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Songs you remember because of the bass line

Just to try and claw back a bit of credibility after my last posting, there's also:
Dazed & Confused - Led Zep.
 
Cant believe I forgot

- Neat Neat Neat; The Damned
- I Love a Man in Uniform; Gang of Four
- Atmosphere; Joy Division
- Whie Lines; Grandmaster Flash and te Furious Five ( now reformed as the quite cross five )
- Anything by The Cramps ;)

Regards

Mike
 
Brian Bromberg doing "Come Together" on the stand-up bass.

Jamalaadeen Tacuma playing "Jam Scam."

Spinal Tap "Big Bottom" :D

jonathan carr
 
Originally posted by prowla
Here's three terrible songs with great bass workouts:
Duran Duran - Rio
Rod Stewart - If You Think I'm Sexy
Grease soundtrack - You're The One That I Want.

He he he - that Grease track was sounding pretty good last night despite the previous owner of my copy using a rusty nail to play it :) I put it on for the Franki Valli track and, ahem, got sucked in - oooh noooooooo!!!

What about Le Freak by Chic - I can't remember if I mentioned that? Also, a LOT of the Durannie stuff has decent bass riffs - Planet Earth, The Reflex and Union of the snake aren't bad (what the HELL was that Union of the snake track about anyway? And why didn't New moon on Monday make it onto Decade???

I'm ducking now - can't believe I admitted to owning Decade (and MOST of their vinyl back catalogue up to Big Thing - and ALL of it bought in the early 90s - gulp!
 
Originally posted by jcarr
Spinal Tap "Big Bottom" :D

OOOOH YEAH!! QUALITY soundtrack - Cups and cakes and Stone Henge are other stand outs - though that cheesy Listen to the flower people gets my hippie instincts going! One cracking movie.

Have you seen the black version - Fear of a black hat? It takes the pee out of NWA (they're called "Niggaz With Hats", and have Tasty Taste, Tone Def and Ice Cold doing the duty - pure class! Some cracking songs in that too, and of course, Tasty "was a pharmaceutical distributor" before he hit the big time! Oh - and the pee take of New Jack City is HILARIOUS!
 
For some really sublime bass

John Martyn (DannyThompson), Solid Air

A bit more obvious (and a bit silly), but fun

Tom Waits, Step Right Up
 
"Jaco Pastorius Big Band - Word Of Mouth Revisited", released this year. Showcases current top bassists like Victor Wooten, Victor Bailey, Richard Bona, Marcus Miller and more performing together with the members from Word of Mouth. Excellent playing throughout, and well-worth listening to.

Rather than being a song you remember because of the bass line, this is an album that you buy because of the bass lines.

jonathan carr
 
I just remembered "Little By Little" on the Robert Plant album "Shaken 'n' Stirred". This has a great bass line by Paul Martinez.
 
Good call Simon on Gang of Four's "Entertainment!", which completely rests on its bass line.

I was going to mention some Black Sabbath, Cream, and Grand Funk RR titles, but they've been covered so I'll second them.

The James Gang has some memorable bass lines, especially on "Rides Again" (Funk #49, The Bomber: Closet Queen, etc.)

The Melvins were the rare band that mastered overproduced 90's bass lines and turned them to their advantage, in large part by gleefully running things to an absurd extreme. "Stoner Witch" is their best example, especially with songs like "Queen" and "Revolve".

Of course hip-hop stands or falls, and usually falls, with its bass lines. But when it's good it can be very good; arrythmic, disjointed, impossible-to-dance-to lines that leave you shaking your head ("how did they make music from that?") can nonetheless produce some really terrific songs. Examples:

Cannibal Ox's "The Cold Vein" (especially "A B-Boy's Alpha" and "Raspberry Fields"),

El-P's "Fantastic Damage" ("Accidents Don't Happen" has a near-impossible bass line, but it comes together in a great track nonetheless).

Company Flow's "Funcrusher Plus"

Anti-Pop Consortium's "Arrythmia".
 


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