What I like about Noel Redding is that his stuff was tasteful, it was about timing and tone and color. I can't help you out if you don't appreciate the Blues, and I don't know why you scored John Paul Jones at #17, he should've been listed higher. I don't know what you mean "he didn't dare to cross paths" they are playing music they're not playing hockey. A good band isn't about musician playing against each other, a good band is about musician playing together. Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell made up a decent rhythym section for Jimi. The most important part of musicianship isn't (only) about technical skill*, equipment, or popularity, it's about musicality, it's about creating good music.

*technical skills are important but it doesn't gaurantee good music.

What's list worthy to you? Popularity>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Musicianship?

even Noel Redding himself has admitted to not being that good of a bass player. he wanted to be one of those psychedelic guys who played 12 string electrics in a trippy pop folk act as evidenced by the tunes he penned for The Experience and his direct quote in a documentary about the recording of Electric Ladyland.

he DID feel resentment towards Hendrix, he wanted to lead a band, not be a hired gun. there was no way for that to happen within The Experience, so he stuck to doing his job - playing what he was told to play. The Experience was not a band started by a group of friends who jammed together like The Band of Gypsies, The Experience was put together by Chas Chandler to turn Hey Joe into a hit single that turned into 3 hit records.

Redding was very much just working a job, same as anyone else who walks into an office everyday.

did you hear the shit Jimi pulled on him though? after telling Noel exactly what to play and how to do it in studio, he'd complain about the take and say he did it wrong. when Noel got pissed and walked out of the studio Jimi would record the bass parts himself.

i could see why he acted like someone peed in his cheerios.

oh yeah, same with having a bunch of beggars and hangers-on partying in the studio when they're supposed to be having a recording session. same as just going ahead and recording overdubs when he felt like it (like the middle vamp in 'if 6 was 9')

Jimi was no saint but he was one hell of a musician. take him out of the picture and no one would have a clue who Noel Redding was. i get the impression there was a lot of passive aggressive tension in the studio, hendrix seemed to want (and be capable) of doing just about all of it himself. i figure things would have been smoother within the group had Redding only been hired to fill the role on stage instead of in the studio as well.

at the same time i wasn't even close to born at that point so i'm really just speculating hehehe

Hendrix being a guitar god goes without saying, and Mitchell was a fantastic drummer. But Redding never got between them, he just connected the dots in a way anyone could have done.

Originally Hendrix wanted Billy Cox to be the bassist for JHE but he declined, Hendrix was really desperate for a bass player, so he hired a guy who wasn't even a bass player, Redding was a guitarist. Hendrix gave him a bass and taught him the basics.

You could say he did his job, but he was so limited, and Hendrix was such an ambitious musician that those limitations sometimes held him back, the more and more experimental and complex Hendrix's music became, the lesser of a role Redding had, because he couldn't keep up. So Hendrix ended up playing the more complex bass parts on Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland.

He eventually got Cox to play with his Band of Gypsys. And when you listen to them, you can hear that bass a lot more clearly, it didn't distract you from what Jimi did, but you had a player who was confident enough in his playing and didn't have to lurk in the shadows.

actually i find Cox overplays a lot on the live Band of Gypsies album. he was a better fit for Hendrix as they had been army / jam buddies but i always get the impression he was trying to get people to notice him. like a big 'hey look at me i'm playing with Hendrix! WOOooo!'

hell, wouldn't you? :D

touché hahaha

It's not lurking in the shadows, it is called a bass, and it has low tones. Some bass players like flat wound other like round wound and signal processors, rergardless how it sound it what the bass player is doing, I don't think anyone in the world could of filled Noe's shoes, and still have the same recording, another bass player would play it differently. I think the only solution is to have Jimi Hendrix and Noel Redding mentioned with Billy Cox.

There's no crime of being a guitar player before picking up bass, other guitar players that switched to bass:
5. Paul McCartney
25. Carol Kaye
35. Paul Simonon

I don't know why Nick Lowe is left off the list, awesome bass player, and producer, and had a lasting effect on music imo because of it.

I can understand why you didn't have Dave Smythe, Bruce Foxton, and Andrew Bodnar, it's such obvious anti-British sentiment, that it needs no explaination.

But I don't get why Joe Osborn is not the list, because you topped the list with a session musician, I thought you would know them all.

Anti British?

I have Andy Rourke and Peter Hook in the top 50. :laughing:

They were just oversights, I'll update the list shortly.