Conjuring subatomic grooves with light accents and melodic hooks, the celebrated Wailers bassist - who got his nickname for being the bandleader and chief arranger of Marley’s backing group, and who still leads a version of The Wailers to this day - penned the hummable bass lines for hits like “Stir It Up” and “Jammin’.” But he’s also mentored other bass greats and brought his soulful style to recordings by legends like Lee “Scratch” Perry and Augustus Pablo. The iconic reggae tunes of Bob Marley resonate with people around the globe, but they wouldn’t have been nearly as deep had it not been for the efforts of Aston “Family Man” Barrett. Thompson and mid-‘70s Miles Davis: a free-flowing freak who took center stage and transformed the medium. He’s the bass playing equivalent to Hunter S. The finger-tapping bass line on Primus’ “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver” can’t be taught the rattling demolition on “My Name Is Mud” doesn’t come from practicing scales “Tommy the Cat” takes funk and slimes it with ectoplasm. His genius is simply too ridiculous for instructional DVDs. His signature style (a percussive barrage of slap madness) gave him the decade’s most identifiable sound. Then again, how could the starry dynamo of slap bass become the next Cliff Burton? Les Claypool, the lunatic fringe of bass, walked away from Metallica to become the best bass player of the ‘90s as Primus' frontman. He was too good for Metallica during an infamous audition in 1986. Whether playing the Grand Ole Opry in 1949 or touring California honky-tonks with Gene Vincent and the Fendermen in the early '60s, Maddox was a show-stopping talent, one with a gleeful, proto-punk disregard for musical and social convention. Maddox’s raw, percussive style was all frantic staccato - no bass lines, no chords, not a single note of music - but Maddox beat it out so effectively (and physically goofed on it so entertainingly) that he was acknowledged as one of post-war country music’s greatest performers. But he never learned how to tune or even properly play the bass. Idolized by Elvis’ bass thumper Bill Black, Maddox was so successful that at one point in the late 1950s, Columbia Records had two separate contracts on him. While slap bass was developed in Storyville cathouses a hundred years ago, it was Alabama-born, California-based renegade Fred Maddox who made it a rockabilly staple. ![]() She's what kept The Pixies from merely sounding like a racket. By the time guitars burst through the song, Deal's power as a bassist is clear. While that makes the song different from much of the rest of The Pixies' output, it's a good indication of her role with the group. Then there's “Gigantic.” Deal has a writing credit and sings lead on the band's first proper single. The bass lines peek through on songs like “Monkey Gone to Heaven,” “Velouria” and “Here Comes Your Man,” but they're always subtle and something that a casual listener might miss. During her tenure with The Pixies, Deal's minimal style was frequently enveloped by the beautiful noise surrounding her. There's nothing showy about Kim Deal's bass playing. ![]() Weekly's picks for the 20 greatest bassists of all time, in any genre. A handful have become legends, whether through virtuosity, showmanship or both some died tragically young, but delivered such brilliance in their brief careers that they redefined the four-string's possibilities. ![]() Some of the most influential and widely heard bassists remain virtually faceless to the general public, while others are better known for their vocal or songwriting accomplishments than for their mastery of the bottom end. Whether used for its harmonic, rhythmic or brute force capabilities, the bass is both popular music's sexiest instrument and its most under-appreciated. What do Sly and the Family Stone's “Dance to the Music,” The Beatles' “Dear Prudence” and Black Sabbath's “Into the Void” have in common? Not much except this: All of them owe a significant chunk of their awesomeness to their bass lines.
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