Entertainment For Lively Minds
Good songs to play along to on the bass?
Posted by Joe Robert on 24 October 2010 - 10:38am.
Can any of the Massive recommend some fairly easy - but not numbingly repetitive - basslines for a beginner bassist to plonk along to?
I'm a fairly competent rhythm guitarist, so not a complete novice. But I can't handle anything too challenging. I can manage some of Bruce Foxton's basslines for The Jam, and that kind of thing is pefect for me. Melodic, high up in the mix so I can hear what I'm playing along to, and challenging enough to be interesting but not unplayable. And loath as I am to praise anything by the lute spanker, I'm really enjoying playing along to bass parts on early Police numbers.
So what else can you recommend?
By the way I've just invested in one of these:
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I started playing bass about 3 months ago and
agree about the Police. String could knock together a good baseline - simple but satisfying to play.
Irritatingly good bassline by The Tantric Geordie
Also features a quite young Jools talking to Stewart about his drumming.
That's a good explanation of how reggae differs from
'Anglo-American' music as well.
The Jam & The Police
In which case it seems fairly obvious to follow that up with some Ruts and Stranglers, perhaps some Costello circa 79-82 (lots of McCartneyesque melodic basslines there) and then I'd also point you in the direction of Booker T & The MGs (some great basslines) and probably finish up with a nice dessert of the Trojan dub reggae boxsets. Lots of really good (and reasonably easy) basslines.
(That's the stuff that got me started back in the days when I fancied myself a bass-player)
The Smiths
The Smiths - Andy Rourke's lines are always interesting and melodic. Same goes for Alex James' stuff with Blur.
Nirvana's bass lines are fairly simple, with a few interesting twists here and there.
The Specials are great for a quick skank.
Led Zep - some of the simpler stuff should be within your range.
And of course if you've got a Hofner, you've got to try some Macca. It's the law.
Blimey..
...give the man a chance!
Andy Rourkes Smiffs bass lines are pretty tricky if you`re a novice. I was a strutting peacock the day i worked out the basslines to all of The Queen is dead. I`ve been playing (for fun) for nearly 30 years now and to be honest i`m not much better than i was 25 years ago. Got to a reasonable standard fairly quickly but since then not much better. It`s still great fun to play along and work out basslines though.
Who`d i recommend? Some already mentioned, like The Jam, Stranglers (though a lot of the early stuff is well hard, but the sound is great). The first Stone Roses album is great to play to. Joy Division? And at the risk of boring you all about The Church, a lot of Steve Kilbeys basslines are good too, tuneful and driving.
I love Rush too but Geddy lee is just too much of a showoff.
I'm with John
Agreed that Andy Rourke's stuff can be trickier than it seems at first, but very rewarding once you've sussed them. The Jam and the Stranglers are great suggestions - what I started learning on, pretty much - as is the 1st Stone Roses album.
A few more suggestions:
Superstition - can be made as simple or tricky as you like, and great fun.
Won't Get Fooled Again - again, can be made simpler if you don't want to keep up with Entwistle
Whitesnake - the Neil Murray stuff. Almost all of Ready an' Willing is good to play along to, the most obvious is Fool For Your Loving which isn't really for novices but a good workout.
Blimey again!
Neil Murray! When i were a youngster i used to love Whitesnake around the time of Ready n Willing, especially Neil Murrays bass work. Hadn`t thought about him in a good 25/30 years as i got into other, ahem, cooler stuff. Just dredged something up from the back of my brain....didn`t Neil Murray regularly get voted "ligger of the Year" by NME or someone? Anyone else remember?
Dancing In The Moonlight by...
... Thin Lizzy. Maybe some reggae like Bobby Babylon by Freddie McGregor. Simple but effective. Then you could try some Talking Heads (try Psycho Killer) and for your encore jam along to Jaco Pastorius. Simple, innit?
"Screw" by The Cure.
That IS repetitive, but it's SUCH fun to play.
I fully accept that The Hold Steady tends to be my answer to everything, but Galen Polivka is a great bass player and does rock solid but interesting underpinnings to the band's fairly simple progressions.
Carlos D of Interpol does some nice basslines too. "Evil" is a belter. Edit: just read that he's actually left Interpol. But still.
