Sky Arts ,Worlds greatest Basslines .28/11/25

[martin8708]

Nice to see some bass specific programs on TV , definitely worth a look .

Apologies if this has been posted before .

 

Edited 8 hours ago by martin8708
Spelling

[Misdee]

It's not on for nearly two weeks yet and I'm already getting annoyed at who the inevitable candidates will be.😄

 

Let me put it to you this way, I can already see three bass players who definitely shouldn't be included.  🫢

Edited 5 hours ago by Misdee

[Reggaebass]

I don’t even know who those 3 are 🤷‍♂️ 

[tauzero]

https://www.skygroup.sky/en-gb/article/sky-arts-turns-up-the-groove-with-new-three-part-documentary-greatest-basslines-airing-28-november

 

"Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order), Nate Mendel (Foo Fighters) and Melissa Auf der Maur (Hole, The Smashing Pumpkins).

 

"Each musician authors their own episode, deconstructing the iconic basslines that defined their careers while revealing the stories behind the strings. They also explore the grooves that inspired them, sharing the basslines that first turned them onto the instrument and shaped their playing."

 

Iconic basslines?

 

"Joining them is a stellar supporting cast, including Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols), Mani (The Stone Roses), Gail Ann Dorsey (David Bowie), Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath), Deego (Fontaines D.C.), Victoria De Angelis (Måneskin), Guy Pratt (Pink Floyd/Madonna), Krist Novoselic (Nirvana), Adam Clayton (U2), Adrian Younge (Wu-Tang Clan, Kendrick Lamar) and Alex James (Blur), who bring their own stories, insights and exclusive performances to the series."

 

While I like Foo Fighters, U2, and Nirvana, pounding out root notes doesn't seem particularly stellar or iconic.

[Baloney Balderdash]

21 minutes ago, tauzero said:

https://www.skygroup.sky/en-gb/article/sky-arts-turns-up-the-groove-with-new-three-part-documentary-greatest-basslines-airing-28-november

 

"Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order), Nate Mendel (Foo Fighters) and Melissa Auf der Maur (Hole, The Smashing Pumpkins).

 

"Each musician authors their own episode, deconstructing the iconic basslines that defined their careers while revealing the stories behind the strings. They also explore the grooves that inspired them, sharing the basslines that first turned them onto the instrument and shaped their playing."

 

Iconic basslines?

 

"Joining them is a stellar supporting cast, including Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols), Mani (The Stone Roses), Gail Ann Dorsey (David Bowie), Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath), Deego (Fontaines D.C.), Victoria De Angelis (Måneskin), Guy Pratt (Pink Floyd/Madonna), Krist Novoselic (Nirvana), Adam Clayton (U2), Adrian Younge (Wu-Tang Clan, Kendrick Lamar) and Alex James (Blur), who bring their own stories, insights and exclusive performances to the series."

 

While I like Foo Fighters, U2, and Nirvana, pounding out root notes doesn't seem particularly stellar or iconic.

While not exactly virtuous levels of bass playing Krist Novoselic's play in Nirvana, unlike Adam Clayton from U2, consisted of far more than root notes, and he did quite a few lines that has become iconic, and are very melodic.

 

I can't speak of the bass in Foo Fighters, haven't really listened to any of their songs, other than what I haven't been able to avoid, it seems like pretty plain boring rock to me.

 

I do agree though that most of these bass players listed are not exactly what I think of as master players.

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Baloney Balderdash

[Misdee]

Well, Peter Hook prides himself on not knowing how to play the bass, whilst at the same time clearly regarding himself as one of the all-time greats. He's a well-known bassist, not an accomplished one in any musical sense. He's a personality, not a significant bass player.  People will point to Love Will Tear Us Apart, Blue Monday et al. Talk it up as much as you like, I don't like his playing or any of those records, never have done. It never sounded good to me. His biggest accomplishment is playing bass in the two most overrated bands of all time ( except for maybe the Velvet Underground).

 

As for the other two, they're not even personalities. What qualifies any them to judge other bass players is nothing to to do with their skills or knowledge of playing the bass. It is because they tick the right boxes for the editorial criteria of a TV show aimed at people who are even more uninformed. That's only to be expected, not everybody is a bass player or even that interested. 

 

It's all depressingly inevitable. I'll be watching, though. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Misdee

[Misdee]

2 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

While not exactly virtuous bass playing Krist Novoselic's play in Nirvana, unlike Adam Clayton from U2, consisted of far more than root notes, and he did quite a few lines that has become iconic, and are very melodic.

I think Kris Novoselic and Adam Clayton are both decent players who've come up with good basslines on great records. I certainly don't understand why Adam Clayton is considered a poor player by some people. He's got a style and sound that works really well. 

