On "Superstition" I pound on the root while the guitarist plays keys then I play the key part when he switches to guitar. Just depends on your instrumentation and personal arrangement.
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Bass lines that almost everybody plays wrong...
- Thread starter Socrates
- Start date
A funny one where I've heard much debate is "Tell me something good" by Rufus.
Most of the debate revolves around the groove, seems obvious to me but...
Most of the debate revolves around the groove, seems obvious to me but...
Perfect explanation, and the reason most bands don't clone their exact recording live. Now that the digital domain exists, normally several takes aren't saved like they once were on tape. "Classic" songs bass parts are most often the ones that made it on the take chosen to keep. Maybe not always the case, but I would suspect the majority of the time. You want to be a tribute band fine, I guess, but I prefer to listen to a bass player that cops the idea of the original, and then plays his/her bass. I played in an original band for 15 yrs. I wrote all the bass parts that made it to tape/record/CD. I respected the final cuts while playing live, but for the most part I wasn't playing every note verbatim.
okcrum
in your chest
I play it more or less like this with a more chordy sound (letting the upper notes ring) in the part about 2:15:
How I do the choruses depends on how thick to lay on the groove in that moment. The biggest mistake I've heard people make is playing through all the verses, especially in trios. Actually, playing the spaces in general...
I agree. Mike Mills (Bass Player interview) once said "...recording the album & then going on tour to support it is 'backwards'. By the end of the tour, I am playing the bass parts the way they should have been recorded. The tour should come first...then the album".
...or something to that effect.
Going way back to the OP's comments..."wrong" = wrong notes as in playing a C-natural rather than an obvious C#.
Taking some liberties with a tune, IMO, is what makes the world go-round.
"All Right Now" was mentioned...and yet, on Free Live, Andy Fraser deviates big time (i.e. he's playing therough the verses & "spaces").
YYZ x10000. random guy with bass pedal effects does not equal geddy lee!! how long willl it take for me people to realize this i do not know.
okcrum
in your chest
+1E303
Going way back to the OP's comments..."wrong" = wrong notes as in playing a C-natural rather than an obvious C#.
Taking some liberties with a tune, IMO, is what makes the world go-round.
"All Right Now" was mentioned...and yet, on Free Live, Andy Fraser deviates big time (i.e. he's playing therough the verses & "spaces").
From my experience there's a lot bigger response from the audience when the tune is played in the form of the youtube I referenced. I've heard 3-4 live versions, including the Paul Rodgers live version, and they're all played differently. To my ear, playing through the verses leaves less space dynamically. Playing the spaces is as or more important than playing the notes. I think that's the impact of the original arrangement, besides the groove.
There's latitude in playing covers, but besides hitting clams, I consider I'm playing the part wrong if it sucks any of the life out of the tune or if I'm not popping the groove the way it's supposed to be popped. Even a little timing can kill a tune, ahead of or behind the optimal groove. Some of the recorded versions of a tune by the original artist can fall into the latter categories.
Look at the Joss Stone version of "Some Kind of Wonderful". Unbelievably dirty funky yet nothing like Carole King, the Drifters, Buddy Guy, or Grand Funk have played it. Allen Toussaint, Lee Dorsey, and the Pointer Sisters all sound way different on "Yes We Can Can". They all kick it, even if in different ways. So they all play it "right".
Side note to guitarist: Johnny B. Goode and Cocaine are not heavy metal tunes. Side/side note to drummers: Johnny B. Goode is a shuffle. Stop bulldozing 8th notes.
I agee 100%...and, FME, I have heard local Top-40 cover bands do a better job than the original artists.
Happens all the time with guitarists too. Most don't play the F# in the bass on the D chord of "Stairway to Boredom" for example. Bottom line for me is to play the SONG, not the record. And therefore the bass line I play depends on what everyone else in the band I'm in is playing. If everything is exactly like a record (seldom is there "THE" record), then we're not a band, we're just karaoke or a human jukebox.
One post mentions "Superstition" as being all synth. Well, the studio record is. But live, Mr. Watts plays bass on it and it's a different line than on the hit single. So I'm not going to presume to tell people their playing a bass line wrong. Sure I think "Sunshine Of Your Love" sounds better most of the time if you play the A Ab G bit up high instead of on the E string. But if the band sounds good doing it down low like the guitar part, then it doesn't matter. Heck even if the guitarist plays the riff as single notes which Clapton only does on the intro of the Cream single record instead of going to the 10th fret area and playing full six-string barre chords, OK.
It's what the band sounds like and I'm not interested in hearing reguritations of a specific recording. I've heard that, so tell me what the song means to YOU.
John
The Drifters, Carole King, Michael Buble song called Some Kind Of Wonderful written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King is not the same song as the song Grand Funk Railroad, Buddy Guy, Joss Stone, and Huey Lewis & The News covered; so, it would never sound the same. Same name, different tune. The original version of Some Kind Of Wonderful by Soul Brothers Six written was written by John Ellison in 1967.
Soul Brothers Six song
Still waiting to hear how anyone could screw up Tush.
I thought it was pretty simple but pretty open ended 12-bar.
Thanks!
I thought it was pretty simple but pretty open ended 12-bar.
Thanks!
okcrum
in your chest
Tush gets screwed up when the bass plays the guitar lick. Happens alot. Cocaine, Born to be Wild.
Funny ... I always played it as a b7, till one particular guitarist insisted that that right note was maj6 ... that's how I play it now.
heh heh ... OTOH I know I'm right that in that 'chorus' riff the first part is always played with to many notes compared the original. The same band which insists on the 6th also insists on playing that wrong
Andy
You can call me Al - Paul Simon. Saw a wedding band a few years ago play it close to perfect until the 3 second bass solo. Bass player just stood there as the drums did an extra long fill. (the shame on the bassist face told i all. He wanted to crawl into a hole.) Saw the same wedding band a few months ago, same song - same stupid drum fill - same shame. I cant play it either, but I would have a least given it a shot.
