The aces of basses

Six strings good, four strings better - Newspaper Edition - Times Online

Good article, although I wish it was longer, about how important good bass playing is to great pop and rock music. Although I have played bass since I was 14, it took me another 15 years to work out that the music I loved had great bass parts (or, even more obviously, the music I hated all had bass lines that went bm bm bm bm on the root note. )

All the pieces and players cited in the article are great, so my list of the great players will try to avoid duplicating them. But I will second the suggestion that the 2nd DVD of the restored The Kids Are Alright is worth it for "ox-cam" alone. I had never before realised just how good the bass part is - it keep it simple when needed, then bursts into complex lines that comment on the main melody as much as supporting the chords. It's worth it for that alone.

The songs that made me want to play bass:

1) Hey Bulldog, The Beatles. A great late Beatles rocker, the bass arrives late after the pounding piano riff and then spends the rest of the song hyperactively sounding off. It's almost too much, but its brilliant.

2) Red Barchetta, Rush. Rush have a tendendcy to be too clever for their own good, but the bit in this song when the car is actually named is carried along by a masterful bass riff, high up on the neck and running on pure energy.

3) Badge, Cream. 60s blues riff drives a cool song all the way through.

4) Jaco. I can't play like that - I can't even get close - but it is a delight to hear. I know he ushered in a generation of jazz-funk wankery, but still...