110 Bass Players Quotes

Following is our list of bass players quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about bassist.

Quick Jump To

Famous Bass Players Quotes

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

The bass player's function, along with the drums, is to be the engine that drives the car... everything else is merely colours. — Suzi Quatro

I consider myself a bassist first. — Casey Abrams

I always got great respect as a bass player. — Bill Wyman

Guitar is for the head, drums are for the chest, but bass gets you in the groin — Suzi Quatro

I wasn't originally a bass player. I just found out I was needed, because everyone wants to play guitar. — Tina Weymouth

The bass, no matter what kind of music you're playing, it just enhances the sound and makes everything sound more beautiful and full. When the bass stops, the bottom kind of drops out of everything. — Charlie Haden

I started playing bass for the same reason everyone else does – I’m a lousy guitarist. — Mike Dirnt

You can tune a guitar, but you can't tuna fish. Unless of course, you play bass. — Douglas Adams

I really pay attention to the bass in the music I listen to, and that's what I tend to write toward. — Dustin Diamond

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 was a time when fast playing and fretboard pyrotechnics on the bass were important to me and when I am recording a bass track, that is still very important to me. — Geddy Lee

I realized pretty soon that I have to do more than just play bass in the background way. So, I developed a kind of playing which only a handful of musicians accepted. — Eberhard Weber

Because Larry, by then, was a drummer, who would sort of get bored and tired, and rather stand up and blow kisses to people. So we needed the bass to sort of drive along. — Neil Innes

Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything. — Joe Pass

Short Bass Players Quotes

  • No baritone player should be afraid of the noise it makes. Harry Carney isn't! — Pepper Adams
  • Shouldn't the low strings be at the bottom? — Jules Shear
  • When you want to form a band, there's always an overwhelming lack of drummers. — Yusaku Maezawa
  • The most difficult instrument to play in the orchestra is second fiddle. — Leonard Bernstein
  • Most guys at Berklee are going to wind up truck drivers. — Pat Metheny
  • Rock stars come and go. Musicians play until they die. — Eddie Van Halen
  • Besides being a guitar player, I'm a big fan of the guitar. I love that damn instrument. — Steve Vai
  • A good player can make any guitar sound good. — Mike Bloomfield
  • I always resented the role of a drummer as nothing more than a subservient figure. — Max Roach
  • I think most musicians do like to have a laugh. — Neil Innes
Bass players quote It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy.
It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy.

Baseball Quotes

Yeah we're not together anymore. She has got - she has got a new boyfriend now. They just moved into together. And I've heard rumors that he is abusive, which makes you want to go over there with a baseball bat. And then blame it on her boyfriend. — Anthony Jeselnik

What does a mama bear on the pill have in common with the World Series? No cubs. — Harry Caray

Back, back, back, back. Gone. — Chris Berman

Bass players quote A good coach will make his players see what they can become rather than what they are.
A good coach will make his players see what they can become rather than what they are.

Some day I'm going to have to stand before God, and if He asks me why I didn't let that [Jackie] Robinson fellow play ball, I don't think saying 'because of the color of his skin' would be a good enough answer. — Branch Rickey

Never permit the pressure to exceed the pleasure. - Joe Maddon

Never permit the pressure to exceed the pleasure. — Joe Maddon

I'll tell you what's helped me my entire life. I look at baseball as a game. It's something where people can go out, enjoy and have fun. Nothing more. — Harry Caray

Bass players quote Of course, my father was a soccer player. He used to play very good. Then I was young, eight or nine
Of course, my father was a soccer player. He used to play very good. Then I was young, eight or nine years, ten years old, I just want to be like my father.

Now, you tell me, if I have a day off during the baseball season, where do you think I'll spend it? The ballpark. I still love it. Always have, always will. — Harry Caray

If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere — Henry A. Kissinger

Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world. - Babe Ruth

Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world. — Babe Ruth

It's not the disability that defines you; it's how you deal with the challenges the disability presents you with. — Jim Abbott

Bassist Quotes

Women and rhythm-section first!? — Jaco Pastorius

Steve Lawson is a brilliant musician. I've known about him and listened to him for many years. He may not be one of the most famous bassists but he is definitely one of the most talented. — Victor Wooten

A good bassist determines the direction of any band. — Ron Carter

I applied to Uncyclopedia Bassists, and was accepted!! — Eddie Van Halen

Cheers to the albums written fortunes earned lives touched in the millions and generations defined by one lonely person placing an ad in the back of a free paper seeking a guitarist, bassist, and drummer just looking to jam. — Dallas Clayton

When I had a job catering, I catered a wedding for the Smashing Pumpkins bassist in Indiana. And I served Billy Corgan shrimp off a tray. — Amy Poehler

