10 Greatest Bass Players In Rock Music History
6. Les Claypool - Primus
The primary role of the bass player normally just comes down to making the rest of the band look good. If you're playing exactly what you're supposed to be playing, the sounds of the guitars and drums are going to lock in with each other and sound immaculate. But what if you tried it from the other way around and had the bass be the driving force instead?
From the getgo, Primus always had sort of an ass-backwards way of doing things, down to their albums being named things like Pork Soda and Sailing the Seas of Cheese. Once you got past the strange factor though, you were in for a hell of a time when listening to Les Claypool, who practically committed domestic assault on his bass strings in every single song.
Just one listen to Jerry Was a Race Car Driver will tell you everything you need to know, especially when he starts putting tapping licks as the main draw of the song. By the looks of it, Larry Lalonde just seemed to give up trying to be the star player of the group, going more for sonic textures that made things that much weirder whenever you threw on their records. Then again, when you have someone who's this much of a monster behind their instrument, it's probably best just to stay out of the way.