Songs where the bass surprises

lesyeuxnoirs

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......

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

Very nice - I was going to say ‘literally anything that Pino Palladino plays on’. The stuff with Mayer and the Who is great (I don’t really know the Paul Young stuff)…but the stuff with D’Angelo is my favourite. That and all of the ‘Neo-Soul’ albums he’s played on 

Stuckfast

TBF a lot of these are just examples of good bass playing, not songs where the bass surprises.

Jfingers

No likes for Paul Simonon? You people are weird.

EricTheWeary

EvansDrD 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......

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

Very nice - I was going to say ‘literally anything that Pino Palladino plays on’. The stuff with Mayer and the Who is great (I don’t really know the Paul Young stuff)…but the stuff with D’Angelo is my favourite. That and all of the ‘Neo-Soul’ albums he’s played on 

I was reading Phil Palmer's Session Man and Pino Pallidino gets a lot of name checks. Just the consummate session bassist, he'll be on a thousand things you've heard and not know it was him. 
The Paul Young stuff almost certainly the most famous/iconic use of fretless on chart hits. 

But, yes, not many surprises on here (I feel I tried with mine!). 

Placidcasual79

@stratman3142 - NIN are some distance away from my normal cuppa - I never liked the name or that sort of tormented, angsty heavy metal - but I should probably have a rethink..... I think I've probably made assumptions and have some biases.  Lots of musicians I like or respect seem to rate Trent Resonar and I believe their music is quite diverse.....but like @EvansDrD mentions in his post, Pino has played with some many incredible and very different musicians. Incredible really. 

Apologies to @Blueingreen - I didn't see you'd posted about Voodoo just before I did in this thread - sorry...... and I take your point to an extent as well regarding the the bass parts D'Angelo had prepared. I think the bass playing is surprising in that it is very different from what was going on in most other areas of soul, r'n'b, rock and hip hop at the time - how much is swung and how unsyncopated - lots of documentaries about how loose and funk those records that were made at Electric Ladyland by that group of musicians at that time - Commons 'Like water for Chocolate' and Erykah Badu's 'Mama's Gun'...... I read Questlove say that Dilla quantised each component of his sampled beats differently to give a looser, funkier feel and it took him a year to re-learn to play in that 'out of time' way......

lesyeuxnoirs

Placidcasual79 said:

@stratman3142 - NIN are some distance away from my normal cuppa - I never liked the name or that sort of tormented, angsty heavy metal - but I should probably have a rethink..... I think I've probably made assumptions and have some biases.  Lots of musicians I like or respect seem to rate Trent Resonar and I believe their music is quite diverse.....but like @EvansDrD mentions in his post, Pino has played with some many incredible and very different musicians. Incredible really. 

Apologies to @Blueingreen - I didn't see you'd posted about Voodoo just before I did in this thread - sorry...... and I take your point to an extent as well regarding the the bass parts D'Angelo had prepared. I think the bass playing is surprising in that it is very different from what was going on in most other areas of soul, r'n'b, rock and hip hop at the time - how much is swung and how unsyncopated - lots of documentaries about how loose and funk those records that were made at Electric Ladyland by that group of musicians at that time - Commons 'Like water for Chocolate' and Erykah Badu's 'Mama's Gun'...... I read Questlove say that Dilla quantised each component of his sampled beats differently to give a looser, funkier feel and it took him a year to re-learn to play in that 'out of time' way......

And that selection of albums by that group of musicians at that point in time (although see some of the later efforts, eg José James’ debut) was, for me, close to perfect

Maybe not a ‘surprise’ but nice to talk about 

— 

One surprise(maybe) on ‘Voodoo’ is the track, Spanish Joint. Charlie Hunter played the bass and guitar simultaneously on his Novax 8-string ‘hybrid’. The man is amazing. Called it the most challenging session he played 

Blueingreen

Yeah I was exclusively playing bass, not guitar, when that record came out and it was a big deal.  I was really into Like Water for Chocolate as well.  Common played the Jazz Cafe in Camden around that time and my wife and I went, absolutely cracking gig.

RocknRollDave

Bicycle Race. John Deacon at his best.

dazzajl

RocknRollDave said:

Bicycle Race. John Deacon at his best.

Very much another unseen genius, the George Harrison of the group almost. Because he was unflashy in the company of three large personalities, he’s never received the recognition he would have done in another band

Placidcasual79

Blueingreen said:

Yeah I was exclusively playing bass, not guitar, when that record came out and it was a big deal.  I was really into Like Water for Chocolate as well.  Common played the Jazz Cafe in Camden around that time and my wife and I went, absolutely cracking gig.

