Raven - John Gallagher's Top 9 Musical Influences By Celebrity Lists  [7 more lists]

Yes is a band I love, and Chris Squire is the main reason. The music of Yes is not supported by the bass, but it's built AROUND the bass -- many times over.

The bass plays the music in Yes, taking the "heavy" parts a guitar would normally play while the guitar & keyboards are vamping around the signature bass riffs.

Squire has a knack for playing "around" the song, almost, this guy does not sit pumping 8th notes on the root through the whole song.

Listen to a tour de force like "The Gates of Delirium". His fat treble-edged roar propels the band through an exhilarating 20 mins; ringing harmonics on the intro with almost E.S.P.-like coordination with drummer Alan White.

The riffs in the middle are truly amazing stuff! My particular fave is on a track from the "Relayer" album called "To Be Over". Near the end there's a run through of a simple D to E chord change, and then the next time around he goes way down playing a sustained F#. I know this is musicologist c**p, but you've gotta HEAR & feel this part to appreciate the genius of his choice of notes!

Part of the UK's long tradition of singing bass players, John's been in many bands - and has usually been the driving force.

As a kid I remembered a song by the called Family called "Burlesque" -- with its outrageous and over-the-top stop/start bass line just DRIPPING with funk.

I later discovered through a friend's sister the King Crimson album "Larks Tongues in Aspic", which pretty much blew my tiny 15 year old brain!

John's huge grungy precision bass drove this crazed ensemble of madmen into new territory. In truth, a lot of it was over my head, but I knew I would "get it" one day... and now I treasure those Crimson albums.

John was also the replacement for Gary Thain in Uriah Heep and I consider myself fortunate for getting to see him twice in that band (as well as U.K. another monster band!!!).

Simply amazing!

It was 1977 and a new band was coming to our home town -- Cheap Trick. There was a lot of press about the nutty guitarist with the 6000 guitars on stage. More impressive to me was the bass player with the 12 string bass. I thought to myself "WHAT? 12 STRING BASS???"

So, we went to the show and I was gobsmacked. The band put on one of the best shows I had ever seen. They rocked the house, had a great sense of humor and Tom's sound was akin to a 747 jet on takeoff. The way he used his instrument orchestrally, like a Beatles string section, was just genius. After seeing that, of course, I just HAD to get some form of multi-string bass IMMEDIATELY.

Zeppelin were SO influential..and right now, if you listen to Them Crooked Vultures, you'll realize a HUGE part of the Zeppelin sound was due to the quiet guy at the back. A monster instrumentalist who came up with killer riffs (Black Dog, anyone?) and locked in with the fury of John Bonham to create the most powerful rhythm section in rock.

To me, John Paul Jones was just plain smart. It was the little things, like where he'd leave out notes; like in "the Wanton Song" or in "Houses of the Holy" or the way he'd just go for it in "The Song Remains The Same". And and then when he got an 8 string he upped the game on songs like "Achilles' Last Stand' and "Nobody's Fault But Mine"... sheer bloody genius.