OK so how would have played it?

[Cliff Edge]

If you had been the session bassist during recording of a well known song. 

Would you have played it differently?

This question often occurs to me when I hear distinctive and sometimes complex bass lines on pop and rock songs and wonder “how did they come up with that?”

[Downunderwonder]

Not sure where you are going with this but a little story...

Band's drummer was giving a lesson to a student as I rocked up to rehearsal. There was a backing track playing of a big band tune we do. I thought it  was our band. The bass line was very much note for note with what I did improvising over the chord chart, before doing something a bit flashier. Bizzare.

[Cliff Edge]

Not going anywhere. The thought just came to me while listening to the radio and wondered if anyone else had similar thoughts. 

[mikel]

In sessions a lot of the music is as written, or as the main performer or producer demands it. Not sure how much is open to musicians interpretation. Band composed stuff is different.

[ambient]

This is actually quite interesting.

At university we had to learn the bass part to a well known song each week, we’d then have to play it as part of an ensemble. I often used to wonder what had prompted whoever originally composed the line to use a particular note or phrase.

I think a lot of the more interesting or unusual lines that you hear, were probably originally composed by a pianist/keyboard player.

If the recording features a known bassist, then I’d guess he’s been chosen to add his particular flavour of line to the song - Pino springs to mind, especially in the 1980s, he’d have been booked to provide his trademark fretless lines to a song.

I suppose most of us would have done something different if it had been us writing the line, rather than just recording it. We have our own particular style of playing, and make our own choices regarding notes etc. I tend to play quite melodically for instance.

[TheGreek]

I defy anybody to write a better bassline to "I want you back" (Jackson 5) or "Forget me nots" (Patrice Rushen).

Both basslines are masterpieces and completely left field from what the majority of bass players would have played.

Working with original songs, there are so many permutations that what is "better" becomes a matter of style and personal taste.

[ambient]

8 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

I defy anybody to write a better bassline to "I want you back" (Jackson 5) or "Forget me nots" (Patrice Rushen).

Both basslines are masterpieces and completely left field from what the majority of bass players would have played.

Working with original songs, there are so many permutations that what is "better" becomes a matter of style and personal taste.

I believe Wilton Felder played bass on I want you back, though Jamerson was credited with it too. There’s a couple of different takes featuring different players. I don’t know who actually composed the line.

[chris_b]

24 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

I defy anybody to write a better bassline to "I want you back" (Jackson 5) or "Forget me nots" (Patrice Rushen).

This. . . IMO Wilton Felder was probably reading the part for I Want You Back, and Freddie Washington is credited with the bass line on Forget Me Nots. Lee Sklar said that he created the bass part for Do You Know Where You Are Going To by Diana Ross. James Jamerson got dots, chord charts and sometimes jst the producer humming the song. So it depends.

In a Nathan East interview he said that you get written parts or just chord charts, but whatever turns up the best guys "leave something on the table". That means you put in something of your own into the song that makes it perk up, like a flourish or a lick. If you can do that on every song then the producers will be keen to get you on the next session.

Edited July 1, 2021 by chris_b

[dave_bass5]

3 hours ago, TheGreek said:

I defy anybody to write a better bassline to "I want you back" (Jackson 5) or "Forget me nots" (Patrice Rushen).

Both basslines are masterpieces and completely left field from what the majority of bass players would have played.

Working with original songs, there are so many permutations that what is "better" becomes a matter of style and personal taste.

I defy anyone to f*** up the bass lines to ‘I want you back’ and ‘Forget me nots’….oh wait……Heard it many times down the local 😂

i think if someone is coming up with an original bass line, then its going to sound unique, but if they have the same influences and references as another then maybe its not always going to be too different. 

Ive often wondered if JJ hadn’t played on all those  Motown hits would they still have become hits. My guess is yes. He gave them a certain feel, but there is more than one way to make a great groove. 

Edited July 1, 2021 by dave_bass5

[Downunderwonder]

13 hours ago, ambient said:

I think a lot of the more interesting or unusual lines that you hear, were probably originally composed by a pianist/keyboard player

I find some jazz charts must be keyboardist written as they are ''correct'' but ''no bassist would play it like that''.

[Lozz196]

13 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

Ive often wondered if JJ hadn’t played on all those  Motown hits would they still have become hits. My guess is yes. He gave them a certain feel, but there is more than one way to make a great groove. 

Yep, great songs made even greater by JJ

[chris_b]

1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

Yep, great songs made even greater by JJ

Yes. Even the songs with Bob Babbitt on bass were hits, so sorry guys, they are still playing those song 60 years later because of the songs not the bass playing.

[bass_dinger]

On 30/06/2021 at 11:15, Cliff Edge said:

If you had been the session bassist during recording of a well known song. 

Would you have played it differently?

In the main, no.  I am still in the foothills of bass playing, and do not have the experience, taste, or technical mastery to play it differently.  For me, different would be worse.