Worst Bass?

Not true. SOMEone had to invent the standard way of playing it. My lack of knowledge or history of bass players disallows me to know who exactly, but still it stands. I mean, who was the first person to slap? There you go. Innovation. What new thing did Colin Greenwood do?

Actually, your caveman statement is pretty close to what I think, just not so exagerated. I mean, everyone draws influences from places and there must have been an origin. But anyway, I've only been talking about innovation so far. The way I judge a bassist is by his innovation (as we've been talking about), creativity (in terms of writing the music and what notes are played, such and such), technique/skill (not much to explain), and cooperation with the entire band (assuming there are other artists). By my standards, Colin Greenwood only meets the last one. That's all I'm saying. And I disagree with your statement about the physical technique in slapping. What do you mean by it? What I was saying was, someone thought of playing the bass in a certain way that sounded good, and people followed suit in some way or another.

In the wide spectrum of the bass community, if someone had done it before, it wouldn't be innovative, even if you didn't know about them. In the spectrum of your musical community, it would be innovative.

While there aren't different kinds of innovation, there are different levels of which that innovation can influence others. In the grand scheme of things, Larry Graham created the "thumb-'n'-pluck" method (slap and pop). Therefore, indirectly, he influences everybody else who uses that technique for playing. Directly, however, he only influences those bass players who know of him, and learned the technique from him. That's the way it works.

I mean, in my own experiences, I have been directly influenced in some ways by only a few bass players.

Flea influenced me to play slap and pop and fingerstyle, and with wah.
Victor Wooten influenced me to play tapping style and harmonics.
John Entwistle influenced me to jam and play crazy stuff.
Chris Squire influenced me to play pick-style.
Chris Wolstenholme influenced me to play with distortion/effects.
Tony Levin influenced me to realize that I don't need to be in the forefront of the song for it to sound awesome.

Those are my direct influences. Obviously, those are not the true innovators of those kinds of playing. But they were my direct influences, and, so, they seemed innovative to me. In the grand scheme of things (as related to bass), however, only some of them were actually innovative.

While, by the strictest definition, innovation and creativity are basically synonymous, in music, innovation usually involves techniques of playing, while creativity has to do with the creation of the music itself. So, just because someone is creative with their music doesn't necessarily mean they are innovative on the whole.

But yes.

*wanders off, whistling*

Hah! Man, I wish. No, I've never met any of them. But that doesn't mean that I didn't learn from them. Equal parts listening to them play, watching them play, learning the techniques they use, playing their songs with said techniques, and then expanding on that knowledge.

I learned the stuff directly from them. But they've never directly taught me. Pretty crazy, if you think about it.

i don't like deftones bass player. His lines are not interesting.

Ok, this goes out to some of you guys, playing root notes does not make a bass player bad. If it fits the music best, you play it, simple as that. Imagine a fall out boy verse with Pete slapping 100mph underneath. You'd think, wow he can really play but the music would sound awful

btw i am not a Fall out Boy fan

The "root note" is indeed a root; one that should be grown into a tree of melodic and complementary notes comprising a decently interesting bassline. Most "radio rock" bands neglect to realize this.

Just about any band on any new-rock or Top 40 station, aside from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and a few other exceptions. One of the many reasons I don't really like listening to the radio.

Anyone who says AC/DC is an idiot. Not because the bassist is good (he blows). We are listing good bands that have a bad bassist, not shitty cookie-cutter bands who spew shit from their instruments.

if only the doors had a bass player :X

Contrary to what most bassists think, the one basists I couldn't stand are those who play virtuosso just for the sake of it. I'd rather have a 8/8 supporting bass than a 5 minute bass solo
Now, don't get me wrong, there are those 3 piece bands (Or musicians) whose guitar player might be more relaxed or playing arrangements and the bass needs to be lead (RHCP, Grandfunk, Audioslave, etc) and I love'em. It's just that I can't stand the lack of feeling to a song. We're there to enhance and unite after all, innit?

Trick question. There is no such thing as bad bass.