Of course Entwhistle was one of the few bass players who could almost be described as a lead bass player (along with several of the King Crimson bassists and Peter Hook of Joy Division/New Order), at least a good portion of the time.
And the Who don't really have the typical rock instrumentation dynamics either. Entwhistle isn't just sitting there at the root mediating between the drummer and the guitarist. Moon and Townshend wouldn't have been able to veer so hard into chaos if they didn't have Entwhistle holding the entire song together by himself.
Still working on it, thanks.
Why not Beat Girl or Optical Sound? I would have thought BG would qualify, as the thuddy sound that it starts with has me thinking it's an actual
bass,
playing the repeated melody/rhythm that the whole piece is built around.
Optical Sound starts out with plucked notes on what sounds to me like a bass guitar... am I wrong? The song is slow and lethargic, but it's consistent in it and built around it, so I would have thought it qualifies.
Can a bassline be melodic? Maybe I'm trying to overconceptualize this.
Special to Jesse: Just Do It.
I may be confusing guitars played in a lower range with actual bass guitars.
Can a bassline be melodic?
You bet. John Entwhistle was very melodic on his bass. Les Claypool, bass player of Primus, almost always carried the main melody, though calling Primus' music "melodic" is very subjective, to be sure.
Chris Squire, occasional bassist for Yes, would regularly play Amazing Grace solo on his bass, and you can't get much more melodic than that.
Why not Beat Girl or Optical Sound?
Beat Girl starts with the lead (on one of the lower strings, probably), with the bass line coming in a couple of measures later.
For Optical Sound, the bass line and lead line start simultaneously.
Can a bassline be melodic?
Sometimes. Hec mentioned Entwistle, and Graham Maby, who played with Joe Jackson, did on occasion. Dave Edmunds occasionally plays his leads on a six-string bass, although you probably wouldn't call them bass lines.
In every reggae song, the bassist is playing a counter-melody.
On the 1 and 3 off-beats, moreover.
::head spins dizzily round::
