What makes great bass?

Hmmm. When I listen to music I usually hone in on the bass. Recently Ive tried to expandon my usual funk bass taste to listen to virtuoso stuff by the likes of Michael Manring, Victor Wooten, Dann Glenn et al. All very clever and brilliant musicianship. But, it doesnt move me.
To my ears, great bass has to be memorable and distinctive while at the same time driving a tune along and hitting you in the gut. If someone's gonna play bass like a guitar, why not just play the guitar instead? So, what are the great bass line classics? Off the top of my head I'd say

School days - Stan the Man
High on you - Sly and the Family Stone - not sure if it was Larry Graham on this one?
Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder -who played on this?
Hit me with your rhythm stick -Ian Dury and the Blockheads
Tears of a clown - in fact anything with James Jamerson playing

with you there! You can slap and pop on a guitar but only on the low strings and it doesn't sound so cool. A really good bass player can sound like they have a whole drum kit at their fingertips as well as a tuned instrument. personally I dig trebly bass with lots of percussive stuff and I also dig the warm soft slidy tones of fretless bass.
My favourite bass solo is possibly a Billy Sheehan one from the rush Tribute album "working man" on the cover of La Villa Strangiato. Geddy lee (from Rush) has written tons of top bass melodies. Of other mainstream rock bands the only other frequently bass lead group I can think of isPrimus, Les Claypool kicks swathes of ass. I don't really like them but Level 42's bassist Mark King is an absolutely awesome bass player. Another fave of mine is Stu Hamm who has written his own solo stuff as well as playing with Satriani.

Great bass album; Weather Report, Heavy Weather.

For some reason bass players never seem to put out good solo albums, they all seem too much focused on "look what I can do" and once you get beyond that the material just isn't that great. I prefer great bass players in ensemble situations, i.e. Wooten w/Bela Fleck, Stanely Clarke w/Return to Forever, Les w/Primus, etc..

The only album I ever enjoyed listening too on a musical standpoint put out by a bass player is Stanely Clarkes If this Bass could only Talk.

There's some excellent stuff on the Mark King Solo album "THe essential", the guys a staggering virtuoso but there's music happening as well!

I'm expecting some criticism here because I guess I really don't know that much about bass playing/players, but aside from that I just thought I should say that Flea from the RHCP's always blows my mind. That guy is an animal on the bass guitar, and if anyone is looking for some funk, listen to their album "Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik" you'll nearly overdose on funk, I had to go to the hospital.

Chris Mood here's put his finger on it. Most bass solo albums I've listended to have been pretty dull although I do really like Stu Hamm's 'Country music'. Unlike the guitar, which for me is often better heard as a solo instrument, the bass is best heard interplaying with other instruments. Just check out the interplay between Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson on Chic's stuff and Mark King and Boon Gould on some of the earlier Level 42 material like 'Love Games'.

Another point is that some of the most memorable bass lines have been quite simple e.g. as on Fleerwood Mac's 'The Chain', Pink Floyd's 'Money', 'Peaches' by The Stranglers and Chic's 'Good Times'.

I'm a big Wooten fan, and I heard Show Of Hands wasn't to bad, but What Did He Say was one of the worst cd's I ever bought, it really was torture just listening to it once, it makes me skeptical about purchasing another Wooten cd.

Didnt like either of those Wooten CDs myself, hence my original posting. Stuart Hamm' another example. Great player, but suspect solo efforts apart from a few tracks off 'Radio Free Albemuth'. Best sticking with Vai etc. The other thing is that some of the best bass players happen to play in some of the dullest groups -esp. jazz rock - which means it's a problem getting hold of any decent material of theirs.

You can hear some d*** good bass players by listening to the weather channel and music inside malls and mcdonalds and other places that play "Easy Listening" music. I don't watch any TV at all other than occasionally turning it on the weather channel just to hear some good music. Such a shame that such immense talent gets wasted by being played in places that no one really pays attention to the music...