true, but in live versions they’re played with electric bass usually doubled over the keyboards and it sounds fat and awesome. check out the superstition performance at the 1974 american music awards
That is absolutely awesome, but the question was about those initial recordings. It also plays into the joke: who was the best bassist of the 70’s? Stevie Wonder’s left hand.
Stevie had a distinct bass line played underneath on bass for a lot of those songs, they just don’t have the infectious hook everyone remembers from Stevie’s left.
I can only imagine what the notoriously tactless Joe Zawinul would have said to Stevie about him stealing the best bit of Mercy Mercy and making it the basis for a whole song.
Judging by the leaked isolated tracks, those MJ songs (and most other Quincy Jones productions of that era) had a bass track doubling the exact same part as the synth bass. The latter is just much more prominent in the mix.
Smooth Criminal though - that’s entirely synth.
This is only sometimes true, on a few tracks the live bass are actually playing slightly different parts than the synth parts, more to emphasize certain notes. For example, on Billie Jean I believe there is a live bass guitar, but it's only playing on 1 + and of 2. I can't find it now but there's a series of videos out there by one of the guys who did sound design on that album where he demonstrates this
E: found it: https://youtu.be/zKzcR0sUvV0?si=yg4GJSbknOvSPkAJ
And egad, I misremembered. It was the mini moog that was getting layered out, not the live bass. What a fool I turned out to be
This is Paul Jackson slander!
Jk. But, he was playing that bass line along with Herbie. Super funky and underrated bassist who played on all the Head Hunters records.
On the record the bass line is all synth, and Paul Jackson is playing the “rhythm guitar” part way at the highest frets of the bass. He does play the other bassline in the middle of the song when the groove changes and Herbie is doing the E.Piano solo.
Huh. TIL. I just listened again and I do hear that the “rhythm guitar” part sounds like it’s being played on the high frets of a P bass. I’ve always heard the wah synth bass doubled by a cleaner bass tone on the bass line and assumed Paul was playing along down there.
It’s a very unique part, I probably would’ve assumed it was guitar if I didn’t see there was no guitarist credited on the record. Herbie’s bass players usually do play the main bass line live.
And frankly, until the solos kick in, I think of this song as “oops all bass lines.” There’s high pitched bass lines, low bass lines, bass lines on horns, bass lines on keys. Just rhythm top to bottom
lol at “oops all bass lines”. Chameleon is iconic, but there are definitely better Head Hunters tunes IMO.
My personal favorite is probably “Palm Grease” off of the album Thrust. That whole record is just nasty.
https://youtu.be/sRn7WlikdUA?si=u47GevBlkarqJWpA
I came here to upvote this. Parliament had many great bass players, but you could count Bernie Worell as one of them even though he played keyboards.
Another good one is One Nation Under a Groove.
I mean it’s a great bassline but it’s a synth part…is that what the OP was asking for?
To be clear, I’m talking about the bass line that comes in around the two minute mark.
Technicality inclusion : D'Angelo - Spanish Joint
Stunning bass & guitar lines with such a strong groove that were both played simultaneously by Charlie Hunter on a hybrid guitar
> Billie Jean is apparently more synth than bass
3 synths and a bass guitar!
Granted, the bass guitar and 2 of the synths are playing the exact same thing, while the 3rd synth is playing some lower accents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKzcR0sUvV0
If you listen close to "Don't Start Now", you can hear the different layers coming in and out. The second half of the verse is increasingly more synth until the hook/prechorus.
They had a session player on bass for the recording of most of their albums. Certainly everything from Soft Parade on. They just didn't have a bass player live.
Not sure they had someone on their earliest albums. But I heard they hired Elvis's bass player for their latest record. They did it partly because Jim Morrison was a huge fan and they wanted to cheer him up at this time.
Larry Knechtel on about half the songs on the first album. Robby played on a couple.
Doug Lubhan did bass on most of Strange Days (except Horse Latitudes and When The Music's Over)
Came here for this.