  Wow - I'd have loved to have seen Common - I was 20 when like water for chocolate came out, I loved that record and remember playing it repeatedly while cheffing in a tiny and very hot pub kitchen.....what was the gig like?

Some great records made no doubt @EvansDrD - have you seen this excellent channel/video?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWzzkD78ETA

DuploLicks

Stuckfast said:

TBF a lot of these are just examples of good bass playing, not songs where the bass surprises.

On reflection, not a great thread title I’m creating a playlist out of the suggestions and so many tracks it’s going to take a while. Really enjoying this dive into the low side. Thanks everyone 

Funkfingers

Jaco's contributions to several tracks on the Joni Mitchell album, Hejira.

A couple of bars of Jaco are briefly quoted during the bassline of Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick by the rather excellent Norman Watt-Roy.

A fair few latterday Led Zeppelin riffs that sound like tight unison guitar and bass are actually John Paul Jones on eight string. If you fancy a challenge, sit through all of This Sporting Life by Diamanda Galás.

Finally, I am honour bound to nominate something by Tony Levin.

Wazmeister

stratman3142 said:

Bruce Thomas on Pump It Up (Elvis Costello). Another one I've enjoyed learning recently.

Spot on.

In fact, anything with Bruce Thomas playing.

McCartney always.

Bruce Foxton always.

Wazmeister

Some specifics;

The Jam - Scrape Away
Costello - Every Day I Write The Book
Clash - Lockdown, Guns Of Brixton
Madness - Our House
Smiths - Queen Is Dead
Specials - Too Much Too Young/ Long Shot Kick E Bucket

RandallFlagg

You're The One That I Want from Grease

lesyeuxnoirs

Placidcasual79 said:

Blueingreen said:

Yeah I was exclusively playing bass, not guitar, when that record came out and it was a big deal.  I was really into Like Water for Chocolate as well.  Common played the Jazz Cafe in Camden around that time and my wife and I went, absolutely cracking gig.

  Wow - I'd have loved to have seen Common - I was 20 when like water for chocolate came out, I loved that record and remember playing it repeatedly while cheffing in a tiny and very hot pub kitchen.....what was the gig like?

Some great records made no doubt @EvansDrD - have you seen this excellent channel/video?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWzzkD78ETA

I hadn’t, but thank you !

Placidcasual79

RandallFlagg said:

You're The One That I Want from Grease

f*ck. That was amassing. I am going to have learn that baseline can make me as happy as that guy. 

dazzajl

Funkfingers said:

Jaco's contributions to several tracks on the Joni Mitchell album, Hejira.

A couple of bars of Jaco are briefly quoted during the bassline of Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick by the rather excellent Norman Watt-Roy.

Overture/Cotton Avenue on Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter is divine too. All his work with Joni has a magic touch. 

Blueingreen

Placidcasual79 said:

Blueingreen said:

Yeah I was exclusively playing bass, not guitar, when that record came out and it was a big deal.  I was really into Like Water for Chocolate as well.  Common played the Jazz Cafe in Camden around that time and my wife and I went, absolutely cracking gig.

  Wow - I'd have loved to have seen Common - I was 20 when like water for chocolate came out, I loved that record and remember playing it repeatedly while cheffing in a tiny and very hot pub kitchen.....what was the gig like?

Some great records made no doubt @EvansDrD - have you seen this excellent channel/video?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWzzkD78ETA

To be honest can’t remember a huge amount of detail, it was more than 20 years ago, and I don't think I paid any attention to who was in the band, but it was a great gig.  Common was bang on it, the band was red hot and there was a terrific atmosphere. One thing I remember being surprised by was a handful of people in the audience “performing” the songs.  They knew every word and nuance and had their own body moves, hand gestures etc. It went beyond fans singing along to their favourite artist, they’d obviously put in hours of practice and were skilled rappers in their own right.

I saw D’Angelo in Rotterdam in 2016 with Pino in the band, touring on the back of the release of the Black Messiah album. He started really late, a few bits of booing and slow handclaps, but once it got going it was a phenomenal performance. Unbelievable band. He’d been learning guitar himself and is obviously a phenomenal musician so he was no slouch but he also had Sharkey in the band, so a treat for anybody into nu soul guitar playing.

axisus

I was listening to a live track from maybe the 80s the other day by Steve Hackett. It was pretty cool but the bass playing was superb, really interesting. I just had to go look up who was playing bass and I was surprised (don't know why?) that it was the late great John Wetton. I knew that he played bass, I'd just never thought of him as that good I guess. Sorry, can't remember the song off the top of my head!