Was there ever a better bass player...

[Mikey]

[Felix]

never been a big jazz fusion fan, but that's pretty impressive stuff...

i will fite the first person that makes any reference to the bass player for Rush

[Screw_Michigan]

1. Geddy Lee
2. Jeff Ament
3. Lou Barlow
4. Duff McKagen
5. Dante DeCaro

[Felix]

Geddy Lee

"you just made the list buddy"

"best lists" always create problems

best technically?
most influential?
best selling?
best looking?

geddy lee doesn't make the top ranking in any of those categories...

best bassist in a three man band?
maybe, but I could argue Jack Bruce...

best bassist in a three man band from Canada? winner

[BSmack]

1. Geddy Lee
2. Jeff Ament
3. Lou Barlow
4. Duff McKagen
5. Dante DeCaro

May you be killed by someone with diplomatic immunity for not putting John Entwisle that list.

[Screw_Michigan]

To be honest, that list is just my favorite bass players. Duff McKagan is definitely not one of five best ever. Not by a long shot. Ament is probably technically not in the top 5, but he's written some great songs.

[Felix]

To be honest, that list is just my favorite bass players. Duff McKagan is definitely not one of five best ever. Not by a long shot. Ament is probably technically not in the top 5, but he's written some great songs.

perfectly acceptable (although seriously flawed) reasoning

[Screw_Michigan]

Like how bradhusker is a seriously flawed troll? Please, explain.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

The Lou Barlow pick is just plain retarded. Dude, sometimes you just embarrass me...

:x

[Felix]

Like how bradhusker is a seriously flawed troll? Please, explain.

I'm just fuckin with ya bud.....
opinions aren't right or wrong....

[Mikey]

Besides Jaco...

Stanley Clarke
Victor Wooten
Mingus
Ron Carter


not in any particular order

[Screw_Michigan]

The Lou Barlow pick is just plain retarded. Dude, sometimes you just embarrass me...

:x

Give me a fucking break. Dino is an incredible band, even if it is J's vehicle.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

I don't know about flat-out "best," but I think you'd be hard pressed to find a bassist more important to their band than Eric Avery or Cliff Burton. Listen to the music that Jane's Addiction and Metallica made with those guys, compared to the shit they made without them, and tell me I'm lying...

[Screw_Michigan]

Kevin Barnes may not be your typical bass player, but I find that most Of Montreal songs have sick, sick bass lines.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Kevin Barnes may not be your typical bass player, but I find that most Of Montreal songs have sick, sick bass lines.

Screwey, I've been checking out some of the jams you've been throwing down and I must say...I'm enjoying your selections more and more.

Feel free to post some more YouTubes of newer acts that you think we'd enjoy.
Thanks, friend.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

[Goober McTuber]

You're just begging for some MGMT, aren't you Marty?

[Screw_Michigan]

I've been slacking on newer acts lately. But I've always been a big Kevin Barnes fan and I'm going to go see him at 9:30 pretty soon. Haven't seen him in years, last time I saw him was 2007. Gotta give Barnes props: he tours all the time and puts out albums pretty frequently. Kind of fell off after Hissing Fauna, but his stretch from Satanic Panic-Sunlandic Twins-Hissing Fauna are just as good as it gets. His B-sides from that era are great as well.

[Goober McTuber]

But I've always been a big Kevin Barnes fan and I'm going to go see him at 9:30 pretty soon.

Your thoughts, Dinsdale?

[Dinsdale]

Jaco is good... except they play lullabies. There's a "fusion" of my eyelids every time I hear it (Birdland is a pretty rad tune, though).

My faves?

Tough call.

Phil Lesh
Cliff Burton
Billy Sheehan (no mention of him yet proves you guys are douches)
Stu Hamm
JPJ
Steve Harris
Greg Lake (I'll Bet the poster known as King Crimson agrees)
Bootsy Collins didn't suck

I'm sure I'll think of plenty more.

