What are some good songs with a lead bass guitar?

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22 Aug 2018, 10:21 pm

What are some good songs with a lead bass guitar? I am up for listening to any and all examples for inspiration when I play my bass.

I am also looking for some more mellow tunes for listening to in general, like this or this.

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Trogluddite
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23 Aug 2018, 6:34 pm

Ooh, now then, there's a question! I've always been into playing my bass as a lead instrument, and my last band was just me and a drummer (I've played solo a couple of time too). I run my bass through a lot of effects quite often to generate screaming lead sounds etc.

So here's my two favourite drums/bass duos that were inspirations to me...
Ruins - They had various bassists, but the album I've linked to is, IMHO, when they were at their best. Very varied, but always incredibly strange (they're Japanese, but the singing is in a completely invented language!)
Sabot - San Francisco instrumental duo. My first solo gig was playing support for these guys.

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Hyeokgeose
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23 Aug 2018, 8:10 pm

Trogluddite wrote:

Really digging the instrumental in "Burning Stone"!
Going to listen to the rest of the Sabot album in the background. Looked at the songs in the description, and kinda skipped around and listened to the first 30 seconds of each. I listened to the full track for "Flexplex" -- really liked that one!

Esmerelda Weatherwax
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23 Aug 2018, 8:17 pm

These are all older things, and all jazz.

The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines (I like jazz, many kinds) from Joni Mitchell's Mingus (and the bass was Pastorius) - the opening run will damn near kill you, you've been warned.

Pastorius' eponymous album, all of it (And Birdland, from Heavy Weather, Weather Report, also Pastorius on bass)

School Days, Stanley Clarke, also likely to kill you

Relentless, Brian Bromberg (he could lose the intro, it's way overproduced) from You Know That Feeling

Joyce Cooling and Al Jarreau - "Mmm Mmm Good" - not bass lead IIRC but good enough for an honorable mention

So some smooth stuff and some frisky stuff here - working from happy recollections :-) rather than my collection of bookmarks or CDs.

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23 Aug 2018, 8:26 pm

Anything by Victor Wooten from Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.

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10 Sep 2018, 2:17 pm

Smile Empty Soul I've found have some really prominent bass lines.

Nirvana is a classic and not too hard to play.

Queens of the Stone Age have a couple good songs as well.

I'll update if I find any other good ones.

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10 Sep 2018, 2:58 pm

Last edited by Sahn on 10 Sep 2018, 4:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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10 Sep 2018, 3:30 pm

"come andy play in the milky night" by stereolab has a good bass line

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10 Sep 2018, 5:26 pm

Jaco Pastorius and Victor Wooten were already mentioned. This one's so simple, but it gets stuck in my head every time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE6HmArln_k

Just about anything from Geddy Lee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbsC_fGArVc

And Les Claypool, of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xb898sQtu8

Larry Graham is said to have invented slap bass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e7EF7rRA9M

I don't know a lot of Marcus Miller's music, but this one is my JAM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpCr3VQ0lEk

Not a great recording, but Tony Franklin does an awesome rendition of Rain Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EcDwbyYqwo

I really like John Wetton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfR6_V91fG8

Joey DeMaio is awesome, but a bit of a showoff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nmRsEHnJyQ

Tony Levin is great, I think he plays a StingRay in this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjEq-r2agqc
And he rocks a Chapman Stick in this one, if that counts as a bass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k_ZRyws8Uc

And of course, there's slap solo classics like Steely Dan - Peg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI7NDDQLvbo
Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq-gYOrU8bA
Stevie Wonder - I Wish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYKYka-PNt0

And he didn't play lead licks, but I HAVE to mention James Jamerson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqtELR5GyfI
He plucks all of those notes with ONE finger (the hook).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjC0vMIrOAk

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10 Sep 2018, 10:26 pm

There is a great zappa track from the olden days with jack bruce on it, apostrophe 1975

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19 Sep 2018, 6:14 pm

Jazz-rock fusionist Stanley Clark is the first bass as lead player that I became familiar with back in the Seventies.

Anything by him.

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21 Sep 2018, 12:39 pm

One of my favorite bass-lead tunes, made even more difficult by the fact that the bassist is also the lead singer.

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24 Sep 2018, 10:44 pm

Windy by the Association

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsY8l0Jg3lY

SabbraCadabra
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25 Sep 2018, 5:16 am

BTDT wrote:

Windy by the Association

I watched the Wrecking Crew documentary recently, I didn't know they did The Association. Wikipedia says the great Joe Osborn recorded the bass for that album.

Carol Kaye is great, too.

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25 Sep 2018, 9:05 am

Thanks for pointing out who played that. Windy is one of my favorite songs.

https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2012/07/1 ... oe-osborn/
Joe Osborn has more chart-topping records than he can even keep track of.

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25 Sep 2018, 6:01 pm

BTDT wrote:

Joe Osborn has more chart-topping records than he can even keep track of.

I like his style, he's almost always played a Fender Jazz with flatwound strings.

He's on a lot of Simon & Garfunkel tunes, as well as the live sets from the late 60s, when they brought the electric band with them.

He also plays that really great bit at the end of Aquarius (Let the Sunshine In).

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