your influences and why

[Bolo]

My influences are good for metal!
Really though:
Frank Bello, Newsted, Burton, Les Claypool, Dan Lilker, Robert Trujillo...

[dmccombe7]

For me it was Geddy Lee initially and then Jack Bruce from his Cozy Powell and session work era. Also Mr Sinclair from Camel era, Percy Jones, Jeff Berlin, John Giblin. All kinda around same era if memory serves me right. Late 70's. God I'm old.

[Lozz196]

Punk. The punk movement was full of interesting basslines, full of energy, melody and creativity. And from this era there are two major influences, one being Bruce Foxton of The Jam, great playing as described, the other was Never Mind The Bollocks on which Steve Jones played much of the bass (which I didn`t realise at the time). The style of just picking the root note and hammering it gave real power and I loved it.

[Bassman Steve]

My single biggest influence was John Deacon. He played pretty much exactly the lines I would hear in songs (with a very musical sparsity and a great use of sustain) and had the sound I wanted. I had a Jazz bass when he first appeared and I have been a dyed-in-the-wool P-bass man ever since.

Second influence is definitely Jamerson but they have a similar approach to bass lines really. No need to be flash, just play what the song needs and they both did it exceptionally well.

[BigRedX]

I've always been far more interested in songwriters and bands as a collection of people interacting than individual musicians.

For me the songwriting is the most important thing because without that there is nothing to play.

And great bands (and for that matter songwriting partnerships) are always more than the sum of their individual parts. It's all about the extra magic that happens when musicians play together and interact. That's why there are some fantastic bands whose members might not be the most technically talented, but when they play (and write) as a band it's close to perfection.

Even then my influences are diverse and often it can be just a single song (or even a little musical idea or just a sound) by an artist that I have no other interest in which can inspire to create something of my own. All the bands I've been in have been about working lots of different ideas together and seeing what happens.

[fatback]

And for the ultimate in how cool a bass player could look... Phil Lynnott. Saw him when i was an impressionable 12 years old and never got over it.

[FinnDave]

Mike Howlett, Keith from Here & Now, Tommy Shannon

[discreet]

OK, I'll play...

Who really made me want to play bass..?
Generally the people who played on the music my parents had playing in the house, so by osmosis...

Klaus Voorman
Joe Osborn
Carol Kaye
James Jamerson
McCartney
Herbie Flowers
Greg Lake
John Paul Jones
Aston Barrett
Tina Weymouth
Mike Watt...

...and many more.

Edited September 28, 2013 by discreet

[Lowender]

Johann Sebastian Bach. Because he not only realized the bass was equally as important as the upper register (and wrote parts as such) ,the genius of his sense of voice leading has never been surpassed.

He wrote the book... and we all just quote from it.

Edited September 28, 2013 by Lowender

[discreet]

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1380376863' post='2224474']
Johann Sebastian Bach.
[/quote]

Yeah, him too.

[LiamPodmore]

At first, Mike Dirnt & Matt Willis, but then i got more into metal so it was people like Cliff Burton, Paolo Gregoletto & Jay James.

Liam

[Cat Burrito]

My Mum. She left some really cool records lying around the house so from an early age I was subjected to classic soul, country & rock 'n' roll

[spongebob]

Geddy has always been a major influence on me.

Must add Steve Hanley, Noel Redding, JJ Burnel....all very important. I tend to think my influences have grown over the years, as I listen to masses of soul and jazz now (have done for years), but that wasn't on my radar when I started.

Now I'd be including Jaco, Stanley, Chuck Rainey (appears on loads of stuff I love) and about a million others.

Big fan of Gerry Mcavoy as well - I'm currently in an R'n'B band, so his style is never far from my radar.

[xgsjx]

My influences for the style I'm playing now are the likes of Bond, Janek Gwizdala, John Davis & also a lot of jungle, breakbeat, drum n' bass, house & funk.

All good fun

[Coilte]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1380365162' post='2224283']
For me the songwriting is the most important thing because without that there is nothing to play.
[/quote]

True to a certain extent, but you need a certain calibre of musician to interpret your music and to convey it in the way the writer intended.

