The Best Bass Lines In Rock
Monday, May 11, 2020 at 12:01AM I'm a sucker for a great bass line. For me, the bass line is what makes a rock song, period. There are so many great bass lines in rock history and it is hard to narrow things down to a Top 10 but we might as well try! I mean, I am just sitting over here in COVID quarantine, listening to music and thinking deep thoughts. Here is my top 10 best bass lines of all time. Be sure to leave me your picks in the comments section.
The list is in no real order - these just happen to be some of my favorite songs of all time.
Sweet Emotion - Aerosmith [Stream 'Sweet Emotion' Here
Money - Pink Floyd
Roundabout - YES
Another One Bites The Dust - Queen
Sunshine Of Your Love - Cream
No More Tears - Ozzy Osbourne
Would? - Alice In Chains [Stream 'Would?' Here
The Joker - Steve Miller Band
Under Pressure - Queen and David Bowie
Fall To Pieces - Velvet Revolver
Reader Comments (32)
Almost listed that, too, MZip! ... HUGE!
On the opposite end of musical integrity, though seemingly under appreciated on this site, I give you seminal Punk band THE CLASH ... At least two songs come to mind with killer basslines:
1) London Calling
2) The Magnificent Seven
No wonder The Damned was Jimmy Page’s Favorite Punk band!
Listen to that bassline near the top!
This song just plain smokes! Check it out!
"Runnin' with the Devil"; "Peace Sells . . ."; "Run to the Hills"'; "Primal Scream"; "No More Tears"; and on and on it goes. Good to be in good company.
If I might add but one: Ian Hill on "The Rage." Yes, the guitar gets the glory. But Hill helps make it such a unique song.
How about two? "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (nice call, MZip, on "Orion," which I think surpasses "Bass Solo"). Or three? "NIB" from Geezer.
Regardless, reading stuff like this right now makes me happy. Thanks to all of you--and there were a lot of you posting, which is great--for keeping the spirit of BBG! going. Such a great site.
Love me some PIL. Own most of their catalog and appreciate both versions (I making a hard and fast distinction here, but there is a bit more shade to it than that). I even enjoyed _What the World Needs Now_ (2015). If you haven't already, check out "Corporate." Lydon can still make something that shouldn't work, work. I truly think PIL is better than the SPs. "Rise" remains one of my favorite songs of all time . . .featuring Steve Vai (and Ginger isn't a slouch on the songs he performed on)!
And, as you know, I really loved his book.
Of course, people gonna say Public Image Ltd. (Forgot the “Ltd.” in my previous comment) or PIL is New Wave but that song, “Public Image” is sort of Post Punk, if you will, and their BEST song, IMHO! ... Though I DO appreciate where you’re coming from with “Rise”.
Not gonna say I like Public Image Ltd. better than Sex Pistols (Saw the reunion tour in ‘96 with Matlock) but it is, no doubt, one h*lluva band.
And there are others in the genres who give rise (yeah, yeah, happy coincidence) to the prominent bassline, some of whom I’ve already mentioned ...
The Stranglers got some heavy as h*ll basslines in ALL their songs (had the pleasure of seeing them cause fist fights break out during the last Rock show played at Warner Theater in Washington D.C. for decades ... same place I was fortunate enough to see Kraftwerk ...
Another band I happened to catch at one of their reunion dates on their “Final Damnation Tour” in 1989, is The Damned with Captain Sensible on Bass duties, who’s another unlikely incredible musician.
Then there’s the killer bass from 999 (who I also saw in D.C. where they caused a riot with 3 ambulances dispatched to The Bayou, the venerable and legendary Rock club, now long gone, unfortunately, also have killer bass, particularly on “Titanic Reaction”, as does Generation X, Billy Idol’s first band - Check out their first album! KILLER!
Oh, and I nearly forgot, The Dead Boys immortal “Sonic Reducer”, which was covered by Overkill, FYI ... Killer bass intro!
And of course, it goes without saying, the one, the only, Dee Dee Ramone (RIP)!
Dunno why Punk gets either ignored or occasionally maligned here when our heroes Gn’R, L.A. Guns and Faster Pussycat will all tell you they were majorly influenced by the genre. H*ll, Junkyard is mostly made up of former Washington D.C. straight edge punkers!
“Pneumonia” by TOOL!
Gotta say, though I bought the first album, I never really got into ‘em. After last night, however, I got a new favorite band of the week to check out!
Pusha T - “Numbers on the Boards”
Funny anecdote I’ve told here before ... I used to work with a good buddy of his named Donnie who headed up the AV department in an ad agency in NYC ...
Anywho, he would call Donnie whenever he was coming to NYC so they could get together for some beers whether it was at one of his solo shows or just carousing around ...
Sometimes Donnie would be in a recording session or something and would miss his call do he would call him back at his house in the Hollywood hills (this is before cell phones were prevalent) ...
Inevitably, Jones rarely answered ... Instead, his answering machine would ... No actual message from Steve ... just the Classical music classic, “Flight if the Valkaries” by Wagner and then the customary beep to prompt you to leave your message, hahaha!!! ...
Hahaha!!! That is rich! ... “Flight of the Valkaries”! ... The polar opposite of the “musical” mayhem Jones has been inflicting on society for 40+ years ... Hahaha!!! Hahaha!!!