Here's a plug for former Blood , Sweat and Tears Bassist Jim Fielder to be considered for the list. He's not that well known today but back in the 60's he was considered outstanding. He also played with Tim Buckley, The Mothers of Invention and Buffalo Springfield. He since has done primarily session work and is a member of Neil Sedaka's band.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxWSOuNs ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v96P_AXzto

Like Peter Cetera...Fielder played in an ensemble dominated by horns. His primary responsibility was to hold down the pocket for the horns and vocals. Agree that he did that job quite well and perhaps deserves a spot.

The thing is he's a better bass player than many that are on the list.

Page 1...Eeh
Page 2...Most of those guys are "underrated" only by folks that don't know the first thing about bass. Never knew Duck Dunn made "Motown" funky. Never even knew he ever stepped foot in the "snakepit"???

Hahaha ouch. Nice.

Funny thing is I actually basically linked that in part to make you happy over the high Pino placement :-)

Basically tabling that discussion for now, but I do appreciate hearing some of your thoughts on how that whole shindig will turn out. I do often wonder if Bill Black was actually influential enough on the electric bass to deserve a spot here...does playing with Elvis *necessarily* make your style influential if your style itself is generic? Bleh...



What is that, a dvd? A compilation Thin Lizzy thing?



The thing is that history or fate has been rather cruel to Jason. He puts in a MONSTER creative performance on ...Justice and gets buried to the point of being inaudible. Then the Black album which is like the one Metallica album (other than Master) that everyone actually knows is unfortunately a pretty piss poor representation of his talent as it catches him during a transitional period as a musician. Finally he rocks like a beast on Load and ReLoad but no one pays attention cuz everyone hates those albums and no one listens to them. Same with Garage Inc. He's a BEAST on S&M, easily the best musician in Metallica at those concerts and endessly tasty, but again, largely buried, at least during the songs where he really goes all out (e.g. Call of Ktulu).

Did I even mention Flotsam and Jetsam, his pre-Metallica thrash band? There's a reason they picked Jason of all the many MANY hopefuls...he was simply the best bassist active in metal in 1986 after Cliff died. Easily.

I should mention it took a Flotsam CD buy (Doomsday for the Deceiver, their first album/the one with Jason) and a good amount of youtube listens of Justice and S&M material (remixes with boosted original bass, courtesy of Guitar Hero Metallica), as well as close listening to the Load albums, to come to realize how frickin amazing Jason is. He's actually my favorite bassist ever believe it or not.



Baller. Glad to get some support on guys like Rourke and Burnell, they're (sadly) fairly obscure as individual musicians. I suspect all of these dudes you mention will get a spot in the end.



As I keep saying here, after the top 50 or whatever on this list the very influential players have pretty much already been listed, and I reckon the bottom part of the list ought rightly to showcase some phenomenal talents who deserve note for their talent and passion. It's not like there are anywhere near 100 truly very influential rock bassists anyway.



I actually think Roger was considerably more talented. He had a very unique style that was subtle and therefore requires close listens to fully appreciate the nuances of. Minimalistic but toward an artistic end/as a style. I couldn't see Roger not getting at least a low spot in the end, he's too creative IMO.

Very interesting, didn't take you for a metalhead Ssoyd In all seriousness though, I appreciate your endorsement of Malone, makes me take him that much more seriously. Need to actually listen to his stuff sooner or later...



I actually am inclined to agree with Boobs here or at least take what he's saying seriously and as worth serious consideration. Certainly it seems to me Sting was THE bassist who brought in reggae influences and ska influences who wasn't himself a reggae dude. Did the future ska-influenced guys actually get that style from him though?



Thanks for your input! Glad to hear it. Hook definitely does impress me.



YOU...METAL FRIENDS? ahahaa Seriously though, your friends are right, Choy is so amazing...(from the little I've heard)



Honestly I've come to think Rex is pretty underrated. Seems like a nice guy too, and I'll never forget your golf story ahaha. Very interesting to hear about the jazz background. Unfortunately though unless he has bass work more interesting than that in Pantera I question whether he'll make the top 100 in the end :-(

Re: Louis & AJ...Bassfreak as I recall was under the impression when he originally ordered those two that Louis was basically the guy singlehandedly responsible for elevating the slap style from being very primitive e.g. Thank You Falettinme... to being the modern, playing-with-rhythm/onbeat-then-offbeat-then-back, muted-notes-alternated-with-slaps-and-pops thing we all know and love. If this is true I just can't see Louis really dropping much at all. If it isn't, though...

Re: Pino/Abe...I need to look more into Abe but I get the feeling he's *mostly* a jazz/fusion dude. Pino definitely will raise a great deal, I'm thinking top 50 somewhere as it stands, maybe top 40 (and bear in mind I originally figured 60s or something).

Couple of notes I've read about Newstead and Metallica. When they hired him it wasn't because he was the best bassist but the one that fit in with their music best. Les Claypool actually auditioned for the position but they rejected him because he was "too good". I suspect they wanted someone who showed more restraint.

Newstead is a good bassist for sure but in an interview after Metallica he said one reason he left was because the band held him back and put restraints on his playing.

When you're my age you go through all kinds of music. My interest in Metal started in 1969 with Sabbath's first album. I'll never forget the chills I got when those massive Iommi power chords in the intro to the song "Black Sabbath" came blasting out of my huge Klipsch Cornwalls. Tony BTW was just diagnosed with Lymphoma so here's hoping for a full recovery.

Back in the 70's I actually played in a Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Band. I like everything from Metal to Country, from Blues to Jazz even Hip Hop and Pop as long as it's good.

Most of my "metal friends" today wear suits but have been metal fans for years. When a drummer friend asked me to listen to a CD of his drummer son who was touring with some thrash metal band I politely made it through about 1/3 of a song before my ears were forced to surrender. I'm sure there are some talented musicians in that genre...but I can't tell too well by listening to most of the music which leaves me...well, just leaves me.

Much of today's Metal isn't very musical and instead relies on super fast staccato rhythms played by the band in unison with the lead singer grunting unintelligible lyrics over one or 2 chords while his band mates swing their hair in circles. Maybe it's my age but that gets boring fast.

1969 - NO WAY.

Unless you were given an advance copy a couple months before the album was released.

The album was not released until February of 1970.

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/ ... k_sabbath/

Yes you are right. 1970. I think 1969 was when I first heard Led Zeppelin but they weren't a true HM band.