It's not something that you always notice (particularly if you've got a shit stereo or are one of those annoying fuckers that play shit tunes really loud and tinny on your mobile phone, on a bus, for fuck's sakes) but there's nothing quite as satisfying as a really, really fucking good bassline to groove along to on a summer's day. Unfortunately, bass players aren't always the sexiest or most extrovert of people, and six-string guitars tend to look much cooler, and as a result bass players tend to be overlooked and ignored. So I'd like to take some time on this sacred, hungover Friday to pay lip/finger-service to the greatest basslines of all time.
My current top five are:
1. Thelma Houston - Don't Leave Me This Way
2. The Smiths - Barbarism Begins At Home
3. Chic - Good Times
4. Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Throwing Things
5. Stone Roses - I Am The Resurrection
What are yours? Eh? TELLMEIT'SFRIDAYIMUSTKNOW.
>>
any top 5 which doesn't contain Good Times is incorrect, simple as that
i'm not sure about the other 4 at the moment
yeah but
any mention of Ned's is a winner
"Shoplifting" by the Slits
it's really simple and everything, but simplicity is good, and it actually sounds like how it feels to steal things. not that i have since i was 10.
probably something like
Mad Dog - Elastica
Natural One - Folk Implosion
Dido's Lament - Purcell
Wandering Star - Portishead
Gigantic - Pixies
very true
if you listen to appetite for destruction on headphones and blank out the screecher and slash,you almost hear completely diffrent tunes.....duff and izzy rocked that albumn to fuck
Howz about
Sabotage - The Beastie Boys
Devil In The Woods - The Gun Club
Subbacultcha - The Pixies
Paperback Writer - The Beatles
Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed
Hmm
Off the top of my head:
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
Radiohead - Where You End And I Begin
Blur - Tracy Jacks
Blondie - Heart Of Glass
The Smiths - This Charming Man
But surely
Killing Joke - Love Like Blood.
I defy anyone to better it.
She's Lost Control is a better JD choice, in my view
Somehow cooler and more haunting.
Also, I'd pick Entertain Me if I were going for Blur basslines...or Girls and Boys.
:D
I was umming and ahhhing over which JD song to put in
but as much as I like She's Lost Control, LWTUA has that melodic melancholic thing about it that I really love.
I nearly put Entertain Me in my top 5,
and it pained me not to have any Primal Scream in there.
If it were a Top 10, I'd have definitely included 'Kowalski' and/or 'Swastika Eyes'. And 'Bug Powder Dust' by Bomb The Bass. In fact, that should probably be number one. Gah! Can I start again?
hardfloor - lost in the silver box
does that count?
Yes, definitely.
Yessss.
Honourable mention...
...'Aeroplane' by the Chilis.
My top 5
Good Times - Chic
Take the Power Back - RATM
Aeroplane - RHCP
For The Love of Money - The O Jays
Queen - Under Pressure
Great minds!
...
I was just going to say that ^
Billie Jean
could kick most of these basslines respective arses
----
Miss Black America- Miss Black America
Aphex Twin- Come To Daddy
Elastica- Connection
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell- Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Joy Division- Disorder
Crikey!
Mike will be pleased. :-D
Fair point
well made
And Thriller too
squarepusher
'squiddly diddly wanky blam blam yawn'.
Bass-o-matic
Papa was a rolling stone - temptations (less is more yeah?)
Some girls are bigger than others - The Smiths (most underrated bassist ever)
A survey - Tortoise (crickets&bass - sub genre?)
Buggin out - A Tribe Called Quest (microphone check 1,2 what is this?...)
Je t'aime (moi non plus) - Serge Gainsbourg feat Jane Birkin (sexy bass master)
(although special mention to "Girls and Boys" and "how to disappear completely")
The bass on Je t'aime is ace
But the song becomes a joke once the organ arrives.
Do You Love Me? (Part 1) - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is great.
And of course, anything by these guys http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freebass
Mine would be...
DFA 1979 - Romantic Rights
The Cure - Lullaby
Joy Division - Disorder
Radio 4 - Dance To The Underground
Jawbox - Static
lots of Cure
basslines are bloody fantastic, lots of Siouxsie and the Banshees ones too.
