Felcher (Felcher), Monday, 12 January 2004 20:38 (twenty years ago) link

'Young'?! wtf? Did he pay you for that?

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 12 January 2004 20:40 (twenty years ago) link

1. how the hell does it take to #26 to get to "good times"? what kind of joke is that. after all, it's the bassline that launched a 1,000 other basslines.

2. i'll submit gq's "disco nights" to the thread as well.

― seanp (seanp), Monday, 12 January 2004 20:45 (twenty years ago) link

Guns of Brixton - The Clash
Mountain Song - Jane's Addiction
Rescue Me - Fontella Bass
bass part from the coda of "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 12 January 2004 21:10 (twenty years ago) link

Chic "Everybody Dance"
Yes "Heart of the Sunrise’
Beatles, "Hey Bulldog"
New Order "Transmission"
Freda Payne, "Band of Gold"
Assorted songs by Morphine

― Ian Grey (Ian_G), Monday, 12 January 2004 21:35 (twenty years ago) link

My current fav Morphine bassline is "Rope On Fire".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 12 January 2004 21:35 (twenty years ago) link

"'Young'?! wtf? Did he pay you for that?"
I only used that word because compared to some of the older veterans of the bass, (for example, Sir Paul, who technically still is "around") he IS considered young.

― Felcher (Felcher), Monday, 12 January 2004 21:49 (twenty years ago) link

Also theme from Night Court

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 12 January 2004 21:59 (twenty years ago) link

Whip It-Devo

― Rachel, Monday, 12 January 2004 22:03 (twenty years ago) link

"Deceptacon" by Le Tigre, you fascist fux

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 12 January 2004 22:04 (twenty years ago) link

Also theme from Night Court

Also, Barney Miller!!

― Broheems (diamond), Monday, 12 January 2004 22:11 (twenty years ago) link

Take a Walk on the Wild Side. So simple, so good.

― may pang (maypang), Monday, 12 January 2004 22:26 (twenty years ago) link

Bastille Day - Rush

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 12 January 2004 22:31 (twenty years ago) link

oh, duh - "Barney Miller" was only listed at uh, 8, courtesy of hstencil. Next time I'll try to read the thread. Or reread, I guess, since I remember when this was done the first time. But I'm still a dumbass.

― Broheems (diamond), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 00:48 (twenty years ago) link

Also for TV bass, the little between sections of episode seque bass riffs on Seinfeld

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 00:52 (twenty years ago) link

oh god no!! That's the worst part of the whole program!

― Broheems (diamond), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 00:56 (twenty years ago) link

yikes!! sorry dude didn't mean to alarm you! (they aren't that great, actually you're right, I think i was more just proud of myself that I thought of another iconic tv bass riff - a sad comment on me and tv bass riffs)

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 01:06 (twenty years ago) link

they aren't that great

Surely this understates.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 02:25 (twenty years ago) link

i know it's obvious but why hasn't anyone nominated:

i want you back - jackson 5

― goldfoot, Tuesday, 13 January 2004 02:59 (twenty years ago) link

'The Only Mistake' by Joy Division.

― cnwb (cnwb), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 03:17 (twenty years ago) link

every speed garage rack ever

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 03:21 (twenty years ago) link

"Manifest Destiny" by Jamiroquai

― Jole, Tuesday, 13 January 2004 03:44 (twenty years ago) link

'bassline' as in riff? or bass part in totalality?

cuz the sound of 'rain''s bass alone changed the entire earth

― Ian Grey (Ian_G), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 06:20 (twenty years ago) link

The band I play drums for has covered the Night Court theme! The bassist learned it and played it one day, and our guitarist (a French-Canadian) freaked out laughing, because apparently it was from watching episodes of that very show that he learned how to speak English.

Also - Rick James "Superfreak".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 07:20 (twenty years ago) link

HUMPTY!!?!?!?

― billstevejim, Tuesday, 13 January 2004 08:07 (twenty years ago) link

It's been, oh, weeks since I last bothered you about Stump's A Fierce Pancake album on here, so this is just to mention that Kev Hopper's bass lines ("lines") on there are strange and wonderful throughout, e.g. on "Chaos" or the title track.

― OleM (OleM), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 09:10 (twenty years ago) link

Gygax is wrong on "Ceremony". That's a six-string bass, that is.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 09:23 (twenty years ago) link

I can't believe noone has mentioned any of Bruce Thomas's basslines from his tenure with the Attractions. Most of them, along with most of Jamerson's, should be included.

― webcrack (music=crack), Friday, 23 January 2004 18:03 (twenty years ago) link

Bruce Thomas' bass line on "Party Girl" is a great one. He does get pretty busy on the others, but it isn't like the Attractions had a real guitar player filling up space.

