Rating 10 GREATEST Bass Lines of ALL TIME (according to WatchMojo)
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Scott and Ian take on WatchMojo’s list of the 10 Greatest Bass Lines of All Time—do they live up to the hype or fall flat? From feel and pocket to creativity, tone, and those unforgettable hooks, they’re rating what really makes a bass line legendary (and which ones get a “meh”).
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Video Breakdown:
00:00 – Introduction
01:00 – Marking Criteria
01:47 – What’s Blocking You?
04:00 – 10 – Led Zeppelin – Dazed and Confused
09:50 – 9 – Fleetwood Mac – The Chain
13:40 – 8 – Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
21:00 – 7 – Rush – YYZ
25:18 – 6 – Stevie Wonder – I Wish
31:54 – 5 – Yes – Roundabout
36:18 – 4 – Chic – Good Times
39:35 – 3 – The Beatles – Come Together
41:35 – 2 – Pink Floyd – Money
47:40 – 1 – Queen – Another One Bites the Dust
53:20 – The Leaderboard
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Originally posted by UCWTj3vCqkQIsrTGSm4kM34g at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2w4JljpuAo
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I’m new to your channel, and although I love me some Floyd, I must say, you had me at fart swamp????!
Dazed and confused is boring as hell. Round about should be #2. IMO the space category is messing up the scores. It wouldn't work for Motown tunes since Jamerson was all over the place with syncopation so is his bass lines a 0 for space? Nobody beats Jamerson bass lines for greatness and feel with the swing, jazzy and complexity for pop music and I play them a lot and they are a blast. Good times is just the same lick over and over, good but boring just like others on this list like Another one bites the dust. Where is the creativity. Come together has that great 2-bar lick but that is it. Bernadette, Heard it through the grapevine, and the Funk brothers should be #1 since even Paul McCartney admitted his genius that he was emulating. When I first started really playing bass I asked the clerk which book to start with and he said "Walking in the shadows of Motown" and I played every tune in that book and realized nothing really compares to that stuff. Sure all those tunes you reviewed have a good lick or hook but they are are limited completely to 2-4 bars.
You guys need to do a video on the kings of Leon bass player. Jared Followill. He’s not a legend around the world but he has some great bass lines in just about every Kings of Leon song that’s memorable.
Chris Squire hate? I won't stand for it.
Best bass line? Frankie goes to Hollywood – Relax. Just 5min dum dum dum dum dum dum… 😀
Can I point you to Stratus by Leland Sklar being more carpel tunnel inducing than Billie Jean?
Highway star/ Glover, Gloria/ Redding, Ace of spades, Bomber/ Lemmie, faeries wear boots, NIB / Butler, ANY CREAM/Jack Bruce.
noticed none of these lists include Lemmie, Geeser Butler, Noel Redding, Roger Glover.
I'm gonna say it. Dazed and Confused may be one of the absolute dullest bass lines in existence.
Scott should serve a YYZ penance by learning and having to perform lthe track live
Dazed and Confused in 5th, YYZ in 2nd, Money jump to 4th and Billie Jean in 3rd! let's fix this! 🙂
Ian, I'll chip on the ticket for the strangling session. Geddy gets a 12 every time (but the score was right)
Totally agree with you about Dazed and Confused not having the best bass lines in their catalog. Until I heard you play Billie Jean, I'd never noticed how much it sounds like Living on a Prayer. All of Geddy Lee's songs are awesome, but YYZ being his best? Nah. Best known, maybe but Where's My Thing is simply more lively. A couple that weren't on the list that could have been on the list were Aerosmith's Sweet Emotion, Too's Schism, and Green Day's Longview. Dirnt has groove in spades on that one!
If a bass line not only makes its song a #1 hit, it gets ripped off for another #1 hit, then gets sampled for yet another #1 hit. THAT ought to show why "Good Times" is #1.
Scotts description of Money is the best…………so funny
fleetwood mac the chain, the thing that makes this a great bassline is the bassline, not all those silly little bits he felt necesssary to add for the live version, leave it as it is, i hate when msucians add little fils etc. when playing live……not needed
Dude! Devine shitting on Money? It's so memorable and the odd time…Its iconic FFS. I feel like you let Dazed And Confused slide on space so Money should also get a pass. Its debatable I guess. For Queen: While being on the front may not set well with some of us who just prefer to be waaay in the back, it still plays with the pocket in a distinct, deliberate and memorable way. I'd score it higher. OTOH, 3rd feels right so Devine redeemed himself for his Money play. lol
There is Geddy and then everyone else.
Ian to every line: “it’s pretty cool!”
Guys….Dazed & Confused is by Jake Holmes. Page unfortunately tried to hide this under the carpet but now it's almost common knowledge.
For me, Chris Squire on Roundabout goes up to 11.
Space is a silly item to use as a metric. No space doesn't mean it doesn't groove.
Dazed and Confused is an uncredited theft.
Loved this, very entertaining
Fat Botton Girls is a much better bass line than Dust….
I actually think Scott was doing a great job describing the feel of "Money", I just think he was attaching the wrong imagery. I imagine some grumbling 1950s New York corporate fat cat strutting around his velvet-laden office on the 50th floor. He's a snobbish bore of a man, but his exorbitant wealth has allowed him to surround himself with "yes" men. He takes a heavy drag on a Cuban cigar as he stomps toward the balcony railing and beckons his servant for a Cognac and ponders which politicians would make the best strategic bribes in this coming fiscal year.
Is it that robotic?
I’d say that Money sounding “plodding” is part of what makes it good. It suits the subject matter of the the song quite well
YY Zed not zee.
That was fun !!
No Jane's Addiction!??! Lame!!!!! "Three Days", is one of the best song bass lines ever, but you put up old boring rock songs!?! ????????
7 out of 10 times watchmojo is crap – this was one of those times.
meaningless if you don't include The WHo's "The Real Me"
They picked the wrong Led Zeppelin song, the wrong Stevie Wonder song, and the wrong Beatles song. But still, it's not as bad as I expected from WatchMojo.
Good Times is absolutely number 1, BUT, if we’re docking points from Another Bites the Dust for ripping it off – we should maybe dock points from Good Times for ripping off Hollywood Swinging…… Nile Rodgers speaks openly about that.
And to support Come Together further, I don’t know of any bass lines that came out before that song was released that resemble it.
dude, sorry, but MONEY's bassline is supposed to be steady and "boring", is very premeditated, as most of waters work is, because, is in the service of the song, and not to show off. the 7/4 thing is like a little nugget for us geeks, but I very much understand it as a metaphor for money and capitalism itself (am I being too much of a fanboy right now?) shit, is a good song, and it goes into 4/4 in the solo, COME ON!
also why is it Graham Central Station's Hair not here????
I bailed during your ranking of "Dazed" because you only listened to the intro. I realize you can't listen to the whole 10 minute live version or whatever, but the dynamics and creative use of harmonics later in the track would, I feel confident, change a lot of the ratings if you had given it a chance.
dazed & confused is totally singable, you just gotta have a low register… (you know, being bass and all…)
I'm a little late to the party, and my pick is even later (from the '60s), but one of my favorite bass lines to this day is from The Association's song 'Everything That Touches You'.
Even better Chris Squire bass line is from "Close to the Edge"