James Jamerson

The BEST bassist ever.... all these new one trick ponies will NEVER be what Jamerson was, and still is, to music and bass playing.

after watching  Mike Watt talk about James Jamerson. I had to check it out for myself. and i am not disappointed its fucking amazing

I Love this and must play it every day!
i had a 1961 Fender Precision bass i sold it in 1985 for $400 i guess i wanted to be cool with a new bass but now i see i was just young and stupid ! it was exactly like jamersons to the T.
My father gave it to me as my first bass along with a fender bassman amp
Sold that as well. :(

@surfmcgoogler. Good comment - All the best with your bass playing. I have just started to play electric bass, aged 51!

There was this one ''vocalist'' who told me that the bass is not an important musical instrument and a second later his friend asked me why my bands songs always sounded ''different''.

The keys, guitars and drums constantly plays the same, but hey me the bassist constantly plays somethin' 'different'.

must not have been much of a vocalist to say that. I guess ignorance truly IS bliss...

DID Jamerson write this bass line or did he just have to play it? I'm curious how this all worked. I'm new to music and bass and this intrigues me.

Most likely,he was given the chord changes and made up the bass line as he read the changes.

The Motown arrangers would write out a part for Jamerson on lined sheet music. He would usually take one look at it and say, 'Hey, are you trying to write what I play?" then he would either rip it up or throw it on the floor then just do his thing - That;s what the producers wanted. Studio sheet music parts writtten for James are quite rare. Luckily I happen to have one framed on my wall. It's a great connection and also makes me very proud every time I look at it.

See if you can aquire the "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" DVD. It provides an in-depth perspective as to how many of the songs were created and performed.