The Smiley Smile Message Board

The title comes from a remark (here at 1:33) in "You Can't Sit Down" , a cool 1961 instrumental by the Phil Upchurch Combo. Seems Upchurch played guitar on it and later overdubbed the bass part himself (see here (https://books.google.nl/books?id=2kkcmS0AzMEC&pg=PA155&lpg=PA155&dq=david+brooks+bass+upchurch&source=bl&ots=5kDOwSK1zi&sig=ACfU3U07D7K3k0gAmYC8cTFRaOH5Hp5M4w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjuwvnwkbHhAhUpyYUKHbpmBf0Q6AEwCnoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=david%20brooks%20bass%20upchurch&f=false)):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MH5XvxedEg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Upchurch

Hate "Something" - ugly song - except Paul's bass.

My favorite bass line ever would be Geddy Lee's in Rush's "YYZ": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdpMpfp-J_I

And in isolation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir-NYVFsSB4

Incredible...

It is indeed! This is probably mine. Andy Fraser although not a technical wizard was one of pop's most inventive and adventurous bassists. His crowning achievement in that respect (and maybe that of Free as a whole) comes just after the three-minute mark in "Mr. Big":   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai-4zRRnD4k

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Water_(Free_album) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Water_(Free_album))

I launched a bass guitar topic at PSF but couldn't bring myself to relaunch it at EH after PSF vanished. But it seems right to relaunch it now.

Keeping to Free and Andy Fraser, the bass line in "The Stealer" features a downward smear "on the one". Is this unique, I wonder. Nice vibes too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfAeclfUEyM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_(Free_album) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_(Free_album))

Nothing earth-shattering, but sit back and enjoy this nice little melodic bass interlude.

*I've even learned how to link videos with a specific start time for your convenience*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fni5y-8wqo&feature=youtu.be&t=216 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fni5y-8wqo&feature=youtu.be&t=216)

Nice feel to that, B.E.. I must confess to being a complete ignoramus when it comes to Mr Petty's music.

Here's Mr Pastorius with an incredible less-is-more performance on Joni Mitchell's "Refuge Of The Roads". Not one note too many and every note in the right place. ::)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qGTeMBNuGM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hejira_(album) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hejira_(album))

European Female by the Stranglers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olozhVNBBoQ

Mmm not added a yt link before but song worth checking out

The link worked. So much for being a technophobe  :)

You can always do more than you think, SIB. ;D

Lovely track. My Stranglers choice for this topic would be their stunning version of "Walk On By":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqfqVDHNW6c

Like the climax of the bass solo in "Mr. Big", Santana's "All The Love In The Universe" has its own moment of unbridled ecstacy--to be precise, the five seconds beginning at 4:58. But the reason it's in this topic is the stunning bass work of Doug Rauch--this was 1972!     

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_riUhKoed0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Rauch

Bassist Pino Palladino is best known for his fretless bass work with Paul Young and, more recently, The Who. But he made his recording debut on Gary Numan's album I, Assassin.

Numan: "He was brilliant. I had never heard playing like it...He came up with stunning bass lines, song after song. I leaned on him heavily during the making of the album. I pushed his playing to the forefront of the tracks and, inadvertently, created a new style. It was one of the first times that the fretless bass had been used as the lead melody instrument, allowing the album to be atmospheric, dreamy and funky."

This is the album's closer, "We Take Mystery (to Bed)":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY9ym3RiTHY   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Assassin

World-class bassist Tony Levin never sounded more awesome than on Joan Armatrading's "Only You", which closes her 1981 album Walk Under Ladders:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBewMSC030Y

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Levin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_Under_Ladders

The S.O.S. Band are responsible for some of my favourite music from the '80s. "Just Be Good To Me", with a massive groove that crushes everything in its path, has a suitably irascible bass solo, here just after the four-minute mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCcg7ctrC4w

Some impressions came to mind. I can't give you specifics, it's morning and I have sh*t to do before I leave the house.
Cecil McBee, Dave Holland, the wholesome fullness of Charlie Haden, the rhythmic and harmonic genius of Jamie Jamerson, Scritti Politti/The System, the bass part and sound from All I Wanna Do.
I got to use two excellent bass players on sessions: Putter Smith and Eric Klevin from Sacramento.
In one band I was in I played electric piano (Wurlitzer). Our bass player got sent to county jail for 90 days and I filled in until he returned. Loved it!

