I remember thinking Rick James is pretty darn good. Not sure about top 100, though I don't see any reason in principle he couldn't sneak in, in the end.

Stu...

Allow me to retract my dismissive attitude toward Verdine White. His playing is just fantastic, subtle, understated, funky, rhythmically sensitive. Very advanced, as good funk playing as any I have heard. I listened to "September" (my god what a song, never knew it was a EW&F song until now!), amazing playing by Mr. White. Just sayin'. (Still not sure he's top 40 worthy, but I see the argument now)

As far as Ronnie Baker goes..."Aint No Stopping Us Now" also impressed me a lot. I definitely see a lot of his musical DNA in later 70s R&B and Disco, that's for sure. Did MFSB play on a lot of big, known-to-the-public hits?

Your travails with those NARAS folks and such intrigues me greatly. Very cool. Do the Funk Brothers/anyone at Motown have a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yet? (I hope so...lol)

boobs...

Excellent recommendations with Hook and Rourke (he's the dude from the smiths right?). I believe I actually mentioned them both as 'musts', or at least Hook as a must and Rourke as a 'probably', earlier in this thread actually. Incredibly creative players, both of 'em.

...

Now we have to decide who to kick off of the 30-39 spots, and who to replace them with. I'm standing by my opinion that Myung has no right being there, and Kool is a joke. Kaye needs dropped too, and Osborne needs to be raised like 20 spots. (There are a couple other minor quibbles I have with 30-39 but we don't have to deal with them right now)

Any ideas? I say Osborne slots in the lower teens, and the four vacant spots in 30-39 I'm suggesting are filled with...

Shit, I don't know. Bogert? Steve DiGiorgio? Chancellor? Simonon?

I'd think Carol and Joe should be very, very close to each other, as they both were the go-to bassists for the Wrecking Crew. So both are pretty close in terms of influence and all the other criteria.

If you're dropping Myung, he should probably be around 60-70 or so. He's still Top 100 material, just maybe not Top 50. If you're going to fill his slot, fill it with DiGiorgio. He's essentially THE death metal bassist, being technical as hell, tasteful, and influential. He was also one of the first rock bassists to use a fretless as his main instrument.

Simonon should probably be Top 60 or 70, considering Mike Watt happens to be a better punk bassist. Chancellor should be Top 70 or 80.

Rourke probably isn't nearly influential enough for a Top 100 placement, but Hook may be. There are a lot of filler names on this list (NdegéOcello, Schmit, Brown, Bobby Sheehan, Tom Hamilton, Freeman, Pappalardi, etc.) that simply don't have the influence or impact of some other players.

Rick James had no memorable bass performances, nor was he primarily known for his bass playing similar to another later day Motown bassist/producer Allen McGreir...who coincidentally also produced Teena Marie.

Verdine White...like a lot of the popular Funk bassists...fits in there with many notables like Bernard Edwards who played some terrific basslines on some big Funk/Disco hits...but they fall a notch below the originators like Larry Graham, Louis Johnson, and Anthony Jackson. Obviously, despite the fact that these guys were great players, their relative placement on the list must be spread out a bit in my opinion so as to not lump them all together and also to leave plenty of room for bassists from other genre influences, as well as those who trailblazed the instrument pre-funk.

Interesting tidbit on the EW&F song you mention..."September"...funny...that song (as well as EW&F's Boogie Wonderland, and In The Stone) were written by a woman named Allee Willis. She is an alum of the same high school in Detroit (Mumford) that My brother graduated from and I attended for two years. She is now a mid-late 60's Jewish lady who wrote a lot of hit songs. She is a friend of my brothers and sends us e-mails for Detroit reunions out here in L.A. She recently visited Detroit to lead the Mumford marching band on some of her EW&F hits to help them raise money for new band uniforms. Not who you'd expect to be writing those songs...much like a couple of others...Judy Weider, who wrote songs and some "funk" type songs for artists like Cheryl Lynn...then there is that Rich lady (both her name and status) who was married to that Clinton billionaire friend who ran off to Switzerland until Clinton pardoned him on his last day in office...Mark Rich. She also wrote several Soul and Funk type hits.