[Van]

I don't know about flat-out "best," but I think you'd be hard pressed to find a bassist more important to their band than Eric Avery or Cliff Burton.

Actually, I wouldn't be hard-pressed at all.

Sin,
Les Claypool

Anyway, since Stanley Clarke, Victor Wooten and Billy Sheehan have already been mentioned, I'll just go ahead and add Marcus Miller.

Also, I'd like to include categories for Cutest Bassist and Best Nipples On A Bassist With Killer Tits, both of which see Tal Wilkenfeld garnering shiny little statuettes...

[Van]

I was too busy staring at her bouncing tits and happy nipples.

[Mikey]

I'll be seeing Victor Wooten next Tuesday night in San Diego. The guy really is amazing.
Fourth time seeing the Flecktones, but the first at a relatively small club (Anthology).

Saw little Tal a couple of years ago when Jeff Beck played at the Greek in LA. That was an awesome show that included a full string section after the intermission.

[Van]

Mikey, I once sent this clip to Sam (I think it was Sam...it may have been shutyomouth), and you should probably see it: Victor Wooten with his older brother in one helluva "funk off"...

[Mikey]

Pretty amazing family. Like one of the commenters on YouTube said:

you know your god at bass when ur bros a god at guitar and noone knows his name

To tell you the truth I hadn't heard of Regi before. Another of the brothers, Joseph, has been playing keyboards regularly with Steve Miller.

[Van]

May as well get all three for the price of one...

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

I don't know about flat-out "best," but I think you'd be hard pressed to find a bassist more important to their band than Eric Avery or Cliff Burton.

Actually, I wouldn't be hard-pressed at all.

Sin,
Les Claypool

Les Claypool is the most overrated bassist this side of Flea (thank god he hasn't been mentioned yet). His work with Blind Illusion was tolerable, I guess, but it was all downhill from there...

[Van]

Besides the fact that Les Claypool could play circles around Eric Avery or Cliff Burton, your point was that no bass player was more important to their band.

It's not even debatable that Les Claypool was far more important to Primus than Cliff Burton was to Metallica or Eric Avery was to JA. Les Claypool is Primus. Metallica hardly skipped a beat following Burton's death, and JA is Perry Farrell first, Dave Navarro second.

Shit, Jack Bruce was far more important to Cream than those two guys were to their bands. And what about Sting to The Police, or Paul McCartney to The Beatles?

I mean, c'mon.

[Goober McTuber]

Shit, Jack Bruce was far more important to Cream than those two guys were to their bands.

Unfortunately, Jack Bruce was far more important to Jack Bruce.

[Dinsdale]

Metallica hardly skipped a beat following Burton's death

If I was prone to the use of emoticons (11+ years on the Rome boards, and still haven't done it), this would earn you a big :rolleyes:.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

Besides the fact that Les Claypool could play circles around Eric Avery or Cliff Burton, your point was that no bass player was more important to their band.

It's not even debatable that Les Claypool was far more important to Primus than Cliff Burton was to Metallica or Eric Avery was to JA. Les Claypool is Primus. Metallica hardly skipped a beat following Burton's death, and JA is Perry Farrell first, Dave Navarro second.

Shit, Jack Bruce was far more important to Cream than those two guys were to their bands. And what about Sting to The Police, or Paul McCartney to The Beatles?

I mean, c'mon.

My point, which I felt I made pretty clear in my original post, was that those two guys were obviously very important to their respective bands -- perhaps on some intangible, non-musical level -- because the music both bands made with them was fucking amazing and the music they made without them was utter shit.

Okay, maybe AJFA isn't exactly "utter shit," but it's a good step or two below the three albums that preceded it, and everything that followed was fucking godawful. As Dins already noted, your contention that Metallica "didn't miss a beat" after Cliff's death is laughably ignorant.

I'm unsure of Claypool importance to Primus in that regard, because I've never heard Primus without Claypool. I can't imagine they'd suck that much worse, though. The same could be said about Jack Bruce/Cream, Sting/The Police and McCartney/The Beatles, except for the sucking part...

