Who’s On First?

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.