100 Great Bass Riffs Played in One Epic Take: Covers 60 Years of Rock, Jazz and R&B

Back in June, our very own Josh Jones took us on an audio tour of five great rock bassists, break­ing down the styles of Paul McCart­ney, Sting, John Dea­con, John Paul Jones & Ged­dy Lee. If you got into the groove of that post, you’ll almost cer­tain­ly enjoy watch­ing bassist Marc Naj­jar, accom­pa­nied by Nate Bau­man on drums, tak­ing you through 100 great bass riffs. The rhythm duo cov­ers 60 years of music his­to­ry, in 17 min­utes, just above.

The riffs were notably per­formed in one con­tin­u­ous take, with a Sand­berg Umbo HCA Crème bass. (Find more gear used in the video here.) And the clip was put togeth­er by the Chica­go Music Exchange, the same folks who assem­bled the 2012 viral video, A His­to­ry of Rock ‘n’ Roll in 100 Gui­tar Riffs. They also sold me a sweet acoustic gui­tar that same year.

You can find a com­plete list of the riffs, and the songs from which they came, below. (Click the “more” link to see them, if they’re not already vis­i­ble.)  Please note that the bass sounds a lit­tle mut­ed at the out­set, but it quick­ly comes to the fore.

1) Fats Domi­no — Ain’t That a Shame — 0:00
2) Charles Min­gus — Hait­ian Fight Song — 0:14
3) Hen­ry Manci­ni — Peter Gunn — 0:19
4) Book­er T & The MGs — Green Onions — 0:27
5) Ben E. King — Stand By Me — 0:34
6) Wil­son Pick­ett — Mid­night Hour — 0:42
7) Beach Boys — Cal­i­for­nia Girls — 0:50
8) The Who — My Gen­er­a­tion — 0:59
9) Her­bie Han­cock — Bring Down the Birds — 1:04
10) The Bea­t­les — Tax­man — 1:11
11) Jef­fer­son Air­plane — White Rab­bit — 1:16
12) Otis Red­ding — Dock of the Bay — 1:26
13) The Four Tops — Bernadette — 1:36
14) Jimi Hen­drix Expe­ri­ence — Fire — 1:43
15) Cream — Sun­shine of Your Love — 1:56
16) Iron But­ter­fly — In a Gad­da Da Vida — 2:05
17) Rolling Stones — Jumpin’ Jack Flash — 2:12
18) Jack­son 5 — I Want You Back — 2:19
19) Led Zep­pelin — Ram­ble On — 2:29
20) Led Zep­pelin — Moby Dick — 2:41
21) All­man Broth­ers Band — Whip­ping Post — 2:50
22) George Bak­er — Lit­tle Green Bag — 2:57
23) Chica­go — 25 or 6 to 4 — 3:06
24) Black Sab­bath — N.I.B. — 3:18
25) Jethro Tull — Aqualung — 3:27
26) Charles Wright — Express Your­self — 3:33
27) Yes — Heart Of The Sun­rise — 3:43
28) Mar­vin Gaye — What’s Goin’ On — 3:53
29) Cur­tis May­field — Push­er­man — 4:01
30) Lou Reed — Walk On The Wild Side — 4:09
31) Bob Mar­ley — Stir It Up — 4:20
32) Steve Miller — The Jok­er — 4:26
33) Pink Floyd — Mon­ey — 4:32
34) Tow­er Of Pow­er — What Is Hip? — 4:39
35) Her­bie Han­cock — Chameleon — 4:49
36) Sly & The Fam­i­ly Stone — If you Want me To Stay — 5:08
37) The Artistic/The Talk­ing Heads — Psy­cho Killer — 5:17
38) Aero­smith — Sweet Emo­tion — 5:25
39) War — Lowrid­er — 5:40
40) Jaco Pas­to­rius — Come On, Come Over — 5:47
41) Ste­vie Won­der — Sir Duke — 5:59
42) Thin Lizzy — The Boys Are Back In Town — 6:18
43) The Com­modores — Brick House — 6:30
44) Par­lia­ment — Flash­light — 6:39
45) The Damned — Neat Neat Neat — 6:50
46) Gra­ham Cen­tral Sta­tion — Pow — 7:00
47) Elvis Costel­lo — Pump It Up — 7:07
48) Grate­ful Dead — Fire On The Moun­tain — 7:14
49) Gang Of Four — Ether — 7:26
50) The Clash — Lon­don Call­ing — 7:38
51) The Clash — Guns Of Brix­ton — 7:44
52) The Spe­cials — Gang­sters — 7:55
53) Police — Mes­sage In A Bot­tle — 8:02
54) Chic — Good Times — 8:15
55) Queen — Anoth­er one Bites the Dust — 8:24
56) Joy Divi­sion — Love Will Tear Us Apart — 8:32
57) Motor­head — Ace Of Spades — 8:45
58) Rush — YYZ — 8:56
59) King Crim­son — Thela Hun Gin­jeet — 9:12
60) Rick James — Super Freak — 9:19
61) The Jam — Town Called Mal­ice — 9:26
62) Michael Jack­son — Bil­lie Jean — 9:35
63) Iron Maid­en — Run To The Hills — 9:43
64) New Order — Blue Mon­day — 10:04
65) Metal­li­ca — Ori­on — 10:16
66) Megadeth — Peace Sells — 10:32
67) Anthrax — Caught In A Mosh — 10:39
68) The Cure — Just Like Heav­en — 10:49
69) Fish­bone — Bonin’ In The Bone­yard 11:02
70) Liv­ing Colour — Cult of Per­son­al­i­ty — 11:10
71) Chili Pep­pers — High­er Ground — 11:20
72) Primus — Tom­my the Cat — 11:27
73) Chili Pep­pers — Give It Away — 11:36
74) Jesus Lizard — Nub — 11:46
75) Ozzy Osbourne — No More Tears — 11:53
76) Rage Against The Machine — Bomb­track — 12:01
77) Pearl Jam — Jere­my — 12:20
78) Nir­vana — Come As You Are — 12:34
79) The Breed­ers — Can­non­ball — 12:41
80) Sleep — Drag­o­naut — 12:50
81) Soundgar­den — The Day I Tried to Live — 12:57
82) Green Day — Longview — 13:10
83) Weez­er — Only In Dreams — 13:24
84) Fail­ure — Heliotrop­ic — 13:35
85) Jamiro­quai — Vir­tu­al Insan­i­ty — 13:50
86) Erykah Badu (Ron Carter) — Tyrone — 14:00
87) Vic­tor Wooten — Me and My Bass Gui­tar — 14:12
88) Daft Punk — Around The World — 14:20
89) Primus — Lac­quer Head — 14:36
90) Tool — Schism — 14:44
91) Dream The­ater — The Test That Stumped Them All — 14:56
92) Muse — Hys­te­ria — 15:01
93) DFA 1979 — Turn It Out — 15:11
94) Bro­ken Social Scene — 7/4 (Shore­line) — 15:30
95) Goril­laz — Feel Good, Inc — 15:42
96) LCD Soundsys­tem — Daft Punk Is Play­ing At My House — 15:54
97) MGMT — Elec­tric Feel — 16:08
98) Tame Impala — Ele­phant — 16:22
99) Daft Punk — Get Lucky — 16:37
100) QOTSA — My God Is The Sun — 16:52

via Metafil­ter