Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

On Bass... Tina Weymouth!

Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club celebrates the contribution of bass to popular music, tracing its progress from doo-wop to drum and bass, grime and beyond.

Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club celebrates the extraordinary contribution of bass to popular music, tracing its progress from street-corner doo-wop and the overlooked ‘guy at the back’ in rock ‘n’ roll, via Paul McCartney, the anonymous James Jamerson and Carol Kaye - whose genius bass lines underpinned The Beatles, Motown and LA sound respectively - British jazzer Herbie Flowers’s immortal line in Walk on the Wild Side, the emergence of 70s funky bass stars Bootsy Collins and Chic’s Bernard Edwards, the driving lead bass of postpunk maverick Peter Hook in both Joy Division and New Order, through to the growth of bass culture in reggae, whose sound systems sparked whole new genres in drum and bass, grime and beyond.

With Bootsy Collins, Dizzee Rascal, Ray Parker Jr, Nile Rodgers, Peter Hook, Carol Kaye, Herbie Flowers, Valerie Simpson, The Marcels’ Fred Jonson, DJ Aphrodite and Gail Ann Dorsey.

59 minutes

Music Played

  • Talking Heads

    Once In A Lifetime

  • Chic

    Good Times

  • Queen

    Under Pressure

  • Miles Davis Sextet

    So What - Original

  • Talking Heads

    Once In A Lifetime

  • Elvis Presley

    Heartbreak Hotel

  • The Collegians

    Zoom Zoom Zoom

  • Booker T. & The M.G.'s

    Soul Dressing

  • Booker T. & The M.G.'s

    Mo' Onions

  • The Beatles

    Rain

  • The Beatles

    Something

  • Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

    Going To A Go-Go

  • Stevie Wonder

    For Once In My Life

  • Stevie Wonder

    For Once In My Life

  • Stevie Wonder

    I Was Made To Love Her

  • Stevie Wonder

    I Was Made To Love Her

  • Nancy Sinatra

    Sugar Town

  • Simon & Garfunkel

    Homeward Bound

  • The Beach Boys

    Heroes And Villains

  • Sonny & Cher

    The Beat Goes On

  • Cream

    Sunshine Of Your Love

  • Henry Mancini & His Orchestra

    The Pink Panther Theme

  • David Bowie

    Space Oddity

  • James Brown & The Famous Flames

    Can You (Feel It)

  • James Brown

    Devil's Den

  • Lou Reed

    Walk On The Wild Side

  • James Brown

    Soul Power 74

  • Grace Jones

    Peanut Butter

  • Aswad

    Back to Africa

  • The Wailers

    Concrete Jungle (Dub Version) (Dj Remix)

  • Max Romeo, The Upsetters

    Chase The Devil

  • Augustus Pablo

    King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown

  • Talking Heads

    Burning Down The House

  • Chic

    Good Times

  • Chic

    Everybody Dance

  • Ramones

    Blitzkrieg Bop

  • James Brown

    Cold Sweat

  • Joy Division

    New Dawn Fades

  • Joy Division

    Love Will Tear Us Apart

  • New Order

    Everything's Gone Green

  • New Order

    Blue Monday

  • LFO

    LFO

  • Dizzee Rascal

    Bassline Junkie

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Tina Weymouth
Executive Producer Mark Cooper

Broadcasts