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Worst bassline ever


martthebass
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[quote name='The Funk' post='25981' date='Jul 2 2007, 01:02 PM']How about anything by John Illsley of Dire Straits? Did he actually do anything to earn his £40-odd million?[/quote]

I think his bassline on Sultans Of Swing is very groovy actually, definitely not the most technical bassline I've ever heard but it just goes so well with the progression IMO

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[quote name='Musky' post='25559' date='Jul 1 2007, 11:43 AM']To be fair, most of those suggestions are just simple basslines - which doesn't make them crap per se. A crap bassline IMHO is one that actually detracts from a song.

Something that Mark King has been guilty of at times.[/quote]


I agree, or is badly put together and does not fit the song. I think the Waterfront bassline, whilst able to be played by virtually any farmyard animal, makes the song. The ame with some of the other suggestions here. We're mixing up 'bad basslines' with 'basslines that are not complex or that are boring to play'.....

Edited by Muppet
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[quote name='Johnny Wishbone' post='25267' date='Jun 30 2007, 12:32 PM']Anything by Oasis's old bassist.[/quote]

a bit harsh, guigsy was sometimes quite good. definatly maybe had some good basslines on, cigarettes and alcohol for one

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[quote name='Muppet' post='26120' date='Jul 2 2007, 05:31 PM']I agree, or is badly put together and does not fit the song. I think the Waterfront bassline, whilst able to be played by virtually any farmyard animal, makes the song. The ame with some of the other suggestions here. We're mixing up 'bad basslines' with 'basslines that are not complex or that are boring to play'.....[/quote]

I agree too. Whilst I think most of songs suggested are pretty awful in their own right - to be honest I'm finding it genuinely difficult to think of a really bad bassline. Even with eighties poodle metal/rock (which I hate) with their [i]pedestrian[/i] :) unimaginative bass parts; it's the songs themselves that are crap. Bass is just doing what's required suppose(?)
Maybe I'm missing the point(?) :huh:

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[quote name='The Funk' post='25981' date='Jul 2 2007, 01:02 PM']How about anything by John Illsley of Dire Straits? Did he actually do anything to earn his £40-odd million?[/quote]
You can dislike John Ilsley's bass playing if you really have to but he obviously DID do something to earn his money from Dire Straits. He played bass, and did a very fine job in my view.

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QUOTE(dlloyd @ Jul 1 2007, 10:59 AM)
Maggie May... parts are good, but the remainder suggests drunkeness...


[quote name='artisan' post='25875' date='Jul 2 2007, 09:26 AM']+1
i think this is some of the worst bass playing i've ever heard.[/quote]

Is this where the Funkmaster gets controversial in his old age?!! (Or just recognises a certain curmudgeonly 'grumpty old man' aspect to himself for the first time!)

I think Maggie May's bassline is genius!

Yes it suggests drunkeness, it also suggests lack of knowledge about 'where the song goes next' but it's an integral part of a great performance from a band who were at the top of their game at the time. And to do justice to the song, if you cover it you have to get some of those 'mistakes' in to give the song the right feel.

If I could point at one bass-line that is the reason for me being a bass player Maggie May would be it. It's pure rock'n''roll to me.

Someone once said - there's two types of music. I think it was in the context of... good music and bad music.

But I've always reckoned it should be - music you like and music you don't. At the end of the day it's all subjective.

David

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[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='25339' date='Jun 30 2007, 05:48 PM']Any of a number of early Stones songs where Wyman mumbles along tunelessly on his fretless woolies special.[/quote]
+1
My band wanted to do "Honky Tonk Women" recently (OK, not so early Stones), which is not my favourite Stones track (that would be "Gimme Shelter"), but figuring it out I thought what a wasted opportunity for a great bluesy, funky bass-line. Maybe I just dom't get the vibe.
"Maggie May" sounds OK to me.

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[quote name='dlloyd' post='26444' date='Jul 3 2007, 12:16 PM']I can't agree with you more. One of the reasons I'm punting my Jaco stuff, etc. I'm done with buying CDs because, as a bassist, I should listen to them.[/quote]

Word.

I made a great thread a while back with no mention of Jaco in it at all!

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[quote name='nick' post='26215' date='Jul 2 2007, 08:45 PM']...to be honest I'm finding it genuinely difficult to think of a really bad bassline....Maybe I'm missing the point(?) :)[/quote]

I don't think so, I too am finding hard to think of a bassline that it is actually bad rather than just bland. This may actually be down to quality control on the part of record companies; I've been told that when a band is signed, the first to go are generally the bass player and drummer, if they can't cut the mustard. If the bass player is a fundamental part of the band you also get the situation where he doesn't actually play bass, e.g. Sid Vicious.

Jennifer

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Someone made a good comment on Front Row on radio 4 a few weeks back. They said that bass players are rarely the kind of extroverted individual who wants to front a band or play lead guitar, but are content in knowing that they're hanging back and making everything sound good.

One bassline I can't stand is the intro to 'For whom the bell tolls'. Grated, my dislike of said line was probably made even more intense having heard Geordie White, Scott Reeder, etc... butcher it on 'Some Kind of Monster'

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[quote name='The Burpster' post='27017' date='Jul 4 2007, 03:14 PM']Would I be right in saying that, the bass line is like the foundations of a house?

They may not always be obvious or of selfstanding beauty, but they are substantial and the rest of the music would be likely to fall down without them.......

:) :huh: :huh:[/quote]

I like that.
Reminds me of one of the things an old bass player used to say to me, when I was learning (still am), with regard to practicing, & job itself etc. God bless him.
[i]...you just can't build on dodgy foundations mate!.....[/i]

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As someone mentioned earlier in this thread it's what the song calls for really. it's no good doing a Snow patrol song and then trying to play like Jack bruce in the background, it ain't going to work! we do that Edwyn collins thing, never met a girl like you or whatever it's called, when the songs up next our drummer says to me, right it's i spy time :) . the bass and drums are repetative but thats the song.

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In all reality, it's subjective. I personally don't remotely rate Jack Bruce, for example - to others, he's a true Bass God. Fairy snuff.

But one bass line that disgusted me even BEFORE I was a bass player was the Flowerpot Men and Let's go To San Francisco. Muted flatwounds played with a pick. Horrid! And all the worse, because, as far as I know, the sessionman responsible for playing it (doubtless someone else's written notes, I'm not blaming him personally...unless anyone knows different?) was the inimitable John Paul Jones...

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Heard on the radio earlier, "What Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made A Loser Out Of Me)" by Rod Stewart... I don't know who was responsible for the vile bass on this appalling crap, but they want kneecapping.

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Dull bass lines (maybe not the worst but defo most boring) for me would be;

Anything by oasis.
Anything by snow patrol.
Waterfront by Simple Minds.
Pretty Green By The Jam (Bruce foxton is my fav bassist but that bass line is just soooo boring)

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