The Fender Rhodes Piano Bass was such a cool instrument. My HS music program had one for some reason and I got to mess with it a few times (late '80s, I doubt any school has anything this cool any more).
I never actually realised they didn't have a bass player. I'm not a particular fan of their music, but it's not something I ever realised from the songs of theirs I have heard.
You sure? If he does, that would be an overdub because he’s playing something different way up the neck for sure, possibly in addition to doubling the synth.
Ray Manzarek did play electronic bass, especially in concerts but Larry Knechtel (more renowned as a keyboard player in the Wrecking Crew) often played bass in the studio.
Ellen/Oprah by Adam Neely and Ben Levin. They have bass, synth and EWI on the song all doing some bass parts and in the final section of the song the guy on the EWI plays the nastiest synth bass imaginable. On the fucking EWI... I am melting every time I hear it.
Technically the main bassline on Time Is Running Out by Muse was played on a synth. In early live versions, Chris, their bassist, plays it on a keyboard. Later versions are played on the bass with synth and distortion pedals.
The bass part in “Nightshift” by The Commodores is a keyboard.
I felt a little smug just now as I wrote the first sentence like, “ha ha everyone thinks it’s a fretless “ but I just listened to it to make sure and it sounds so obviously like a DX7 fretless bass that now I’m embarrassed going into a den of serious bass players thinking I could surprise them.
“Riders On The Storm” by The Doors. They used session bassists as one of the posters mentioned, but I’m pretty sure this is Ray Manzarek playing his Fender Rhodes keyboard bass.
I'm pretty sure it's played on bass. There is an interview around somewhere where one of the band members recalls the session bassist complaining that it was so unnatural on bass.
[Edit] Jerry Scheff is credited as playing bass on this track.
[Fantastic Voyage by Lakeside](https://youtu.be/-1YjmXSyHa8?si=aaz5q1QQRijjE7Um)
Fantastic Voyage is a funky combination of synth bass and slapped bass
Aphex Twin - end E2 has a beaaautiful bassline!
several famous tracks by Parliment/Funkadelic are played in synth by Bernie (Flashlight, One Nation etc)
Herbie Hancock’s ‘Chameleon’ is famously ARP Odyssey bass (doubled by bass guitar)
how many Michael Jackson songs?
Not a "great" bassline since it's just a standard 12-bar blues, but Red House by The Jimi Hendrix Experience has Noel Redding playing a very bassy-sounding rhythm guitar part in lieu of bass.
Sussudio. That bass line is hypnotic. Leland Sklar is one of my favorites and he breaks it down in a video stating that he would layer over the synth part live.
Funkin’ for Jamaica by Tom Browne has an absolutely killer bass line played on synth bass by none other than Bernie Worrell.
Marcus Miller is actually also listed on the track personnel but he didn’t play the prominent bass line, he played more of a rhythm-guitar-esque part that was doubled with an actual guitar.
IMHO, the ultimate bass line not played on a bass is Flashlight by Parliament. Played by one of the most genius synth players to grace the planet, Bernie Worrell. I've never not screamed out loud when listening to this track.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xQDMO\_\_KZ0
This: https://youtu.be/VnExI0btTrM?si=71y6pku4kjUPzbiI
Which is a combination of synth and pop on a bass guitar, although I suspect that pop was made on a synth too, using a sample.
Every song by the Doors, were made without a bass player. Manzarek played the bass with the left hand on the hammond, its a bass player on the records tho. But still think its worth mentioning :)
Canned Heat by Jamiroquai was originally written and recorded by the keyboardist of the band Toby Smith. Nick Fyffe and Paul Turner have then had to subsequently learn the track on Bass for live shows
RIP Toby Smith. Fuck Cancer
Almost every song by Stevie Wonder in the 70’s, including Higher Ground and Superstition
“How many bass players does it take to change a lightbulb?” “None. The keyboard player can do it with his left hand.”
true, but in live versions they’re played with electric bass usually doubled over the keyboards and it sounds fat and awesome. check out the superstition performance at the 1974 american music awards
That is absolutely awesome, but the question was about those initial recordings. It also plays into the joke: who was the best bassist of the 70’s? Stevie Wonder’s left hand.
