Best Basslines Ever?

[AgentCooper]

I love playing bass. It gives you the opportunity to just go with the root note if you’re feeling lazy, play melodically like McCartney if you want to complement the soundscape, supplement a driving rhythm a la Bootsy Collins or treat it as a lead instrument like Geddy Lee.

What are your favourite bass performances?

I’m going to throw an absolute curveball straight into the equation, it’s a song you’ve may have heard in the background of your life a million times and probably paid little attention to. But I urge you to put your headphones on and listen to what LaMarquis Jefferson does with four strings on this track. It’s brilliant and he absolutely bosses it.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Waterfalls by TLC!

 

[SpyderTracks]

I love playing bass. It gives you the opportunity to just go with the root note if you’re feeling lazy, play melodically like McCartney if you want to complement the soundscape, supplement a driving rhythm a la Bootsy Collins or treat it as a lead instrument like Geddy Lee.

What are your favourite bass performances?

I’m going to throw an absolute curveball straight into the equation, it’s a song you’ve may have heard in the background of your life a million times and probably paid little attention to. But I urge you to put your headphones on and listen to what LaMarquis Jefferson does with four strings on this track. It’s brilliant and he absolutely bosses it.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Waterfalls by TLC!

Man oh man, waterfalls is SUCH an underrated tune, fully concur! 👍🏼

For me, I’m in love with The Chain by Fleetwood Mac, bit of an obvious one I know but what a tune!

 

[Steveyg]

This was on during the car ride to work this morning. forgot how good a tune it is

 

[smallkube]

This is it for me.

 

[Steveyg]

I missed the bassline aspect of this one, though I was in the regular music thread my bad

EDIT But hey if we're talking basslines the man himself

 

[TonyCarter]

Again, another completely obvious one, but I love White Strips Seven Nation Army...

...and Gorillaz Feel Good Inc...

 

[SpyderTracks]

Bit of funky base on a good disco tune - Chic - Le Freak

 

[TonyCarter]

Nearly forgot a more melodic bass track in an old Genesis track (The Lady Lies)...and whilst there's plenty of bass in other Genesis tracks a lot of them are just rhythm beats.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I doubt anyone’s heard of this. This is going to annoy some as it’s a garage track, but this is epic abuse of the baseline, crank this up loud and fully expect your bass driver to blow out instantly:

Tim Wright - Searcher

 

[TonyCarter]

I doubt anyone’s heard of this. This is going to annoy some as it’s a garage track, but this is epic abuse of the baseline, crank this up loud and fully expect your bass driver to blow out instantly:

Tim Wright - Searcher

I'd have that on full blast with the windows down - if I was driving through Blackpool or Southend

Got a bit of a Mr Oizo Flat Beat to it too!

 

[loso64]

It is not a bass line, but i love to jam to this classic

 

[AgentCooper]

Another phenomenal bit of bass work, this time from Paul McCartney on the Wings track ‘Mrs Vandebilt’

 

[Bigfoot]

For me it has to be Geddy Lee. A few examples below.

 

[scarpa1]

The Rage one is pretty epic, quote from an article about it, It’s the opening bass riff which qualifies the song for immortality: Tim Commerford plays E five times at the 7th fret on the A string, drones the open E string once and then plucks a chord of G# (6th fret, D string) plus D (7th fret, G string), repeating this through the verses.

There is a bit of bad language about just to warn anyone.

 

[scarpa1]

Unplugged version of Would by Alice In Chains

The MTV unplugged show is extremely good, even if you aren't a fan of that type of music some of the songs are brilliant unplugged and Layne Staley RIP was just a brilliant frontman, criminally underrated.
Love Hate Love, live in Seattle, the vocals, the emotion, brilliant.

 

[rouchie]

 

[ubuysa]

It may not be the best or even epic but without the bass this Bruce Hornsby song would be nothing...

 

[Steveyg]

Some great tunes above

 

[RichardDavies99]

Psycho Killer by Talking Heads is a good one, courtesy of Tina Weymouth.

 

[AgentCooper]

Psycho Killer by Talking Heads is a good one, courtesy of Tina Weymouth.

I sometimes forget how good Talking Heads are and then rediscover them every few years. Great shout 👍👍👍