Whether holding down the low end or leading the charge, a band is only as good as their bass player.
The role of a bass player is ambiguous; on the one hand, they can lay back in the cut, locking in with the drummer and providing the low end for a guitarist to noodle forever. On the other hand, when a bass run rears its head in a song, it can take over the entire operation. The bass can lead the festivities with the low-end hiccupping, charging, or punctuating all the right spots and adding interesting flourishes to killer riffs. The right player knows just what the song needs, and as is the case with any good band, they're only as good as their rhythm section.
Ace of Spades - Motorhead
There isn't a better song, no band, to start this list. Talk about a power trio; Motorhead is one of the best hard rock/heavy metal bands…ever. This song is all about the intro, with Lemmy's bass line anchoring the proceedings while discussing his mantra about living life to the fullest through a card game metaphor. It's iconic and probably the first thing someone will yell in your ear if you mention Motorhead.
Say say say – Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney w/ Quincy Jones
Three pop kings at the height of their creative prowess. Rumor has it that McCartney clued Jackson into the fact that owning the rights to songs is where the money is in music, and Mike promptly bought the rights to the Beatles back catalog from under McCartney's nose. Before that happened, this song came into existence, and it scorched the competition with its bass line and production. It's apparent that McCartney is finger-picking his bass parts, and when the song starts to crescendo, the bass line gets bigger. This is one of the best examples of pop music magic with major chords, as there is no actual chorus, but the song is all hooks.
Staying alive - the Beegees
The Beegees were a powerhouse, and this song made and ruined their career at the same time. The falsetto was new to them, but it fit the disco era perfectly. This is the anti-Motorhead, but somehow, both groups would have got along famously, and the bass line is a perfect mirror of Ace of Spades. Both songs have a moving bass intro that solidly plants the listener into the song. This one is a groove that most bands of the time wish they could recreate to get butts on the dance floor, but the Beegees were very accomplished musicians and clued into the zeitgeist.
Nite Klub - the Specials
Some bass lines are burps and hiccups that punctuate a moment in the song. Ska bands have the best bass players because of their rhythm. In this instance, the Specials utilize the bass and form a party around it while they discuss the modern face of rude boy culture in late 1970s England. This song and band would be nothing without founding member Horace Panter holding down the low end and making room for everyone else's festivities.
Waiting Room- Fugazi
Punk works best when it swings for the fences with the huge aspiration to make art. In this instance, Fugazi was trying to utilize funk, hip-hop, and reggae influences. However, what they made was much better than what they had aimed to do. The bass line for this song is just as inspiring to new bands as the scrappy DIY aesthetic that preceded Fugazi. Do your best, make art, and don't worry about the rest; everything will fall into place. These tenets should be taught in schools as founding elements for life; sadly, they are not.
Epic - Faith No More
Epic is, well, an epic representation of a band that ended up becoming the cool kid darling band. They had to break up for the sleeping masses to take notice. The bass line in this song is prevalent and, like everything about this song, in your face.
Under Pressure- Queen David Bowie
This is the song that made Vanilla Ice, and the fact that the bass line was a hit for two generations of artists should be enough to make the list. Let's be honest: David Bowie leaving Earth ruined everything. Come back, Alien Prince! When will we ever have cool on tap like Queen and David Bowie hanging out, ever again?
Jerry Was a Race Car Driver – Primus
Primus isn't for most people. This band worshiped prog rock during punk rock and had to blaze their own trail. The bass line? It's the entire song. This song single-handedly gave Korn a career several years later. If you want to talk epic, think about that. One band stole the breakdown from one song and made a career out of it. Primus is unrivaled as the Kings of strange bass stuff.
Holiday in Cambodia-Dead Kennedys
There are a lot of punk bands on this list, mainly because you must work with what you have. Dead Kennedys are one of the outliers; they wrote music like symphonies. Dead Kennedy's songs have so many moving parts that if you get past the aggressive nature of their name and point of view, you might notice they're great musicians. The bassline here is another intro that carries the song to its conclusion, bewildering the listener and ensuring total compliance to listen to the end.
Suck My Kiss – Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have a long history of being the most "California" band ever. This song on their groundbreaking Blood, Sugar, Sex, and Magic record leads with Flea's searing bass line pounding down the heavy. When utilized correctly and mixed well, the bass makes everything else in the song soar, which is the case in Suck My Kiss.
Walk on the Wild Side-Lou Reed
This song has two bass lines. It was recorded with a stand-up bass, which is prominent in the mix, and an electric bass guitar that keeps everything on track. The stand-up is part of the hook in this song, and the double bass tracks keep Lou Reed's song about alternative lifestyles grooving.
The Glory of Man – Minutemen
This song has so many moving parts that Mike Watt's bass line is the composition's heart. The Minutemen are highly underrated and should get more credit for opening the creative abilities in the 80's80s Southern California hardcore scene. Not everyone was there to thrash; some people wanted to smash conventions, and this song does a great job of illustrating what's possible with that ethos.
I was made for Loving you - Kiss.
Look, while the KISS Army generally refers to this song as a misstep in the band's tenure, it's a sick bass line. Frankly, KISS was never better than when trying to keep up with the times, and this song and Lick It Up are some of their best output. Period.
Gigantic- Pixies
There's an unspoken guarantee that a great bass line accompanies the song if the bassist is singing it. Kim Deal never disappoints in delivering a great performance, and this song is no exception. The meandering bass line that opens the song, combined with Frank Black's haunting vocal hum, gives this song an ethereal feel that somehow leans into the fantastical elements.