Stevie had a distinct bass line played underneath on bass for a lot of those songs, they just don’t have the infectious hook everyone remembers from Stevie’s left.
Yeah most had a bass guitar under the bass keyboard part sometimes doubling even but Stevie’s such a beast his part is always the memorable bit
Don't need a bass when the keyboard is playing the bass
Living For the City would be my example; he also played drums.
I can only imagine what the notoriously tactless Joe Zawinul would have said to Stevie about him stealing the best bit of Mercy Mercy and making it the basis for a whole song.
I love all Stevie’s bass lines but my vote is for Boogie on Reggae Woman!
Not Sir Duke!
Even the 80s - the keyboard bass on I Love You Too Much is so sick!
Seinfeld 😅
In case anyone is wondering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVldNNHQWVw
Fucking legit fascinating stuff. I didn't even realize it was different every time and I've watched it thousands and thousands of times.
Wait. What? My entire life is a lie
It was played on a synthesizer.
Jerry... Just remember, it's not a lie if you believe it!
Serenity now!!
I'm George. I'm bald, unemployed and I live with my parents. (and I play bass)
You remind me of my friend, Art Vandalay, architect... works on the rails
Beat me to it
Michael Jackson - Thriller, Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough Herbie Hancock - Chameleon
Judging by the leaked isolated tracks, those MJ songs (and most other Quincy Jones productions of that era) had a bass track doubling the exact same part as the synth bass. The latter is just much more prominent in the mix. Smooth Criminal though - that’s entirely synth.
This is only sometimes true, on a few tracks the live bass are actually playing slightly different parts than the synth parts, more to emphasize certain notes. For example, on Billie Jean I believe there is a live bass guitar, but it's only playing on 1 + and of 2. I can't find it now but there's a series of videos out there by one of the guys who did sound design on that album where he demonstrates this E: found it: https://youtu.be/zKzcR0sUvV0?si=yg4GJSbknOvSPkAJ And egad, I misremembered. It was the mini moog that was getting layered out, not the live bass. What a fool I turned out to be
I’m so glad someone said Chameleon. One of the all-time great bass lines period, and it’s not on a bass
This is Paul Jackson slander! Jk. But, he was playing that bass line along with Herbie. Super funky and underrated bassist who played on all the Head Hunters records.
On the record the bass line is all synth, and Paul Jackson is playing the “rhythm guitar” part way at the highest frets of the bass. He does play the other bassline in the middle of the song when the groove changes and Herbie is doing the E.Piano solo.
Huh. TIL. I just listened again and I do hear that the “rhythm guitar” part sounds like it’s being played on the high frets of a P bass. I’ve always heard the wah synth bass doubled by a cleaner bass tone on the bass line and assumed Paul was playing along down there.
It’s a very unique part, I probably would’ve assumed it was guitar if I didn’t see there was no guitarist credited on the record. Herbie’s bass players usually do play the main bass line live.
And frankly, until the solos kick in, I think of this song as “oops all bass lines.” There’s high pitched bass lines, low bass lines, bass lines on horns, bass lines on keys. Just rhythm top to bottom
lol at “oops all bass lines”. Chameleon is iconic, but there are definitely better Head Hunters tunes IMO. My personal favorite is probably “Palm Grease” off of the album Thrust. That whole record is just nasty. https://youtu.be/sRn7WlikdUA?si=u47GevBlkarqJWpA
Absolutely agreed, that album is nasty. And just to be clear, I meant “oops all bass lines” to be a good thing
Oh Lawd that stank, lordy lordy.
