CLIFF BURTON

A weird flame snuffed out far too soon, Cliff Burton has been an inspiration to many, many people, not just bass players. His personality, eccentricities (such as embracing flares in the 80s thrash metal scene!), wide musical taste, and general confident charisma were joined with a huge aptitude for the electric bass, both as a player and composer, strengthened by classical music training which brought an imaginative and intelligent undercurrent to his work with Metallica.
The first band of Cliff's that has any known aural evidence remaining was Agents of Misfortune, a kind of psychedelic metal jamband in which he was joined by Jim Martin on guitar (later, of course, to play in Faith No More); before that, Jim and Cliff had a band called EZ Street with Mike Bordin (also later of Faith No More) on drums. I don't know of any EZ Street recordings, but Agents of Misfortune can be witnessed playing and being interviewed for a Battle of the Bands circa 1981 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1q0zLaXUuE
It's a mixed bag musically, but despite the sloppiness I love it for the sheer balls of making such a slab of semi-improvised nuttery for such an event. It's raw and takes risks and doesn't care what you think, and that's alright by me. Incidentally, you can hear the beginnings of 'For Whom The Bells Toll' and 'Anaesthesia' in there.
Next Cliff joined the band Trauma, but left to join Metallica before their album 'Scratch and Scream' came out. If you look around, you should be able to find demo recordings he made with the band, some of which are included in marginally better sound quality on the recent (and really over-priced) CD reissue of the album; there is also video footage of him with Trauma on youtube. Trauma tend to get short thrift, but in my opinion the album is pretty good in places. They played a generalised form of heavy metal that flirted with proto-thrash and power metal styles. Needless to say though, Cliff certainly made the right move in joining Metallica, who were destined to have a much longer shelf-life, and benefitted hugely from his presence. Cliff's compositional skills lent their newer material a depth of melody and dynamics that helped Metallica stand out from the crowd and begin to truly forge their own path beyond being a Diamond Head cover band (I say that with tongue in cheek, but Metallica fans will know what I mean with no disrespect!).
The most obvious contribution Cliff brought to Metallica was his bass solo, which appeared on their first record 'Kill 'Em All' as 'Anaesthesia (Pulling Teeth)', joined by drums around halfway through and segueing into 'Whiplash'. It's a real tour de force of bass playing with fuzz and wah pedals in full effect, moving from classically informed structural melodics into wild soloing that I'm still trying to equal. This was a high point of live shows, where it would be performed slightly differently each time, as evidenced by the posthumous video/DVD tribute 'Cliff 'Em All'. 'Ride the Lightning' was blessed with his H.P. Lovecraft-inspired 'The Call of Ktulu', and 'Master of Puppets' contained his brilliant composition 'Orion', which never sounded as good played with any other bassist. Tragically, after three albums with Metallica Cliff was killed instantly in a tour-bus accident in Sweden on September 27th, 1986. He remains sadly missed.

Suggested listening:
TRAUMA
Demo I (1982)
METALLICA
Kill 'Em All (1983)
Ride The Lightning (1984)
Master Of Puppets (1986)

