One Song Every Bassist Should Know

[Baird6869]

Stranglehold-Ted Nugent

Thanks dude!

I forgot all about that tune!

I have a guitard that is a master of arranging long tunes to make them "bar ready" (we do a mean shortened Hush by Deep Purple) and this 9 minute song would make a great 4-5 minute bass, guitar, drum (and vocal) jam.

Thanks!

 

[john_g]

Um, did you mean "What I Am" by Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians?

I'd say you were close, but you didn't even get one word right.

LOL!!! I am busting out loud at this! LOL!! I think I am tearing up!

 

[relayer66]

My entry is:
School Days by Stanley Clarke.
Used to be, that anyone who wanted to play bass had to learn that song.

 

[Marson]

Goodbye Sober Day - Mr. Bungle

 

[nubs]

smoke on the water

 

[AlphaMale]

PLAY HIGHER GROUND!

 

[Mugbar]

what one song do you think every bassist show know how to play?
i'm asking because i have a lot more time for woodshedding, and scales get reeeeeaaaaal boring after a while, so i figured i'd learn some new songs. ideally, i'm looking for songs to stretch my technique and change the way i see music. songs that i wouldn't normally have learned if it were up to me. so go!


for the record, the song i think every bassist should know is Ramble On, by Led Zeppelin
JPJ uses several little tricks that i know i never would have thought of. it's brilliant!

Jeff Berlin's "Dixie" - I learned the first 90 seconds of it and my fretboard started to look very different. If I ever have a month off, maybe I'll try and learn the second half. There's a decent version on youtube.

 

[Shadyskull24]

Well the first line i ever learned was the begining to "Close to the Edge" by Yes, so i'd suggest that, great for exercising

Vulcan Worlds - Stanley Clarke (can't find a tab nor can i play it, but it's a good tune to have heard )

+1 to Money by Pink Floyd

Misty Mountain Hop and The Ocean by Led Zeppelin

And if you're into classical i'd suggest Bach's Cello Suite Prelude, really works the fingers and makes you think about placement.

 

[cowsgomoo]

I don't think there is 'one song every bass player should know'

was Jamerson any less of a player because he didn't sit and learn how to play 'Ramble On' ?

these songs are all just arbitrary choices based on what you personally like and therefore think everyone else should too... sorry to be a grinch but there is absolutely NO song in existence that a musician OUGHT to know

 

[Bearded Bugs]

ideally, i'm looking for songs to stretch my technique

Dream Theater - The Dance Of Eternity

That'll get your technique sorted if you can nail it

 

[Drifta]

I don't think there is 'one song every bass player should know'

was Jamerson any less of a player because he didn't sit and learn how to play 'Ramble On' ?

these songs are all just arbitrary choices based on what you personally like and therefore think everyone else should too... sorry to be a grinch but there is absolutely NO song in existence that a musician OUGHT to know

amen

 

[SERPENT865]

I dont really know, or care to know anyone's songs....

I play in an all original band, however, when we do the occasional cover... we all play in key, but play our own basslines, solos, etc. There are rare exceptions, such as "Sunshine Of Your Love" or "Born Under a Bad Sign" when I play note for note someone else's bassline.

This is totally not a dig at anyone who plays other people's music. It's simply not my forte. Ill never be one of these guys who can nail a cover note for note. I was only a fair to average player when Im playing other people's songs (back in the days when I used to play Brown Eyed Girl and all those old favorites). It wasnt until I just "played what I felt" that I became, IMO, an accomplished, respected bassist in my local music community.

+1 on that +1+1+1

 

[TrevorOfDoom]

I don't think there is 'one song every bass player should know'

was Jamerson any less of a player because he didn't sit and learn how to play 'Ramble On' ?

these songs are all just arbitrary choices based on what you personally like and therefore think everyone else should too... sorry to be a grinch but there is absolutely NO song in existence that a musician OUGHT to know

odd question, but how do you know he couldn't play Ramble On? how do you know he didn't learn other folks basslines? how do you know what he learned and how he practiced?
you don't. but the idea of this excercise is to expand our knowledge as bassists. i'd challenge you in saying that any "musician" that doesn't seek to expand his knowledge of his instrument is hardly a musician at all.

