Chuck
D raps in the Public Enemy song “Give It Up”,
“I'm aight if you aight (I'm aight) / I be better – if I get some of that
bass”!
In
the 1930s, Paul Tutmarc from Seattle, WA, who was manufacturing lap
steel guitars, developed the first electric string bass – a fretted
instrument designed to be played horizontally. Although the bass guitar
is similar in appearance to an electric guitar, it typically has a longer neck,
and most commonly four strings. Since the 1960s, the bass guitar has largely
replaced the upright bass in popular music and can also be heard often as a
solo instrument in jazz, funk, progressive rock and heavy metal.
Despite
its musical and rhythmic appeal, the bass just does not have the same flair as
other instruments. It does not have an international event like the 22nd
Air Guitar World Championships that was most recently in Finland. And
whereas pots, pans, garbage cans and other everyday items can be immediately
turned into drums, the bass stands more on its own. It is the instrument
that I believe is most similar to a baseball runner being stranded on a base at
the end of an inning.
I
recently went back and listened to some Led Zeppelin songs (“The Lemon Song” and “Ramble On”) and was blown away by the work of John Paul Jones. I
know that Mr. Jones is not always at the top of lists when barstool
conversations start to dive into rhythm sections, but in the spirit of the top
5 list that Rob Gordon discusses in the film “High Fidelity”, I wanted to get
the dialogue started. So just as my boys are constantly putting
together all-star teams in which 2017 Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners like
Mookie Betts, Paul Goldschmidt and Jason Heyward are marveled at for their
defensive work, I am filling a figurative baseball infield with all-star bass
players.
I
know that if I asked my older brother the line-up would include Geddy Lee, or
Flea, but if I talked to a couple of my college friends, they might lean
towards Charles Mingus and Victor Wooten. My list is tied to my musical
influences and when I first started actually hearing the instrument in
recordings. For a long time, I only heard the vocals, guitar and drums,
but then Berry Oakley’s playing on the Allman Brothers’ “Mountain Jam”, Muzz
Skillings’ bass lines on the album “Vivid” and The Roots’ Leonard
"Hub" Hubbard’s funk made me realize that hip-hop could be played
with a live band.
When
a bass player “locks in” with the band’s drummer to provide a groove of a song,
that sound can be as rhythmic as a 5-4-3 double play. And according to
music legend Quincy Jones, “Without the bass, there'd be no rock n' roll or no
Motown. The electric guitar had been waiting 'round since 1939 for a nice
partner to come along. It became an electric rhythm section, and that changed
everything.”
Thanks
for reading.
