It’s time to acknowledge and celebrate the outright geniuses of bass guitar: those players who just flat-out OWN the instrument. Great playing, inventive writing, excellent sound, amazing performances and inspirational talent: those are the things we are looking for on our quest for Bass Legends!
I've struggled to get this list down to a manageable 30 players, and I know there will be some of you who are missing their own bass heroes! It's the nature of thebeast, but shout loud enough and there may be a future update!
Without further preamble, and in no particular order, here are the world's greatest bassists!
Contents
Peter Hook
Peter Hook gloriously defies so many of the expectations we have for bassists. The Joy Division and New Order legend has one of the most unique and recognisable sounds in rock history, created by playing upper register notes and riffs. This, of course, is contrary to what most bassists do, but that attention to melodic high-register parts has put him directly in the mix as a ‘lead’ player, not just a support.
According to Hook himself, it was Joy Division vocalist Ian Curtis who first heard the potential in Hooky’s high-ip playing (he did that in order to hear himself better at rehearsals) and encouraged him to lean into it. That validation, and an Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory chorus pedal, was all Hook needed for greatness. Click to read my exclusive Peter Hook Interview!
Geezer Butler
Black Sabbath’s bassist and primary lyricist isn’t often one for grabbing headlines, particularly when compared to his late singer! But Butler (real name Terence) is a big part of the reason that Sabbath sound so huge and heavy. His tone is humongous, and he knows when to follow Tony Iommi’s dommy guitar lines and when to branch off and sculpt other parts to support the song.
Butler may be the first bassist to record a wah-wah part (the intro to N.I.B) and has a very cool, subtle sense of timing. Check out the riff to Hole in the Sky below, and hear how he cuts notes at the end of bars, where Iommi leaves them ringing longer. This helps the track rock even harder, and it is all in a day’s work for Butler!
John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones is one extraordinarily gifted musician. His bass parts in Led Zeppelin are rightly iconic (he’s great at supporting the song AND going off on one without stealing attention from anyone else) and he’s also responsible for most of the keyboard parts, too.
Not only that, he’s a talented orchestrator for other artists. A good example is R.E.M and their classic Automatic For the People album. All of the string sections on Everybody Hurts and Nightswimming? Our boy JPJ!
James Jamerson
All of us have heard James Jamerson’s great playing, even if we don’t realise it. He was the massively underappreciated and largely uncredited bassist on a huge amount of Motown hits, including What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, Ain't' No Mountain High Enough and loads more. Jamerson was an excellent and original player, who did a lot to open up the sound and possibilities of what the bass could do in pop music. Famously, he built his bass lines up not from a chord sheet but from the lead vocal melody. Well worth trying!
Kim Deal
Kim Deal added so much to the sound of the Pixies. Not just her languorous bass lines - played with a pick and a fantastically laid-back attitude - but her brilliant vocals, too. Her contributions became less and less over the course of the band’s albums, but fear not: all you have to do is check out her other band The Breeders for more class examples of her playing and singing.
Paul McCartney
Macca is the man to head to for a comprehensive guide to bass playing. It’s all there, within his ridiculously influential body of work. Everything you need to know in order to be an excellent bassist is contained within the songs that Paul McCartney has either given us directly or collaborated on. It’s actually impossible to overestimate his global influence, but let me try: Paul McCartney has positively influenced every musician of the last half-century. Sound about right?
Steve Harris
All you have to do is say the name ‘Steve Harris’ and a huge, galloping rhythm starts in your mind, doesn’t it? Iron Maiden’s chief architect practically owns that rhythm, which he plays on a West Ham United-coloured P-bass with flatwound strings!
Iron Maiden are a British institution. They are a whole universe of characters, lore, artwork and hard-rockin’ tunes, and Steve Harris is the man at the centre of it all. Can we just agree that his status is firmly set to ‘legend’?
Melissa Auf der Maur
Playing bass for one of the most famous and influential female artists in the world is a huge thing. Moving from that gig onto filling the bass role for the Smashing Pumpkins is indescribably massive. This is the true life career trajectory of Montreal’s Melissa Auf der Maur, who joined Hole mere weeks after the suicide of lead singer Courtney Love’s husband, Kurt Cobain. Auf Der Maur has also released two kick-ass solo albums and a recent autobiography, which is required reading.
