Simple Stuff ain’t that simple!

[Les Fret]

I

Let's listen to that bass line (with the drums and the metronome.)
It's not a simple bass line!

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Where did you this isolated part? Cool line. I agree is not so simple as suggested.

 

[Whousedtoplay]

Where did you this isolated part?

Thanks to Moises.ai

 

[jimmydean]

I have found that slower music has a tendency to be harder to play than faster music.........sometimes .

 

[Bob_Ross]

music that strikes me as simple at first listen rarely turns out so simple on a deep dive

Robert Fripp once famously observed "There is a difference between simple and simplistic."

This makes me think of a story Darryl Jones told of auditioning for Miles Davis. Davis told Jones to play a Blues in F. Jones started playing and Davis put his hand on his bass and told him to play more simply. Jones started again, and Miles stopped him again and told him to
make it more simple. The third time, Jones gave Davis what he wanted. Truly simplifying takes some thought.

And that reminds me of this Barry Manilow (!) story, which I may have told on TB before:
==========
True story, as told by Barry Manilow at a composition seminar he gave at the Berklee College of Music ~30 years ago:

He had just written what he thought was a totally awesome song, the kind of song that makes young composers proud because it uses all those hip, clever chord changes and hip, clever techniques that they think imbues their work with depth and smarts. And he plays his hip, clever, deep & smart tune for some suits at his record company and they tell him

"That's nice. Now dumb it down."

So he goes back and does some reharmonization, makes things a little less hip and clever, simplifies, reduces the harmonic density, restricts the melody's range, blah blah blah, and he brings it back to the suits at his record company and plays it for them. And they tell him

"That's nice. Now dumb it down some more."

So he goes back and does some more reharmonization, makes things even less hip and clever, simplifies some more, reduces the harmonic density some more, restricts the melody's range some more, blah blah blah, and he brings it back to the suits at his record company again and plays it for them again. And they tell him

"That's nice. Now dumb it down even more."

According to Barry Manilow, he went through half a dozen revisions dumbing down his once hip, clever pop masterpiece until it was dumb enough to meet the record company suits' standards for A Hit.


That hit was "Copacabana (At the Copa)"

 

[MaxSpinrun]

Nice post Doc. You mentioned Teen Town. First time I heard Marcus play it, goose bumps and jaw on the floor! One of my favorites.

 

[Whousedtoplay]

According to Barry Manilow, he went through half a dozen revisions dumbing down his once hip, clever pop masterpiece until it was dumb enough to meet the record company suits' standards for A Hit.

Case in point.

The following song is written by the serious musician/s for the serious musicians. Chance of becoming a No#: 1 hit - close to zero.
(But the musicians are hypersalivating.)





This version of the same song is written to become a Hit No#: 1