I started a thread a while back about “most fun” bass lines. Now I got to thinking: what are some bass lines/songs that, at first glance seem super easy but when you get started you realize “oh crap, this is way tougher than I thought it would be”?
First one that comes to mind is “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”. Only 4 notes. The timing, though, is nasty to nail down if you don’t have your groove hat on. For long time players it might not be much trouble but for new players it can be a bit of a trap. Especially when it comes to keeping that syncopated timing the same throughout while the rest of the song changes. “I can learn this quick. Ok, counting in 1 and 2 and wait what?”.
For me, songs that have drastic tonal, tempo or difficulty shifts can be nasty. “A Kind of Magic” by Queen, which I’ve complained about in the past, continues to vex me as it tends to shift so much I tend to miss it every time. The notes aren’t hard and I can play each section in isolation but when it comes time to string it together my brain just decides to take a hike. Along those same lines, songs like “Sir Duke” start off easy and lull you into a false sense of competence then BAM, it’ll kick you right in your Stevie Wonders. More than anything, these kinds of “bait and switch” songs are my kryptonite and they consistently Pino my Palladinos.
Finally, something like “I Wish” can be deceptively hard in that, while the notes and timing are simple as can be, the endurance needed will have your fingers and arms screaming. These endurance run songs require a whole difference kind of practice.
So what are some of your favorite “looks easy but damn” songs?
Papa was a Rolling Stone, yeah that syncopation is tricky to nail.
I would say AC/DC. Cliff Williams and Malcolm Young are very clever. Malcolm often forgoes playing the root note in a major chord, and instead it gets played by Cliff on bass. So you have to keep rhythm with the rhythm guitar to get the AC/DC sound.
By an amazing coincidence I thought I would start working on ‘And The Mouse Police Never Sleeps’ by Jethro Tull. I extracted the bassline and it wasn’t too difficult (OK fairly difficult), but can I figure out how to play it with the backing track? ha ha ha no…
Ron Carter’s line on “Contemplation” by McCoy Tyner:
Much of the line is just a third-position riff on C–F–G, but it’s a dotted half note tied to a quarter note, then a dotted quarter note, then an eighth note, in 3/4 time. The difficulty isn’t in the notes or even the counting, but how easy it is to flub the timing when the rest of the band is busy being jazz dudes.
EDIT: “Busy Being Jazz Dudes” would be a good name for an album. If you are a jazz dude and release an album with that title I would be thrilled, but I would also be expecting a nice royalty check…
I started learning Sweet Home Chicago, then started tripping up on some later bars. I haven’t really gone back to it. It’s not technically difficult, just needed more work than I was willing to put into it at the time.
One of the things about the old blues songs, is if you listen to different recordings even by the same artist, the bass line changes as the player plays their own line. Take Boom Boom Boom by Hooker. The recording had James Jamerson, but the live recordings are all different. The bass in the Blues Brothers movie differs from the studio on that song for example.
Robert Johnson is a worthwhile artist though, good song.
