I just read this great article https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-50-greatest-bassists-of-all-time? While there are many in that list that are well known, such as Macca, Bootsy Collins, Lemmy, Jack Bruce etc, the article rightly also gives credit to the ones that most people have never heard of but know their famous basslines. Number one is James Jamerson, who even Paul McCartney had never heard of until recently, but as bassist of The Funk Brothers is the bedrock of nearly every Motown hit you can think of, ie 'Heard it Through the Grapevine (heresy alert - I prefer the Creedence version), My Girl and a squillion others. Similarly one of my favourites is number 5 Carol Kaye, as the bassist in The Wrecking Crew she is estimated to be on over 10,000 recordings, many of them very famous ones. She plays the intro on one of my favourite recordings, Glen Cambell's (another member of The Wrecking Crew) Witchita Lineman, and is on hits from everyone from Sinatra to The Monkees.
Jameson played on “I want you back” Jackson 5. Best baseline ever. Despite never being credited and having one of the Jacksons dancing around on stage pretending to play.
Good Vibrations, and Pet Sounds (which it wasn’t on) are true masterpieces, made at whatever budget and time it took to make perfect. Speaking of uncredited but legendary, the list of hits that Jimmy Page played guitar on as a session musician is quite something. As a sprog I thought the best bit of ‘Its Not Unusual’ was the brief piercing lead guitar part in between verses - Page of course, long before Led Zeppelin had even been thought of.
This inspired a 16 year old bass playing me to try and play it live at a gig in Barroway Drove village hall… thank god mobile phones weren’t a thing then! Lol
Leather catsuit, TOTP, and a Fender bass that was bigger than she was, I suddenly became more interested in girls than model railways.
I haven’t read the list, but if Bernard Edwards isn’t at the top, something is very wrong with the world..
