Another stupid list to argue about

[Dave W]

LA Weekly's The 20 Best Bassists of All Time

Can't argue with a lot of these, but really, a Top 20 list with Lemmy and Fred Maddox but without Jack Bruce and Willie Dixon?

[Granny Gremlin]

Yep, all the usual suspects on there (I assume they just ran out of room for Jack and Willie.... I'd add Paul Simonon - he's better than you think from listenning to early Clash.  He was the star of the stage when I saw him live with The Good The Bad and The Queen a few years back... Hooky could be bumped, his ego reeeeaaaally doesn't need the boost).

[westen44]

LA Weekly's The 20 Best Bassists of All Time

Can't argue with a lot of these, but really, a Top 20 list with Lemmy and Fred Maddox but without Jack Bruce and Willie Dixon?

Jack Bruce would be at the top of my list.  But I'm getting used to seeing his name being left off nowadays.  Not that that's a good thing or that I can accept it, but that's just the way it is.  I saw another list far more stupid than this one earlier today.  A top 100 songs of all time with David Bowie at the top of the list.  It was too ridiculous to even bother posting.  All I could do was laugh. 

[Pilgrim]

Delighted to see Duck Dunn there at #1, Jamerson at #8 and The Ox at #3.  Also happy to see Carol Kaye, even if I have reservations about putting her #1.

Yup. Jack Bruce deserves a place.

[Aussie Mark]

Jack Bruce and Dee Murray are obvious omissions.

[TBird1958]

 Have to agree about Jack Bruce and Dee Murray, far better than Kim Deal or Tina Weymoth.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Have to agree about Jack Bruce and Dee Murray, far better than Kim Deal or Tina Weymoth.

Second that motion: hipster cred and imaginary feminazis, can we lick your balls please?

However, for such a normally musically vapid general publication, the list is at least mostly musically valid except for those two.  The other "TWO" youtube tracks of "Master of Puppets" and putting Cliff on the list: I love me some old Metallica and that's the best of it, and that makes for a massive thumbs-up from me. Unfortunately for Jack Bruce, the general public knows him only from Cream, "Eric Clapton's" band. Thank Clapton's relentless 80's/90's presence on the pop charts for reducing the much better work he did in the 60's and Jack with it to merely an afterthought in pop culture. Lemmy is actually a great bass player, though you have to buy supergroup cover sessions to hear it. Lemmy IS the Bastard God of all that is Rock, whether he actually plays rhythm guitar or not. Definitely Paul Simonon should have had one of the wasted slots that the two aforementioned ladies occupy.  Dee Murray should also be there, and Elvis and Johnny or no, it was Bill Black's and Marshall Grant's slap bass, not Fred Maddox's, that took that style to the masses.  Simon Gallup should have Peter Hook's New Wave nod, or dare I say, a certain Police-man, who inspired millions of white Spector and black Precision sales.

[Granny Gremlin]

Have to agree about Jack Bruce and Dee Murray, far better than Kim Deal or Tina Weymoth.

Alright, I'll concede Kim but you leave Tina alone. 

[66Atlas]

Lists like this seem to generated by Anne Erickson types who just want a lot of clicks and re-tweets so it wouldn't surprise me if leaving Jack off wasn't intentional. Or so the conspiracy theorist in me claims.

That said, I love lists like this    I click on them every time. For me there are 4 people on the list that don't belong at all and I would re-order them entirely.  But until I'm hired by the LA times I'm telling anyone what the top 20 really are.  Well, maybe Anne if she calls...

[slinkp]

Tina stays.  Kim... sorry Kim. I love you, really. But this is not the place for you.

[Dave W]

Tina stays.  Kim... sorry Kim. I love you, really. But this is not the place for you.

Kim would probably agree with you.

[amptech]

Tina should stay for shure, maybe shared with Gail Ann Dorsey...

And where is Ray Schulman?

[slinkp]

Bernie Edwards could slot into that list pretty easily....  though I'm not gonna argue about who else should get bumped...

[tore00]

It's just ridiculous to see Lemmy close to Jaco. Tina Weirmouth in top 20? I like Talking Heads and every time I hear them I wonder what they can do with a decent bassist as they often did in the eighties. Where are Jack Bruce, Steve Harris, Roger Glover, Phil Lynott, Mel Schacher, Berry Oakley, Leon Wilkeson just to name the first few that come to my mind?

[wellREDman]

   I love these lists too, even if i never agree with them once I've read em
what about an LBO list of best players?
set up a poll, all of the above plus any other nominations, five votes each to give a good spread
good for a laugh ? or cue for a slanging match?

also

Simon Gallup should have Peter Hook's New Wave nod

sadly until recently I would have seconded that, he was a big inspiration to the teenage me, but I recently found out from someone connected, that in fact Bob Smith wrote all the cool basslines on his BassVI and then taught them Gallup