I reckon I could passably have a go at Astronomy Domine mate...early Pink Floyd is usually pretty straight forward to play. One of the first songs I ever performed with a band in front of an audience was a Pink Floyd song at school... The Nile Song. We had a laugh and went completely OTT with the whole shebang - we built a drum riser so high you could only see the bass drums (it was a theater style picture frame stage) and teh singer was dressed in a pink tutu, pit boots and leather WW1 flying helmet and goggles.
The Who bass lines on the other hand are a nightmare. Big John was a master bass player with a percussive style that was a bugger to match. Big John was the reason I used to prefer Explorer shaped basses....somewhere to lean your right arm.
A bass player I love is Hook from New Order.... a great player and I love the round your ankles way of slinging a bass...great heavy overdriven sound as well.
New Model Army can be a swine too - try learning this one
I saw a great version of that with news feeds of the Murdoch scandal spliced in... "I belive in justice/ I believe in vengance.....I belive in getting the bastards!"
The stuff I used to play with Decomposition was more like this....sort fo Levellers style electric folk stomp with a heavy fiddle input
The real killer though is Rush....learning one of their songs really separates the good from the moderate bass players....I could never master their stuff. I love Gedddy Lee's old Rickenbacker 4001 sound - like playing bass with a length of lead pipe. He plays some custom Fender-a-like now tho. Love the South Park intro on this
This is one of my favorite bass sounds and lines - Pino Pallidino at his best
That said the most amazing bass player Ive ever seen is Stu Hamm, who jams with Joe Satriani. This is one of his....live he plays all the bass parts at the same time...a sight to behold. He was the first bloke I saw use a 6 and 8 string bass in rock music.
Bass can be pretty easy if you have big enough hands, but to play at the level of John Entwistle or Geddy Lee is what separates the men from the boys. I was never close to that standard....competent and solid but never great. Some of the Thai guys round town make me gren with envy....proper bass players.
