and ahead of Close to the Edge for sure. I won't speak for Quad cause I haven't listened to that album but What's Going On really has beyond amazing bass on all songs. I mean, it's James Jamerson and Bob Babbitt.

Yes it does. Look at the first post on the first page.

Is this for all genres or just rock? Because if it's just rock we should take Jaco off (yes, I know the bass playing is incredible)

yeah although it doesn't state "rock" on the title this is really rock biased and the tons of great "bass" albums in jazz which are way better won't make the list.

Well we're including fusion, but not pure jazz on this list because a lot of the best bass playing in the past 30 years or so has come from fusion players. Look at Jaco, Jeff Berlin, Michael Manring, Victor Wooten, Billy Sheehan, etc. It just doesn't feel complete without them.

Dark Hall?

I wanted to add some stuff with Steve DiGiorgio, but I couldn't think of any.

But make sure to add Unquestionable Presence by Atheist (Tony Choy on bass), and Focus by Cynic (Sean Reinert). They're both extremely good and influential bass albums.

What does the 'originality' criteria exactly mean, might I ask? And I question 'showcase of the bassists' skills' as a criteria, especially if it's weighted as heavily as the other criteria.

GCS needs to drop...CTTE needs to drop...Moving Pictures needs to drop...we need some Cream and Beatles near the top...

But I'm glad What's Going On is high :-)

What's Going On is where it belongs. It's one of the greatest bass albums ever. I think Babbit actually outplays Jamerson on it, though for overall career Jamerson was definitely the better bassist.

That's kind of what I just said...I'm happy with it's being high. Sick bass album (sick album in general)

Well its not very influential (none of his albums are really) but if you're going on skill and creativity, Dark Hall is definately top for him.

I think we should get to ordering these. But before we do, does anyone object to the fusion cats on here? I figured it made sense to include them because a significant amount of rock bass playing has been influenced by fusion guys to a greater extent than guitar playing or drumming. The list seemed incomplete without them.

The list is just called "100 greatest bass albums", so I suppose fusion should work here. But make no mistake, fusion does *not* belong on the lists with 'rock' in the title.

I disagree just for purposes of forming a bass list because fusion bassists are just as influential on rock as rock bassists. Like most rock guitarists tend to idolize Jimi Hendrix and David Gilmour (for example), drummers like Bonham and Moon, but bassists don't tend to cite rock bassists among their idols as much as they tend to cite fusion guys like Victor and Jaco. Like as rare as it is for a typical rock guitarist to cite Holdsworth as an influence or a typical rock drummer to cite Lenny White, that's how common it is for a bassist to cite Stanley Clarke or Marcus Miller as an influence. Even metal bassists I've spoken to tend to idolize the fusion guys more than they do Entwistle or Bruce.

That's the primary reason I thought they should be included. Because they happen to have as much as, if not more influence and lasting impact on rock bass playing than rock bassists do.