Bassists Who Never Were
A bit of Friday fun! So, we here a lot about famous bassists… You know the names! But what about the famous non-bassists? Which famous people out there are actually closet bassists? Can we out a few of them?!?
Someone forwarded me this video, which is a mash up of audio from London’s world-famous Mayor, Boris Johnson. It is now on the front page of Youtube’s UK music chart (All proceeds to Macmillan Cancer Care). Boris Johnson vs 2 Anonymous DJs contains, towards the end, the startling revolution that Boris was actually, well nearly, a bassist!
“A guy who was in a band, said listen, I think you have the makings of a bass guitarist. And he gave me a bass guitar and I spent a long time mastering Smoke on the Water, but nothing else. But it was a disaster”
So close! Any other famous bassists who never were?
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What about Governor Mike Huckabee, he’s a bassist who never was famous, or is that not the same thing? I guess not.
LOL… I’ll have to go look him up
How about Keanu Reeves and his band Dogstar?
There’s also Malcolm Jamal-Warner from the Cosby Show and Gary Sinise aka. Lieutenant Dan from Forest Gump
Keanu Reeves too.
But based on the reply above, I may be misunderstanding the concept of ‘bassists that never were’ as well…
The yield with bass players will never be as good as with e.g. sax or guitar players.
Bass players are not the type of people who want to be up-front, thus less likely to become famous.
I know lots of excellent designers and copywriters playing bass, though.
Ben:
This is probably a bit off topic, (OK, it’s totally off topic) but I wrote a post about nervousness and being on stage – Pink Champaign On The Ceiling, Pink Champaign On Ice. I wonder if you have any stories to share? I’ll link them to my post if you want.
Thanks in advance.
Mike aka Sonicfrog.
OMG, there are so many closet bassists!
Bassist, keep the harmony!
I found the nice information from this article and the video.
Haha.Nice post.I saw someone mentioned Keanu?
And who could forget Tom the Cat on doghouse bass?
http://scottthong.files.wordpress.com/2006/11/solidserenadeyoutube2.JPG?w=450&h=330
True, most bassists don’t get/like the lime light. But there are excellent bassists like Billy Sheehan from Mr. Big(the band doesnt exist now I guess) who knows how to grab the center stage.
Mark Strong (British actor in Stardust, Sherlock Holmes and RocknRolla) is another one. Used to play bass in a punk band in school, apparently. He wanted a career in music but ended up going into acting instead.
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I know some great ones who have somehow avoided the spotlight I’ll list them, we might know who they are….but the general public no.
1. Jerry Barnes- Chic
2. Nate Phillips – Pleasure
3. Gary Grainger – Scofield and Pockets(70s)
4. Buddy Hankerson – Slave
5. Aaron Mills – Cameo
6. Thomas Rissell (DKMarlowe on youtube) Playbassnow.com – Teacher
7, Anthony Wellington – Victor Wooten – Teacher
Ross, that link didn’t work.
@nexusvision – Nice list, I shall go and check them out – I know of Thomas Rissell – he’s pretty prolific with his youtube videos!
Hey. Great blog! Love this article. I got a bass blog too at http://thefatbass.wordpress.com. Check it out if you’re interested.