Peter Baltes was the best bassist I ever played with. — Don Dokken

The sudden passing of Jack Bruce is terribly sad news. One of the greatest rock bassists to ever live and a true and profound inspiration to countless musicians. He was one of my first bass heroes and was a major influence on my playing and my music. My heartfelt condolences to his family and fans. — Geddy Lee

My mother adores singing and plays piano. My uncle was a phenomenal pianist. My brother John is a double bassist. I used to play the piano, badly, and cello. My brother Peter played violin. — Fiona Shaw

A nightmare is two bassists on stage. — Chris Squire

Bass Guitar Quotes

The ukulele was the first of many instruments they had bought for me. They got me a guitar when I was eleven, which my son Morgan uses until this day. They paid for 3 years of guitar lessons; they bought me a bass fiddle, which I still play. — Tony Visconti

My mom always told me I should have a Plan B. I said that if I'm not going to play guitar I'm going to play drums. And if I'm not going to play drums, I'm going to play bass. I always just wanted to play music. I was completely obsessed. — Gary Clark, Jr.

If you put a Mars bar in one of Glenn Hughes’ hands and a bass in the other, he’ll choose the Mars bar. — Gary Moore

I heard the Beatles and the Stones, and Mom bought me an electric guitar. I played lead for four years and then switched to bass. One day someone suggested that I should sing, so I sheepishly stepped up to the microphone and the rest is rock history. — Glenn Hughes

I used to be a session musician before I was a wrestler. I played bass guitar. I was big pals with Lars Ulrich, and he asked me if I wanted to play bass with Metallica in their early days, but it didn’t work out. — Hulk Hogan

To be a great band it's like you have that telepathy. You know when the bass player's in back of you without even looking. You know when your guitar player's coming up to you to lean up to you and sing into your microphone. You just know these things. You feel it. You feel the energy of it. — Scott Weiland

So by the time I taught myself the bass guitar at the age of 14, my hands were already pretty nimble. — John Entwistle

I play guitar, piano, bass and percussion. — Teena Marie

So I'll set a cycle in motion and pop it into record and I'll lay down a drum pattern, a bass line, a keyboard and guitar part, and once the groove is going I launch into the song and sing my song over the top. — Thomas Dolby

I'm starting to play all the melodies with kind of keyboard sound but playing it from the bass guitar. — Squarepusher

Bass Quotes

In the early days all I hoped was to make a living out of what I did best. But, since there's no real market for masturbation I had to fall back on my bass playing abilities. — Les Claypool

I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares, as opposed to ugly things. That's my intent. — Saul Bass

In all the music that deals with experimental repetition, drum and bass, dub, various kinds of house music, there's always been a quality of atmosphere and ambience. — Bill Laswell

When you have an acoustic bass in the ensemble it really changes the dynamic of the record because it kind of forces everybody to play with a greater degree of sensitivity and nuance because it just has a different kind of tone and spectrum than the electric bass. — David Sanborn

Sometimes when an idea flashes, you distrust it because it seems too easy. You qualify it with all kinds of evasive phrases because you’re timid about it. But often, this turns out to be the best idea of all. — Saul Bass

People ask how I learned to play bass with one hand. Well, with a face like mine, you learn to do a lot of things with one hand. — Peter Steele

As I said, when we needed to move over to rock'n'roll, Sam and Vernon couldn't quite make the shift. So that's when Larry took over on drums, and we needed a bass player. — Neil Innes

It's really easy to play harmonics, anyone can do it. It's another thing to be able to swing, to make to make a band swing, to create a groove. Harmonics ain't everything. Being able to play harmonics certainly does not make you a good bass player. Cleverness is no substitute for true awareness. — Jaco Pastorius

The thing that's really rewarding is when people will say to me that they had actually given up the bass, but are going to start again because the online school seems like a good idea. — Nathan East

I love the percussion. It's a right brain, left brain thing. There are different beats, but cooperating together. It's your whole body doing it, you're doing the snare drum and the high top with your hands and the bass drum with your foot. You're this whole motion machine. — Shalom Harlow

People Writing About Bass Players

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Suzi Quatro

Suzi Quatro
quotes on life, love and music

31 223
Read quotes by Neil Innes

Neil Innes
quotes on education, love and onions

31 261
Read quotes by Jack Bruce

Jack Bruce
quotes on life, love and leadership

13 79
Read quotes by Casey Abrams

Casey Abrams
quotes on love, music and life

18 76
Read quotes by Bill Wyman

Bill Wyman
quotes on politics, music and life

36 206
Read quotes by Tina Weymouth

Tina Weymouth
quotes on love, culture and life

38 258

More Bass Players Quotes

I wasn't allowed to play in some universities in the United States and out of twenty-five concerts, twenty-three were canceled unless I would substitute my black bass player for my old white bass player, which I wouldn't do. — Dave Brubeck

