James Jamerson

[Ron]

Since there's so many audiophiles on this board, I'm sure there has to be TONS of Jamerson fans....

I was driving today and a song came on that I had never noticed Jamerson's bass line in before, but man it was incredible.  "Going to a Go-Go" by Smokey & The Miracles.  Unbelievable Bass Line.  Just awesome... I love the little break down part, the whole band goes "Bam, BAM! ... Bam, Bam.... "   Jamerson goes "Bam, Bam! boo dooo booo Bam, Bam..."  He had the balls to do this incredible little fill just before the third hit, snuck it in on the entire band. 

The guy was just amazing. 

Another of my favorites of his is "Heat Wave".  Just incredible bass line, it's like a thing of beauty. 

And of course the famous story of how he recorded "What's goin' on?" lying on his back in the studio. 

Shame he never got his props while he was alive.  What's some more great Jamerson lines?

[Ron]

I saw somebody online ranting and raving about a few of his... they mentioned "It's a shame" by the spinners... WOW just downloaded it... never payed attention to the bassline before! 

Also, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin & Tami... WOW what a bassline!!!

[markcharles75]

He was THE man on bass.  I think nowadays he is getting his due.  Check this out: a list of songs he played on.  I made my own comp: called it James Jamerson's Greatest Bass  Hits lol.  Just get a hold of the songs on this list and there you have it. I gave up trying to play any of the complicated stuff...too much practice involved.  I just sit back and revel in it.

http://www.bassland.net/jamersonhits.htm

[Ron]

On the "Standing in the Shadows" documentary, his son talked about how he told him that one of the most important things about playing bass was to know when NOT to play, and if you didn't have a good reason to play something just don't play anything and let there be a silent spot in the music.

Plus, apparently he played all that with 1 finger!  What the hell?  

I was always a big fan of Paul McCartney's bass playing, because it was so melodic.... not over the top jazzy, but just enough, similar to how the Beatles weren't the greatest song writers ever, but just good enough to be great.  Paul's bass was similar.

Jamerson though is the king of that kind of playing!  I always tripped out over Paul's bass line on "Rain"... everything Jamerson DID was that good it seems.  

It's amazing to me too how when Jamerson plays, he has these really variated bass lines, he'll be playing a groove and then get wayyyyy off of where he was, for the bridge or the solo of the song, or something, and then after 30 seconds or so of that, he'll fall right back into the same complicated groove he was playing earlier.  Knowing the way the Funk Brothers recorded (fast!) it's really crazy that he was able to come up with so many different grooves and not just be jamming or improvising, he actually had the groove in his head and could revert right back to it because it was an actual planned, intended line, not just something he was messing around with.

I mean I'm not saying he wasn't really loose with it, but it seems that he never was completely improvising, he always had it going on and knew exactly where he was in the song.  The way I understand it, he didn't really work with charts either, except a basic run through of the music, he didn't have basslines pre written for him.

[Foster's Freeze]

I am a HUGE fan of Stax records and of course that leads us to Duck Dunn - serious bass worship for me when it comes to Duck but he will be the first to tell you that he was trying to be like Jamerson.

Everyone was!  JJ is a legend and everyone should listen deeply to his stuff. 

[donald]

The best.  Trouble is, when he's playing, that is most of what I hear.  It is so magnetic and mesmerizing it always looms prominent in the song.

And over the years I've discovered, bit by bit,  he was the bassist on most of my favorite Motown songs before I was aware of his legend.

[richardsnow]

Jamerson , a legend. My fave bass line of his is "I was made to love her"

Lord knows how he played with just that one finger. I can play a few of his lines but only with a pick.
I'd say it was impossible to play them with one finger if it weren't for that film where you can see him backing Marvin.

[roll plymouth rock]

I agree with all of the above praise for JJ! Jamerson, McCartney & Wilson are the best walking bass line inventors ever - bar none in my opinion. In addition to all the great Motown stuff he did, I always dug the bass line on this Rodriguez song he moonlighted on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMHdq4jm0oQ

[Ron]

The best.  Trouble is, when he's playing, that is most of what I hear.  It is so magnetic and mesmerizing it always looms prominent in the song.

And over the years I've discovered, bit by bit,  he was the bassist on most of my favorite Motown songs before I was aware of his legend.

That's one of the great things about him... he was such a part of all these songs everybody loves... then you find out he was on it, and it makes you wonder if that's the common thread making all the songs great.