Top Rock Bass players

Rock and or Metal . Does everyone agree the 2 best are Cliff Burton and Geddy Lee

Geddy Lee for sure.

Unfortunately Geddy Lee was in a band that sucked.

Flea and John Paul Jones are my 1a and 1b.

Don't agree with that comment about Rush....geniuses on every instrument.

Agree with John Paul Jones. Would also throw in names like Billy Cox, John Entwhistle, Paul McCartney, Steve Harris, Phil Lynott, Gerry McAvoy, Jerry "the Wizard" Seay, Pete Way... so many.

spot on about Rush. Top 5 bands I've seen live. I'd like to add Geezer Butler to the conversation.

This guy seems pretty good.

Big Bob I almost keyed in Geezer! Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules are my favorites of his.

Sneaky, nice E minor guitar chord on that delicious bass.

Rodger Waters?

The bassist from Mudvayne is pretty underrated. He had a jazz rock side project for awhile. Nick Schendzielos has some chops, Les Claypool, Rob Trujillo when he was playing in Infectious Grooves. Metallica really benefited from Burton's songwriting, a real loss there.

John Entwistle…..The Who

Definitely agree. I would also add Chris Squire from Yes. Just listen to Roundabout for example.

LOL. I’d say decades of successful albums and legendary status prove your opinion is not in the majority. Not to mention they had one of the most accomplished drummers out there. RIP Neal Peart. Consummate musicians who would stay true to the songs while playing live. Alex playing Taurus bass pedals as he played guitar to cover Geddy whilst he did keyboard parts is just one example of their desire to stay true to the studio version.

Mel Schacher and then anyone besides Gene Simmons.

There is a band called Bell Witch that is just a bassist and a drummer, the bassist plays a 6 string bass though. One of the slowest bands out there.

One many may not be familiar with, but a very solid player is Donald “Duck” Dunn from Booker T and the MG's and the blues brothers.

Lee and Burton?

No, I don't agree.

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Gene was actually pretty decent. Wrote some pretty cool single note riffs, too. Agree with Mel from Grand Funk Railroad and with Duck Dunn. Bass playing and bassists are generally underrated :-)

Not rock or metal but James Jamerson is considered by many to be the greatest of all time. Listen to some Funk brothers.

I'll throw out Les Claypool as very, very good.

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I concur.

You don't seem like the type to wear sketchers.

Sketchers are underrated.

Lemmy, Flea, Cliff Burton

Jason, I’m not. That isn’t me. I don’t play rock bass.

Michael Anthony

John Entwistle was the best.

Claypool and Flea are at top of my list.

Berry Oakley has to be in this list.

Wolfgang William Van Halen

You're right, he is pretty decent player, but, I just caint get over how petty and arrogant he is, especially with his rants dissing Geddy.

John Entwistle and Billy Sheehan are a couple of my favorites. Geddy is a good player, and an even better businessman, but I could never get past his voice. I have Geddy's bass book, and it is an excellent reference.

Jsteve, I agree. As much as I loved KISS growing up, as much as Ace and Paul inspired me to pick up the guitar years ago and learn their killer riffs, they are all basically spoiled children and are hugely disappointing humans. In fact I would say Gene most of all is fittingly Almost Human.

Their music is awful.

KISS is barely music.
And Rush had no #1 albums and only two #1 singles in the US.
I am not fond of the early '80's prog rock with all the synthesizers and nasally singing.
But others are and that's fine.

Oh man, Gas, my Cooke Co. friend, disagree a thousand percent on your Rush point that hits or charted songs make a band / their music worthy in any way. KISS wrote/recorded some of the cheesiest lyrics I've ever heard. Never paid one second of attention to lyrical content... and I think I'm weird in that way is that's the same for any bands I like. The tones of the guitars, picking out what makes of guitars and amplifiers are being used. The drum recording techniques. The sonic quality of the mix and the room. The guitars panned left and right. The musicianship. The white space left in the music to allow it to breathe. To me, the best in these areas defines great music. KISS and Rush throughout the seventies were that and more. And those are just two amazing artists out of hundreds of other rock country bluegrass blues metal prod... you name it categories.

Not rock or metal, but Joe Dart is incredible. He plays more new-age jazz stuff.

Les claypool and flea. In that order. Hard to beat a little primus

I've seen the who live once. John is great!

Gene was/is a good bass player, pretty good "studio" singer and a damn awesome performer.

Kiss was a MONSTER band, talented all around.

For those who "claim" they suck, their music sucks, they are barely music, I'd surmise you cats like bands that the rest of us think suck.
We all do.

I'm NOT claiming Gene to be an awesome bass player, but he's "good," and he wrote some great bass lines.

I'll say that "Bernard Edwards" of Chic was awesome, but then again, he was funk.
I'll also suggest John Taylor of Duran Duran...awesome, but new wave.

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No love for Dusty Hill, from the little old band from Texas?

Dusty was cool and perfect for Top.

Guzzler I will somewhat agree with you on Rush, lyrically and singing wise overrated to me; outside of Tom Sawyer not much more hitwise. Musically they were very talented with arguably best drummer of all time, Peart or Bonham of Zepplin. Kiss is just an iconic band that were great showmen, makeup and all.

I would say tom sawyer was a lesser hit for them. They have much better work.

I was purely talking chartwise Bigbob, their longest chartig hit weeks wise.

Also the second best sound system I've heard live. Only pink Floyd was better.

Jaco Pastorius. He had no peer -- not even close. He reinvented the capabilities of the bass.
Among the lviing, I sure like watching Juno Serita play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNtpE55_bL8

Haha this is almost as good as a ford -chevy - ram thread.

Amazed at the Rush deniers here. All 3 ultra talented. Listen to the lead guitar solo on Working Man. Lifeson was only about 19 years old

Amazing story about Geddy Lee was he was just a school mate of Alex Lifeson and was not the original bass player. The original bass bailed out of a show at the last minute so Alex asked his school mate to fill in. Amazing that kind of talent at the same school sitting on the sideline

Listen to the keyboards and singing tone. And I have never seen someone in person claim KISS had good musicians. They were the Monkees of the '70's. Built as entertainment, not for ability. I am no fan of Genesis, The Police, Supertramp, Yes, and the like. Yet I am a big fan of Pink Floyd, Kansas, Journey, etc.

Working Man is by far the best Rush song I have heard and is a real banger as the kids say. Why? Not much organ...and much less shrill vocals. I was introduced to the song by a friend about 35 years ago, exclaiming he finally found a Rush song that was rock and roll instead of prog. Flea is still the best with his slap style and JPJ was as tight and complex for the time as there was...and he also played about a dozen other instruments.


Back in the early to mid-90's street racing scene in DFW (need to start a topic one day), you were guaranteed to hear someone play Tom Sawyer as loud as they could with their windows down waiting for the next pair. Doubtful whomever played it each night had ever heard of Working Man sadly.

Neil Peart wasn't the original drummer either.

I forgot about Dusty Hill , RIP

No doubt about the greatness of Jaco. Stanley Clarke was another great.
But both were jazz bassists.