I have so many covers to get through, I swear you can’t take even the slightest break from this thread without ending up hundreds of posts behind!
Before I tried to play this song I watched a handful of covers on Youtube and they all played the bass line the same way, essentially just following the rhythm guitar the whole time so that’s how I learned it before I ever bothered to isolate the bass track. When I did, it didn’t sound anything like what I’d been playing. It’s basically a 6 minute chug on the root notes, quite boring really, so I can see why others chose to play it the way they did. As a purist, I didn’t want to play the song improperly but there just isn’t enough excitement in this bass line to make me want to cover it. So, I decided to basically blend the two styles I had seen into my own. The song needs the driving pressure that the steady chugging provided but I also wanted to highlight some of the rhythm guitar parts. If you try to learn this song just know that what you’re about to see isn’t how it’s actually played but I think part of covering a song in part is making it your own.
David Bowie - “Heroes”