[tauzero]

32 minutes ago, Misdee said:

I think Kris Novoselic and Adam Clayton are both decent players who've come up with good basslines on great records. I certainly don't understand why Adam Clayton is considered a poor player by some people. He's got a style and sound that works really well. 

 

It works well within the context of U2, but would you describe him as a virtuoso?

[walshy]

Krist played some excellent lines with Nirvana and Nate Mendel is hugely underrated as a bassist and musician ( not just Foos but Sunny Day Real Estate too ), again his lines are great and not  ' pounding out root notes' by any means. Jaco they aint but their lines, melodies and support are perfect for the songs and they do their job of filling the space excellently. 

[Linus27]

1 hour ago, Misdee said:

I think Kris Novoselic and Adam Clayton are both decent players who've come up with good basslines on great records. I certainly don't understand why Adam Clayton is considered a poor player by some people. He's got a style and sound that works really well. 

 

I agree, I find it quite baffling regarding the comments on Adam Clayton, who bass lines couldn't be further from playing just root notes, at least no more or no less than any other rock band like Queen, Pink Floyd, Bon Jovi or Iron Maiden. He also plays in the rock genre and is simply serving the song, the role of any good bass player. Plus it's about iconic bass lines and not virtuoso player, if you look at bass lines like Under Pressure, Come As You Are, New Years Day, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Money, all very recognisable so iconic, but certainly not hard to play or on any level of virtuoso.

[Steve Browning]

I thought the similar programme featuring Tina Weymouth was excellent. 

[Lozz196]

Sometimes more wisdom is shown by being aware of when not to overdo things and to support the song as a whole. To me it shows understanding of the song and the other instruments (inc vocals) as a whole. 

[Misdee]

25 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

 

I agree, I find it quite baffling regarding the comments on Adam Clayton, who bass lines couldn't be further from playing just root notes, at least no more or no less than any other rock band like Queen, Pink Floyd, Bon Jovi or Iron Maiden. He also plays in the rock genre and is simply serving the song, the role of any good bass player. Plus it's about iconic bass lines and not virtuoso player, if you look at bass lines like Under Pressure, Come As You Are, New Years Day, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Money, all very recognisable so iconic, but certainly not hard to play or on any level of virtuoso.

To be fair, the programme is called Greatest Bass lines, so I'm judging it by how great the basslines are.

 

Peter Hook's basslines are sometimes memorable and therefore "iconic" to some people, but to me it does not follow they are necessarily great because of that. Dairylea is an "iconic" cheese but that doesn't make it a good quality one. If people enjoy it good luck to them, but don't try and tell me it's of the highest standard.

Edited 2 hours ago by Misdee

[SpondonBassed]

They'll almost certainly leave out those who only stand to serve (the song).  That's natural enough.  Music fans like the bits that stand out for them in some way or other.

 

Musicians however, like to peel back the layers of production to get at the nutritious kernel that is BASS.

 

Sorry... just had a moment then.  Nurse!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sparky Mark]

So which three bass players would we have wanted to select and analyse their own and others iconic bass lines? Can I start with Mr Paul McCartney?

Who else?

[Lozz196]

Bruce Foxton or JJ Burnel 

[SpondonBassed]

Lee Sklar.

[Linus27]

32 minutes ago, Sparky Mark said:

So which three bass players would we have wanted to select and analyse their own and others iconic bass lines? Can I start with Mr Paul McCartney?

Who else?

 

In terms of iconic bass lines to popular songs and who played them, then I think my choice of photos would be Paul McCartney (Ths Beatles), Sting (The Police) and maybe someone like Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) or John Deacon (Queen) or James Jamerson (Motown/Marvin Gaye) or someone from the Disco era (Bernard Edwards/Louis Johnson). 

 

If it was my choice then it would be Pino Palladino, John Giblin and Jaco, be all out fretless bass and have contributions from Paul Webb (Talk Talk), Derek Forbes (Simple Minds), Sting (The Police), Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam) and Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel) to name a few. Now that would be a show 😂

[tauzero]

Guy Pratt.

John Taylor.

[itu]

These cats are alive. 

fretless: Bunny Brunel and Gary Willis 

4-string frets: Jeff Berlin and Jonas Hellborg 

5-string frets: Tom Kennedy and Jimmy Haslip 

6-string frets: John Patitucci 

DB: Edgar Meyer and Steve Rodby and Marc Johnson 

 

(Where are all excellent European players, my list is too Americain.) 

 

Stewart Copeland should be here, because I would like to learn more about drummers' rhythmic approach to songs. 

[Misdee]

It'll inevitably be the same old hoary favourites, Seven Nation Army, Smells like Teen Spirit, Peaches, Runaway, Walk On The Wild side ect. 

 

Also, expect revelatory and hitherto unheard anecdotes about how Bernard Edwards didn't know what strings came with his Stingray and such like.

 

Such a great opportunity wasted. Still, a crap series about playing the bass is better than no series at all.