"Proof that you're a bass player" songs

[fretlessman71]

Just watched an interview with Geddy Lee where he mentions a Stones song, "2120 S. Michigan Avenue", as a song he needed to be able to play to "prove he was a bass player" in order to audition for a certain band as a young teen.

It has been said that if you wanted a gig as a bassist in Detroit in the 70s, you had better be good enough to play "Scorpio" by Dennis Coffey note-for-note or you wouldn't even be considered.

At parties, if someone trots out a bass, there will be those (generally enthusiastic non-musicians) who will issue challenges: "Can you play Smoke On The Water? Barney Miller? Another One Bites The Dust? Got The Time? Longview? Teen Town? DEAN Town?"

Here, it was "Tom Sawyer". If you could handle that, you could handle just about anything. And if your band could pull off YYZ, you were nothing short of musical royalty at the high school.

So what songs were the "proof" songs when you were growing up?

 

[Guild B301]

‘My Generation’ - by The Who

 

[AxtoOx]

Different world I learned and played in than this, personally.

 

[fretlessman71]

Different world I learned and played in than this, personally.

Feel free to elaborate!

 

[AxtoOx]

Feel free to elaborate!

We used tuning forks to tune, networked to learn, not near the assets available to beginners back then for people to be so judgemental, sounds like people expect more and don't realize the work involved, I think,lol.

 

[fretlessman71]

So you learned the bass during WWII...?

 

[AxtoOx]

Lol dang near

Actually switched to bass later which is what I went pro with.

 

[fretlessman71]

So the first two songs I mentioned were from the 60s and 70s, and both would have had to been learned by ear...

 

[tb4sbp]

This is a good question which I will answer three ways
1. For musicians to judge songs like Roundabout by Yes/Bohemian Rhapsody
2. For an average rock/garage band songs like: Running with the devil/You really got me
3. For the average listener it would be hit songs they can dance to or have a prominent bass line like Another one bites the dust or Brown Eyed Girl.

Thanks for the post

 

[fretlessman71]

This is a good question which I will answer three ways
1. For musicians to judge songs like Roundabout by Yes/Bohemian Rhapsody
2. For an average rock/garage band songs like: Running with the devil/You really got me
3. For the average listener it would be hit songs they can dance to or have a prominent bass line like Another one bites the dust or Brown Eyed Girl.

Thanks for the post

Thanks for getting us back on track, @tb4sbp . I find this kind of thing fascinating, and it often leads me to songs I have never heard before!

 

[garp]

At one point, I recall Led Zeppelin's "What Is and What Should Never Be" (1969) and Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" (1975) being the standard litmus tests in my 'hood.

 

[foolforthecity]

Mustang Sally, played with vigor

 

[stigbeve]

Seinfeld theme (Yes, I know the artist used a keyboard)

 

[Vinny Vincenzo]

ANY song that Larry Taylor played on,Any song Preston Hubbard played on.!

 

[edervjo]

Ha! the first riff I learned was the Barney Miller theme!
Yeah in HS anything by Rush, Sabbath, or Zepplin got you props.
My bass player song then was Pink Floyd's "Money"....still might be....

 

[Ggaa]

Northern Exposure theme....and Carry on Wayward son.

 

[Auspuff]

UFO's, Lights Out, on a Gibson Firebird copy, finger-style.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

I can't remember who it was, but when I was first playing bass a guy that I was in the Army with said that when I could play Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name" I could call myself a bass player. So I learned that song. I've been playing since '87 and always find another rung giver up on the ladder, so I'm still not sure I can call myself a bass player yet, but I'm getting there.

 

[Bajo Clarkko]

Ramble On, Burn (Deep Purple), anything by Aerosmith or Foghat.

 

[BOOG]

Lol dang near

Actually switched to bass later which is what I went pro with.

You’re younger than Geddy Lee by about seven years.