Brilliant musicians who stood in the background

I was just listening to REM, and am pretty convinced that bassist Mike Mills is/was probably one of the, if not the greatest, bassists in rock.

Think ‘Texarkana’, for example, in which he both plays bass and sings lead vocals.

Just superb. Anyone noticed him before?

John Deacon from queen, stunningly good player and wrote great songs and vocals

Dominic Miller, stings guitarist, just one of the classiest players ever

If it’s members of bands as opposed to sidemen/session players, is this just going to be a long list of great bassists? 😉

james jamerson

Dave hill from Slade !!!!

Good shout for Mike Mills.
First person I thought of was Martin Rebelski -Doves and Black Rivers.

Bill Shanley

Frank Beard.

Hidden behind the larger than life frontmen, he still rocks!

Tony Levin, Lee Sklar, Gail Ann Dorsey, Ewan Vernal – where do I stop?

Sidemen – Paul Turner maybe?

Topper.

Wrote some great songs, excellent drummer and was the luke warm water between Strummer and Jones.

What is it about heroin and drummers BTW?
I’ve heard several, including Charlie Watts & Ginger Baker saying how perfectly it complimented what they did.

james jamerson

Arguably the most influential session musician in history. When you follow the lineage of blues influenced music since the ’50s (that’s basically everything bar orchestral music) you hear him everywhere: R&B, soul, funk, rocksteady, reggae, ska, rock, metal, hip hop, pop, etc…

Erlend Krauser.

John Paul Jones.

Nick McCabe, the guitarist from The Verve.

The Irish lad from 1-D. Strums a mean acoustic and really brings their songs to life.

Topper.

Wrote some great songs, excellent drummer and was the luke warm water between Strummer and Jones.

Not just write – he’d all but finished recording some of them before the rest of the band staggered into the studio on one or two occasions

Dave Stewart?

Martin Rebelski

middle name roman if you thought his name couldn’t be cooler 🙂 I was at university with him and we played in a funk band, he was bloody good even then

here’s another – Manu Katche, listen to the drums on Red Rain by Peter Gabriel, it’s a first take piece of class

Maceo Parker – so influential, and that guy you don’t realise he’s played on so much funky sh1t, even Groove is in the Heart gets the Maceo and Fred Wesley sparkle

actually thinking about it – Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode, Yazzoo, Erasure, so much electronica has been influenced by him as he innovated a lot of synth programming

Steve Cropper.
Wrote and played on so many songs we just take for granted without ever shoving himself forwards.

There was a film about backing singers to famous bands I think it’s here; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2396566/

Go on then, Tony Peluso – Carpenters 🙂

Jack Bruce in cream
Legend

Except Jack Bruce stood at the front singing the lead vocal, playing the loudest bass guitar anyone had ever heard and writing most of the songs! Bloody brilliant though…

I’m often wary of these ‘greatest musician’ threads…..and this one is a real minefield…..I have no idea of the names of some of the musicians that I’d include in this list….they’re just session musicians that knock most of the ‘stars’ that they play with out of the park in terms of playing ability!

Of the known names….James Jameson is a good shout, as is Carole Kaye. Pino Palladino and Steve Jordan more recently….Gilson Lavis too….

Like I say though, people whose names I’ve never heard….Janelle Monae’s keyboard player, John Mayer’s sax player a few years back, 1-D’s live drummer is VERY good.

Roy Bittan – keyboards for the E Street Band.

Mix Master Mike is another.

Keith Christmas.

Has to be Bez for me.

Dave hill from Slade !!!!
Hahahahahahahahahaha!

Mike Mills is an amazing backing singer too, his harmonies are sublime.

Here are a few of mine, looks like a super group in the making!

Angelo Bruschini, former Blue Aeroplanes guitarist, genius electric 12 string riffery.

Kenny Withrow, New Bohemians guitarist, jaw dropping.

Ric Menck, Velvet Crush. Best drummer ever.

Lou Barlow, Dino Jr and Sebadoh, fuzz bass supremo.

Jean-Paul Gaster, the drummer from Clutch.
John Myung: bassist for Dream Theater.

This guy, Steve Clark from Def Leppard.
Just a true to heart, rhythm/solo guitarist.
Sadly no longer with us.

Cory Henry (keyboards) and Larnell Lewis (drums).

looky here

In fact, everyone who’s ever played with Snarky Puppy is awesome…

one more…

This guy, Steve Clark from Def Leppard.

Whilst Steve Clark could be accused of many things, “standing in the background” is not one of them.

In fact thinking about it, in the Steamin’ Steve Clark days the one who was standing in the background whilst completely knocking it out of the park was Phil Collen.

John Entwistle, bassist for The Who (obvs.)
http://youtu.be/aESPUNm38Ow

How about Andy Fraser of free.

I know nothing about drumming, but Matt Tong from Bloc Party and Jose Pasillas from Incubus sound great to me.

Alex Katunich from Incubus is a cracking bass player, especially the earlier funk/acid rock. Stuart Zender from Jamiroquai is another great bass player. Simon Gallup’s simple style has influenced many current bands (e.g. Interpol)

HansRey – Member
I Stuart Zender from Jamiroquai is another great bass player.

Paul Turner’s with Jamiroquai now….

Murph, from Dinosaur Jr, is a damned impressive drummer, but he’s not really in the background, or at least, he wasn’t when I saw them in Bristol last time.
Jon Camp, bassist with Renaissance from 1972 – 1985 was an amazing bass guitarist, very tuneful, not unlike Chris Squire. While Annie Haslam, their singer, wasvery easy on the eye, with a fabulous voice, I did tend to find myself watching Jon almost as much, because of his playing.