Top 5 Best Rock Bass Players

The bass player–usually the hardest piece of the puzzle to find to make a successful band. And when the band does find a fantastic bass player, 6 months later he’s running off with the lead singer’s girlfriend, because that’s just what bass players do. Seriously, your favorite bands would not be the same with some ordinary, regular old Joe, now would they? The best bass players in rock history are the ones that added more than just the bottom end–they added qualities like personality, style and flair and other-worldly ability to making their band sound like one of the best ever.

5. Geddy Lee Rush Here’s a perfect example of a bass player bringing something more to the table. Geddy not only plays bass but also sings and plays keyboards for the greatest band ever from Canada (sorry Nickelback). Geddy’s voice is almost as easily recognizable as his fleet-fingered stylings of the bass itself. The progressive nature of the music with it’s odd time signatures means that Geddy is a thinking man’s bassist, not just your run-of-the-mill know-nothing punk bass player. There’s an intelligence behind the music here and it’s obvious once you hear classics like the overature from 2112 and anything from Moving Pictures. The only reason Geddy is not tops on this list is because he himself would probably agree with the next 4.

4. Jack Bruce Cream Everyone knows Cream as Eric Clapton’s band, and music fans know that the reason Clapton quit was because Bruce and Cream’s drummer Ginger Baker could not get along (Isn’t that always the case?). Cream is where you’re going to hear Bruce’s most well known and best work. He also sings on many of the bands most popular tunes. People will tell you singing and playing bass is a super tricky task to manage, but Bruce pulls it off effortlessly. When he and Baker were really locking it in the pocket, they were arguably the best rhythm section in rock, albeit short lived. Too bad they couldn’t get along, because I would have loved to have heard many more Cream albums. Great voice mixed with superior talent combined with psychedelic lyrics is priceless.

3. John Entwistle The Who A very underrated bass player whom Pete Townshend himself in an interview said that Entwistle was the best musician in the band. High praise coming from one of rock’s best guitar players along side one of rock’s greatest drummer’s, Keith Moon–pretty much why Entwistle is for the most part unknown. The only way this man stood out onstage was by wearing a costume that looked like a skeleton or by playing a bass guitar shaped like an axe–all eyes during a show were focused on Townshend’s power slides, Daltrey’s microphone twirling and Moon’s larger-than-life drumming. Fortunately for Entwistle he has probably the best bass solo in rock music on My Generation.

2. Paul McCartney The Beatles McCartney played the bass? Many casual fans just think of McCartney sitting behind a piano playing Hey Jude, or softly picking away on a guitar in Yesterday. McCartney was a fantastic musician who could play many instruments, but when the Beatles took the stage for a concert, that was him with the trademark violin-looking bass guitar. Now go back and listen to some Beatles tunes, especially the later records and really pay attention to what Paul was doing with the bass. Anyone learning to play bass guitar would be wise to study McCartney’s technique. A musical and lyrical genius, but one of the greatest rock bass players ever.

1. John Paul Jones Led Zeppelin Jones is another one of those all around fantastic musicians that made his band better. He, too, was surrounded by one of the greatest guitar players ever in Jimmy Page and one of the greatest drummers ever in John Bonham, but Jones musicianship wasn’t entirely outshined by Page’s brilliance with a guitar, but encouraged. Jones played keyboards and piano and guitar and mandolin among others and this expertise was cleverly employed by Page. A good bass player always knows his role and Jones was rarely noticed onstage just like Entwistle. Jones tops this list because of not only the musicianship he deploys but also because of the thunderous noise he and Bonham made together to form rock’s best rhythm section. Maybe if McCartney had someone other than Ringo, he’d have been number one…

The best rock bass players ever. What do you think?