Easier Songs by normally Fancy Bassists?

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We’ve all got our favorite bassists who we admire and want to play like, but who typically play really complicated lines that we don’t have the skills for. For me, John Taylor (Duran Duran) and Chris Squire (Yes) are like that. Surely these hero artists have easier songs that are within the realm of us less skilled players.

Any recommendations on easier but iconic Duran Duran songs I could start learning? For Yes, I started working on “Owner of a Lonely Heart”, which the basic line is super easy. The bridge gets tricky but is doable for me.

So what are some other easier songs by normally fancy bassists? Any recommendations? What songs have you been learning to live out your hero fantasies?

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@sunDOG to the rescue :slight_smile:

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John Taylor and easy bass lines?!

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Most of his are really difficult!

Wild Boys is not too bad, if you ignore the octave fills. Also Do You Believe In Shame is super easy. Another one to consider is Arcadia’s Election Day, but that was Mark Egan, not JT.

I’ve looked at others and then run away :face_with_peeking_eye:

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That’s the first song I ever learned on bass. It took me a few months to transcribe finally got it right 30 years later :joy:

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this seems very approachable by John Taylor

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I never really liked the Power Station stuff. I bought the album, but probably only played it 5 or 6 times. The Arcadia album was far stronger, IMHO.

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I love this series of his videos :blush: He still seems so full of joy when he plays.

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I really love a lot of Arcadia tunes :ok_hand:

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In my opinion it’s even the best “Duran Duran” album, in terms of production quality. Almost as good as “The Dream of the Blue Turtles Album” by Sting or “The Seeds of Love” by Tears for Fears.

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I can’t comment on the Sting album as I have never listened to it! The TFF album, noooo! I thought that album as so boring! :zzz:

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Yup. Then again, for them it was kind of The Hurting vs everything else. But The Hurting was outstanding for sure.

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Loved the Hurting musically. The production value of “The Seeds of Love” was outstanding though…

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Some would say “overproduced neo-psychedelic pop” even :rofl:

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You say that like it’s a bad thing.
:wink:

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Precisely, overproduced, with all the soul sucked out of it, making it a tedious listen, to my ears anyway. The Hurting was far superior.

As far as I’m concerned, the last good song they produced was Mother’s Talk. Down hill from then on…

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It’s like a wonderfully expressive and emotive band decided to become an even worse version of The Beatles…

There’s good psychedelic pop (XTC, Verve, etc). This was not it.

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Relisten to “Woman in Chains” or “standing on the corner of the third world”. Really, no soul?
You might have the same issue with this album as I had when I listened to Depeche Mode’s “Song of Faith and Devotion” album for the first few times. It was far away from the previous DM albums, so I didn’t like it.
Only after listening to the live version of the album, I appreciated it. Now I love it.
Though Violator still remains their best album for me…

PS XTC is far away from this, much different music. But very cool! Verve is nice, but does not approach the greatness.

PS Cool song by XTC, which approaches the “The Seeds of Love” sound…

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Another example of this, and returning to John Taylor, is the third Duran2 album. It suffers from the same problem. IMHO, the first two albums were incredible, the third, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, had the soul sucked out of it and is a tedious listen. What’s interesting is that live versions of songs on that album are typically far better than those in the studio album itself.

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I keep relistening to "“Save a Prayer” and “The Chauffeur” … everything else from DD is nice 80s poppy easy listening to me :slight_smile:
But I always have to think about Barbarella, when I hear Duran Duran, so that’s great!

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I slept on Duran’s deep cuts for too long. When I finally listened to the Rio album all the way through and heard “The Chauffer” I immediately thought: 'Oh wow. This is the template for mid ‘00’s alt-rock.’

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