James Jamerson put such a mark on any song he played on, that at one stage, he was not allowed to go on tour, but had to stay in the studio, because writers/performers would not record without him.

If what you say was absolutely true, then artists would not be particular about the musicians they choose for an album recording.

I remember reading that "Steely Dan", when looking for a guitarist to solo on a certain song (cant remember the song title at present),
went through five or six guitarists, before they found the "right" one.

IMO, without the top notch musicians that Becker/Fagan insisted on recruiting, their songs/music might not sound quite as good.

[darkandrew]

I'm surprised at all the John Giblin references, to my mind Derek Forbes was the better bass player of the two and probably the one above all others who most influenced me. My other influences would have to include John Taylor, Bernard Edwards and Simon Gallup.

[risingson]

James Jamerson, Pino Palladino (fretted) and Anthony Jackson are top.

Carol Kaye, Joe Osborn, Paul McCartney, Willie Weeks, John Paul Jones I kind of group together as massive influences too. More modern guys I like are Adam Blackstone, Sharay Reed and Tim Lefebvre.

[Fionn]

Stuart Zender, mostly.

When I first heard Jamiroquai, way back in 1993, I couldn't believe my ears. It was the music that I'd waited my entire young (at the time) life for. I was really captivated by the bass particularly. There was/ is something about early jamiroquai and Zenders playing which simply locks into my soul. I wanted to express some of that groove that I was feeling ... So, I went out and bought a bass.

More than any other player that I can think of, Zender has left the strongest stylistic influence on my playing.

[4000]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1380308581' post='2223714']

but nowadays it is not bass players but composers.
[/quote]

Big +1 to that.

In terms of bass influences though, Lemmy circa Hawkwind, Phil Lynott and Frank Marino were the first (although I suspect McCartney, Ray Brown & NHOP were subliminal pre-playing influences) - I wanted to play bass with the speed and fluidity Frank Marino played guitar and actively fought against the whole staccato, ghost-noted thing - and a little later I'd say Glenn Hughes, Roger Glover, Geezer Butler, Geddy Lee, Mike Rutherford, JJB, Leigh "Leroy" Gorman, Stanley Clarke, John McVie, Rutger Gunnarsson, then later still Chris Squire, the Ox, Stuart Zender and probably others....

I'll add that although I think Jameson is a wonderful player I was never interested in Motown.

Edited September 28, 2013 by 4000

[hollywoodrox]

hair metal and classic rock 80s style

[Cameronj279]

It was Les Claypool who made me decide "I'm going to to buy a bass". Since then I get some form of influence (more enjoyment than influence really) from so many bass players and artists.

[4000]

Oh, went through a massive Joey DeMaio phase too, about 4 years in. He kind of pushed me further along the path I'd already taken, which was a similar one to him at the time.

[risingson]

[quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1380403875' post='2224960']
Stuart Zender, mostly.

When I first heard Jamiroquai, way back in 1993, I couldn't believe my ears. It was the music that I'd waited my entire young (at the time) life for. I was really captivated by the bass particularly. There was/ is something about early jamiroquai and Zenders playing which simply locks into my soul. I wanted to express some of that groove that I was feeling ... So, I went out and bought a bass.

More than any other player that I can think of, Zender has left the strongest stylistic influence on my playing.
[/quote]

Zender I definitely credit for keeping me playing as a young lad. I learnt those first three Jamiroquai albums back to back, note for note!

[paul_5]

When I picked up a vinyl copy of [i]A Show of Hands[/i] by Rush. I bought a bass the following week and my keyboard playing took a back seat.

Then it was the usual suspects: John Paul Jones, James Jamerson, Ducky Dunn, Billy Sheehan, Jaco, Flea etc...

Mainly because they showed me what the instrument was capable of and that it's not limited to thumping away on root notes all of the time - although a sound knowledge of them is evident in all of those players (and many other excellent players too).

[Rubbersoul]

JJ Burnell, Paul Simonon and Bruce Foxton. I was a punk and these guys led the field.