Fugazi - Waiting Room
Fugazi - Bed For The Scraping
Helmet - Biscuits for Smut
Jawbox - Motorist
anything by Iron Maiden
.
Sid Vicious- My Way
Sly & The Family Stone
If You Want Me To Stay
Pretty much all of the above
and the supreme and simple bass line in Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes (Modest Mouse) it's just so damned catchy.
Mine...
Breeders - Cannonball
Chic - Good Times
QOTSA - A Song For The Dead
RATM - anything from first two albums
Lou Reed - Walk On the Wild Side
ABSOLUTELY
EVERY JONPAULJONES BASSLINE,WITHOUT EXCEPTION
Dubstep!
Kode9-Kingstown
Pinch-Punisher
Loefah-The Goat Stare
Coki-Officer
Caspa-Rubber Chicken
I'd have to think
Siouxsie, Cure, Icarus Line's Up Against the Wall, ...erm Ned's Atomic Dustbin even though (if memory serves) they cheat by having two bass players, DFA1979 (still don't get how they make bass guitars sound like erm guitars), Nirvana cum Killing Joke's Come As You Are....
I'll get back.
Oh yeah
The Faint do great shit with the bass. Peter Hook on PC&L...
It's...
So Easy...
.
1. Lightning Bolt - Dracuala Mountain
2. Bloc Party - Shes Hearing Voices
3. At the Drive in - Arc Arsanal
4. Noxagt - Cupid Shot Me
5. Muse - Hysteria
Radiohead - National Anthem
Pretty much everything by Do Make Say Think
Mogwai - Xmas Steps (DUHDUH! DUHDUH! DUH!)
Can - Halleluwah
Neu - Negativland
Also, and I don't care who knows it:
The Gossip - Standing In The Way of Control
Get Back by the Beatles
is one of the best basslines ever.
best Beatles
bass line has to be Rain. without a shadow of a doubt.
it's the same as 'Taxman',
but a great bassline noetheless.
*nonetheless
anything by Bootsie
Cavern by Liquid Liquid
or White Lines by Grandmaster Flash, they're the same anyway...
The start of
Miss Black America by Miss Black America.
Nine Tails by Charlottefield
Or nearly anything by them.
The Kill by Fugazi
The Shit Sisters by These Arms Are Snakes
Schism by Tool
Archives Of Pain by The Manics.
Not my top five, just the first five amazing basslines that came to me.
The Cure - Lovecats
is the greatest.
couple from me
not been mentioned yet and one probably won't be by anyone else....
Heart Shaped Box - Nirvana
Pineapple Head - Crowded House
Also:
the bass line on a ton of Coki riddims.
And Under Me Sleng Teng by Wayne Smith, its infectious.
Romantic Rights- DFA1979 ( DUNNN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DURRRRRRR)
God Hates A Coward -Tomahawk
Loser- Beck
Celebrate Your Mother- Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
Evil- Interpol
"This Charming Man"
is walking-bass-tastic
Everyone seems to be forgetting...
The Guns of Brixton
Surely
The Magnificent Seven is Paul Simonon's finest hour?
some more! :
Refused - Summerholidays vs Punkroutine
Ride - Leave Them All Behind
These...
1. The Boxer Rebellion - Flight
2. The Departure - All Mapped Out
3. Interpol - Evil
4. Kasabian - Processed Beats
5. The Cooper Temple Clause - The Same Mistakes
Radiohead - the national anthem
...
This thread disgusts me.
in no particular order
1.i want you back-jackson 5
2.u-mass -pixies
3.lovecats -the cure
4.dancin in the moonlight-thin lizzy
5.stone dead forever -motorhead
this thread rocks
!
no mention of
Apologies to Insect Life by British Sea Power?
This thread sucks.
No one has mentioned Quarantined by At The Drive-In.
any early RHCP bassline
'i took her love for granted' - hefner
the one half way through 'little boys' - devendra banhart
2 morro morro land - lightning bolt
any early RHCP bassline
'i took her love for granted' - hefner
the one half way through 'little boys' - devendra banhart
2 morro morro land - lightning bolt
i fucking hate double posts
Fugazi - Turnover
that this thread has progressed
thus far without anyone mentioning Massive Attack's Angel is frankly criminal.
Also:
Interpol - Evil
Justice - Waters of Nazareth
all of Blur - Think Tank