{"id":707047,"date":"2026-07-23T12:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T12:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/707047\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T12:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T12:30:12","slug":"the-bassist-lemmy-said-was-out-of-everybodys-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/707047\/","title":{"rendered":"The bassist Lemmy said was out of everybody’s league"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lemmy<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Rama<\/p>\n

Thu 23 July 2026 9:21, UK <\/p>\n

As the bassist and frontman of Mot\u00f6rhead, Lemmy Kilmister<\/a> became a sort of human altar of hard rock iconography. If one thing is for certain, he certainly didn\u2019t adhere to the notion that the bass is only there to add some rhythm to the background. Throughout his career, he took to the stage like a marauding aural empire.<\/p>\n

With this unique thundering sound, he proved to be a very singular force within the music industry, but even a behemoth like Lemmy was not without his own heroes. In an interview with Bass Player back in 2003, the whisky swigging rocker shone a light on the masters of the four-string that had inspired over the years. <\/p>\n

The first player he chose to mention was the Red Hot Chili Peppers\u2019 hopping mad rhythm section maestro, Flea. As Lemmy proclaimed: \u201cI think he\u2019s very good indeed. Excellent. He\u2019s an innovator and what he does stands out.\u201d <\/p>\n

The next name to receive the approval of the bass overlord was Jet Harris. Harris started out as the bassist in The Shadows, a short-lived British band with a string of pioneering singles between 1958 and 1962; before he formed a rhythm duo with drummer Tony Meehan, he truly put bass front and centre. <\/p>\n

This idea of bringing bass to the foreground was clearly a mandate for Lemmy, who said of Harris: \u201cVery innovative for his time, given the band he was in. He gave me the idea that the bass player didn\u2019t have to stand at the back.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Lemmy<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Alejandro P\u00e1ez<\/p>\n

However, when it comes to innovation and iconoclast of the bass, they don\u2019t come any more defiant than Carole Kaye<\/a>. Hers might not be a name that registers in circles outside of the music nerd fraternity, but there is a fat chance that just about everyone in the western world has heard her play at one point in their lives. <\/p>\n

She has played on<\/a> so many songs, in fact, that nobody knows the exact figure with the accepted rounded total standing at 10,000. And being a Los Angeles session musician in the 1960s means that a fair chunk of that whopping number are bonafide classics. <\/p>\n

Lemmy\u2019s assessment was as glowing as you might expect for a trailblazer who transposed her jazz styling into fluid pop melodies. \u201cI liked her. She was a housewife who used to do all the Motown stuff,\u201d He said. \u201cShe was great, a fuckin\u2019 outstanding woman. She\u2019d clock out of the house in the morning, play a bit of bass and then clock back in for teatime and feed the kids! Fuckin\u2019 amazing!\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking across Lemmy\u2019s choices, a clear pattern begins to emerge. Rather than celebrating musicians for flawless technique alone, he consistently gravitated towards players who expanded the role of the bass within a band. Whether through Flea\u2019s explosive energy, Jet Harris\u2019 commanding stage presence or Carole Kaye\u2019s melodic inventiveness, each challenged the notion that the instrument existed merely to underpin the guitars.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s little surprise that those qualities found their way into Mot\u00f6rhead\u2019s music. Lemmy\u2019s own bass playing was built around occupying sonic territory traditionally reserved for rhythm guitar, driving songs with distortion, aggression and unmistakable personality.<\/p>\n

Occupying the top two spots in the list are Paul McCartney and John Entwistle. As Lemmy told Revolver in 2002: \u201cI love John Entwistle of the Who. Best bass player I ever saw, Entwistle! McCartney\u2019s the second, though. He keeps giving in to the wimp in him, but he\u2019s a great bass player.\u201d<\/p>\n

He later went on to further his praise for Entwistle, stating: \u201cThe best bass player on the face of the earth. He was the best for me, no contest. He was so in command of his instrument. You never saw him flicker. Never a bum note that I ever heard. And he was so fast, both hands going like hell. The bass solo in \u2018My Generation\u2019, you still tie yourself in knots trying to do it now. You can work it out, but it was another thing thinking it up. And that was back in 1964!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mot\u00f6rhead icon Lemmy\u2019s six favourite bassists of all time:FleaJet HarrisBill WymanCarol KayePaul McCartneyJohn Entwistle <\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Rama Thu 23 July 2026 9:21, UK As the bassist and frontman of Mot\u00f6rhead,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[43573,234506,96,42017,77942,36229,128,6470,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-707047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-bass","tag-carol-kaye","tag-entertainment","tag-john-entwistle","tag-lemmy-kilmister","tag-motorhead","tag-music","tag-paul-mccartney","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}