Stray Cats

[Barely Oakley]

I'm sure this has been talked about already. Anyway, I play electric, not standup Bass and mostly Classic Rock (I did play standup for a couple of years in College). We are trying out a new guitarist/singer and he wants to do Stray Cat Strut. Well, I always shyed away from this song because every band seems to do it, but my last band only did Rock This Town (always a crowd favorite). Anyway, I thought since practice is tomorrow I better sit down tonight and learn it by ear. Well, 2 hours later I finally got all the bass parts written down and man, I never realized Lee Rocker was such a great Walking Bassist. I always thought he was just the 'ol 1,3,5 kind of player.

[sevenyearsdown]

Those two songs have kind of become standards if you play in the average bar band today - definite standards if you are playing rockabilly cover type stuff. I've done 'em both even before I played upright bass.

The cool thing about SCS is you can play all kinds of variations in C minor to keep it interesting. Rocker did different stuff in live all the time. As long as you hit the main walk downs correct, the crowd will never know the difference.

[bass4art]

enless you are a another bassist!!

[iiipopes]

I play a jazz band arrangement of SCS in my jazz/dance band in G minor. It took a little more time than you might think to get feel of the chart down: more "dub" in the verses, more "swing" for the bridge.

[rkf]

I did a SCS chart in my high school jazz band. Its real fun to play around with the walking in it because its so slow and the changes are pretty down to earth