Yes, absolutely a wonderful bass line. Helps to create what I would describe as an otherworldly, warm, ethereal soundscape. It sounds (looks?) like swirling, shimmering orange and gold colors. (I relate to music on more of an emotional and mentally visual(?) level, rather than a technical one. Maybe that sounds weird, but that's the best way I can explain it.)

On this dreary, rainy afternoon, Pink Floyd's "One of These Days" randomly came to mind. I love the thumping double-tracked bass in this song. To me it contributes to the song sounding nightmarish, black, dark blues and washed out greys, like being lost in a cold, dark labyrinth of abandoned buildings being pursued by an evil presence.  

I know the feeling, sir. A keyboard player myself, I played bass with a covers band in the mid 1970s. I'm left-handed, so I played the thing upside-down! Most enjoyable it was too, wandering around the stage all evening. ::)

"European Son", the closing track on The Velvet Underground and Nico, had the bracketed dedication "to Delmore Schwartz" on my first-edition UK copy.

For year I assumed that the frantic bass line was John Cale and Sterling Morrison trading off the four rising notes against the four descending ones but the tireless staff at Wikipedia insist it's all Cale, which I find pretty mind-boggling. :o       

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igWyYA_r06Y

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Son

The Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh is a good example of the melodic approach to bass-playing in pop/rock. He had a "classical" training, learning the violin and later switching to trumpet (an instrument he shares with fellow bassist Flea). "Born Cross-Eyed" from the Dead's kaleidoscopic second album Anthem of the Sun features Lesh on vocals and even briefly on trumpet. Astonishingly, this was released as a 45 in the UK! :o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhndGhkp-8U

For a good example of Phil's prowess on bass you can't go wrong with "The Eleven" from Live/Dead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE5VdsuGWJg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Lesh

So many from Sir Paul in the Beatles Middle Period...I'll go with "Paperback Writer."

Thanks, ABD, for reminding a casual Beatles fan just how inventive McCartney was as a bassist.  ;)

"Come Together" is another great example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oolpPmuK2I8

Paul rules with PW bass. :3d Single thing to like about "Something" is Paul's playing.

That's the second time you've said that in this topic, RR.  ;D

I replied to ABD without looking entire thread.

Paul-free faves (disclaimer: St. Petersburg bands):
"Fruits Fight Freedom" by Pete The Great Goon (ascend)
"Retrousse Profile In The Kitchen Sink Reflection" by Contaminated Tap (chromatic)
"Draped" by Bulki & Pelmeni (major)
"Who Asks? Yoda" by Kasha Malashka (melodic)
"Jug, Wine, Bucket" by Lanie Starts Eryoma (plain bass)

I must try to find these songs. I'll let you know if I do...

Now this is sheer heaven. If this version of "Cause We've Ended As Lovers" doesn't melt your heart, nothing will. Bassist Tal Wilkenfeld really is the business and I believe Jeff and the boys think so too. My goodness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC02wGj5gPw

Okay let's throw the Ox in the mix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y08nK9DgB78

Love the whole song but he takes over.

Thanks for that, ABD.  I included John Entwistle in this topic's equivalent on PSF but criminally forgot him this time round. :o

I've never heard this song before (I'm not familiar with this album as a whole). It's beautiful! Ye gods, what a player. ::)   

Glad you dig it -- "The Who by Numbers" I consider very underrated -- along with Quadrophenia my fave LP by them.

How about this track by Kinga Glyk (a new name to me) for some amazing bass work? :o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=206neF34_-g

http://kingaglyk.pl

She's quite good, isn't she?  I like her cover of Donna Lee on her little mini bass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_onY_geaMs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_onY_geaMs)

Yes she is. ;D Thanks for that. I see commenters are describing her instrument as a "bass uke"... :-\

I'm guessing there are quite a few different types of mini bass these days. Stanley Clarke on my Return to Forever LP (Romantic Warrior) is credited with playing, among other things, a piccolo bass. (That was 40 years ago.) Maybe it was this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPWEKNtvr3U

Yeah, I think alembic made Clarke all kinds of custom stuff.

The bass Kinga is playing is made by a primarily ukulele making company, but is tuned like a bass and has special rubber strings so it can play at normal bass pitch.  The company is called Kala.

Now you mention it, Clarke is credited on the same album with playing an Alembic bass with instant flanger.

Ah, so bass uke is about right. Thank you for the information. :)