I recruited my dad to be my bass player and fired him on several occasions. He stayed on as a bus driver. — Chely Wright

Imagine if you were a drummer, and you accidentally picked up two magic wands instead of sticks. There you are, keeping the beat, the next thing you know, your bass player turns into a can of soup. — Mitch Hedberg

In jazz, you listen to what the bass player is doing and what the drummer is doing, what the pianist and the guitarist is doing, and then you play something that compliments that, so you are thinking simultaneously and thinking ahead. — David Amram

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

My dad was a bass player in a Latino band when I was growing up. So we always had musical instruments in our basement. — Lindi Ortega

One thing people always ask me is 'How do you play outside?' ... I have no idea how to teach that, but when I was discussing this with our bass player Jesse Murphy, he said 'tell them to go cliff diving'... In other words, when you're jamming, you have to take risks if you want to find new sounds. — John Scofield

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

When I heard BB Kings Sweet Sixteen, I knew I wanted to play bass because that was the thing that made that record: the bass player. — Donald Dunn

I feel my spot is somewhere between a bass player and a rhythm guitar player. I play with a pick. I play very aggressively. I always have a distortion pedal in line, and I play less melodies and do more stuff against the guitars that create melodies. — Nikki Sixx

I was always the sexy bass player in the background while Robin stood centre. Barry and I played it up a bit, gave 'em a bit of thigh. — Maurice Gibb

I don't really have a favorite bass player. I listen to a lot of bluegrass. But then again, I'm not a typical bluegrass bass player. I was really into the Grateful Dead, and I still am - I don't listen to them too much, but for me they are a big influence. — Mike Gordon

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

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

Without getting real personal, we liked our bass player Ed. He was a great guy and he was a good bass player but his playing was suited for a different style of band. — Lou Gramm

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

I feel that whatever you put out is what you'll get back. I always put out, 'hey, hi, I'm a bass player, no bullshit,' and that's what I got back. I got the respect. — Suzi Quatro

My dream as a child was to play with a bass player like Ray Brown, who played with the Oscar Peterson Trio. The feeling I had listening to his work was almost carnal, so to actually play for him was earth-shattering for me. — Diana Krall

For my money, Ray Brown is the greatest living bass player. Every great thing that's happened on bass since Ray Brown -- all of us point back to him. That's where it started, you know. Ray Brown is definitely a walking master, and to get to play with him is obviously an opportunity that no one should ever pass up. — Christian McBride

I don't regard myself as a great classical or jazz pianist. I like country music, but I'm not a great player. I just like music. Drums 'n' bass is pretty exciting and I'd love to explore it. — Keith Emerson

The worst thing I could be thinking is how could I be a cool bass player. — Mike Gordon

I actually met Chick Corea in New York, where I was staying with a bass player friend. — Miroslav Vitous

So the whole basis for jazz music is based on the fact that the bass player could not play his instrument. — Miroslav Vitous

You have to understand that the bass guitar is the party instrument. It only has four strings. If you see a bass player playing five strings, take your shoe off and throw it at him. — Keith Morris

I knew Glenn Frey. He called me up in 1977 and told me The Eagles were looking for a bass player, preferably someone who could write and had a high voice. That was me. — Timothy B. Schmit

I love playing with Jeff. That's something I never really say in the press, but he's my favorite bass player. I've played right next to him for 10 years. — Mike McCready

I'm the quiet bass player. — Colin Hanks

When The Murderdolls started it was a really cool thing, especially for me because I had never done anything on that scale before. Even for our drummer and bass player it was their first really big band. — Wednesday 13

It's really not a stretch. The checks and balances are the same. The drums are the executive branch. The jazz orchestra is the legislative branch. Logic and reason are like jazz solos. The bass player is the judicial branch. One our greatest ever is Milt Hinton, and his nickname is "The Judge." — Wynton Marsalis

My dad taught me to play bass. He's a bass player; he still plays in a band in Michigan to this day. He taught me to play bass when I was about 6. I used to just go to band practice with him, and whoever didn't show up for rehearsal that day, I would take their spot. — Mayer Hawthorne

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

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

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

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

Lately Fish and I have been hooking up more, which is a good thing because it's just been a struggle for me as a bass player to play with someone who's so creative on the drums, and lately it's been really good, especially during sound checks. — Mike Gordon

In Conclusion

Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of bass players quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about bass players to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.

Citation

Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of bass players quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.

Embed HTML Link

Copy and paste this HTML code in your webpage