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When you suddenly realise you’ve been playing it wrong all those years.


Cliff Edge

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I’m recording the bass part to a  very well known song I’ve been playing pretty regularly for maybe 25 years. 
listening to the playback I realise I’ve been playing it wrong. 
In all those years no one has complained or mentioned it. Not in the bands or in the audience. 
So it’s true. No one pays any attention to the bass player. 
Including me. 

Edited by Cliff Edge
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I know some songs that I played incorrectly, some of the time it was due to the line up of the band requiring me to do something different, sometimes down to me not having an earthly on how to work out the actual line (The Real Me by The Who springs to mind here).

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16 minutes ago, Trueno said:

... then you listen to a live version and realise that even the original bassist doesn’t play it the same as the record.

The only sin, for me, is getting out of the groove.

This is very true. We need to keep it fresh, little changes to lines here and there is what keeps things interesting.

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Let's not get hung up on the word "wrong", eh? @Cliff Edge's goal was to play it like the original recording, but they accidentally played something  else. That doesn't imply any judgement of folks who set out to play something different.

Anyway. Can anyone think of any songs where the original bassline is so fundamental, simple, well-known etc. that you really couldn't stray from it without getting funny looks? Another One Bites The Dust maybe? Feels like it's so minimal that a drastic re-interpretation of the song would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Edited by MartinB
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7 minutes ago, MartinB said:

Can anyone think of any songs where the original bassline is so fundamental, simple, well-known etc. that you really couldn't stray from it without getting funny looks? Another One Bites The Dust maybe? Feels like it's so minimal that a drastic re-interpretation of the song would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

This would be a good thread on its own, I dont know if its already been done though... 

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16 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Covers band isn't the same a a tribute band.

and U2 is always improved with slap.

Always.

There is slap on a couple of tracks - Surrender, Gloria and unforgettable fire spring to mind

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19 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

Reading Guy Pratt's book recently gave me this anecdote:

He wrote that Bernard Edwards had told him: It doesn't matter where the fu(k you go... as long as you're back on the one.

Great book by the way.

That’s pretty much what James brown said to Bootsy Collins 

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I’m going to respond to a couple of replies here. 
Got to fess up here. It wasn’t I was just playing it wrong, I was actually playing a bum note or two. 
U2 would be improved with a good singer. (Controversial?)

And yes the bass player on original records isn’t always the one on stage playing something different. 
Bass riffs that define the song - Brown Eyed Girl. The first 2 bars and everyone knows what’s coming next. 

Edited by Cliff Edge
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I find the trickiest situation is when I dep or play with an established band and they play a song I know well  ‘differently’, maybe to my ears wrongly. I’ve learned over the years to be diplomatic, say nothing and learn their version. That way I get called back. 

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7 minutes ago, Len_derby said:

I find the trickiest situation is when I dep or play with an established band and they play a song I know well  ‘differently’, maybe to my ears wrongly. I’ve learned over the years to be diplomatic, say nothing and learn their version. That way I get called back. 

Me too.

Apart from "The Real Me" - I'm sorry but Johnny Rod's version in WASP was far better than the Ox (yeah, I said it!) so they get that. It's epic.

 

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13 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Me too.

Apart from "The Real Me" - I'm sorry but Johnny Rod's version in WASP was far better than the Ox (yeah, I said it!) so they get that. It's epic.

 

Def, when we did it it was Johnny Rod’s version I tried to get near. Not sure I managed it all that well, much more a case of bluff & hope.

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