The unmistakable Chuck Rainey

Chuck's discography goes on for pages. He's worked with 100's of top musicians, singers and studios.
I always wondered why I had a "guilty pleasure" with the Rascals Groovin' album (Yes, I know I'm showing my age)
Chuck did some incredible bass lines on;
Groovin'
A Girl Like You
How Can I be Sure

 

You should hear his work with Steely Dan

(also my all-time favorite band)

 

Both Rainey and Purdie were together on a lot of Steely Dan's stuff . Peg is my "idle hands" track (if i have a bass in my hands and im not doing anything else with it, ill probably end up playing peg without even noticing)

 

Rainey and Purdie were on tons of recordings as a rhythm section. In addition to many Aretha Franklin recordings, in the late 1960s they were on every other Atlantic records release. If you run across a recording featuring them get it.

 

Speaking of the Rascals, another Rainey track I liked was:

 

I'm going to stop on this one for now because there are far too many to mention, but here is another favorite, especially the middle section:



(It kind of irks me where that darn "Play" icon ends up sometimes)

 

Stax and Atlantic were joined at the hip for a few years, they probably contracted some stuff up to NY and visa-versa.

 

Speaking of the Rascals and Chuck Rainey, as well as Mr. Rainey, the Peaceful World album has the following bassists on it. Some good tunes too.

• Gerald Jemmott

• Robert Popwell

• Chuck Rainey

• William Salter

• Ron Carter

 

Chuck hooked me with this one:

 

Even before I saw Pops Popwell's name on Crusaders albums I had this one, coming from New Jersey Rascal albums were mandatory.

 

Nothing to add ........ heaven .....

 

Age ...... nothing ,,,, know where your coming from my friend

 

Chuck Rainey plays bass on this track:



Lamont! You dummy!

 

I didn't know who Mr. Chuck Rainey was when I first heard "Peg" as a kid starting off on bass guitar. It was the track that got me to start exploring double-stops and use my right-thumb. But as I got older, I found out who he was (of course!)

Here's a bass play-a-long video I did last night using my old P-Bass that I installed a new pickup into (EMG GZR passive/solder-less). I hope that I did the song some justice and #respect to him for teaching us all so much about bass playing:

 

...nice job.

 

Damn, that was so great. Loved your playing and your tone. So awesome.

 

Peg is Chuck on bass but it's Jerry Marotta on the skins....

 

It was his brother Rick who played on Peg.

 

Ah.....Classic Chuck Rainey. Those chords and double stops are a dead giveaway. That Precision Bass tone is what I consider to be one of the quintessential if not THE quintessential P Bass tones. A dry, woody, thumpy, flatwound sound with spankin' mids that cut right through any mix. Perfect.