Quotes & Sayings About Bass Players

Bass players are always the underdogs of the band, but I made sure that I was never viewed as one. I went out of my way to steal as much limelight as I could. — Peter Hook

I really am good," he admits arrogantly.
"I told you, dude. You're really good. When you get older, you're going to be one of the best bass players I've ever seen."
"I know," he nods, agreeing wholeheartedly. — A.M. Madden

Jack Bruce, as soon as I saw him, it changed me. I didn't even know what bass players did until I saw Cream. — Geezer Butler

There are a lot of people who can do it on the guitar and sing at the same time, but I think what is harder is bass players that can play the bass and sing. — Graham Coxon

Bach is really the ultimate in bass players you know — Jack Bruce

Louis Armstrong changed all the brass players around, but after Bird, all of the instruments had to change - drums, piano, bass, trombones, trumpets, saxophones, everything. — Cootie Williams

The aficionado, or lover of the bullfight, may be said, broadly, then, to be one who has this sense of the tragedy and ritual of the fight so that the minor aspects are not important except as they relate to the whole. Either you have this or you have not, just as, without implying any comparison, you have or have not an ear for music. Without an ear for music the principle impression of an auditor at a symphony concert might be of the motions of the players of the double bass, just as the spectator at the bullfight might remember only the obvious grotesqueness of a picador. — Ernest Hemingway,

My heroes are guys like Frank Capra and Elia Kazan and Coen brothers and Terry Gilliam, more so than a lot of bass players at this point in my life. So I've always been an old-film nut and have very much enjoyed doing videos over the years. — Les Claypool

It's bad enough when people I know fuck with my life, but when pretentious bass players interfere with my destiny, then I really get pissed. — Tiffanie DeBartolo

I like a lot of bass players. I like a lot of tuba players too. — Rick Danko

Women and rhythm-section first!? — Jaco Pastorius

Poetry is music though, unfortunately, not all music is poetry. Because music has other carriers to take its message - beats, lyrics, singers, bass players - anyone in music can rise to make a major statement but in poetry there are only words to do the work. And they do sometimes have to sweat. — Nikki Giovanni

Bass players and drummers are brothers in the basement cooking up the groove that makes people move. — John Densmore

Eliminating the piano means that I've always worked closer with the bass than most players. — Gerry Mulligan

While it's a great indulgence, it's also very interesting to have three bass players on the same track. — Bryan Ferry

Every time I want to impress someone about samples and hip-hop, I play 'Portrait of Tracy.' It's one of the greatest bass players ever doing a whole composition with only the two harmonics of electric bass; then a three-second loop in it became every great R&B song in five-year intervals. — Diplo

Bass players have bigger instruments." Charlie's slow grin curled her toes and he added, "We also do it deeper. — Rachel Harris

I describe things in terms of body movements. I dance a bit to describe what sort of movement it ought to make, and that's a good way of talking to musicians. Particularly bass players. — Brian Eno

I set myself up to be a bass guitarist and bass players get a lot more work than people like me. — John Entwistle

Bass players are always the intellectual kind, but nobody knows it. — Stanley Clarke

So I am one of those bass players who can do something and musically, it was back then and now it is even more, if you noticed on the new album, I am not playing all the time anymore. — Miroslav Vitous

Onstage I like to play with a an 18-inch speaker, which very few bass players do. I need that fat, underneath sound, which I've always had. It suits me admirably to do it like that, and I can imitate that sound by plugging directly into the board in the studio. — Bill Wyman

Bass players share a secret fellowship, a sort of gnosis peculiar to their breed, a kind of smart that is hard for others to recognize or understand: the art of the whole sound. Bass players actually believe in musical epistemology, they are practitioners of musical metaphysics. — Randall E. Auxier

I was never much of a bass player. — Ryan Adams

I think the future looks great for music, musicians, bass players, and all we love about music. — Billy Sheehan

Louis 'Thunder Thumbs' Johnson was one of the greatest bass players to ever pick up the instrument, as a member of the Brothers Johnson, we shared decades of magical times working together in the studio and touring the world. From my albums 'Body Heat' and 'Mellow Madness,' to their platinum albums 'Look Out for #1,' 'Right On Time,' 'Blam' and 'Light Up the Night,' which I produced, to Michael's solo debut 'Off the Wall,' I considered Louis a core member of my production team. He was a dear and beloved friend and brother, and I will miss his presence and joy of life every day. — Quincy Jones

I tried the guitar, but it had two strings too many. It was just too complicated, man! Plus, I grew up with Steve Cropper. There were so many good guitar players, another one wasn't needed. What was needed was a bass. — Donald Dunn

A lot of other bass players have told me I'm the only bass player who plays with a pick but sounds like he's playing with the thumb and fingers, which is a great compliment. — Glenn Hughes

I can understand why some of these drummers and bass players become cult figures with all of their equipment and the incredible amount of technique they have. But there's very little that I think satisfies you intellectually or emotionally. — Ken Burns

So our ears got used to listening to jazz in the place that it was that the bass player could not play. No one really realized it and really addressed it until the bass players who could play their instrument came along and started doing something with it. — Miroslav Vitous