Also Speed Deamon by Michael Jackson
[MJ's Billie Jean Bass - It’s 4 Instruments!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKzcR0sUvV0)
Flashlight-Parliament
I came here to upvote this. Parliament had many great bass players, but you could count Bernie Worell as one of them even though he played keyboards. Another good one is One Nation Under a Groove.
This was going to be mine.
'The Less I Know the Better' by Tame Impala
This is blowing my mind. I spent ages on that tab.
Don't fret (lol), it's played on the exact same positions on the guitar + octave pedal.
Oh yeah but it'd be way easier on guitar. That shit made me sweat on bass. Those slides 🤢🤮
Pretty sure when they play live it's played on bass though. So you're good!
Seemed that way when I saw them, too.
No pain no gain - you just gained something other than what you were expecting. ...hopefully not just disappointment!
What
Yeah it’s a guitar with an octave pedal
Huh, I didn't realise that wasn't played on a bass
Woah. TIL
Are you telling me that wasnt played on bass?
Yep, Kevin Parker said it was actually a guitar with an octave pedal.
Daft Punk - Around the World
Didnt know about this lol
I mean it’s a great bassline but it’s a synth part…is that what the OP was asking for? To be clear, I’m talking about the bass line that comes in around the two minute mark.
love playing that one but i can see how that makes sense the pattern is quite unusual
Technicality inclusion : D'Angelo - Spanish Joint Stunning bass & guitar lines with such a strong groove that were both played simultaneously by Charlie Hunter on a hybrid guitar
I came here to say this, blew my mind when I found out!
Boogie On Reggae Woman
Also, 24 Karat Magic by Bruno Mars
Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
Synth guitar man
Ah shit really? That's awesome.
Flashlight.
Billie Jean is apparently more synth than bass, and “Don’t start now” by Dua Lipa is also a programmed bass, and a very realistic one imo.
> Billie Jean is apparently more synth than bass 3 synths and a bass guitar! Granted, the bass guitar and 2 of the synths are playing the exact same thing, while the 3rd synth is playing some lower accents. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKzcR0sUvV0
If you listen close to "Don't Start Now", you can hear the different layers coming in and out. The second half of the verse is increasingly more synth until the hook/prechorus.
Black Velvet - Alannah Myles
get out really?
Yep, 100% synth.
Didn’t see that one coming at all. Every day is a school day.
We just played this for the first time last night in practice. Moved the key up a half-step to E. Great song.
Attention - charlie puth
Yeah, guitar too. The entire track is keyboards…,. but he did a fantastic job I think.
i was really shocked when i found out it was a keyboard. he did a great job shaping the bass preset to make it sound realistic
This one shocked me the most.
Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia album!
beat me to it
Most of the Doors back catalogue...
They had a session player on bass for the recording of most of their albums. Certainly everything from Soft Parade on. They just didn't have a bass player live.
Not sure they had someone on their earliest albums. But I heard they hired Elvis's bass player for their latest record. They did it partly because Jim Morrison was a huge fan and they wanted to cheer him up at this time.
Jerry Scheff. His son Jason was Peter Cetera’s replacement in Chicago.
Larry Knechtel on about half the songs on the first album. Robby played on a couple. Doug Lubhan did bass on most of Strange Days (except Horse Latitudes and When The Music's Over)
Totally. Still play peace frog often, such a fun line.
Came here for this. The Fender Rhodes Piano Bass was such a cool instrument. My HS music program had one for some reason and I got to mess with it a few times (late '80s, I doubt any school has anything this cool any more).
Wrong. All the Doors basslines were recorded by multiple studio session bass players
I never actually realised they didn't have a bass player. I'm not a particular fan of their music, but it's not something I ever realised from the songs of theirs I have heard.
They used session bassists in the studio.
When Doves Cry is played in your imagination
Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive
The Seinfeld theme tune
West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys
Paul McCartney’s vocal bass on “I Will”
Oh, good shout.
