Crazy, my keyboard froze the first time I ENTERED THIS THREAD.
Favorite Bassist... well I don't think I can have just one. Too many greats. Too many greats I don't even know about. Then you also cram in most underrated band? Oh jeez. This is too much for one thread to handle.
I'm going to say Alex Webster right off the bat. Best bass tone, decent chops, and longevity.
I'm really digging James Jamerson right now. Let me leave a top 20 of bassists that I actually listen to and admire... how about that. Im about to have a stroke trying to do anything less. I may also put up a list of 20 bass guitarists who are completely over credited for their work.... cough cough... Mike Dirnt... cough cough.
Alex Webster
Billy Sheehan
John Myung
Les Claypool
Steve Di'gerogio
Dan Briggs
James Jamerson
Geddy Lee
Roger Waters "He Almost didnt make this list"
Tony Kanal
Harry Shearer This is a major favorite
Justin Chancellor "I hate to list it because I have a feeling a flood of hipsters are going to list him"
Geezer Butler
Steve Harris "even though he plays off beat sometimes"
Kotaro Tsukada (Peelander Red)
Beefcake The Mighty
David Ellefson
Aram Bedrosian
Felipe Andreolli
Me baby, me. I love myself. Im super critical of everything I do but I like to brag that I can out play the majority of bassists on this planet. I can't outplay... well... maybe anyone on here.... accept Steve Harris maybe because of his horrible timing, but the majority of bassists suck. They learn one style, one genre, and usually stay in the easy, shallow end of the pool. The only reason I became as diverse as I am was due to competition. I am very competitive and anytime I heard "Oh man, so-and-so is such a bad-ass bassist. He can play Hysteria by muse".... I went home, learned that song in 10 minutes, and felt like I took that guys power from him. I am going through a mo-town/funk phase now. My goal is to have fun, but also learn major and important pieces of every genre. I want to be the guy that not only can play for anyone, anywhere, but I also want my own style to evolve and grow. My biggest frustrations are guitarists who take up bass playing "Because it's easy" and bassists who play simple, 4/4, quarternote music. These usually go hand in hand. A guitarist is going to place the importance of a song on the guitar. A good bassist knows the roles of everyone in the band. We need to work with the drums "guitar and vocals dont", we need to know the harmonies of the vocals "Drums dont", and we need to know the guitar parts. We can make the guitar look like a shooting star or walk all over him.
I use this analogy to explain where GROOVE and dancability comes from.
A band is a sonic Tank.
The Drums are the wheels and engine. They determine the speed and horsepower.
The Guitars are the machine guns and flame throwers. They are the secondary lethal force of the machine and the second most likely remembered part of the tank by the audience.
The Vocals, if any, are the main Gun. EVERYONE listens out for the vocals. For the uneducated and unmusical masses, the voice is the single most important part of music and any song without it is garbage. The vocals are what really separate one tank from another.
The Bass... The Armor. The bass decided how big the tank is, how much damage it can handle, and how well the other parts work with each other. The armor has to be solid. Without it, the tank is just artillery. How the armor is made, what shape it is molded into, what color it is, and how it is pieced together reshapes the entire tank. A Tank/Band with a weak bass is like a Sherman tank compared to a band/tank like a Tiger. If the armor doesn't hold up the tank is useless. Doesn't matter how fast it is, how big of a main gun it has, the size of crew, or horsepower.... a tank without Armor is a sitting duck. Can it be done... yeah.... but noone wants to sit on a treadmill with a gun on top of it.