Portrait of Tracy - Jaco Pastorius
A piece that is all bass and only bass makes for exciting art. It's an epic piece of jazz that centers the bass as an impressive and underused instrument. The meandering harmonics spotlight the range of emotions one can portray on a bass guitar when one truly knows how to wield their instrument.
I'd rather be with you - Bootsy Collins.
Bootsy Collins is all personality, but his time with James Brown and then Parliament Funkadelic meant that he had to compete with even bigger personalities. When he got the chance to shine, Bootsy released this funky groove, where his bass lines and vocals are a velvety and smooth elixir to a waiting paramour. It's slow, it creeps, and it's very sexy.
Thank you (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)- Sly & the Family Stone
This song is a party with one of the most recognizable funky bass lines right from the start. The lyrics are all over the place, but the party is in full swing once that bass line hits and swings the ship around. Who cares about whatever crazy shenanigans Sly and the fam are singing about? The booties are shaking, and that's where you want to be when the party is on!
Superfly- Curtis Mayfield
Some people may know this song from a movie, others because the Beastie Boys sampled it for their song Egg Man off Paul's Boutique. Either way, Curtis Mayfield's third studio album, an ode to the Blaxploitation era, is a concept record that happens to also be a soundtrack to a movie. It is also a perfect statement of funk and soul in the early 1970s, and Superfly has that epic bass line that is immediately recognizable.
Damaged Goods - Gang of Four
Gang of Four is primarily considered a post-punk band. This genre has always been very open to rhythm instead of thrashy guitars. Damaged Goods is no exception, using the bass to glorious effect with jangly guitars and perfect syncopation. Dark things sound less angsty when paired with asymmetrical guitars and thumping bass lines.
The Guns of Brixton - The Clash
The Clash were good at writing reggae-infused tunes, and The Guns of Brixton rivals Armagideon Time as the best of the bunch. It was written and sung by bassist Paul Simonon, which explains the instruments' prevalence in the song. It's a slinky little diddy that keeps trolling along as the guitars play their strum-up equivalent to rocksteady. The bass line was later sampled by Fatboy Slim for the song Dub Be Good to Me.
Skull of a German - Jesus Lizard
David Wm. Sims is the right guy to play bass in the Jesus Lizard, a noise rock outfit known for their wild shows and aggressively bizarre, mutated punk rock. They owe just as much debt to jazz musicians as anyone on the rock spectrum, and this song is a perfect entrance point for new listeners. The thumping bass line begins the song, which is essentially about mob justice against a potential pedophile homeless person. It's better not to try and understand the lyrics of a man whose vocal stylings were once described in Michael Azzerod's book Our Band Could Be Your Life as "it sounds like a kidnap victim trying to howl through the duct tape over his mouth." However, the bass lines, specifically this one are aggressive and focused, making for a very scary song indeed.
Blue Monday - New Order
A staple in every goth club in the world, Blue Monday has one of the most recognizable bass lines from an 80's song ever. It burps and hiccups to the beat while the dark new wave sounds wash over your body, giving you something to move to. The classics are classics for a reason, and this song wouldn't be the crucial alt-dance club it is if it weren't for that burpy bass line.
American Valhalla - Iggy Pop
This song from the Post Pop Depression album has a tremendous fuzzed-out bass line that could have been played by almost anyone in the all-star lineup backing band that came together to make this record. It consisted of Josh Homme and Dean Fertita, both of Queens of the Stone Age fame, and Matthew Helders, the drummer for the Arctic Monkeys, and bass guitar duties are all over the place. However, the fuzzed-out bass line is a fantastic element in the song that lays back in the cut a little, but not enough that you forget it's there. It's hiding, waiting for the space between notes to rear its head.
Where Eagles Dare - the Misfits
Rarely were the Misfits nuanced; they were a charge headfirst, fist-pumping band. However, in this song, the simple driving drum and bass intro captures all the energy and angst while doing something, at least for them, a little different. This makes the bass line stand apart the entire time it's blasting through the song. It makes one wonder what the guitarist Doyle is playing because the song is pure punk messiness in full display, and it's fantastic.
The National Anthem - Radiohead
Radiohead utilizes the full space when they make records, but sometimes, it's nice when they start a song with the basics. In this case, the basics are a bass guitar laying down a groove that eventually gets layered with all manner of instruments. It's got a nice, loud, quiet ambiance that grows and then recedes, ready to grow again. But that bass line never stops; it's the part of the song that stays true all the way through.
A History of Bad Men– Melvins
The Melvins have had many lives; however, this incarnation with Big Business saw the band with two drummers and one heck of a great bass player in Jared Warren. The band has never had a shortage of great bassists, but the buzzsaw action low end that opens this dirge could be the most focused and menacing the Melvins have ever been. The song makes you believe it has a long list of bad men ready to tell you their stories.
Anesthesia (Pulling teeth) - Metallica
There's always one guy in any band that is the ethos of that band. That's not to say that anyone else isn't responsible for what they do, but one guy is the face, and one guy represents why that group of people were there at that time; Cliff Burton was that guy in this era of Metallica. That they included this song on their debut album is all the proof necessary to stake that claim. This song is a bass solo, and the drums exist to accompany it. It's epic, awesome, and like nothing this band would ever put out after Burton's untimely demise.