JOHN ENTWISTLE

Next up in this British trilogy is the esteemed John Entwistle, who of course was the bassist for The Who until his sudden demise in 2002, the details of which are well known.
The man was known as 'thunderfingers' for a reason! I'm not sure when that nickname first came about, but it was in evidence as early as his thrilling bass solo fills in 'My Generation' in 1965. His bass was also well to the fore in his own composition 'Boris the Spider', a live favourite, and the awesome 'The Ox' (another nick-name!). Although another 'quiet one', just standing there playing with a semi-bored look on his face as he played, the occasional devilish grin would break out for a moment, hinting at the playful energy that welled within. By the end of the 60s his bass sound had grown comfortably with the increase in amplified power and he was a fully assured master of the instrument in a rock context. My favourite moments of his playing are on 'Live At Leeds' from 1970, where you can hear muscular playing that is confidently fluid and exploratory at the same time, with jamming aplenty. Through this his playing remains grounded in the groove of the song and the interplay between musicians is telepathic in that rare way that musos love.
Of his solo albums, I've admittedly only heard the first two, 'Smash Your Head Against The Wall' and 'Whistle Rymes', which are OK but the material failed to make much of an impression on my ears. I was intrigued that he did an album with Glen Tipton of Judas Priest and Cozy Powell (whom despite all his other accomplishments, I always remember just for Bedlam) - 'Edge of the World' - which came out well after both John and Cozy had passed on. However, it's a bit of a mixed bag - great to hear John in a metal context, but not so great with the songs themselves and the mainstream approaches much of the time.
All that being said, the strength of his playing with The Who, especially live, makes up for any mis-steps on the side. John Entwistle will always have a special place in my heart, along with my other favourite players, for being a great player and a great guy.

Suggested listening:
THE WHO
My Generation (1965)
A Quick One (1966)
The Who Sell Out (1967)
Live at Leeds (1970)
Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 (1996)
Who's Next (1971)
SOLO
Smash Your Head Against The Wall (1971)

JOHN PAUL JONES

Perhaps by this second post you can tell I’m covering some of the more obvious, true bass legends first. That wasn’t entirely the intention, but why not, and I just can’t leave this one until later. Along with Jack Bruce, he was a massive early inspiration for me as a bassist. Ask most casual fans to list the members of Led Zeppelin, arguably the greatest rock band ever to have conquered the globe, and John Paul Jones will generally be the one they struggle to remember. This is a huge injustice to such a gentleman of high musical talent, but unless they get out front and sing or pull of some brazen showmanship and mind-boggling solos at the front of the stage, bassists are usually doomed to be “the quiet one” (at least visually and verbally) lurking in the shadows and secretly holding it all together. John certainly whipped out the occasional bit of eye-catching stage wear – like that ridiculous baroque jacket with fake apples dangling off it that can be seen in The Song Remains The Same – but seemed to be admirably more concerned with professionally holding up his end of the musical tent and just getting on with it, than rock star showboating, which the other three (some more than others) had pretty much covered, bless ‘em. Somebody’s gotta do it, if you’re as big as a band like Zep. Musical quality alone doesn’t get you to the top if you don’t put on a show, unfortunately. Fortunately, consistently excellent albums help, and – with the arguable exception of their last, ‘In Through The Out Door’, depending on tastes – they had that covered, too.
All of that is for another conversation, because in this case the “quiet one” was and is a man of immense talent for music, from playing instruments to composing and arranging. Beyond Led Zeppelin he hasn’t been enormously prolific in a solo artist sense, but has kept quietly busy with a wide range of projects, be they soundtracks, solo albums, collaborations (for example with experimental improv band Supersilent, and of course the excellent Them Crooked Vultures, who hopefully, one day, we’ll be treated to more of) or production work (notably with Butthole Surfers, an unlikely meeting of minds that delighted me when it happened back in the day, being a big fan of both). His two more recent solo albums are really excellent and weird, and make a good case for him being the most musically adventurous and relevant in the modern age, compared to his living ex-Zep cohorts and their respective post-Zep musical releases, which are worthy but simply don’t come close. Looking back, his bass lines in the Led Zep catalogue (and keys in ‘Trampled Under Foot’!) are just wonderful, with a melodic flair that almost brings tears to my eyes when combined with the alchemical talents of Page, Plant & Bonham on ‘What Is And What Should Never Be’ and the mellow bits of ‘Ramble On’. And in the more visceral side, ‘Out On The Tiles’... oh man, that is some heavy wallop. And I still can’t play those awesome fast runs in ‘Immigrant Song’ without fumbling... let alone it being my favourite Zep song, it’s a benchmark of tight, solid, fluid playing that I aspire to grasping with his mastery. John Paul Jones, I bow my head with respect to your talents, taste and good character, and I would like to shake your hand from afar.

