Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Since Squire and Lee are my Bass Heros, it's difficult to pick one song or one album!

Yeah, 'Astral Traveller' features the killer 4001 tone at its best. How about 'America', on the 'Yesterdays' collection? Talk about authoritative bass guitar sound!

Lennon played bass on:"The ballad of John and Yoko"? I knew that it was only John and Paul on that track but thought that it was McCartney on bass, if that was Lennon, he was great on bass too, what a sound for flatwounds. Tony Levin also played a Ric on "Double Fantasy". That bass sounds like it had flatwounds on it also.
Also The Kinks late 60's stuff had a great Ric sound on it, stuff like "Victoria", which is one of my all time favorite Kinks tunes.
And Dave, that little 16 note solo on "Liar Liar" is a Ric? When I was a kid I thought that song was just the greatest thing I had ever heard, I can still hear that solo in my head today. And I liked The Smithereens bass sound, I forgot his name, I just had it too. Mike Smith?
I even liked Maurice Gibbs' sound on the early Beegees hits from the 60's like "I just gotta get a message to you" talk about deep!
Also The late 60's Kinks had a great Ric bass sound, stuff like "Victoria" which is one of my all time favorite Kinks tunes.

Mike Mesaros.
Yes, Maurice Gibb's deep Rick tone in the late sixties & very early seventies was something else. But sometimes he would throw in a bit of the typical Rick clank as well.
'Victoria' is one of my firm favourite Kinks tracks. I refer to it as 'a tremendously good-humored song'.

Bob, yes, Dick Roby played a fireglo 4000 and did the lead vocal on "Liar Liar". If you go to amazon.com and search for "Best of Castaways - Liar Liar" you should be able to see a small image of it on the album cover.

I believe he is now a remodeling contractor in a Minneapolis suburb, the band still gets together for occasional performances.

And by coincidence, "Victoria" is also one of my favorite Kinks tunes.

Yea Bob, I was surprised also to find out that was Lennon on bass. I have since read that in a few different publications. Lennon played bass on Long And Winding Road, George played bass on Taxman, Old Brown Shoe and Let It Be, among others. Do you have the Anthology dvd? I thought that one part on disc 5 was pretty cool where they were listening to Golden Slumbers with George Martin (I think it was Golden Slumbers, now I have to go dig it out to make sure when I get home)and GM asks who was playing bass on that one. George and Ringo pointed to Paul and GM said it couldn't have been because Paul was playing piano and it was a live track, so then Paul looks at George who says "well it could have been me, we did have that 5 string Jazz bass lying around". I forgot about The Kinks bass player (can't think of his name), didn't he use a 4000 ?

Geddy Lee (Rush) - "Anthem"

Macca - "Silly Love Songs", "Hello Goodbye", "Penny Lane", "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"

Prescott Niles (The Knack) - The whole "Get the Knack" album - great RIC tone

Not in any particular order
Radar Love - Golden Ear ring
Spooky - Atlanta Rythmn Section
Red Barchetta - Rush
Highway Star - Deep Purple
Silly Love Songs - Sir Paul
My Sharona - The Knack
Cygnus X1 - Rush

Jon Camp with Renaissance - Scheherazade and Other Stories the entire LP.

Tony Levin played a Rick on Double Fantasy? I had never heard that one, how sure are you Bob? Tony's tone is always wonderful in my opinion.

Robert,
I remember seeing a photo of Levin in the studio with a Ric for that album, and it just sounds Ric to me. I am not 100% sure as with any other song I have cited, but when I play the album I hear a Ric, although not the best tone I have ever heard with one, and as far as the tone maybe I am comparing him to McCartney in my mind (Lennon?), and to me no one's tone can compare to McCartney's (with GM as producer anyway)
I am in an internet café right now, and as I am thinking about Lennon "Mindgames" just came on the radio, gives me the shivers.
If I am wrong I'd appreciate being corrected, when you are ancient your memory sometimes plays tricks on you, ahah.
And that information about The Castaways' bass player playing a Ric (especially a 4000) blew me away, that song has one of the greatest (and greatest sounding) short solos in rock in my opinion, it's the hook for the whole song. To me it's better than Entwhistle's "My Generation" Those little short hooks were teasers to me when I was a kid. I'd rather hear those than a ten minute solo most of the time, they leave me wanting more. I think little short things like that did more for my bass playing than did many whole songs. I wonder how many of them were Rics and I didn't know it.

For me, the great Rick players and recordings are a lot of the ones mentioned above. Jon Camp's fantastically melodic bass lines in "Ocean Gypsy" on the live Renaissance album still give me goosebumps.

Maca's "Little Help from my Friends" on Sgt. Pepper made me notice the difference in tone from previous Beatle recordings. I love than "plunk" sound he got from the flat-wounds, and probably from some studio compression.

Of course, Chris Squire, my god. Roundabout, The Fish, Long-distance Runaround, and best of all, Heart of the Sunrise from Fragile just blow me away. Your's is no Disgrace and America are also amazing.

And Geddy Lee in his "Rick years": Red Barchetta, Free Will; yeah, baby!

I'll throw in a few non-obscure ones:

Joe Jackson: Is She Really Going Out with Him?
Marillion: Script for a Jester's Tear

Keep 'em coming! I'm compiling a list...

wow, george on bass on taxman? all these years i have been in awe of those lines, specially the few fleeting fast ones. it's always great to learn something new!

hands down..Sir Paul on Silly Love Songs!

Bob, I have no idea what bass(es) Tony played on Double Fantasy. I haven't listened to that album in a long time but I do remember some excellent bass lines throughout. I guess I need to break down and buy the CD now, I have it on vinyl with no way to play it anymore.

You guys are putting up some excellent examples. This is great really, I had no idea Rick basses were used on some of these songs.