Who's the Greatest Bass Player Ever?

[Speed55]

Again...metal....great technicians...but musicians sorry to say......not.

That's a ridiculous statement.

As a musician i started on bass, almost 20 years ago now.  When i was in high school i joined the school band, and the music teacher was a huge motown fan. Well we played alot of motown covers, and i had to learn all the bass lines.  Basically we would play the  motown stuff with the teacher, and whenever he would go out for a smoke, we would jam rock and metal stuff.   

Both styles take technical skill, musicianship, and composition skills, in this thread, it's all a matter of preference. 

[Yeager]

I digress....Tony Levin.  The Stick bass man!  A master!  First heard of him when he did session work on Lennon's Double Fantasy.

Let us mention, while we are starting to name the literally hundreds of all time great bassists, Jeff Berlin (has he already received mention?)

Hmm..........what about John McVie....another guy who is NOT a technical wizard by any means yet he has laid down some of the best most melodic bass lines
ever recorded.

[Jenks]

Hmm..........what about John McVie....another guy who is NOT a technical wizard by any means yet he has laid down some of the best most melodic bass lines
ever recorded.

Yeah, I like  McVie's stuff...

Here ya go Yeager......keep the change.       


Hey wait a minute! I didn't order anchovies!


{ducking}

[Masherbrum]

Tony Levin would get my nod as the Best Bass Player alive.   King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Yes, Buddy Rich, Lennon and 100's others.   Previous mentions by me are Deceased.

Levin has always been a favorite of mine.   

[Yeager]

Timothy Schmit from the Eagles is another guy who deserves mention not only as a technicaly astute classy bassist but also as an accomplished vocalist.

[Speed55]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwMUsew_ZkI <-- here's a relatively unknown bass player i thought was pretty good when i was a kid.

[bongaroo]

Les Claypool

Victor Wooten

Billy Sheehan

Edgar Meyer (not a rock type but I've seen him destroy it up with Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, and Jerry Douglas)

I always wanted to form a band out of the best Bass Guitarists in the world.  We'd call it the 7 Basstards 

[lagger86]

I'm more of a punk rock enthusiast, but my vote would go to Geddy Lee(Rush). That guy is as about as solid as they get. He looks and sings like an old lady, but the guy is pretty amazing at many different styles of music.


Here is a guy (sean Andrews) as good as Geddy playing what Geddy wrote...this is pretty sweet Bassplaying....... http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=6383424

[Masherbrum]

I've seen Rush three times live.   The last two right in front of Alex 6 rows back.   Geddy is the best bass player I've ever seen with my own eyes.   I'm going to try and catch Peter Gabriel the next time he comes around, to see Tony Levin.

[Slade]

Your criteria is kinda wide.  If you mean who can play the most 64th notes in 60 seconds maybe that Jamerson dude might do.

As far as an all around musician some in contention might be: Jeff Berlin, Stanley Clarke, Bootsy Collins, Lance Hoppin, John Paul Jones and Marcus Miller.

The problem is the deeper you look, the more good\great bass players you can find.  Who is to judge?

Slade 

[TheZohan]

http://www.wanderlist.com/bassplayer

1.     Michael Steele
2.     John Entwistle
3.     Paul Chambers
4.     Jaco Pastorious 
5.     Steve Harris
6.     Sir Paul McCartney 
7.     Kasim Sultan
8.     John McVie
9.     John Myung
10.     Cliff Burton (Metallica)

what they got listed from other opinions

[SirLoin]

I play a mean bass and have been asked this many times.

#1:Jaco


These guys aren't even close
#2:Paul McCartney
#3:Jamerson
#4:Entwhistle
#5:Geddy Lee

[Masherbrum]

Jaco got his "tone" straight from Dee Murray.   He even admitted it.   

[SirLoin]

Neg..he got his tone straight from his pre-frontal lobes played by a de-fretted jazz-bass through a Acoustic 15" speaker.

[Bark0]

The One and Only Sir. Paul McCartney 

For those of you who think over this name Think Again
Member of the Beatles
Founder Of "Wings"

If you all Heavy Punk Rock Guys Want to Say something else I got something to Say to you :

We today listen to nothing but recycled, digitally-sampled techno-grooves, quasi-synth rhythms, pseudo-songs of violence-laden gansta-rap, acid pop, and simpering, saccarine, soulless slush.If you listen to this you forever separate yourselves from the vital Legacies of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Goerge Harrison, Ringo Star, Gerry Raffidy Louie Jordan, Little Walter, Big Walter, Sonnyboy Williamson I (and II), Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson, Elvis Pressley, Lieber and Stoller.

when those flames flicker and expire, the light of the world is extinguished because the music which has moved mankind through seven decades leading to the millennium will whither and die on the vine of abandonment and neglect.

Edited Quote From Elwood Blues

<S> 1st Lt. Barko Edwards