Footloose is a monster!!!

[Artman]

5-string required?

 

[BassCliff]

Hi,

5-string required?

Yes, to play the Blake Shelton cover version in the key of G. Five strings are not required to play the original in the key of A.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[Spidey2112]

I find myself having to learn Footloose for a slot in a wedding ...

I am so glad your autocorrect is fully functional...

... added the cover to my YouTube library, thanks @Bodeanly! I think getting the phrasing correct for the 'Grease' theme is challenging, well.

 

[Slevage]

I think the monster you're referring to is Nathan East.

And, yes, he is a bass monster. He makes anyone he plays with sound even better than they were before. He is on a very short list of bass players for whom genre is not an obstacle. He is a rock monster, funk monster, jazz monster, pop monster, soul monster, blues monster, etc.

aka Musician
That’s what happens when you learn your instrument,not just how to play songs on your instrument.

 

[mellowinman]

Hi,



Yes, to play the Blake Shelton cover version in the key of G. Five strings are not required to play the original in the key of A.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

BassCliff, I just want to point out that you, in fact, ROCK.

 

[Jamvan]

Hi,

That's pretty cool! It's a fun song. I've always played that song in the key of G, like the Blake Shelton cover. It's similar and I've tried to catch most of the notes and keep the feel. Here's a performance from my previous band. The keyboard player is singing off camera. We still do it in my current band, the drummer sings it.




Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

I guess when you're that good, you can play it however you wanna play it. I can't even imagine singing over some of those lines. Respect.

BassCliff, I just want to point out that you, in fact, ROCK.

I was thinking I could contribute to this thread as I went through a similar "Holy schnikey's!" moment when I was asked to learn this song but I studied it and practiced to the point where I can play it fairly well. Then I watched @BassCliff's video and I was reminded just how far I had to go with it. And that was before you started to sing while playing the chorus all while not looking at your fretting hand even once! Very impressive and a great reminder to #KeepPracticing. Good stuff. Great song!

 

[Bunk McNulty]

Hi Mr. @Bodeanly,



Gosh. Thank you but you are much too kind. I am such a hack. I can't play like Nathan East. And if you watch this video of a transcription of the Mike Brignardello (according to the comments) track on Blake's cover you'll see how far off I am.




Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Oh, come on! You're killin' it! Great performance, Cliff. Really!

 

[MoeTown1986]

We cover that song. When I sat down to learn it, I told the guys, "if I learn this song, we better play it every gig". Another fun one is the theme song from the show "friends".

 

[tb4sbp]

This is funny because I am not in a band at the moment but always looking for songs that I had never played before. Footloose was one of them and about a month ago I learned it just for fun. And now a post comes out about it. The Bass Universe is indeed strange.

Great song, fun rhythmically, got some old swing happening and some quick changes. All in all a very fun song to play on the bass!

 

[Paulabass]

I've been playing it for years, but never sat down to learn it, pretty straight forward 'seat of the pants' kinda stuff. I should give it a listen, Dog knows what I'm actually doing.

 

[richntiff]

It’s one of those lines - until you sit down and really listen it sounds like a ‘typical 80’s pop track lol’. It’s not.

And yes - Cliff’s version is sending me back to the shed to tighten my version up a bit! Excellent job!

 

[raybone]

Only if the rest of the band put as much effort into learning note for note would i do the same. Otherwise, just hit the changes and pick your favorite fill or two and just repeat as needed.

 

[onamission]

Kenny's got a few great tunes I like to play, Angry Eyes (Loggins and Messina) is another.

 

[Kipp Harrington]

My band plays it, it's a real crowd pleaser. Funny thing is, before I joined this band, I had never bothered to learn it and had no need to listen to it. The band picked this and 2 other tunes (Plush and Interstate Love Song by STP) for my audition. Fortunately, I knew the STP songs, so I devoted my time to learning Footloose. I was stunned with that bass line, as I had no idea how awesome it was either, but I got enough down that the meat of the bass line was there. I audition, we play it, and the whole band gives me this stunned look. I ask how I did on that, and the guitarist said their old bassist never, ever played it like that, and they were thrilled, to say the least.

Now, I still need to learn the last chorus. I usually just play it the same as the first two, but that last one has all kinds of cool fills and runs going on, and definitely want to get as close to the recording as I can. Other than that last chorus, I play as close to note-for-note as I can.

If you can play STP stuff, kudos to you. DeLeo is such an underrated/unrecognized and underappreciated bassist. I've never even attempted any STP. Been playing bass for about 10-11 months. I absolutely love his bass playing! Going to checkout that Footloose bassline.

 

[KaseOfBass]

Hi,

That's pretty cool! It's a fun song. I've always played that song in the key of G, like the Blake Shelton cover. It's similar and I've tried to catch most of the notes and keep the feel. Here's a performance from my previous band. The keyboard player is singing off camera. We still do it in my current band, the drummer sings it.




Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

And singing? You killed it.

 

[THUNDERGODX]

Ive always recognized the difficulty of that line, but after seeing the notation, I have even more respect for it.

 

[crucislancer]

If you can play STP stuff, kudos to you. DeLeo is such an underrated/unrecognized and underappreciated bassist. I've never even attempted any STP. Been playing bass for about 10-11 months. I absolutely love his bass playing! Going to checkout that Footloose bassline.

Oh totally, Robert DeLeo is a monster as well. Plush and Interstate are actually some of his easier lines to play. Compared to Footloose, they are a breeze!

 

[crucislancer]

Hi Mr. @Bodeanly,



Gosh. Thank you but you are much too kind. I am such a hack. I can't play like Nathan East. And if you watch this video of a transcription of the Mike Brignardello (according to the comments) track on Blake's cover you'll see how far off I am.




Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Ah! I learned the Loggins version through the same Youtuber:

 

[hotbass57]

Nice job! Great bass line riffs galore.

 

[Bodeanly]

One of the things that's killing me with FL is the rhythm during the verse. I feel like I'm playing Faith, by George Michael.