Great Rock Bassists your Top 10.Rock not Jazz. But Hey what about Reggae

@tylermunns 

Thanks for the clarification. I feel the same way about “Sheer technical proficiency".

The guitarists you mention and their ilk have never appealed to me because they fail to engage me emotionally.  I find watching them more akin to witnessing an athletic competition than experiencing art. They do enjoy a very devoted following, though. 

Clarke was much more unambiguously Jazz-oriented early on in his career. For example, he was a member of the first (mostly) acoustic iteration of Return to Forever that released "Return to Forever" and "Light as a Feather". His playing in that group was much more supportive and does not display the extroverted Funk influenced "lead bass" approach for which he's best known. 

I have no idea whether you would enjoy these recordings and I'm not attempting to champion Clarke by any means-- simply pointing out that there is stylistic  variation in his discography. 

@stuartk - there were a few mentions of Phil farther up the thread.... 

@larsman 

👍

@stuartk The way described those kinds of guitar players is exactly the way I feel about them. 

@sidog1460 Have you ever checked out Louis Johnson on these songs:

”Strawberry Letter 23,” “Stomp!” - Brothers Johnson

”Get On the Floor” - Michael Jackson

”The Dude” - Quincy Jones

Just ridiculously great stuff.

I personally don’t view popular music with such strict adherence to labels.  Why would Flea be more “rock” than Larry Graham?  What does it matter?  
Notions of labeling and applying music to a “genre” helps marketing executives make more money, they don’t help anyone else.  Such notions don’t help artists effectively communicate their ideas, and they don’t really help music fans assemble and disseminate great music for themselves or their friends.

Pretty much all popular music of the last 60-odd years is a result of the Rock and Roll Explosion of the mid-to-late 1950s.  Sure, traditional bluegrass, for instance, continued into the Rock and Roll Era, but even that is arguably a building block of rock and roll, and rock and roll is essentially the universe we’ve been living in, popular-music-wise, for the 60-odd years.

“Popular Music” and “Rock and Roll” are essentially synonymous to me.  Reggae, hip-hop, metal, etc.  Verse-chorus-repeat, middle section (solo or bridge or interlude) and that’s about it. It’s all the same s***, just different flavors.