Suggested listening:
LED ZEPPELIN – pretty much everything, but you knew that already...
JOHN PAUL JONES – Scream For Help [OST] (1985) [This hasn’t aged well overall, but there’s still some great stuff here on what is effectively his first solo album]
JOHN PAUL JONES – Zooma (1999) [highly recommended!]
JOHN PAUL JONES – The Thunderthief (2001) [highly recommended!]
THEM CROOKED VULTURES – self-titled (2009)

JACK BRUCE

How can any bassist look past Jack Bruce, a true titan of the instrument who inspires multitudes of players to this day? This Scottish man needs little introduction. You can look him up on Wikipedia or any number of other places for information about him and his music, if you do need an introduction. His playing - not to mention his singing voice - speaks for itself. Many may credit Paul McCartney for his early role in broadening the melodic role of the bass guitar in rock, but Jack was doing much the same, in his own way, around the same time, although his earlier work was more in the realms of jazz, classical and R&B, so perhaps in terms of rock/pop Mr McCartney does take the torch. As much as I respect what he did - while not being much of a Beatles fan - Jack's playing had more of an impact on me and was one of the earliest people whose music inspired me to take up the bass as my chosen instrument.
Skipping past his classical training as a young man, and past his stints with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, the Graham Bond Organisation and others, he of course ended up as a key element in Cream, for which he has rightly been immortalised in music history. His fat, fuzzy, adventurous bass was hugely important to their sound, being used as much as a lead instrument as Eric Clapton's guitar and Ginger Baker's drums, being an equal partner in their mammoth live jams which, more often than not, were still propelled by his playing, showing a mastery of merging rhythm and lead responsibilities. Not only that, he wrote a lot of the songs (with lyricist Pete Brown) and handled most of the vocal duties with aplomb. Not bad for a day's work! Without Jack, Cream still would have been a pretty good band, but nowhere near as good as they were with him. As if to prove this point, his first solo album was stuffed full of first-rate songwriting and playing, with his own style developing over the years but always sounding like Jack Bruce Music.

Suggested listening:

CREAM - Fresh Cream (1966)
CREAM - Disraeli Gears (1967)
CREAM - Wheels Of Fire (1968)
CREAM - Goodbye (1969)
CREAM - Live Cream (1970) [highly recommended!]
JACK BRUCE - Songs For A Tailor (1969) [highly recommended!]
JACK BRUCE - Things We Like (1970) [Jack on double bass]
JACK BRUCE - Harmony Row (1971)
JACK BRUCE - Spirit: Live at the BBC 1971-1978 (2008; 3-CD box set; first 2 are my favourites)
TONY WILLIAMS LIFETIME - Turn It Over (1970) [highly recommended!]
CARLA BLEY - Escalator Over The Hill (1971)
MICHAEL MANTLER - No Answer (1973)
WEST BRUCE & LAING - Why Dontcha (1972)
WEST BRUCE & LAING - Live 'n' Kickin' (1974)

  Welcome to the Bass Players Hall Of Fame! After years of thinking about it, I've started this blog to pay homage to the many great, talented bass players in the world who have caught my ear, blown my mind, and sometimes inspired my own approach to the instrument. The bass is often the forgotten instrument, seen as little more than a limited backing contributor, or even worse, the choice of musicians who aren't very good on guitar! Certainly, and sadly, that is sometimes a fair assessment, but I aim to bring the spotlight to some of the many bassists who have brought the instrument to the fore in one way or another, with skill, creativity or just sheer grit and grind. Not everyone featured here will be a virtuoso. What counts is the feeling.

  Posts with a brief profile of a featured bassist will appear here irregularly and in no particular order. I sincerely hope all you fellow bass-lovers will enjoy this space for showing our respects to these titans of bass.
  To fat strings and low frequencies!