Greatest Bassists of All Time, #9: Paul McCartney
It’s hard to call Paul McCartney underrated in any category. But for all the praise he’s earned as a singer, songwriter, and live performer, there’s a good chance he didn’t get enough of his understated, low-end panache. He only picked up the bass out of necessity after Stu Sutcliffe left the Beatles in Hamburg in 1961. “There’s a theory that I maliciously carved Stu out of the group to get the bass,” McCartney told biographer Barry Miles.
“Forget it! Nobody wants to play the bass, or nobody did then.” But he made the instrument his own, especially when the Beatles’ studio adventures began in the second half of the 1960s and he swapped his Hofner for a Rickenbacker.
McCartney’s bass could be a cool, steady pillar, as on “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and “Dear Prudence”, or a colorful protagonist in its own right – see “Paperback Writer”, “Rain” and “A Day in the Life” . All songs in which his playing conveys the longing for a freer or more exciting life behind everyday lyrics. His playful, melodic style in this era drew heavily from Motown’s James Jamerson, who is often cited as Paul’s greatest influence on bass; after 1970 McCartney moved with the times and grooved regally into the disco era with “Silly Love Songs” and “Goodnight Tonight”. And while his interest in the four-string guitar has ebbed and flowed over the years, he never stopped inspiring generations of youngsters to see the expressive potential of a great bass line.
Best Bassists of All Time, 6th place: Jack Bruce
Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker got a lot of attention in Cream, but Jack Bruce gave the group the push to make it a real power trio. As Clapton played his soaring blues licks and Baker explored jazzy new layers behind his drums, Bruce, also the group’s lead singer, kept the band together with heavy bass lines that always seemed to be in motion. “Jack Bruce definitely opened my eyes to what a bass player can do live”Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler once said. “I went to Cream mainly because of Clapton… and I was fascinated by Jack Bruce’s playing. I didn’t know a bass player could do these things by stepping in where the rhythm guitar usually is.”
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Bruce played nervous, tumbling lines under the trio’s group vocals on “I Feel Free”, clever harmonies on “Sunshine of Your Love” and basically his own riff under Claptons on “Strange Brew”. “He was a little guy, but his game was monstrous”said Mountain’s Leslie West, who later played with Bruce. “He made his bass bark, and everything he did was so melodic.”
Best Bassists of All Time, #3: John Entwistle
The Who’s John Entwistle has had many nicknames, including “the Ox” because of his imposing stature and endless appetite. Also “the silence” because of his stoic demeanor. Most aptly, however, was “Thunderfinger,” a name given to him because every time he played a note on the bass, it sounded like a vicious storm sweeping over the horizon.
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It was a style he developed to be heard on the same stage with the flamboyant Keith Moon and Pete Townshend. However, he brought a remarkable fluidity and grace to his role that had never been heard before.
Simply put, he treated the bass like a lead instrument and made it stand out as much as any guitar. His chunky solo on “My Generation” inspired scores of teenagers to pick up the bass, though his playing was nearly impossible to emulate. “Entwistle was arguably the greatest rock bassist of them all”said Geddy Lee from Rush, “he dared to take the role and the sound of the bass guitar and push it out of the murky depths while playing these amazing things.”
The Greatest Bassists of All Time, #4: Bootsy Collins
Bootsy Collins — or “Bootzilla,” “Casper the Friendly Ghost,” or “The World’s Only Rhinestone Rock Star Doll, Baba,” depending on the song — defined the soul and funk bass game in the ’70s and, by proxy, Rap and pop in the eighties and nineties new. Collins joined James Brown’s band, the JB’s, in 1970 and was immediately drawn to the concept of “The One” from Soul Brother No. 1 by emphasizing the first beat of a musical bar as hard as possible and filling the rest with funk. He later expanded that concept into trippy wonderland when he joined George Clinton’s cabal and played a muddy wah-wah bass in Parliament-Funkadelic.
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He then transitioned to fronting his own band complete with star-shaped sunglasses and a star-shaped bass. From then on he was known for cartoonish love songs, which he sang with comic book enthusiasm. His influence can be heard in virtually every subsequent bassist, from Flea to the records Dr. Dre sampled liberally to create the G-Funk sound. “Bootsy came along and all he added … was the emphasis on the one,” George Clinton once said. “You could add that to ‘The ABC’s’ and it would be funk in two seconds. And from there everything we did was really funky, no matter how pop we tried to be.”