Here are two of my favourite, hypnotic bass lines. One is sampled and used a lot, the other is rarely heard, and really should be used as the basis for something by someone soon (please).
Walking in the Wind on When The Eagle Flies, Traffic's last album set a great mood. The bass is played by Rosko Gee. What a groove. The second is Stratus from Spectrum by Billy Cobham. After 2-3 minutes of drum solo and moog accompaniment, the song hits its stride. The bass is played by Lee Sklar (the same Lee Sklar of the Section or a later Phil Collins band). It's just awesome, and rightly sampled by Massive Attack for Safe From Harm. Consequently, it turns up a lot.
I'd be prepared to listen to either of these on a tape loop all night.
Do you have any more suggestions?
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check out the opening bass line on the Smithereens "Blood and Roses". It doesn't last long (it does flow throughout as accompaniment though), but it sure is S-W-E-E-T!
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Anything by Cymande. or Scorpio by Dennis Coffey
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Ummm OK. What about Safe from Harm by Massive Attack:
And I know this is a bit off topic and not technically a bass line, but surely, surely the most hypnotic riff of all time:
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I'm a sucker for Bootsy era James Brown. The bass lines in Superbad, Sex Machine, Talking Loud and a slew of others....magic. But if hypnotic is the criterion, The Big Payback nails it well.
PS: That Lee Sklar loop is a right hooligan sound.
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I have a somewhat more prosaic take - although one that is informed by having, at one point, been a bass player who took his shit pretty seriously. I would nominate almost any bassline James Jamerson, the immortal Motown bassist, ever recorded. For the sake of convenience, I'll just mention Martha and the Vandellas' "Nowhere To Run."
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MyNameIsRed, Yep. Massive Attack sampled Stratus on Safe From Harm, so it's Lee Sklar hypnotising you.
Radion Gnome, Cody B, More stuff I need to check out.
Jonh, Ivylander, Great suggestions. Going off to have a re-listen.
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one of the great bass lines is the transitional part phil lesh used to do on the Grateful Dead's classic Cryptical Envelopment>The Other One