Rolling Stone Magazine: 50 greatest bassists of all time

gotta add fred turner

 

I probably would have added Bob Babbit, Willie Weeks and Francis Rocco Prestia too.

 

Jack's one of those guys who sonically took electric bass into new areas, like Entwistle, or Bruce. But totally his own style. Not in a top 50? That's just wrong. Top 25 at least, man.

 

Hard to squeeze Jack Casady in when you need to make room for Duff McKagan, haha.

 

Yeah Duff kind of stands out like a sore thumb. I can’t say I’ve ever heard him doing anything that made me think he was above average but then I’m not much of a GnR fan at all.

 

Its like some of these people just got thrown in to equally represent different genres of music. Sort of like the everybody gets a trophy deal. I mean sure, all talented players, but some head-scratching here. Oh well, Rolling Stone, right?

 

Jack Bruce is #6.

 

Kim Deal is there. Although at 48. And Tina high up. Solid list.

 

Are Jah Wobble or Holger Czukay anywhere on this list?

 

Not terrible, my biggest omission, other than jazz players who should have half the list, is Tommy Cogbill, here's some things he played bass on and at least one where he plays guitar

 

Well, bear in mind that Geezer Butler is extremely humble.

Ronnie James Dio, who has not only played with a lot of great bassists but was a pretty darned good bass player himself, long said Butler was the greatest rock bassist of all time is his view.

Butler should be in the Top 10, IMO. He's also more of a "team player" than some guys and changes music so much by how he gets inside of it. I love everybody in the Top 10 so I'm not sure who I'd remove. This stuff is never easy.

 

Charlie Haden and Scott LaFaro for sure on my list

 

Holger Czukay could well be my No. 1 but I'm not expecting to see him in a list in Rolling Stone... and he isn't.

 

Philippe Bussonnet could wipe the floor with half of this list and I didn't nor did I expect to see him, either. I assumed Casady would be there and when he wasn't I wasn't holding out much hope for Brian Ritchie, either.

 

Ray Pohlman might be an overlooked sessions bassist. I think he is the one who played the distinctive bass line in Good Vibrations, for example.

There is a number of jazz bassists that I would like to have seen in the top 50, e.g. Paul Chambers, Jimmy Garrison and Scott La Faro, but I would put none of them ahead of the great Ron Carter.

 

Weird to have Phil Lesh at #11 and Jack Casady nowhere.

 

I scrolled through the list two times and couldn't find John Deacon in there...

 

I love Queen and don't really rate Deacon as an upper echelon bass player, but he has two of the most iconic bass lines in rock history (Under Pressure, Another One Bites the Dust), which I am kind of surprised didn't get him in there (or as much as one can be surprised by a list put together by the jugheads at Rolling Stone).

 

He's playing amazing basslines in 'The Millionaire's Waltz' and 'Dragon Attack'. That alone would place him into the high league of bassmen IMO.

 

I don't disagree. I guess what I meant is, while not the no-brainer that others would be for me in this kind of list, he was still pretty darn good. Had he been included, I would have nodded and smiled, but his exclusion didn't have me screaming travesty, if you catch my drift.

 

There's been more than 50 good bass players in music history, that's a fact.

 

No Berry Oakley??!! That is hard to fathom.

 

Bicycle Race too

 

Right? Their drummers list is 100. Once again, the bass player is shunned...

 

No.
Well deserved.