[Van]

Metallica hardly skipped a beat following Burton's death

If I was prone to the use of emoticons (11+ years on the Rome boards, and still haven't done it), this would earn you a big :rolleyes:.

Sure, considering Metallica only went on to enjoy their greatest worldwide success following his death.

So, basically, yeah, go ahead and save your rolleyes...especially when comparing his importance to Metallica to that of Claypool to Primus or McCartney to The Beatles.

It's no fucking contest.

[Van]

Mike, that's because those bands simply don't exist without Claypool, Bruce, Sting and McCartney. See, that's how you can tell just how important they were to their respective bands. Remove those guys and you don't have Primus, Cream, The Police or The Beatles.

Metallica and JA? They managed just fine without Burton and Avery.

As for Burton, you can argue the quality of Metallica's efforts pre- and post-Burton but there is no disputing the fact that they continued on without him, and in fact achieved their greatest popularity worldwide with Jason Newsted as their bassist.

Drop Paul McCartney from The Beatles and what do you get?

Ringo Starr's solo career, that's what you get.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

Well, you're kind of cheating a little with Sting and McCartney. Their importance to their bands doesn't really have a whole lot to do with their bass playing. If you kept them as the singer and plugged in an anonymous session player on bass, I doubt you'd be able to tell the difference. Kurt Cobain was irreplaceable in Nirvana too, but you're probably not going to see his name pop up in a thread titled "Was there ever a better guitar player..."

Think of how many Jane's Addiction songs start out with a classic Eric Avery bass line - 'Up the Beach," Mountain Song," Summertime Rolls" and "Ted... Just Admit It" immediately spring to mind. Burton also had some epic bass riffs/solos in his short time in Metallica. As great as Sting and McCartney are as frontmen and songwriters, they don't have an "Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)" or "Orion" to their credit.

Avery and Burton are/were great bassists. Sting and McCartney are great singer-songwriters who happen to play bass.

[Van]

I'm not cheating at all. This was your quote...

I don't know about flat-out "best," but I think you'd be hard pressed to find a bassist more important to their band than Eric Avery or Cliff Burton.

That's what I responded to. Like you said, you weren't talking about "best," you were saying one would be hard-pressed to come up with a bassist who's more important to their band than Avery or Burton.

I immediately came up with four, and now you're trying to move the goalposts by making it purely about the skill of the bass playing.

Fine. Even purely as bassists Les Claypool and Jack Bruce are far superior to Avery and Burton while also being inifinitely more important to their respective bands.

For that matter, so was John Paul Jones, as is Geddy Lee. Love him or hate him, there can be no arguing that Geddy is far more important to Rush than those other two guys ever were to their bands, and Geddy is also worlds better purely as a bass player.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

Alright man, congrats. You win the semantics game. I guess I should've posted something more along these lines:

I don't know about flat-out "best," and words like "important" can be open to a wide range of interpretations, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find a bassist whose death or departure from their band was as detrimental to said band's sound than Eric Avery or Cliff Burton. Listen to the music that Jane's Addiction and Metallica made with those guys, compared to the shit they made without them, and tell me I'm lying...

And I'll make a concerted effort to be more absurdly specific in all future posts...

[Van]

Absurdly specific?



What you did there to make your argument hold any water whatsoever was change the contention from "bassist," which is all inclusive, to the much more narrowly inclusive "departed/deceased bassist."

You don't see that as a whole lot smaller pool of bassists? You may as well have made it, "You'd be hard pressed to find bassists who were more important to Jane's Addiction and Metallica than Eric Avery and Cliff Burton."

Even there, Jason Newsted at least has an argument. The guy was a part of the band far longer than Burton, he performed on more albums and tours, and he was Metallica's bassist when they were at the peak of their success.

I know, I know...semantics.

[Mikey]

You guys really know how to beat a dead horse.