Weekly Basslines #176: Little Green Bag (George Baker Selection)

Wow, what a cool bassline is this weeks request by Danny from Australia. It's the debut single by the dutch band "George Baker Selection" released on their own expense in 1969. And it became a real cult classic since at least Quentin Tarantino used this tune for his debut "Reservoir Dogs" (1992) in the opening scene.

So thank you Danny for this cool inspiration and of course for the donation :-)

Weekly Basslines #175: One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer (John Lee Hooker)

This weeks bassline was requested by Sandra from Cologne, Germany. Thanks for the donation!
Thanks also to Helmut from Surberg, Germany, who also donated.

I'm pretty busy now with transcribing basslines, so if you have a request be prepared that it probably takes up to three weeks, before I get it done. 

 

Weekly Basslines #174: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (The Band)

Another request by Danny from Sydney from one of the most legendary farewell concerts of all time - The Band's "The Last Waltz".

"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" has been covered by many different artists around the world. The most successful English-language cover of the song was a version by Joan Baez released in 1971:

Here's a version by Johnny Cash from 1975:

In 1972 the 15 year old singer Juliane Werding had a number-one hit in Germany with "Am Tag als Conny Kramer starb" ("On the Day That Conny Kramer Died"), which uses the tune of the song. The lyrics are about a young man dying because of his drug addiction.

Thanks to Danny for the request and donation! :-)

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Weekly Basslines #173: The Long Run (The Eagles)

Hello to all you bassplayers!

I'm really excited about the big response to my blog worldwide. Requests, questions and donations are coming in from every corner of the globe and I really feel honored about the large attendance on my site. This week I received donations from Michigan (USA), Cologne (Germany) and Sydney (Australia).

THANK YOU! 

Now I've got a lot of transcription work to do and I'll present some of the requested songs here starting next week. This week I'm going to add another tune to the "Eagles-Transcriptions-Project", that I've been working on with some of my students lately.

More from the "Eagles transcriptions project":

Witchy Woman

One Of Thes Nights

Please Come Home For Christmas

Life In The Fast Lane

Weekly Basslines #172: The Weight (The Band)

Danny from Australia pushed the "Donate-Button" again and came up with a quite challenging request. Rick Dankos bassline for "The Weight" from The Band as done in the movie "The Last Waltz" (1978). Rick is really hard to hear in the mix, whilst playing a very busy bassline in his rather unorthodox style using a pick. I had to listen to each bar over and over again to detect the right notes. I don't think that everything I wrote down is 100% accurate, but I'm sure I'm very close!

So thank you Danny for the donation and the challenge :-)

I also have to thank Davide from Newington, Australia and Ian from Hampshire, UK, who also donated to my blog.

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Become a patron for only $2 per month and get access to the pdf transcription of this song, my complete YouTube transcription archive and much more. Take a look, it's worth it:

Weekly Basslines #171: Fantasy (Earth, Wind & Fire)

Seems like the year 2016 will face the extinction of a whole generation of pop- and rock musicians, because another loss had to be bemoaned last week. On 4th of February Maurice White died at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 74.

Maurice, the older brother of  bassplayer Verdine White started playing at the age of 14 in Memphis with his childhood friend Booker T. Jones.
After moving to Chicago by the mid-1960's he was working as a studio drummer for Chess Records recording with artists such as Etta James, Sonny Stitt, Muddy Waters or Buddy Guy.
In 1970 he then moved from Chicago to L.A. and founded the nine-piece band Earth, Wind & Fire. He wrote and arranged most of the songs, sang and played the percussions. 1995 he announced to quit touring with the band, because he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

R.I.P. Maurice White

 My transcription is made from the original studio recording, which unfortunately isn't available on youtube.

Weekly Basslines #170: Sorrow (David Bowie, The McCoys)

This weeks bassline was requested by Danny from Sydney, Australia. He donates regularly to my blog and has already picked a few very interesting tunes for transcription. Thanks to Danny!

"Sorrow" is an original song by the The McCoys from 1965, which became a big hit in the UK in a cover version by The Merseys in 1966. Bowie picked up this song again in 1973 for his covers album "Pin ups".

When I transcribe a cover version of a song, I'm always curious about finding out how the orginal song sounds and therefore I also transcribed the original bassline from The McCoys version:

And finally , here's the version by The Mersey's, which I haven't transcribe yet:

More David Bowie transcriptions:

"Heroes" and "Let's dance"