Songs where the bass surprises

guitars4you

EricTheWeary said:

guitars4you said:

Paul Simon - You can call me Al - Don't know who the bass player is but great lines

Bakithi Kumalo. South African musician who went on to be Paul's regular bassist. He plays on most of Graceland. 
The bass solo on Al is the solo he originally played but then played backwards on the tape. Bakithi had to learn the backwards solo for live performances. 

thanks

guitars4you

Praise for a lot of Gerry McCavoy's work with Rory Gallagher

Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon were the back bone for SRV- So much easier to play blues over such a tight rhythm unit 

Donald Duck Dunn with those Stax songs

Fred  Thomas and Bootsy Collins with James Brown

Then take your pick of the Motown songs with James Jamerson

breakstuff

The Smiths - Barbarism Begins At Home and Rusholme Ruffians to name two from the top of my head. Pretty much anything Andy Rourke played on.

prowla

guitars4you said:

In a classic rock blues format then Free - Mr Big - Live version even better and remember they were still kids when they wrote/recorded/played these songs

Chic/Bernard Edwards 

The Who - Can you see the real me

There of course 1000's of great tracks but those 3 will do for now

I know he's one of the greatest and all that, but there's something about Entwistle's playing I just don't like.

prowla

I happened to be thinking about Jack Bruce's playing on Cozy Powell's album last night.

prowla

The first time I saw slap in a rock context.

(I still can't do slap!)

Blueingreen

The bass on D’Angelo’s Voodoo album.  Mainly Pino Palladino. So influential on what came after that it’s lost some of its capacity for surprise but when it came out I remember thinking what the hell is this.

DonnyMac

James Jamerson on the Diana Ross version of Ain't No Mountain High Enough. 

roberty

guitars4you said:

Paul Simon - You can call me Al - Don't know who the bass player is but great lines

Interesting story: 
https://www.guitarworld.com/features/paul-simons-graceland-fretless-bass-playing-would-never-be-the-same-again

I have mixed feelings about that album. It's like a work of satire when he starts singing over the African choir in this intro, the singing itself is beautiful though. I would rather just listen to them

JezWynd

Gerald Johnson's playing on Steve Miller's Journey From Eden is a funky counterpoint to the mood of the song...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3R31nICm88

Bork

Baby Shark (Do Do DoDo). 

The bassline is surprising in a good way.

sg1300t

Jean-Jacques Burnel on... pretty much anything, but Nice and Sleazy is a fine example

Placidcasual79

Think he's been mentioned in this thread - but I really liked Pino Palliidon's playing with Questlove on the whole of D'Angelo's Voodoo - the bass is surprising because its 'off' the kick - just dragging behind it.... this is just the isolated drum and bass parts to one of the tracks - chicken grease......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyeUDsckMho

Dr_Necessiter

Fernando Saunders on New Sensations by Lou Reed:

stratman3142

Placidcasual79 said:

Think he's been mentioned in this thread - but I really liked Pino Palliidon's playing with Questlove on the whole of D'Angelo's Voodoo - the bass is surprising because its 'off' the kick - just dragging behind it.... this is just the isolated drum and bass parts to one of the tracks - chicken grease......

Pino Palladino seems to create the right bass line, with the right pocket and right groove in every situation. Sometimes he's playing hardly anything, but god those bass notes land in exactly the right spot for the music

I still get goosebumps listening to his playing with NIN live.

dazzajl

Philly_Q said:

I've always loved the way the bass drives Lady Evil by Black Sabbath:

Geezer and Bill are one of the most underrated back lines in rock history for me. Especially brilliant all over that album. 

dazzajl

Every Kinda People by Robert Palmer is an unexpectedly brilliant bass piece. 

prowla

dazzajl said:

Philly_Q said:

I've always loved the way the bass drives Lady Evil by Black Sabbath:

Geezer and Bill are one of the most underrated back lines in rock history for me. Especially brilliant all over that album. 

Bill Ward is probably my favourite drummer; very few have been able to approach his musicality.

Jfingers

Pretty much any Brian Ritchie bassline with The Violent Femmes.

Bruce Foxton, Jean Jacques Burnel and Flea as already mentioned were no slouches either.

More or less anyone who has played bass behind Nick Cave.

Paul Simonon.

Blueingreen

stratman3142 said:

Placidcasual79 said:

Think he's been mentioned in this thread - but I really liked Pino Palliidon's playing with Questlove on the whole of D'Angelo's Voodoo - the bass is surprising because its 'off' the kick - just dragging behind it.... this is just the isolated drum and bass parts to one of the tracks - chicken grease......

Pino Palladino seems to create the right bass line, with the right pocket and right groove in every situation. Sometimes he's playing hardly anything, but god those bass notes land in exactly the right spot for the music

To be fair, the concept for how the bass works on Voodoo is unusually collaborative.  All the bass parts were composed initially by D'Angelo.  The concept of the parts being played so far behind the beat in imitation of some hip hop samples, with hardly any top end came from D'Angelo and the production team, including Questlove, Raphael Saadiq and J Dilla. Charlie Hunter plays bass on 3 tracks, and Saadiq plays bass on "Untitled", probably the best known track.  Pino was given some leeway to interpret the parts D'Angelo wrote but he was given a clear idea about what type of sound to use and and about playing really far behind the beat. He does a fantastic job of course, but I think it would be misleading to say the innovative way the bass is used on that album comes from Palladino.