Click through for an exclusive interview with Melissa Auf Der Maur!
Geddy Lee
With quiet confidence and an unshakeably optimistic worldview, Rush’s Geddy Lee has risen to the top of the prog rock pantheon. His fully fingerstyle-based bass technique is brilliantly unique (watch him for five minutes and you’ll see what I mean), and he seems effortless with it, laying out complex parts and fills as if they were nothing. That’s all before we consider the fact that he’s also the lead singer AND the keyboard player!
Rush are one of the all-time great rock bands, and Geddy Lee is an unstoppable musical force for good.
Kim Gordon
Sonic Youth’s bassist doesn’t necessarily see herself as a bassist (correctly so, she plays guitar and sings too), but the fact of her often using a bass in her band has been inspiring to generations of players, of all genders. Kim is the real attitude within Sonic Youth, and also the steadfast foundation upon which Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore attached their experiments. A true original, an instigator and a nucleus around which loads of great art has been created.
Cliff Burton
Geezer Butler might have been the first bassist to use wah, but Metallica’s Cliff Burton really put that sound on the map. Songs like For Whom the Bell Tolls would just not be the same without Cliff’s inventive and dramatic playing. His classic setup was an Aria Pro II SB bass, a Morley wah and a set of flares. The world lost a special talent when Cliff died in a bus crash, but at least he was able to make his mark on the world with his music.
Gail Ann Dorsey
Philadelphia native Gail Ann Dorsey came to the attention of most of us when she joined David Bowie’s band in 1995. Appearing on the groundbreaking Earthling album, Dorsey brought a cutting-edge sensibility to the songs, with a killer Music Man bass sound that covered all of the nascent electronic genres of the 90s. She played on Bowie’s following three albums too, and toured with him until he retired from the stage. Gail has played with everyone from Lenny Kravitz to Tears For Fears, making her most only an accomplished player, but a very visible one.
Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield
Whether you know him from the Stone Roses or from Primal Scream, Mani’s bass lines are some of the best out there. His style of playing led the songs and allowed the other musicians to build off the back of his lines, rather than having him follow the guitarist. Think about how many of his bass lines you can hum: She Bangs the Drums, I Wanna Be Adored, Vanishing Point, Burning Wheel…the man was an insane talent and his passing is a loss to everyone. But still, his Rickenbacker bass lines will always be around for us to admire and dance along to.
Suzie Quatro
In the 1970s, Suzie Quatro ruled. She was all over Top of the Pops, appeared in Happy Days and sold over 50 million records. The Detroit native is a trailblazer who took on the boys at their own game and emerged victorious. Her attitude is a big part of that: “If I wanted to play a bass solo, it never occurred to me that I couldn’t”. Amen to that.
MIke Mills
Like all great bands, R.E.M. were always greater than the sum of their parts. Each individual was also greatly involved in the songwriting, which is less normal than you’d expect. In R.E.M, they also had a secret weapon in Mike Mills, their bassist who was also a strong backing vocalist and capable keys and guitar player. His contributions to the music were often the special sauce that elevated their already good songs into greatness. And as a bassist, the P-bass playing Mills was ultra melodic and busy, adding lots of counterpoint and propulsion to the arrangements. And he was so good that you don’t immediately notice his work.
John Entwistle
John Entwistle’s playing combined technique, invention and taste, not to mention a host of great bass tones! The late, great Who bassist was adventurous with his sounds, not to mention bold. On classic tunes like My Generation, he took solo duties away from guitarist Pete Townshend, bringing attitude and invention to their music.
Entwistle was predominantly a plectrum player and was famous for his extreme Marshall-stack on stage volume. On live recordings, it’s often easier to hear his contributions to the Who’s sound: as ‘lead bass’ player, he often played melodic motifs whilst Townshend kept the rhythm going on his guitar.
