Underrated bassists?

Sunset Shalom

Sunset Shalom

May 9, 2016
1,702
1,150
4,551
#1
Two groups I never see their bassists get any love are Caravan and Eloy. Both had a few different bassists over the years I believe and have some seriously killer bass lines on some tunes. Here are some examples:



Super long epic tune with a ton of amazing bass lines, every time I hear this song I appreciate the bass even more.



Starts out simple but has some crazy drums and bass throughout. The guitar and keys are also amazing and sadly mask a lot of the bass but you can tell how groovy and tight it is still.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nashrakh and Bass V
#4
Can't have this conversation without putting Victor Wooten on the list. People always talk about him in terms of his pyrotechnic bass playing but as a bassist - whether he's walking, or doing supporting lines - the man has some chops!

I went to his last show and he was playing a lot more bass lines with Dennis Chambers and Bob Franceschini (sp?) on sax.

I wish my fingers and mind worked that way...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Element Zero
#9
Jody Spampinado...

Now, ordinarily, I don't give Keith Richards much credit for much other than staying alive as long as he has...but I Love the movie Hail Hail Rock N Roll, and the fact that he chose Jody to serve as the bassist in the band Way Ups his cred with me.


My friend Paul Carson and I used to hitch hike to Poughkeepsie to see NRBQ at
Frivolous Sal's Last Chance Saloon. We'd get there early to help the guys set up, and stay late for the load out.
We probably did that a dozen or so times.
I'm sure we were a freakin' mess as we walked the length of the town looking for Rt. 9, the Old Post Road, so we could hitch our drunken arses home at 2am!
Jody was sweet and patient and generous.
What's that they say about ' the way you treat someone who can do you absolutely no good'?
That was Jody...a gentleman of the first order, and (45 years later) he remains one of my musical pillars.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 5StringBlues and Sunset Shalom
#13
Peter Cruickshank of the Groundhogs. It is difficult to even find decent photographs of him. Video is next to impossible to find. Luckily we have the albums! Peter was with the Groundhogs until they disbanded (for the first time) in 1974. My favorite playing from him is from a concert recorded by the BBC in 1974, which was then split (get it?) across various albums as bonus tracks. The concert is from the 'Solid' album era, and I think Peter is using a Zemaitis bass. It has a richly raunchy, bright tone that seems ahead of the era.

The Groundhogs themselves were pretty uniquely interesting and eccentric. On the one hand they were unquestionably authentic and raw bluesmen; especially front man Tony McPhee. The band backed John Lee Hooker in the '60s, so definitely had the credentials. However there was also a darkly satirical, cynical and outright misanthropic edge to some of their music. One of their albums is called Thank Christ For the Bomb after all. As the band soldiered on in obscurity they seem to have become more wayward and experimental, mixing synthesisers and extreme guitar effects into their earthy and primitive blues. Sort of a jam band, sort of a hard rock band, definitely a blues band and flirting almost with a sort of angular No Wave noise rock an entire decade too early. Cruickshank always seems to be dialed perfectly in with the drums, even when the tempo is all over the place (check out the live cut of Garden from 'Live at Leeds' to see the extreme juxtaposition of fuzzed space rock and down-heeled guttural blues).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Eikari, 47th Street and Sunset Shalom
#14
Here is another great group all around, especially the guitarist and keys player but their bassist and drummer also rock:


1: Intro by Bob Harris 0:00
2: Anonymous 0:36
3: Bob Introduces the band 22:20
4: Focus i 23:36
5: Focus iii 27:44
6: Answers?Questions!Questions?Answers! 30:56
7: Focus ii 43:05
8: Bob speaks again 47:52
9: Hocus Pocus 48:10

Check out track 6 and 5 as those are 2 of my favorite Focus songs by far drool

Also a lot of famous old rock groups get credited for having singers who can hit super high notes (I'm looking at you Zeppelin) but man, Thijs Van Leer takes the high note cake for Hocus Pocus ;)
 
Last edited:
#18
Josh Paul

13262_artist.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back