― earlnash, Friday, 23 January 2004 18:49 (twenty years ago) link

I nominate Roxy Music.
They used different hot session bassists across almost each of their few albums, like a revolving door. It was a deliberate policy, i've read. My CD copy doesn't even tell me who the bassist was for 'For Your Pleasure'. It's like Roxy Music have a semi-continuously-variable bass, spread across albums.
This does apply slightly more to the Enoey-influenced earlier albums. Maybe it's an oblique strategy. Whatever, I believe that it's a subtle yet strong ingredient in their consistent un-predictable weirdnes.

― george gosset (gegoss), Friday, 23 January 2004 19:05 (twenty years ago) link

The bassline in Sly and the Family Stone "Lovin While I'm Livin". Funkiest anything ever.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 23 January 2004 19:09 (twenty years ago) link

Circus Lupus - Cyclone Billy
My Bloody Valentine - Feed Me With Your Kiss
808 State - Cubik
Rhythm & Sound w/ Tikiman - Never Tell

(or is anyone bothering to count anymore?)

― That's a Goddamn Lie (Liar), Friday, 23 January 2004 19:10 (twenty years ago) link

Verdine White on Earth, Wind & Fire's Shining Star.

Anything by James Jamerson, most notably the aforementioned "Signed, Sealed Delivered," as well as the Four Tops' "Bernadette" (which Carol Kaye claims to have played on; the truth is inconclusive), Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and the Gladys Knight and the Pips version of "Heard It Through the Grapevine." (Please learn his name, and credit him, and not the singers, for the bass parts on Motown songs.)

Mike Watt on just about everything, nost notably fIREHOSE's "Down With the Bass" and anything on Double Nickels.

Bruce Thomas for "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love and Understanding?" and "Every Day I Write the Book."

"but it isn't like the Attractions had a real guitar player filling up space."

And your point is? Is this attitude widespread? Is this why there are so many lame rock bass parts on this list?

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Friday, 23 January 2004 19:17 (twenty years ago) link

Bruce Thomas Rules!

Accident's Will Happen - Elvis Costello
Bomb The Bass - Bug Powder Dust
The Stranglers - Curfew
Minutemen - The Punch Line
Echo & The Bunnymen - All That Jazz
Jane's Addiction - Three Days

― mzui, Friday, 23 January 2004 19:39 (twenty years ago) link

Can't believe it took so long for "Bernadette" to get a mention.

So I'll just add Macca on "Paperback Writer" and whoever's playing on the Animals' "Monterey." And Lighthouse, "One Fine Morning," though it's lost in most mixes to all those horns.

― Joseph McCombs, Friday, 23 January 2004 23:12 (twenty years ago) link

Primal Scream - Kill All Hippies
Nada Surf - Hyperspace
Pixies - Break My Body
Kelis - Milkshake
Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime

― Chris Jones (Crackity Jones), Saturday, 24 January 2004 00:02 (twenty years ago) link

Medium Medium- Hungry, So Angry
Otis Redding- Mr. Pitiful
Beatles- Tomorrow Never Knows (Paul invented a sick strain of techno on this track--seriously; sounds like the nucleus of a Porter Ricks track)

― Dave Segal (Da ve Segal), Saturday, 24 January 2004 03:40 (twenty years ago) link

Devo - Mongoloid. No one's mentioned this yet?

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 24 January 2004 04:41 (twenty years ago) link

"Carrie Ann" - Hollies (McCartney-like / Rain)
"The Boys Are Back In Town" - Thin Lizzy
"Do What You Like" - Blind Faith
"Space Invader" - Pretenders
"My City Was Gone" ? - Pretenders
"Take Me To The River" - Talking Heads
...but the king of them all is "Mr. Big" - Free - Anybody...?

― jim wentworth (wench), Saturday, 24 January 2004 05:35 (twenty years ago) link

In 'Trance as Mission' was a bass line that intensely annoyed me. I thought of it as a sub-U2 or sub-JD bassline at the time. The cross-rhythm is i guess what makes it attractive or memorible, but the notes themselves, the pitches, they're so banal (this seems to detract from the song, which i also have trouble not finding banal).
I thought Simple Minds were very funky around '81-'82-'83, but here they were putting their unfunkiest song first on their funky double album, getting it out of the way, or so it seemed. The cross-rhythms thing they were doing then was very danceable, but too cross-rythmic on 'In Trance as Mission' (and maybe the words and music too cruisy).

(i'm only posting this because it seems worth pointing out that 'In Trance as Mission' is also least favourite Simple Minds bass line for at least one person out there)

― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 24 January 2004 22:30 (twenty years ago) link

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