In terms of instruments, Entwistle had lots, as you could imagine, but he favoured Warwick and Alembic basses. If you are going for that great ‘My Generation’ sound, you’ll want flatwound strings on your Fender Jazz Bass!
Larry Graham
Larry Graham invented slap bass. That’s enough to elevate his to bass greatness but the Sly and The Family Stone bassist has brought us several lifetimes’ worth of outstanding funk and soul basslines.
As a member of the Family Stone, his music transcended race and gender politics during the late 60s, focusing on bringing music that was optimistic and Utopian. As founding member of Graham Central Station, he has brought his infectious grooves to audiences since the 70s.
Graham is known to play through Acoustic 360 bass amps and uses both Moon and Warwick basses, including of course his own signature model. Everything else is in those fingers!
Jaco Pastorius
Though not a household name to casual music fans, Pastorius is held within bass circles in the highest possible esteem. An unadulterated virtuoso, Pastorius was singular in advancing the lyrical, tuneful melodicism of the bass guitar.
A fan of the upright bass, Jaco famously ripped the frets out of his ’62 Fender Jazz bass, opening the sound up to even more expressive manipulation. Jaco made frequent use of harmonics in his playing, both natural and artificial. He whirled like a dervish onstage, dancing and flipping whilst playing basslines influenced by African and South American styles. In his short lifetime, he did more to influence other bassists than maybe any other musician.
Tony Levin
Currently on bass duties with King Crimson, innovative bassist Tony Levin has had quite a career! As well as over three decades with Crimson, Tony had held down long-term bass duties with Peter Gabriel, and has performed on sessions with artists like David Bowie, Lou Reed, Warren Zevon, Peter Frampton, Pink Floyd, Stevie Nicks and a very long list of others!
Levin is famous not only for being a world-class bassist (and all-round top guy), but also for being perhaps the most visible user of the Chapman stick, a hybrid guitar/bass fretted instrument which is played with both hands on the neck. Such is Levin’s musicality, he blends tremendous technique and groove into music that is disarmingly accessible.
A great example of Tony’s out of the box bass playing can be found on Peter Gabriel’s megahit ‘Big Time’, where drumsticks instead of fingers were used to perform the part! It’s an unusual concept but it sounds great.
Bootsy Collins
Bootsy Collins, known to no one as plain old William (his mum named him Bootsy because he ‘looked like a Bootsy’), is a larger than life character who, to many, is funk personified. His outlandish dress sense and star-shaped basses make him an iconic character. His deeply effective groove basslines put him on the map as one of the greatest bassists ever.
Cutting his teeth in no less than James Brown’s band, Bootsy went on to make a name for himself with George Clinton, playing in both Parliament and Funkadelic. Always a fan of comedy pseudonyms, Bootsy took up the mantles ‘Casper the Funky Ghost’ and ‘Bootzilla’ as he developed a Clinton-approved persona as a kind of space alien bass player.
Bootsy’s deliriously ridiculous Star basses were originally custom-made one-offs, though Warwick have since stepped in with a signature model.
Bootsy remains one of the most innovative and influential bass guitarists in history.
Carol Kaye
Is Carol Kaye the most underrated bassist ever? What do you mean you haven’t heard of her? We guarantee that you’ve most definitely heard her work.
Starting off her session career as an acoustic rhythm player, she contributed to songs like La Bamba and You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling before filling in on bass to help out a producer during a session. It turned out to be a fortuitous move, since she found that she loved the function and simplicity of the instrument.
After this moment, there was no stopping her! Kaye has played on over TEN THOUSAND sessions! These weren’t local randoms, either. We are talking about her playing on the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman, Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots are Made for Walkin’ and endless hots by artists like Simon & Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes and Frank Sinatra. She found time to play a little 12 string guitar for Cher and Frank Zappa amidst all this!
Super-composer Quincey Jones rated her as one of his favourite session players; he had this to say about her skills: “Fender bass player Carol Kaye... could do anything and leave men in the dust.” Kaye also showed up on Hollywood soundtracks like Bullitt, Mission: Impossible, Shaft and countless more.
So you definitely have heard Carol Kaye’s playing.