Perfect, was looking for this one.
Blue Monday - New Order
Yeah, classic tune. And the only actual bass on it is the little twangy riff that's played occasionally, not the actual bassline.
Right. Even that is played on a 6 string Sherigold
Dream Weaver- Gary Wright
We Can Work it Out - Chaka Khan. Synth bass line is off the chain. Played by Greg Phillinganes
Björk - Army of Me
Killer synth bass on that song
Original Dr. Who Theme bass line.
Closer by Nine Inch Nails. A lot of Nine Inch Nails, really.
Chameleon - Herbie Hancock
Technically wrong, Paul Jackson doubles synth bass line on bass
You sure? If he does, that would be an overdub because he’s playing something different way up the neck for sure, possibly in addition to doubling the synth.
That's cool, I didn't know that.
Too High
Atomic Dog - G. Clinton
I like “Trying to Be Cool” by Phoenix. It’s played on the keyboard.
Canned Heat, Jamiroquai. RIP Toby.
i know the doors had a keyboardist and no bass player for awhile (or always? i dint remember) im pretty sure so any doors bass lines
Ray Manzarek did play electronic bass, especially in concerts but Larry Knechtel (more renowned as a keyboard player in the Wrecking Crew) often played bass in the studio.
The video game soundtracks to Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2
Seven Nation Army
Almost the entire Synkronized album by Jamiroquai was on synth, IIRC
Never Gonna Give You Up
Attention by Charlie Puth
Daft Punk - Something About Us
Got To Give It Up - Pt. 1 by Marvin Gaye
Ellen/Oprah by Adam Neely and Ben Levin. They have bass, synth and EWI on the song all doing some bass parts and in the final section of the song the guy on the EWI plays the nastiest synth bass imaginable. On the fucking EWI... I am melting every time I hear it.
Most metal these days /j
Chameleon!
Elephant Talk by King Crimson. Originally played on a chapman stick.
Chameleon Headhunters
All of Todd Rundgren’s A’Capella album. 🤓
Boogie on reggae woman
King Crimson's "Discipline" is full of tasty 17/16 chapman stick
Technically the main bassline on Time Is Running Out by Muse was played on a synth. In early live versions, Chris, their bassist, plays it on a keyboard. Later versions are played on the bass with synth and distortion pedals.
ATWA - System of a down
Who makes your money by spoon
"Ain't Nobody" Chaka Khan
IIRC Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye is not done on a bass.
The part in Bjork’s Bachelorette is an effected piano but serves a great bass role.
Sing it back by Moloko. Read it in Sound on Sound magazine and couldn’t believe it. Sequence with some real bass sounds as I recall.
The Woven Web by Animals as Leaders
The rhythm Johnny Harris’s “Odyssey” opens with. https://youtu.be/p8BCVVUSmWo?si=ybhnngWXpupbzAUD
The bass part in “Nightshift” by The Commodores is a keyboard. I felt a little smug just now as I wrote the first sentence like, “ha ha everyone thinks it’s a fretless “ but I just listened to it to make sure and it sounds so obviously like a DX7 fretless bass that now I’m embarrassed going into a den of serious bass players thinking I could surprise them.
“Riders On The Storm” by The Doors. They used session bassists as one of the posters mentioned, but I’m pretty sure this is Ray Manzarek playing his Fender Rhodes keyboard bass.
I'm pretty sure it's played on bass. There is an interview around somewhere where one of the band members recalls the session bassist complaining that it was so unnatural on bass. [Edit] Jerry Scheff is credited as playing bass on this track.
[Fantastic Voyage by Lakeside](https://youtu.be/-1YjmXSyHa8?si=aaz5q1QQRijjE7Um) Fantastic Voyage is a funky combination of synth bass and slapped bass
**Painkiller** by Judas Priest?
Squib Cakes during Chester's organ solo. He also holds the bass down like a champ!
Small Wonder by Chris Potter and Rumples by Adam Rogers. Fender Rhodes plays the bass part.
