The Bass Line -- Featuring the Best Basslines of All Time

This cut from 1968 has Carol Kaye on bass with Paul Humphrey on drums and Artie Butler on keyboard. Starts out on keyboard but then the group just falls into an amazing groove. Joe Cocker was in the studio singing with them - Carol loved how much Joe Cocker sounded like Ray Charles

They played a fantastic take but the engineer had forgotten to roll the tape. So they just did it again and it was really great -- but Carol still thinks about the version that wasn't recorded and what that might have been.

"Feelin' Alright" was written by Dave Mason, and this recording features backup vocals from a group that included Brenda Holloway.

Carol Kaye is an incredible musician who has been on the music scene for over fifty years.

She has played all genres and we will be seeing more of her bass work in future posts.

On this track from Chic Bernard Edwards lays down an incredible groove.

It propels the piece and then get really going around 3.00 into the tune.

Bernard Edwards formed the group Chic with Nile Rodgers,drummer Tony Thompson and singer Norma Jean Wright in the late 1970s. If you haven't heard Chic, now's the time to start listening. They were an amazing Disco band that was really a precursor to many of the newer genres like hip-hop and dan rock.

Nile was the writer and guitar player. Tony was a great drummer, but in Chic, it was Bernard who was the awesome player in the group. And if you listen to this tune, you can hear some of the most phenomenal bass playing ever. It's a magical line unto itself.

I've been playing bass for a very long time. I play an original Fender precision bass from 1964 and also a Danelectro bass with the original lipstick pickups. In this blog I want to share and discuss my favorite basslines and bassplayers who I have been listening to for a few decades. Each blog post will present a song with an accompanying video or recording featuring a bassline that I believe is one of the greatest basslines ever - from many different bass players and genres.

I welcome any comments and suggestions.

Looking forward to some lively discussions.