The Bottom-End aka: bass guitar
No rock band would be complete without the trusty old bass guitar. If the drums are the back-bone to any rock band, the bass guitar is the steady heartbeat that keeps the train moving. The bands from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean utilize the bass guitar to its full potential. Before most of these bands players, bassists would only be playing well enough to keep time in a band. After these bands’ bassist arrived on the scene, everything about the bass player had changed forever. Not only did the skill get much better, styles were starting to emerge. Enough to the point where you could tell a song by who was playing the bass on the record. Also more and more bassists were able to play many other instruments, an asset that would prove highly valuable for their respective bands. Not only could the play the bass guitar great, they also could play the piano, organ, guitar, and various horn instruments. For todays post, we will see which bands have the ultimate player when it comes down to that fat bottom line, the bass guitar.
Starting this time with the great American rock bands we first look towards the Grateful Dead and their awesome bassist. Phil Lesh has played with the Dead for their entire 30 year career. In fact he is one of the 4 founding members who have played in all 2,300 live performances. Lesh didn’t write many songs for the band. He did write a song called “Box of Rain” which is a real classic and a fan favorite. His style helped to form the classic genre of Jam-band, which is considered a bass guitar that takes the place of lead instrument in a rock band performance. In Creedence Clearwater Revival they had Stu Cook. A very ept bass player that could keep a C.C.R. rock song grooving, Cook played a smooth Jazz style of bass. He wasn’t to flashy or funky in his approach to the instrument, but he played as well as the band needed him to play. Next we have the probable the greatest of the bunch, the Beach Boys leader, main songwriter, and oldest brother, Brian Wilson. Not only was Brian the lead singer in the band he was also the main song writer. Brian would often say that he felt it was easier to write songs for him because he played the bass. Working first with a bass line, makes a song flow a lot easier in the creative process of writing a tune. Brian could also play the piano quite well, many Beach Boy classics were written on the piano by Brian like “Good Vibrations” and “God Only Knows”. He has also said that his main rival when it came to the bass guitar was Paul McCartney of the Beatles. Our last American band bassist, didn’t even have a bass player in their line-up, the Doors. When ever the band played onstage live their keyboardist Ray Manzarek would play the bass lines to a song with his left hand. For all of the Doors studio albums they would have a hired musician play the bass lines, usually written by Ray.
At this point the American bands would need some kind of a handicap going into this battle of the basses mainly because there are only three representatives from their side. All of the four rock bands from Britain have or had a bass player in their starting line-ups. Still we must move forward and see how the British rock band bassists compare with the American counterparts.
