No question, John Paul Jones takes that price. Entwistle and Wyman are amateaurs in comparison.

kind of a wierd top 100 list; it's not just rock, but then it's also not inclusive of ALL rock/jazz fusion, motown, blues etc. how can you have some of these jazz cats but not have jaco pastorius or stanley clarke? how can any top 100 rock bassists not have the bass players from the smiths (rourke, incredibly empathetic and tasty), Wilbur Bascomb who played on jeff beck's Wired, the many zappa bassists, and especially roger friggin' waters, whose use of echoed bass on One Of These Days and slide/fx bass on Echoes were just as groundbreaking as entwistle's lines in My Generation.

before seeing the list midthread, i would have put my top 5 as: squire, lee, levin, entwistle, and macca...who all ended up in the lists top 8. (surprising, given that these kind of lists and i hardly ever agree!)

as to the initial inquiry, entwistle can surely be seen as rock's most enduring and longest lauded bassist by the time of his passing, as My Generation cemented him as rock's first prominant innovative bassist years before the skilled generation inspired by him (squire, lee, levin, etc) started playing.

I think you have to answer the question with a quote from the obvious expert, Homer Simpson:

"The bone-rattling bass of Mel Schacher!"

The Sicilian Wrote:
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> I've always admired his quiet non showboating
> style of playing. Then a majority of bass players
> have that style. But he did have a presence.

You're confusing stage presence with playing style.

This is all so subjective. However, I've said this before and I'll say it again, John Entwistle is the best bassist I've ever seen. I've seen some great ones, but Entwistle is head and shoulders above the rest. When he plays I can feel the vibrations all through my internal organs. It is hard to explain but his bass is thunderous and way up front. It seems to be much more than part of the "rhythym section."

My vote goes to the Ox. In fact, Pete/Keith/John trumps Keith/Brian or Ronnie/Bill.

Then there is the Mick factor, J and T which trumps all debates instantly!!!

Paul McCartney is rock's best bassist.

Jack Bruce is the best I've ever seen, with Cream, and I'd put John Entwistle ahead of Macca purely on the delivery. I honestly don't know where I'd put Bill, but he's not in the same league imo.

Chris

Yeah, I think for a hard rock style, Jack Bruce is even better. bill is not the same kind of bassist, and paul is another.

Then there are all the Jaco Pastorius types, whom as far as I know no one actually listens to and only mentions in conversations like this. I would consider that another category as well.

Check out the subtleties in his playing, a great player!!!

Isolated bass...






... full band for proper context(bass should be louder though hah!!!

thats what i'm takling about...amazing

Indeed, but, there is no BEST, everyone mentioned does a great job in the context of the bands they played with!

i'm not sure about all the "same league" discussion - i guess maybe folks are talking about virtuosity or something? if that's the case, then none of the current or former members of the Stones is or was in the same league as thousands of other musicians, save for MT....that's not what this band is or was about.

Who cares - he's dead.

winter is right, this list is inconsistent. Should be inclusive of electric bass guitar players of all styles, or just stay inside the pop/rock field.

Otherwise it goes nowhere if it omits monsters like Zappa's Tom Fowler, Patrick O'Hearn or Scott Thunes, or Santana's guys... Geezer Butler?! Feh!!

John entwistle is one of the best, "the best" are at least a few in rock history.
For me the ox had the best sound,listen to my generation solo, the quit one, boris the spider,.... Bil Wyman was great, especially for the stones but mostly he was to low mixed

Did I miss it--no Jaco on that list? Wow.

Kind of hard to compare because the styles are so different.

Bill Wyman, can be be appeciated within the context of the band as opposed
to someone like Entwistle, who was amazing, but played almost "lead bass".

In all seriousness, subjective polls are silly.

Pete Townshend interviewed by Jenny Eliscu - Rolling Stone Mag - November 2006



ROCKMAN

jamesfdouglas Wrote:
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> In all seriousness, subjective polls are silly.


indeed. the people who don't 'stick out' because they're serving the song (like charlie, ringo, bill, john paul jones, the motown guys, the band, etc.) just blend in effortlessly.

objective polls don't exist, so we're stuck with the faulty subjective ones. oh well, more fun than your average OT thread though!

Glass Slide Wrote:
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> Did I miss it--no Jaco on that list? Wow.
>

Did you first hear of him from a list like this? Or, in a guitar magazine?

what do you reckon of mr. Duff "Rose" McKagan?

cc Wrote:

> Then there are all the Jaco Pastorius types, whom
> as far as I know no one actually listens to and
> only mentions in conversations like this. I would
> consider that another category as well.


cc, what are you talking about, "no one actually listens to...?" .......Of course we've listened to him. Remember Weather Report? Joni Mitchell?

Here's a link to an identical thread back in August. I once played basketball with Jaco. [www.iorr.org]

There are some omissions I agree. Many on here I never heard of. I'll be the first to admit I could never come up with 100 bass players on my own. But this guy did and in posting it gave us the key to thoroughly analyze and rant about it.

Sometimes we need to change the direction a little to keep the thoughts fresh. Back on John Entwistle, his playing just draws you in and blows you away. He did it with utmost coolness and had a look on his face like he was on vacation in Mexico.

x



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2007-04-05 17:46 by Beelyboy.

Lukester Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cc Wrote:
>
> cc, what are you talking about, "no one actually
> listens to...?" .......Of course we've listened to
> him. Remember Weather Report? Joni Mitchell?

Yeah, sorry, I don't listen to that stuff. I enjoyed the story and read it the first time, but I still feel like "Jaco Pastorius" is an animal who only comes out when the question of best bass players is raised among music fans.

You wanna hear some top shelf bass playing, beam over to Hot Stuff and download The Who live at Woodstock 1969 on page 2 posted by Vancouver. 23 rockin tracks.

A must have people.

Well not only was the OX one of the all time greatest Bass players. He was an outstanding overall musician and songwriter. The few that jump off my mind are of course My Wife,The Quiet One, and of course Boris the Spider.


I am going to see The Who in Feb. I have not seen them in years. Curious to know how they will sound.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

My two favorites are Phil Lesh and Garry W. Tallent....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-01-04 08:13 by JJFlash88.

Not Macca?