First song you ever played On Bass with other musicians in the room

[chris_b]

Can't remember which song, but it was probably off a Chess album. Something by Howlin Wolf,Muddy Waters or Chuck Berry. Date, around 1964. My mate Pete Gladwin had a Futurama and Watkins Dominator and I had to play bass lines on an awful Spanish guitar.

[Cat Burrito]

Love Me Tender - Elvis. I have the musical notation tattooed on my arm. 

 

Upon reflection, referring to anyone in that room at that point as a "musician" might be a bit of a stretch. Thankfully we all got a lot better. 

[Woodinblack]

Roundabout by Yes.

[Franticsmurf]

Queen's 'Flash'. I was in a room full of mates who all played something, and I'd never played any kind of instrument before. Being good mates, they hung a bass around my neck, placed my finger on the correct fret and told me to pluck the string with my right finger - over and over again. For a few seconds I was a rock star, until the chord changed. Then I wasn't.

 

But it got me hooked and years later, after dabbling with guitar in an originals band for a while, I hung a bass around my neck and stood up to play 'In the Midnight Hour' in my first covers band.

[Crusoe]

18 minutes ago, Franticsmurf said:

Queen's 'Flash'. I was in a room full of mates who all played something, and I'd never played any kind of instrument before. Being good mates, they hung a bass around my neck, placed my finger on the correct fret and told me to pluck the string with my right finger - over and over again. For a few seconds I was a rock star, until the chord changed. Then I wasn't.

 

But it got me hooked and years later, after dabbling with guitar in an originals band for a while, I hung a bass around my neck and stood up to play 'In the Midnight Hour' in my first covers band.

The chord changes in Flash?! 😲😆

[Cato]

Wild Thing, although describing my fellow 14 year old band members as 'musicians' is pushing it.

[Bolo]

Hit the Road Jack, Smoke on the Water and Running with the Devil.

[tegs07]

Echo Beach. What was supposed to be a punk band suddenly had the guitarist girlfriend as a singer. She had talent. We didn’t. But the set list rapidly became inane drivel.

[leschirons]

Cocaine.

[Bassybert]

Creep by Stone Temple Pilots I think. We also did Under The Bridge by the RHCP but that would definitely have been a simplified version 😀

[tony_m]

Dirty Water by The Standells, with some mates at an open mic / jam night thing.

[bassbiscuits]

I suspect it was Wild Thing in a church hall youth club in Swansea in about 1987 on my white Westone bass. 
 

A few of us got together to do a gig (my first!) at Christmas 1988. I can’t remember the songs tho - I think Every Rose Has It’s Thorn was in there, and er Wild Thing…

 

[super al]

I think the 1st time I played with musicians (but I don't think there was a drummer) was at Cricklade College, Andover in a music room.

All the guitarists I knew at that point loved Jimi Hendrix so I think Hey Joe would've been shown to me.

 

I think I knew the root notes for Whiskey in a jar and House of the rising sun but Jimi didn't play those toons!

 

The 1st band I joined taught me Green Onions and Careful with that axe Eugene...you would've thought being in Andover the kids would play Wild Thing! 😆

[ubit]

I can still remember our very first rehearsal. It was in the scout hall, which we had hired. My mate the guitarist had got a guitar for his Christmas and we had decided to form a band. I got hold of a horrible old bass which had a kind of hook horn that had been glued on to the top and then painted with Dulux gloss paint and my other mate got a cheap drum kit. We learned Ride On by AC/DC, or at least we learned bits of it.

A local musician heard us and popped in. "Ok guys let's hear you." We started and he was like "stop, stop, you have to play together!"

[2pods]

"Know Where You Are" Slade

[Cosmo Valdemar]

If you mean participating with other musicians, then my first was Walking In The Air from The Snowman - school Xmas concert, 1995, on my £20 Eros Gibson copy.

I pretty much confined myself to root notes throughout as I'd only been playing a couple of months.

Edited September 23, 2022 by Cosmo Valdemar
Spelllling

[Paul S]

When I was in my teens, early-mid 70s, I used to occasionally jam with mates.  Alan was on drums, Greg had a black Shaftsbury Les Paul, Dill had a MIJ Jazz bass copy, no idea of the make, and I had a guitar (a Hayman 2020 picked up in a pawn shop for £50!)  We'd spend an afternoon trying to perfect Status Quo/Fleetwood Mac type RnB songs in a seemingly endless loop and often I'd swap my guitar for bass.

 

Thinking about it, 50 years later (with a lengthy hiatus) I am still playing Fleetwood Mac type RnB tunes... I hope I'm getting better by now!

[Leonard Smalls]

At a party in about 1983, with members of the future Utah Saints and a Conflict roadie present, a m8 and I wrote and played a song accompanied by a Roland drum machine. It signified our state of mind at that moment, and was called "Wrecked As A Fart"...

I'd never actually played a real bass before, just twanged along to Bootsy records on a knacked acoustic guitar I'd taken the top 2 strings off!

[Newfoundfreedom]

Seek and Destroy by Metallica. Round about 1990 at the age of 15 in a band with a couple of lads from school. 

[Skin Lewis]

The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt by The Shadows. Around 1967 in a mate's front room aged 14.

[Bluewine]

Wilson Pickett's " Midnight Hour" 1966 with a 4 piece in my parents basement. I was 12 years old.

 

Blue

[Bluewine]

On 19/09/2022 at 15:44, Happy Jack said:

Red House.

Red House, no better place to start out.

 

Blue

[jassthebass]

Dancing in the Moonlight by Thin Lizzy !!

Still fond of this tune!!

[Bluewine]

On 21/09/2022 at 03:42, tony_m said:

Dirty Water by The Standells, with some mates at an open mic / jam night thing.

 

Dirty Water, not my first but pretty close.

 

Blue

[aguacollas]

Roxanne, the guitar player telling me where to put my fingers on the fretboard. 
 

First gig that year in my school, I am amazed now how we dare play covers of Led Zep, Zappa, Faith no more…