Lucretia My Reflection
Goes on forever, but really satisfying. Nice bass, by the way - a friend of mine got one for a one-off Beatles tribute gig and ended up using it full time.
I'm even more of a beginner on bass
Havnig failed to wrestle any sort of tune out of a guitar I thought I would try something with fewer strings. Not expecting much success, but have started noticing basslines more, and a few struck me as worth having a go:
Psycho Killer. Starts easy and repetitive but has some flourishes later on.
Money by Pink Floyd
Argent/Zombies - can't recall if they are easy or not, but remember the bass being nice and prominent
White Stripes - just fill in the gaps where the bass should be!
Mayor Of Simpleton
A real left hand finger workout.
Colin Moulding
The bassline on "Poor Skeleton Steps Out" from the same album is another great one to play along with.
Mr Moulding is a fine bass player, who comes up with lovely melodic lines, whilst still holding the song together.
Some other great bass parts? How about Scritti Politti "Asylums in Jerusalem", or Thomas Dolby "The Flat Earth", or Genesis "I Know What I Like"?
Don't dismiss the last one. Whilst a simple part, you can build on the basic riff, doing your own thing when it gets to the tambourine solo (if you choose the Seconds Out version).
Gosh, I've just made my first post...
Andy Fraser - anything by
Andy Fraser - anything by Free. Quirky, melodic and simple.
Any excuse to post this (best of luck with the bass playing Joe)
Brilliant, thanks very much everyone
Zombies is a great choice by the way, Skuds - Time of the Season has the ultimate bassline. And I'll definitely investigate some Smiths and Blur. In fact pretty much everything above. Cheers!
http://www.bassmasta.net/
is a good source of bass tabs.
Alternative approach
Take something acoustic that doesn't have a bassline, but easy chords. Early Dylan maybe?
The Strokes...
Most of the stuff on "Is This It?" is very playable, nicely melodic and satisfying and not too difficult. Last Nite in particular.
The Smiths and Jam bass lines are altogether more tricky. Far more complex than on first listen.
Some nice "lead" bass tracks worthwhile taking on...
Black Night & Hush, Deep Purple
Money, Pink Floyd
Guns of Brixton, The Clash
I Wanna Be Adored, The Stone Roses
White Man in Hammersmith Palais, The Clash
Pretty Vacant, Pistols
Should keep you going.
BassTabArchive is another good site. Not fantastically musically accurate but they certainly give you the jist of it.
Just saw this on Popbitch
posted by Deep Stoat - it might give you some ideas....
Surreal!
If you check out some of the 'similar videos' displayed at the end, there seems to be a cult of semi-clad young Japanese girls playing bass along to J-Pop hits in their bedrooms.
His curtsey, at the end,
scares me. In fact it all scares me.
Another for The Jam and The Stranglers...
JJ Burnell was my inspiration to first start the bass, Bruce Foxton, despite the mullet, wrote bass riffs that defined many of the Jam classics.
Other bass playing geniuses, that I could only dream of copying included Mick Karn from Japan, Norman Watt-Roy from The Blockheads and of course John Entwistle.
Also, don't laugh now, but if you want to hear some amazing and inventive bass playing check out the album "Vengeance" by New Model Army.
Try Joe Osborn
Joe Osborn played on hundreds of pop hits in the '60s, hundreds of country hits after he moved to Nashville in the early '70s. He played a Fender Jazz bass with a pick and had a distinctive style and sound. He doesn't dominate any songs he's on - you only notice him if you're listening out for him - but he's crucial to them all, underpinning the rhythm and melody. His parts aren't flash, or difficult to play. They are, nevertheless, spot on every time.
He didn't change his strings for 14 years, so the bass on California Dreaming, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Cracklin' Rosie etc. isn't just played by the same person, but on the same four Labella flatwound strings.
An unsung pop hero.
Here's an hour's worth.
http://open.spotify.com/user/rdjl/playlist/0LeyBPKomcLvr0Cnse2Q98
Update
Here are some more I've discovered lately:
La Femme d'Argent - Air
China Girl - David Bowie
Rebel Rebel - David Bowie
Orange Crush - R.E.M.
Texarkana - R.E.M.
Leave Them All Behind - Ride
Texarkana is a good call!
A really underated track, a great bassline with a lovely sound.
Well done!