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Best Bass Players of the Eighties...!


Stuart Clayton
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[quote name='Mike' post='155716' date='Mar 12 2008, 07:32 AM']Tsk - no mention of Sting & the Police yet!

Whilst not Mr Technical, I consider him a study in space and tastefulness.[/quote]

I'd have said the Police were more of a '70s band.

Top albums for bass players - The Nightfly by Donald Fagen has some wonderful contributions by Marcus Miller, Will Lee, Chuck Rainey and Anthony Jackson.

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[quote name='bnt' post='155696' date='Mar 12 2008, 01:28 AM']'PS: on the bass-related Equipment side, I think of:
Fairlight CMI, for solid bass sampling & sequencing (ask Frankie & the Art of Noise);[/quote]
Yeah, +1 for the Fairlight!

Also, wasn;'t it the 80s that saw the introduction of the now near-as-dammit industry standard 4x10 cab from Trace and SWR (if my bass history is correct)?

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Mark King - for making bass attention grabbing (think his fingerstyle lines are better than the chugga chugga though)
+1 Nick Beggs
Paul Denman from Sade - nice souful lines played on a Stingray. See [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvcNtoHwd6Y"]HERE[/url]
Nick Thorp from Curiosity Killed The Cat - great basslines on a Status. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qLMBf2viSY&feature=related"]Cheesy clip alert [/url]

Good bass players, [i]awful[/i] decade for music!

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When I was looking at the 70's some of the stuff was actually 80's (blame the drugs)

Duff as already mentioned.
Mani for the second coming
John Deacon for Another One Bites The Dust
Oasis - love or loathe you cannot ignore
Blur and Alex James likewise

and on upright Jim Parris - Carmel

As someone else mentioned the 80's saw 10's replace 15's as the standard.

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For me it has to be

Pino pallidino
Darryl Jones
Mick Karn
Mo Foster
Marcus miller
Mark Egan
Abe Laborial
Neil stubenhaus (think thats how you spell his name)his work with Tom Scott was AMAZING !
Jeff Berlin (pump it ,the 80's jaco pastorius album)
Felton crews
Jonas hellborg.

Not a bad list

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The 80's was the decade I started playing (seems like a very long time ago now), but these are my standout bassists from that era:

1) Mark King - I've been a big Level 42 fan since I saw them in concert at Wembley Arena in '86. Can't play like him though....
2) Pino Palladino - IMO one of the vey few fretless basists to develop his own sound on the instrument.
3) Joe Hubbard - Really great US bassist. Had a couple of his Hubbard's Cubbard LP's & the playing was superb. Shame he's given it up.
4) John Pattitucci - Saw him at the RFH in London in '89 with Chick Corea (using a Yammy 6 string). Superb Jazz bassist on both electric & upright.
5) Ewan Vernal - Deacon Blue were one of my favourite bands towards the end of the 80's. Another underrated bassist.

Honourable mentions - Dick Nolan (It Bites) & Marcus Miller.

Cheers,
iamthewlarus.

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[quote name='bass_ferret' post='156422' date='Mar 13 2008, 12:09 AM']When I was looking at the 70's some of the stuff was actually 80's (blame the drugs)

Duff as already mentioned.
Mani for the second coming
John Deacon for Another One Bites The Dust
Oasis - love or loathe you cannot ignore
Blur and Alex James likewise

and on upright Jim Parris - Carmel

As someone else mentioned the 80's saw 10's replace 15's as the standard.[/quote]
Twas I who mentioned 10s.

Think Oasis and Blur are 90s tho. I suppose Blur existed in the end of the 80s but their famous albums are all 90s....

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I wouldn't argue with any of the names mentioned so far, but no list of '80's bassists would be complete without the sadly underrated Derek Forbes of Simple Minds.

His up-front sound is well evident on the "New Gold Dream" album, which on the Simple Minds website has been voted their best album by a considerable margin.

Derek Forbes is a versatile player too, playing fretted and fretless and being adept at pick, fingerstyle and slap.

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[quote name='clauster' post='155796' date='Mar 12 2008, 10:03 AM']That'll have been Paul Ryder.

+1 for Mani, I still love playing his lines - really annoyed the rest of my band last night by breaking into "the bit" from I am the Resurrection at every available opportunity![/quote]

Two great bassists from the 'Madchester' era. Big influences on myself too. :)

I was luck enough to acquire Paul Ryder's Monday's bass some years ago:
[url="http://www.mdmarchive.co.uk/archive/showartefact.php?aid=1260&bid=444"]http://www.mdmarchive.co.uk/archive/showar...260&bid=444[/url]
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2yK-NUyAIY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2yK-NUyAIY[/url]
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuJqfqGgz7M"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuJqfqGgz7M[/url]

I occaisionally still get offers for it from Monday's collectors.

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For me Pino Paladino would probably be the most complete Bass player. Great fretless work with Paul young. I think he used a graphite neck on his MM because he liked to slap it occasionally and it gave a more percussive tone.

Mark King of course.

Nick Beggs.

Mick Karn.

Geddy Lee.

Chris Squire.

Stanley Clarke.

Wilbur Bascombe. Maybe not so well known but played on the excellent 'Wired' album by Jeff Beck.

Tony Levin.

Louis Johnson.

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[quote name='BOD2' post='155607' date='Mar 11 2008, 10:22 PM']Well I know it doesn't have much "cred" but I always though the bass line in "Too Shy" by Kajagoogoo (such a wonderful band name) was very interesting. Was it Nick Beggs who played that ?

Firstly, it's a pure pre-teen pop song so there was no expectation (or even need) for a interesting bass line.

Secondly, it really brought the song to life and was instantly recognisable - there's not many songs that a layperson can recognise from the bass part alone.

Thirdly, it's a real "eighties" line with all the features of the time - bright sound, bit of slapping here and there.[/quote]

MB1. :)
+1......and apparently still paying Mr Beggs hairdressing bill to this day! :huh:

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[quote name='Deep Thought' post='155748' date='Mar 12 2008, 09:02 AM']Stuart Morrow (New Model Army)
Chris Thompson (Screaming Blue Messiahs)
Greg Norton (Husker Du)
Paul Raven (KIlling Joke)
Stan Stammers(Theatre if Hate/Spear of Destiny)
Les Pattinson (Echo and the Bunnymen-met him backstage at York festival-nice chap!)[/quote]

+1 for Stu Morrow

How about Gary Tibbs (Roxy / Adam & Ants)
Mick Karn
Pino
Hooky
Andy Rourke
Colin Moudling (XTC)
Mark King
Simon Gallup
I guess JJ Burnell is the 70's
John Taylor

+1 for Nick Beggs

and that guy from 'Fashion'

Edited by bass_in_ya_face
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[quote name='stingrayfan' post='155877' date='Mar 12 2008, 11:38 AM']Mark King - for making bass attention grabbing (think his fingerstyle lines are better than the chugga chugga though)
+1 Nick Beggs
Paul Denman from Sade - nice souful lines played on a Stingray. See [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvcNtoHwd6Y"]HERE[/url]
Nick Thorp from Curiosity Killed The Cat - great basslines on a Status. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qLMBf2viSY&feature=related"]Cheesy clip alert [/url]

Good bass players, [i]awful[/i] decade for music![/quote]

The eighties was not awful for music :) ...most of my stuff comes from that era.

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[quote name='Merton' post='156639' date='Mar 13 2008, 12:15 PM']Twas I who mentioned 10s.

Think Oasis and Blur are 90s tho. I suppose Blur existed in the end of the 80s but their famous albums are all 90s....[/quote]
Who said Oasis and Blur? My bad - got a bit carried away.

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