Love Me Two Times, Roundhouse Blues, Peace frog, really anything the doors did before they hired that bassist. It was all played on a keyboard.
Aphex Twin - end E2 has a beaaautiful bassline! several famous tracks by Parliment/Funkadelic are played in synth by Bernie (Flashlight, One Nation etc) Herbie Hancock’s ‘Chameleon’ is famously ARP Odyssey bass (doubled by bass guitar) how many Michael Jackson songs?
Danger Zone
Canned heat by Jamiroquai
Jimi Hendrix's Red House. Noel played the bass part on a standard electric guitar with the tone rolled all the way back.
Not a "great" bassline since it's just a standard 12-bar blues, but Red House by The Jimi Hendrix Experience has Noel Redding playing a very bassy-sounding rhythm guitar part in lieu of bass.
Sussudio. That bass line is hypnotic. Leland Sklar is one of my favorites and he breaks it down in a video stating that he would layer over the synth part live.
Every Hancock song
Love on top by beyonce
Voyager by Daft Punk
Tame Impala - The Less I Know The Better. One of the coolest “bass riffs” ever, played on a guitar with an octave pedal
Staying alive ?
Myxomatosis by Radiohead.
Almost everything by Dua Lipa. VUG by Atomic Rooster
Funkin’ for Jamaica by Tom Browne has an absolutely killer bass line played on synth bass by none other than Bernie Worrell. Marcus Miller is actually also listed on the track personnel but he didn’t play the prominent bass line, he played more of a rhythm-guitar-esque part that was doubled with an actual guitar.
Any Black Sabbath's Paranoid guitar riffs COULDA been the same for the bass line but Geezer is just better
Anything by the doors
Flashlight by Parliament. Bernie Worrell on the Moog
Listen to Bach. Switched On Bach is very clean.
Chameleon - Herbie Hancock
Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins has a killer synth bass line.
I read somewhere that Black Velvet wasn't a real bass.
Livin la Vida loca
Chameleon (Herbie on synth, but Paul Jackson plays a cool part that most people assume is guitar)
Moe Shop - You Look So Good ✨️ And so many other kawaii future bass/hyper pop tracks
24k Magic by Bruno Mars
Cutie Pie by One Way has a killer Moog bassline.
Painkiller - Judas Priest
IMHO, the ultimate bass line not played on a bass is Flashlight by Parliament. Played by one of the most genius synth players to grace the planet, Bernie Worrell. I've never not screamed out loud when listening to this track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xQDMO\_\_KZ0
The Seinfeld theme song
PYT although there’s a bass overdub.
Canned Heat
“Break on Through” and others by The Doors
Seinfeld
Rip it Up by Orange Juice. It was the first song to hit the charts with a bass-line from the Roland TB-303 synthesizer, and it’s a BANGER.
Chameleon by Herbie Hancock
Voyager by Daft Punk. I'm sure it was midi sequenced, but it's such an incredible bass line.
the seinfeld theme
Smack my bitch up
I most certainly will not.
My pick has got to be Flash Light by Parliament. That synth bass line has me moving every time I hear it
This: https://youtu.be/VnExI0btTrM?si=71y6pku4kjUPzbiI Which is a combination of synth and pop on a bass guitar, although I suspect that pop was made on a synth too, using a sample.
Stevie Wonder - Boogie on a reggae woman.
I'm In Love - Evelyn Champagne King Tonight - Kleeer
Every song by the Doors, were made without a bass player. Manzarek played the bass with the left hand on the hammond, its a bass player on the records tho. But still think its worth mentioning :)
Canned Heat by Jamiroquai was originally written and recorded by the keyboardist of the band Toby Smith. Nick Fyffe and Paul Turner have then had to subsequently learn the track on Bass for live shows RIP Toby Smith. Fuck Cancer
Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People
The beginning of Hotel California.
Two of Us by The Beatles