I’ve been on a steady diet of three Bowie records or so a day lately. It’s out of control! What an amazing career, making good music from the 60’s into the 2010’s (what do you call this decade, lol?).
Lately I can’t get enough of Blackstar. Tim Lefevbre’s bass playing on the whole record is freaking amazing, this tune has some tasty effects towards the end (Boss OC-2 sub octave, I think with some Way Huge Pork Loin):
I don’t know if I could actually pick an all time favorite Bowie bass line, but I also fell in a new level of love with the China Girl bass line this year:
For some reason I can just imagine Jack Black singing part of that line as a really good “root-en-doot-en-doot” kind of thing. The part that goes
Wow, I’ve also been enjoying Bowie of late, . . . I’m a couple chapters from completing a biography on him, “A Life” by Dylan Jones. Different style of writing via continuous, interview snippets, but I’ve really come to appreciate his evolution of life’s work from it. I also recently rewatched Live Aid 85’ which includes Bowie performing.
As far as favorite bass lines, I’m going to step away (if permitted) from the true volume of Bowie work, as I’ve also recently watched the Bohemian Rhapsody movie on Freddie Mercury, and read a recent article on John Deacon in Bass Player magazine, . . . tieing Bowie, Queen, and the John Deacon era together, I’m going to make tribute to DB, FM, and JD with a link to “Under Pressure”:
Hereos… when I hear that opening line, I get shivers. so many memories come flooding back from being a kid in the late 70’s and hearing that song on the radio late at night.
I love him!!
I restarted playing bass learning some of his songs, especially from Ziggy Stardust.
I would suggest them to any bass beginer - lines are pretty simple - then the quality of the execution is something other…
Everything he did is just special!!
Miss his art a lot…
Ooh haven’t heard that! That bass line makes me think of Good Vibrations for some reason… the tone, plus sounds kinda like that vocal melody or something.
Yeah David Bowie when you mentioning there is a remembrance. He is a bit x cultured. The song might not be Life on mars? But the most remarkable song is blue jeans. When I search on youtube yes there is my all time favorite that recalled.
Wish I knew what ‘way huge pork loin’ is but I hope you cover it in the intermediate course. My fave too is probably Moonage Daydream. O and this has a lovely bass-
Almost anything from Bowie up until maybe Ashes to Ashes, then at the time I was into other stuff and lost track of hike a bit. Having significantly older siblings meant that I was into 70s more than my own decade - to begin with.
However,
a) Heroes is such an upbeat song I feel it should go on longer
b) Life on Mars is almost operatic in its scope
and for very personal reasons I’ve become obsessed with
c) Ziggy Stardust. The drummer from our band at school challenged me to aim for that when I started learning again last year. It’s so melodic and the more you listen the more you realise it’s carrying the tune. All sorts of awesome sauce (to quote Jack Black).
I plan to learn the song “Ziggy Stardust”. I love it; its very dramatic. The lead guitar and bass compliment each other creating an eerie mood. Once I learn the bass parts, I think playing it a bit slower would even be darker, which I like.
