Speaking of pop music, it’s become a slight obsession of mine to think about this dimly defined pop or powerpop genre in regards to bass guitar.

Let’s be honest, when it comes to great bass players, the best of the best in technical terms are probably in the soul, jazz and gospel categories.  There you’d find everyone from James Jamerson to Jaco Pastorius to Sharay Reed…. and the list would be in the hundreds.  Then there are funk & disco players, who could also make any ‘greats’ lists.

But I’m zooming in on a field that one could say was spawned by The Beatles, though it’s roots are derived from other eras like 20’s American and Ragtime music.  These bass lines walk up and down with an independence.  They don’t follow the kick, as rock players do, but they dance around it.  Mainly a guitarist, I played bass on much of my own music, and always tried to emulate this kind of playing when I could.  It’s a song within a song.  You can take the vocals and entire track out save bass and drums, and the track doesn’t fall apart like it would in a reverse scenario.  It requires a special skill or technique, sound and sensibility.  It’s timing, like a great comedian.

One example of this would be ‘Getting Better’ by The Beatles.  Verse opens, 4/4 time, bass is playing staccato quarter notes, two low and two high establishing a pace and story, but in less than a half minute comes the chorus and it’s like McCartney breaks out of his cage with wings.  (pun intended)  The bassline walks, creates it’s own melody, changes root chords along the way, all the while keeping the march that was established by the verse… and in four bars!  To me, that’s the magic of records over songs.  Bass is generally how I listen and judge a record.  A good song is everything, but then again, so is a good record.

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So with that, I give you my top 12, starting at the bottom:

#12 – Graham Gouldman.  This underrated pop player with 10cc has a knack for hiding in the shadows.  However, when you really listen to his parts, you realize he’s more of a master than he lets on.  Great examples of this are The Things We Do For Love, Honeymoon With B Troop, Blackmail and of course, I’m Not In Love.

#11 – Larry Knechtel.  All around master musician, Larry could play anything.  When it came to bass guitar, he played on most of Bread’s records, The Monkee’s, Nilsson & even some Paul Simon.  His skill was subtle, but he had a great instinct of staying out of the way while influencing the next part with his lead-in lines.  The Doors didn’t have a bass player, but they should have, and it should have been Larry Knechtel.

#10 – Kevin Parker.  Tame Impala is Kevin Parker, and bass is just one of the many instruments he does well.  The Less I Know The Better, Let It Happen, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards and No More Lies are a few examples of his creative instincts and ability to deviate from the norm.  He’s a fearless musician who has something I always wanted… an ability to let it flow without obsessing too much.  Or should I say, that’s the impression he gives.  If I’m wrong, even more respect.

#9 – Sting.  This sound was going to happen in the UK with or without Sting and The Police.  There was too much buzz about reggae not to influence the many brit kids with guitars to borrow the genre and try to get it on the radio.  Sting actually did it with much success, and though I wouldn’t give him an A for originality, he certainly had his way with great lines in songs like Can’t Stand Losing You, Walking On The Moon, Spirits In The Material World, Canary In A Coalmine.  A pick player, it feels like he might have played rock most of his life, then that fateful shift happened and boom!  Out went the lights.

#8 – Brian Wilson.  With Brian, it’s hard to give entire credit to any sole musician in the studio, even Carol Kaye or Ray Pohlman, because he was involved in every note of every instrument.  A true arranger and learned musician, not only did he play bass on most of The Beach Boys records, but his arrangements are still being studied to this day.

#7 – Carol Kaye.  They’ll do a documentary on her and she’ll be even more legendary, breaking ground for so many women and men alike.  Talk about fearless, she held her own with the best of the best of that era, and that’s no easy feat.  Tommy Tedesco, Hal Blaine, Don Randi, Larry Knechtel and Carol F’ing Kaye.  Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Good Vibrations, Scarborough Affair, The Beat Goes On… and on and on and more and more.

#6 – Ray Pohlman.  Another Wrecking Crew legend, Be My Baby, God Only Knows, Wichita Lineman.  Need I say more?

 

#5 – John Entwistle.  Eminence Front, Baba O’Riley, Won’t Get Fooled Again.  One could almost credit Entwistle for inspiring the ‘Rock’ bassist.  He was never in his own way, and never disrupted the song.  He often followed the kick, but much like a Warhol or Picasso, they invented and experimented because they absolutely knew how to paint an apple and the human anatomy.  Entwistle knew how to dance around a song, and often chose not to.  You have to love that about him, and The Who.

#4 – Bruce Thomas.  This begins to narrow it down to what I love about bass the most.  Bruce’s lines are always right for the song.  Pump It Up, Oliver’s Army, (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea, Accidents Will Happen… such a melodic bassist he walks through songs in the same way McCartney does, with just a little more punk rock attitude.  If there’s an Elvis Costello record without The Attractions, I’m not gonna like it as much.  Well, save the first one, which is a whole other story of great players.

#3 – Bill Wyman.  If there were no other songs in his repertoire than (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, it would still be enough.  But there are hundreds of others where Bill humbly carries the floor with Charlie Watts, including Tumbling Dice, Honky Tonk Women, Beast Of Burden and Miss You… only straying from the groove when absolutely necessary to the song.  But just listen to the bass line in the chorus of Satisfaction and imagine that any other player would have follwed the guitar part.  Not Bill.  Pure dope.

#2 – Colin Moulding.  Mayor Of Simpleton, Earn Enough For Us, Generals & Majors,  Respectable Street.  The most naturally gifted McCartney influenced bass player I’ve ever heard, his bass lines march to the beat of their own drum.  Highly underrated and from what I’ve read, reclusive to a fault.  Andy Partridge was no slouch writer, but XTC’s greatness in recordings have a lot to do with Colin’s expert playing and parts.

#1 – Paul McCartney.  Something, Penny Lane, Come Together,  Getting Better, or even Coming Up and Goodnight Tonight from his solo career…  Paul’s bass lines are always a song of their own and every time.  The man was not a lazy writer.  He wrote the chords and melody, then the lyric, then the bass part.  A flawless player and arranger, so much so that you almost can’t imagine a tune he ever crafted being anything different than the way it was.  Best ever.