I know this is an evergreen conversation in regards riffs, but anyone else had the delightful experience of having an entire song surprise you with being a fun time from beginning to end? Even the hard bits
Sat down to try out playing âWoodland Ritesâ by Green Lung. I love the band but for whatever reason that song never grabbed me. On a whim I checked out the tab and gave a go even tho itâs at the edge of my skill level.
Playing it? Stupid fun. All the good times for the entire song. Totally derailed what I had intended on practicing and Iâm fine with it.
So yeah curious what other songs people who have been hijacked by? Ones where you finish playing it and want to start all over again cuz the groove is just such a nice place to be.
I end up playing a lot off the Yousician app. Itâs kinda mindless fun in a guitar hero video gamey way. But it keeps me playing and having fun. There are a few songs I play on there almost every time I pick up my bass.
Plush by STPâŚIâve always loved this song. Itâs fun to play and not too difficult.
Tuesdays GoneâŚIâve seen lots of Skynyrd haters, but I enjoy playing the lines to a lot of their songs. They are past my ability. The chords in Simple Man sound terrible in my hands. But I appreciate that they are in there.
FlowersâŚMiley Cyrus not my usual but bass line is fun to play
Iâve found Its My Life, by Talk Talk, to be a difficult one to play with the backing tracks. I just canât seem to stich the different parts together, but playing it on itâs own is all kinds of fun!
YES!! This is absolutely the sort of song I was thinking of! Iâm vaguely familiar with it, but never would have thought of it being a fun one to play. Looking at the tab, I am definitely going to give it a go.
lol there are lots of things Iâm terrible at that I appreciate for existing too
I currently use a paid Songsterr account. It has itâs flaws but I really find it useful. I like swapping back and forth between playing with the bass track, the drum track, and the full song.
My recent moment of joy - but not that surprising, considering the material and the player - was playing along to the Donny Hathaway LIVE album with Willie Weeks on bass.
Just absolute perfect bass and band the entire time.
The keyboard solos had my jaw on the floor, and I was hearing them in a different way when I was playing along than when I was just listening.
Such a 10/10 record with the objective best bass solo in recorded history.
Happy to share the love! Green Lung is such a solid band with consistently good basslines. âOlder Than the Hillsâ was one of the songs that made me really want to get serious about playing bass. Itâs still definitely above my pay grade⌠for now anyway
How about extending this to âUnexpectedly Fun Entire Albums to Playâ? Mid-'70s. It was late at night (well, early morning really). I was visiting friends in Santa Barbara. After a couple of nightcaps and some tasty herbaceous product, they put on an album Iâd never heard before by a musician Iâd never heard of. Nighthawks at the Diner by Tom Waits. Jim Hughartâs AUB work was mesmerizing. I have listened to that album well over 100 times in the last 50 years. Even the first few minutes showcases what Hughart brought to the gig.
tl;dr (Iâm just going to paste part of the Wikipedia entry)
The album was recorded at Record Plant Los Angeles on July 30 and 31, 1975. Waits opens the album by calling the venue Raphaelâs Silver Cloud Lounge. Bones Howe recalled:
âWe did it as a live recording, which was unusual for an artist so new [âŚ] Herb Cohen and I both had a sense that we needed to bring out the jazz in Waits more clearly. Tom was a great performer on stage [âŚ] So we started talking about where we could do an album that would have a live feel to it. We thought about clubs, but the well-known ones like The Troubadour were toilets in those days. Then I remembered that Barbra Streisand had made a record at the old Record Plant Studios, when they were on 3rd Street near Cahuenga Boulevard [âŚ] There was a room there that she got an entire orchestra into. Back in those days they would just roll the consoles around to where they needed them. So Herb and I said letâs see if we can put tables and chairs in there and get an audience in and record a show.â
Howe was mostly responsible for organizing the band for the âlive showâ, and creating the right atmosphere for the record.
âI got Michael Melvoin on piano, and he was one of the greatest jazz arrangers ever; I had Jim Hughart on bass, Bill Goodwin on drums and Pete Christlieb on sax. It was a totally jazz rhythm section. Herb gave out tickets to all his friends, we set up a bar, put potato chips on the tables and we had a sell-out, two nights, two shows a night, July 30 and 31, 1975. I remember that the opening act was a stripper. Her name was Dewana and her husband was a taxi driver. So for her the band played bump-and-grind music â and thereâs no jazz player who has never played a strip joint, so they knew exactly what to do. But it put the room in exactly the right mood. Then Waits came out and sang âEmotional Weather Report.â Then he turned around to face the band and read the classified section of the paper while they played. It was like Allen Ginsberg with a really, really good band.â
Dewana was an old-time burlesque queen whom Tom had met on one of his jaunts to the Hollywood underworld. Jim Hughart, who played upright bass on the recordings recalled the experience of preparing for and recording the album:
âPreparing for this thing, we had to memorize all this stuff, 'cause Waits had nothing on paper. So ultimately, we spent four or five days in a rehearsal studio going over this stuff. And that was drudgery. But when we did actually get it all prepared and go and record, that was the fastest two days of recording Iâve ever spent in my life. It was so fun. Some of the tunes were not what youâd call jazz tunes, but for the most part that was like a jazz record. This was a jazz band. Bill Goodwin was a drummer who was associated with Phil Woods for years. Pete Christlieb is one of the best jazz tenor players who ever lived. And my old friend, Mike Melvoin, played piano. Thereâs a good reason why it was accepted as a jazz record.â
During the track âNighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)â, Waits ad-libs lines from âThatâs Lifeâ, a hit for Frank Sinatra.
Never thought Iâd say this but I didnât think Iâd enjoy playing songs by Pink but they are dead simple and the way her music goes from soft to âhardâ gives you a chance to dig in for parts. I donât love the songs but for something I thought I would loathe I was surprised.
Ah I do so love Tom Waits. Nostalgic memories of listening to his albums while milking goats when I spent time living on a dairy farm up in the mountains.
