Badge and Come Together

[oldrocker]

In the classic rock genre there are really only a few songs that start with recognizable and really signature bass parts - 2of them are Badge by Cream and Come Together by the Beatles.

If I do get to play these, the guitar players usually will not play to the recoreded version.

They either drown out the basseline of Come Together with dueling power chords or they want to do the Clapton version of Badge off of 24 nights.

Am I being a purist or just a d!ck if I only want to play these songs as they were recorded.

I've even as gone so far as to say that being a member of the Bass Players Union I am not allowed to play anything other than the Cream version of Badge, unless I am actually playing with Eric Claptopn.

How do you guys handle this kind of stuff?

[Parabolic Box]

Sounds like the guitarists you work with cannot handle playing pedestrian parts.

I'd also like to know how to deal with guys who can't stand being out of the spotlight for even a fraction of a second.

[ryco]

Originally Posted by Parabolic Box

Sounds like the guitarists you work with cannot handle playing pedestrian parts.
I'd also like to know how to deal with guys who can't stand being out of the spotlight for even a fraction of a second.

Easy - don't. Find and play with guitarists who understand the concept of song arrangements and "laying out".

Jeez - if Clapton played Badge the way he did, I would think any rock guitarist would be more than happy to try and mimic (and understand) what he was doing. Cool little slap wah-wah guit intro.

You could try playing them the recording and asking them what they thought about Eric's treatment.

[Depth_Charge]

You're being a purist, and there is nothing wrong with that. I wanted to add Turning Japanese by NOFX (a cover) but the guitarists wanted to cover the original by The Vapours. We discussed what they liked about the Vapurs version (the bass runs on the chorus and solo) and what I didn't like about that version (the tempo). So I learned the chorus and solo runs from The Vapours original version, but we played it at a much faster tempo. Everyone happy

I'm in a good position in that I put my current cover band together so the bass player always gets a say. I just find it important to choose the moment to have that say, and not do it too often

Good luck.

[jmcgliss]

Some guitarists really do seem to prefer non-descript bass parts...and bass amps that are muddy so they don;t have to listen to what the bass is doing. Thoses guys solo through entire tunes without a clue. I just had a guitarist pitch a neutered version of Whipping Post that was guitar-centric. Yuk. I also hate it when a guitarist bogarts a bass line instead of the rhythm guitar partm, but can't make it groove. Jeez. They've got several higher octaves to use and they can't leave some space? I'll call a time out and insist on the bass and drums starting the tune to make the point how it should groove.