Carol’s main bass was a Fender Precision with flatwound strings and a high action. She nearly always used a plectrum and her secret for great tone was to stick a piece of felt in the bridge behind the strings to kill of unwanted sympathetic tones.
Carol’s a genuine legend who was there at the beginning and is still playing today!
Jack Bruce
Alongside drummer Ginger Baker and guitarist Eric Clapton (who he?), Scottish bassist Jack Bruce made history and changed the world with supergroup Cream. It takes a musician confident in his abilities (to say the least) to share a stage with such virtuosic talent. Jack was such a man! His bass and vocals defined Cream as much as the input from the other two, making them one of the most influential ‘British Invasion bands of the late 60s.
Bruce’s jazz background and education as a cellist certainly informed his unique style. His style involved using catchy, memorable riffs (Sunshine of Your Love, anybody?) and had fantastic improvisational skills to boot.
Like Entwistle, Jack Bruce was a fan of volume. Tales abound of each Cream member (including Baker) reaching across mid-gig to monkey around with each other’s amp controls, no doubt fostering the famous animosity that finally spelled the end for the band.
Bruce favoured Gibson bass guitars, in particular the EB-3, but also often played a Warwick fretless bass guitar.
Flea
Flea is arguably the most well-known modern bassist in popular music. Outside of the music itself, his persona & performance style have made him familiar to millions.
Michael Balzary (‘Mikey B the Flea’, as his high school handle went) may be the epitome of the crazy Californian musician but he is actually Australian! Flea moved to the US when he was 4, and hooked up with future Chili Pepper Anthony Kiedis at high school in Los Angeles.
Flea’s playing is pretty special: he manages to walk that very thin line of both supporting the song fully and also writing attention-grabbing pieces of music. His technical ability is very obvious and yet not domineering. He manages to simultaneously stand out and blend in, in a way that most other ‘showy’ bassists never do. It’s some trick!
Over a 30+ years career, Flea has brought a sun-drenched Californian slap and swagger to mainstream audiences, combining Funk chops with Punk energy. Earlier material from Freakey Styley bristled with vibe, whilst latter period basslines from songs like Scar Tissue brought some reflection and melancholy to the table.
A fan of many types of bass, Flea tends to choose either custom Modulus graphite models, a ’62 Shell Pink Jazz Bass (given to him by a fan and made into a signature model) or his newest Fender Flea Bass II.
Victor Wooten
Victor Wooten, the absurdly talented bassist for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, has won Bass Player magazine’s Bass Player of the Year no less than three times! Wooten has played bass since the age of two, which seems preposterous, and was jamming with family members by the tender age of 6. Not one to waste time, is our Vic!
An adventurous player, Wooten has Kahler tremolo system installed in some of his basses for real time whammy effects.
Wooten also plays bass with Nitro, has released over ten solo albums and has appeared on recordings with everyone from Greg Howe to bass supergroup SMV with Marcus Miller and Stanley Clarke.
JJ Burnel
If attitude was a currency, this guy would be richer than Richard Branson. Jean-Jacques Burnel of the Stranglers is a martial arts pro who has the growliest bass tone in history, not to mention the most obnoxious riffs.
The Stranglers were always much more than just another angry English punk band. Their songs had a musicality, mystery and depth that defied the genre. It could be said that they were never really punks at all, though they certainly copped the attitude.
Burnel’s basslines on songs like Nice and Sleazy, Peaches and No More Heroes gave the songs not only their propulsion but also their identity and personality. His classic, grinding sound was achieved with a Fender P-Bass, a Hiwatt valve head and a Marshall 4x12 cabinet with torn speaker cones. JJ tends to favour a plectrum style over fingerstyle. Simply add volume, adopt a sneering pose and get stuck in!
Bass Playing Greatness
Bass players are often by their very nature happy to keep out of the limelight. Their supportive role within the music often doesn’t take into account the fact that they are the true leaders of the song. I hope that today’s brief trot through the world’s best bassists has confirmed your own thoughts about these legendary players, but I concede that there are of course many more than 25 bass legends. I’ll revisit this in the future, but in the meantime, enjoy this and all of the other blogs available here at guitarguitar.
