Best Rock bassist of the 20th century

[NYcarbineer]

Old days...Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane.

Nowadays...Tal Wilkenfeld

 

[Dr Grump]

John Entwhistle. He said playing with Keith Moon was a nightmare. He was a lot more relaxed when Kenny Jones joined the Who

 

[IsaacNewton]

When I played guitar I always thought the bassist was just this cool dude that supplied the weed. He played something?

 

[Dot Com]

My guitar teacher vam play just about any stringed instrument except for the harp. Buckethead is a guitar virtuoso who also plays bqss

Sent from my BN NookHD+ using Tapatalk

 

[westwall]

Dominating bassists

select from the list

Did I miss anybody OF NOTE?

Of course you did you ignorant twat, you missed John Entwistle!

To be honest, if you listen to records by The Who, I myself can't really hear John Entwistle mainly because of Pete Townshend....and no I'm not semi-deaf or anything

yes, yes you are deaf!

 

[Synthaholic]

Since you're not restricting it to rock bassists, the best ones are:

Mark King, Pino Paladino, Victor Wooten, Alain Caron, Ron Carter, Marcus Miller.

Edit to add: Will Lee of David Letterman's longtime band.

 

[Lucy Hamilton]

Dominating bassists

select from the list

Did I miss anybody OF NOTE?

Of course you did you ignorant twat, you missed John Entwistle!

To be honest, if you listen to records by The Who, I myself can't really hear John Entwistle mainly because of Pete Townshend....and no I'm not semi-deaf or anything

yes, yes you are deaf!

"yes, yes you are deaf!"

What was that you just said?

 

[Dot Com]

Dominating bassists

select from the list

Did I miss anybody OF NOTE?

How do you forget Flea???

I left Bill Wyman out as well as I didn't want the poll selections to be too large

 

[Dot Com]

Since you're not restricting it to rock bassists, the best ones are:

Mark King, Pino Paladino, Victor Wooten, Alain Caron, Ron Carter, Marcus Miller.

Edit to add: Will Lee of David Letterman's longtime band.

Thread title stipulates "rock" bassists

 

[Dot Com]

on another note (pun intended)

Sweep arpeggio anyone? Buckethead is god :

watch it all but bass on the guitar is at 5:27

 

[Synthaholic]

Since you're not restricting it to rock bassists, the best ones are:

Mark King, Pino Paladino, Victor Wooten, Alain Caron, Ron Carter, Marcus Miller.

Edit to add: Will Lee of David Letterman's longtime band.

Thread title stipulates "rock" bassists

I know, but no one adhered to that.

One of my favorite rock bassists was Dee Murray of Elton John's band in the 1970s.

Another really good one is Tony Levin, of King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, and a bunch more progressive acts.

 

[Dot Com]

Since you're not restricting it to rock bassists, the best ones are:

Mark King, Pino Paladino, Victor Wooten, Alain Caron, Ron Carter, Marcus Miller.

Edit to add: Will Lee of David Letterman's longtime band.

Thread title stipulates "rock" bassists

I know, but no one adhered to that.

One of my favorite rock bassists was Dee Murray of Elton John's band in the 1970s.

Another really good one is Tony Levin, of King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, and a bunch more progressive acts.

True. Others were throwing-out names of excellent bassists BUT they were/are from another genre.

 

[Harry Dresden]

here is a top 50 list from Digital Dream Door.....ranked for their influence, innovation, originality, and technical ability.
1.James Jamerson(Funk Brothers, session man)
2.John Entwistle(The Who)
3.Larry Graham(Sly & The Family Stone)
4.Chris Squire(Yes)
5.Jack Bruce(Cream)
6.Tony Levin(King Crimson, session man)
7.Geddy Lee(Rush)
8.Paul McCartney(The Beatles)
9.Louis Johnson(Brothers Johnson, session man)
10.Anthony Jackson(session man)
11.Flea(Red Hot Chili Peppers)
12.Marcus Miller(session man)
13.Les Claypool(Primus)
14.Chuck Rainey(session man)
15.Billy Sheehan(Niacin, Mr. Big, Steve Vai)
16.Geezer Butler(Black Sabbath)
17.Will Lee(session man)
18.Michael Manring(Attention Deficit, session man)
19.Nathan East(Eric Clapton, session man)
20.Rocco Prestia(Tower Of Power)
21.John Paul Jones(Led Zeppelin)
22.Abe Laboriel(session man)
23.Stuart Hamm(Joe Satriani)
24.Donald "Duck" Dunn(The MGs)
25.Dave LaRue(Dixie Dregs)
26.Bob Babbitt(Funk Brothers, session man)
27.Phil Lesh(Grateful Dead)
28.Steve Harris(Iron Maiden)
29.Jack Casady(Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna)
30.Cliff Lee Burton(Metallica)
31.John Myung(Dream Theater)
32.John Deacon(Queen)
33.Willie Weeks(session man)
34.Carol Kaye(session woman)
35.Aston "Family Man" Barrett(Bob Marley & The Wailers)
36.Verdine White(Earth, Wind & Fire)
37.David Hungate(Toto, session man)
38.Robert "Kool" Bell(Kool & The Gang)
39.Joe Osborne(session man)
40.Phil Chen(Rod Stewart, session man)
41.Oteil Burbridge(Allman Brothers Band)
42.Freddie Washington(session man)
43.Nathan Watts(session man)
44.Louis Satterfield(Earth Wind & Fire, session man)
45.Andy West(Dixie Dregs)
46.Bootsy Collins(Funkadelic)
47.John Wetton(King Crimson)
48.Greg Lake(ELP)
49.Tim Bogert(Vanilla Fudge)
50.Mark King(Level 42)

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I think Zappa said that all bass players are guys who couldn't figure out how to play guitar, or something of a similar disparaging nature

 

[turtledude]

Dominating bassists

select from the list

Did I miss anybody OF NOTE?

You missed a ton

Felix Pappalardi of Mountain

Jack Bruce of Cream That's the two top guys from the late sixties and early seventies along with

JOHN ENTWISTLE Of the WHO

Paul McCartney of the Beatles

and of course-the current top bass player in the world

JOHN MYUNG OF DREAM THEATER

 

[turtledude]

tons of modern bass player idolized Jack Bruce and his good friend Pappalardi who produced lots of of stuff for CREAM. he also was top song writer and singer as seen here



and of course we have the late great Jack Bruce: the guy who pretty well set the bar for everyone who came after him

 

[Pogo]

Dominating bassists

select from the list

Did I miss anybody OF NOTE?

Is this a joke? Put a poll up like that without Jack Bruce's name on it?
All of those names would kill to play like JB.

3:47 here.

​

I mean.... FUCK.

 

[turtledude]

Dominating bassists

select from the list

Did I miss anybody OF NOTE?

Is this a joke? Put a poll up like that without Jack Bruce's name on it?
All of those names would kill to play like JB.

3:47 here.

​

I mean.... FUCK.

it would be akin to a list of greatest rock drummers and not include

John Bonham
Ginger Baker
Stewart Copeland
Nicky Headon
Ian Paice and
Neal Pert

 

[ChrisL]

What about Lemmy?

 

[ChrisL]

Oh, I didn't see that Lemmy was in the original post list. Oops!