MFSB played on gobs of hits out of Philly for groups like The Stylistics, The Trammps, The O'Jays, The Spinners, The Emotions, etc, etc, etc...all that Gamble & Huff stuff. They also had their own instrumentals, including one of the biggest selling instrumentals of all time...TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia), Love Is The Message, and several other instrumentals I'm sure you'd recognize some of them. Another instrumental you'd be familiar with that Ronnie and the MFSB guys played on was the Cliff Nobles instrumental hit, The Horse.

Several Motown people have received stars on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. Smokey Robinson has two...One for his solo and songwriting career and another recently awarded on for The Miracles. I am currently working on funding for The Funk Brothers ceremony...need to raised about 40 thousand dollars and I have about 2 1/2 years left to do it. They were awarded the Star a couple of years ago after we submitted the nomination. The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award was a year long project, but it didn't require coming up with any money...just a lot of lobbying and gathering support from the music community which turned out to be quite supportive coming off the SITSOM documentary.

Totally agree that Osborn is significantly above Kaye so far as bassist go. He did a LOT more work on a LOT more hits for a LOT more producers. Carol Kaye spent a lot of her career as a guitarist...not a bassist, and her real claim to fame is her association with Brian Wilson...not a bad resume item...but nowhere near the vast body of work of Osborn.

BTW ariel...GREAT Earl Young drum solo on The Horse. Check it out...I'm almost certain you've heard it before???

Happy New Year to all my bass buddies ...

You too Stu! I'll get around to responding in this thread in the coming days, worry not...lol

Btw -- largely for Jamerson listening purposes, bought Stevie Wonder Millennium Collection (60s hits, basically, thru 1971). Amazing stuff!

What's the story with the list on the first page? Any updates in sight?

I'd say so. We're trying to fix it/do a really solid revision. The top 30 spots as many have commented are good but it gets kinda random after that! Care to join in and try to help?

Sure, I'll throw in thoughts and suggestions as I notice them. The one thing that sprung to mind immediately was Bill Wyman's placement, which I think is low, and I also don't get the inclusion of two Symphony X bassists ahead of him. It's a greatness list, after all.

I'm inclined to completely, 100% agree. Wyman was actually pretty sick, I've been listening to a lot of Stones (they rock) recently. I know very little of Symphony X's work: tell me, are their two bassists something real special or is their placement on this top 100 not as certain? Thanks.

Well, neither is influential, at least not from what I've seen and heard, and it's not like they've done anything that hasn't been done before. They're just really talented bassists whose sound is very prominent in Symphony X's music.

Speaking of prog metal bassists, Myung ahead of Deacon is an outrage.

Hey ariel...would you consider becoming a moderator for the bass lists? If the list is to be updated and some conversation getting going...you'd be the right guy to keep it focused, improved, and updated. I'm always happy to provide my input. I'd be happy to get with Lew to make it happen if you have the time to handle it.

Regarding Symphony X, Lepond is much better than Miller. If you're going to keep one of them, keep Lepond.

Drop Bobby Sheehan, Tom Hamilton, Timothy B. Schmidt, Leo Lyons, Me'Shell NdégeOchello, Felix Pappalardi, and Trey Gunn (he isn't a bassist). Replace them with Justin Chancellor, Paul Simonon, Steve DiGiorgio, Tina Weymouth, Peter Hook, Stuart Zender, and Nick Beggs, Nick Fyffe, or Sean Malone.

Out of the people I mentioned, Chancellor, Simonon, DiGiorgio, and Zender should be easy shoe-ins for Top 100. If you haven't heard much of Zender's work, listen to the first few Jamiroquai albums. He's probably among the most underrated funk bassists in existence.

Dude, part of me has desired that for *years*. I'm thrilled and honored and flattered that you'd consider me a worthwhile candidate for such a position (granted, I"m not sure how much competition I have, but still...). !

Awesome. This made my day (last couple of days).

I absolutely have the time and interest. Let's make it happen. Ariel