 

[TrevorOfDoom]

+1 on that +1+1+1

i'm not in a cover band. never have been. never will be. that's not the point.
the point is learning something new. finding a different way of seeing things that you wouldn't have come upon on your own. adding arrows to your quiver, a new technique to your repetoire, another trick up your sleeve.

go listen to Elvis Costello's "Everyday I Write the Book" and tell me that that the bassline isn't amazing, and it's not worth learning. tell me that Bruce Thomas does nothing in that song that makes you pay attention, that makes you want to figure out how he did that.
then, i will call you a liar.

 

[4Mal]

as I am primarily about holding things down, in no particular order here are songs where I found something interesing ...

Folsom Prison Blues - Cash - easy ? sure - but you can't flub a note and you're timing has to lock with the drummer completely - it requires patience and discipline or you won't have a groove. Really you could name a huge number of straight up country or blue grass tunes here and you wouldn't be wrong. It's about being able to drive without being in the limelight. That and concentration.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered - the original SW version. Babbit maybe ? It's an intersting line, quite to the outside for a normal pop tune.

Watermelon Man - The Paul Jackson line. for all the obvious reasons ... beginning chordal playing obviously.

Every kind of People - Robert Palmer. Just an amazingly well crafted line.

No woman, no cry - Marley - most everybody needs to reggae at least once. This is in almost the same vein as the country stuff. Gotta drive but without stealin' the show. Gotta have some restraint even when the space is begging to be filled.

Anybody coming up who is interested in pop rock should have completed their studies of ...

XTC - The Black Sea (and of course The Mayor of Simpleton)
Joe Jackson - Look Sharp
Costello's first three albums
Rockpile with Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe

by now. If you can play all that stuff well and also maybe do some harmony singing, you are already a bad mofo bassist...

I'm not taking the whole 'every bassplayer has to know ...' thing quite so literally. These are tunes that for bassists, at some stage of their development can serve as good examples and lessons. Each of those were for me.

Oddly enough - I came to the whole country thing later in life. While it isn't a big part of my playing - I was suprised at how 'on' you have to be to pull that stuff off well... it's one of those harder than it looks things ...

 

[guitarrock24]

maxwell murder by rancid

 

[synaesthesia]

You may be right about that... I am only familiar with Booker T's version.

Time is Tight is a Booker T and the Mgs tune from around '68. It was covered by the Shadows much much later.

 

[mdiddium]

Green Onions - Good groove to stretch out on
The Chicken - A very approachable Jaco bassline
Sex Machine - Simple but feels oh so good
I Shot the Sheriff - Various versions off nice arrangements of a simple bass line

And most of the other ones mentioned are great as well.

 

[cowsgomoo]

odd question, but how do you know he couldn't play Ramble On? how do you know he didn't learn other folks basslines? how do you know what he learned and how he practiced?
you don't. but the idea of this excercise is to expand our knowledge as bassists. i'd challenge you in saying that any "musician" that doesn't seek to expand his knowledge of his instrument is hardly a musician at all.

just a wild guess... from what I know of his biography, I'm guessing Jamerson didn't spend much of his time in the early 70's woodshedding Led Zeppelin songs...

anyway, the Jamerson/Ramble On thing was an example... not to be taken especially anally literally... the point being that anyone's idea of a song that a bass player MUST (of course, this is assuming that the meaning of the word MUST hasn't changed since I last consulted the dictionary... in other words it means something along the lines of 'required', 'mandatory', 'compulsory' or 'crucial' ) learn is silly because there are many great bass players who never even HEARD OF that song, let alone HEARD it...

and got along just fine...

ok, so you've interpreted the thread as 'suggest some songs it'd be great for people to learn'.... fine, but that's not what 'One Song Every Bassist Should Know' means...

and if you think I'm suggesting no-one should learn any songs or anything else, that's 'complete misinterpretation' #2... it's pretty obvious through looking at the hours of transcriptions i've done that i'm interested in the study and analysis of performances by other bass players (what are your credentials?).. but this "EVERYONE MUST LEARN TO PLAY 'DONNA LEE'' stuff should be beneath any self respecting musician

 

[Fingersmcfunk]

"Get up, Stand up" - Bob Marley