Fretless Songs

[Tait]

I'm just starting to learn fretless and so far I'm transferring things like Red Hot Chili Peppers onto it. Are there any songs that are worth me listening to and then learning to play specifically to improve my fretless playing? What sort of stuff do all of the other fretless players out there play?

[GreeneKing]

I suppose it all depends on what music you like in the 1st place. 'Badge' works great for me at the moment. There's a lot of Cream tracks that work well with a fretless.

Peter

[neilb]

New York Minute - Don Henley

Wherever I Lay My Hat - Paul Young

[Tait]

WHO'S BADGE BY?

edit: sorry, caps lock was on.

Edited September 29, 2007 by lwtait

[Bass_In_Yer_Face]

[quote name='lwtait' post='67259' date='Sep 29 2007, 08:17 AM']WHO'S BADGE BY?

edit: sorry, caps lock was on.[/quote]

Cream.

[bass_ferret]

[quote name='lwtait' post='67259' date='Sep 29 2007, 08:17 AM']WHO'S BADGE BY?

edit: sorry, caps lock was on.[/quote]
You cant be serious? Whoever was responsible for your musical education should be sacked Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker - collectively known as Cream.

As for fretless toons, I tend to prefer playing more melodic bass lines on the fretless but when I gig I just play what I feel like playing. Sometimes I'll use the fretless all night - other times I dont use it at all.

Good stuff to look at is bands that had fretless players like Bad Company and Japan. You could always try some Jaco if you want to tie your fingers in knots.

[BigRedX]

+1 for Japan try the [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Quiet-Life-Remastered-Japan/dp/B000G1SZM8/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/202-8639949-2871802?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1191065319&sr=8-1"]Quiet Life[/url] album.

[Tait]

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='67281' date='Sep 29 2007, 09:36 AM']You cant be serious? Whoever was responsible for your musical education should be sacked Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker - collectively known as Cream.

As for fretless toons, I tend to prefer playing more melodic bass lines on the fretless but when I gig I just play what I feel like playing. Sometimes I'll use the fretless all night - other times I dont use it at all.

Good stuff to look at is bands that had fretless players like Bad Company and Japan. You could always try some Jaco if you want to tie your fingers in knots.[/quote]

I've heard of Cream, just not the song Badge.

[ShergoldSnickers]

[quote name='lwtait' post='67255' date='Sep 29 2007, 08:11 AM']I'm just starting to learn fretless and so far I'm transferring things like Red Hot Chili Peppers onto it. Are there any songs that are worth me listening to and then learning to play specifically to improve my fretless playing? What sort of stuff do all of the other fretless players out there play?[/quote]
The band I'm in - Desperate Din - play lots of improvised stuff so it's not tunes as such. Really. If you can spot a tune you're doing well. And so are we.

Bassists I'd listen to would be Mick Karn, Percy Jones, John Giblin, Eberhard Weber, and Jaco of course. There are others, but that lot have found something that instantly makes them recognisable and fairly unique.

[ARGH]

If Im bored I play fretless,its fun.

playing Iron maiden tunes on fretless is a challenge.

[SJA]

Music for chameleons by Alan Partridge, okay, Gary Numan (Pino Palladino)

Pearl jam- alive
Ozzy Osbourne- mama I'm coming home (Bob Daisley)
Duran duran- lonely in your nightmare
Simple Minds- sweat in bullet (Derek Forbes)
Bauhaus- kick in the eye
Talk talk- today
Living colour - nothingness (Doug Wimbish)

Edited September 29, 2007 by SJA

[bnt]

Talk Talk's [i]It's My Life[/i] album: not just the title track, there several great fretless tracks on there, such as [i]Tomorrow Started[/i] and [i]Renee[/i]. [i]Happiness Is Easy[/i] has a guest acoustic appearance by Danny Thompson.

Edited September 29, 2007 by bnt

[Bass_In_Yer_Face]

[quote name='SJA' post='67464' date='Sep 29 2007, 07:30 PM']Music for chameleons by Alan Partridge, okay, Gary Numan (Pino Palladino)

Pearl jam- alive
Ozzy Osbourne- mama I'm coming home (Bob Daisley)
Duran duran- lonely in your nightmare
Simple Minds- sweat in bullet (Derek Forbes)
Bauhaus- kick in the eye
Talk talk- today
Living colour - nothingness (Doug Wimbish)[/quote]

i've got a fretless..there are some cracking fretless tracks their I might try....especially the Duranie one.

[Shaggy]

Black Velvet / Alannah Myles
Permafrost / Magazine
Walk on the wild side / Lou Reed (Herbie Flowers probably not on fretless, but shoud have been!)
"Gentlemen take polaroids" album / Japan (also "Quiet life" as posted above)
Lots of Peter Gabriel with Tony Levin on
The "No Parlez" Paul Young album (Pino again!)

Generally find anything short of balls-out rock, and especially balllads/acoustic numbers, works better on fretless so long as you keep it subtle.

[BigRedX]

The great thing about David Jay's bass playing with Bauhaus is half the time you don't realise it's fretless until you hear the occasional slides he puts in.

[SJA]

there's a nice fretless mini-solo in the long version of Gary Moore's "empty rooms".
there are clips on youtube with Bob Daisley playing it live, I think it was Mo Foster who played it on record.

IIRC Pearl Jam's "black" was on fretless too- I'm sure that was influenced by Bad Company's "feel like making love" (Boz Burrell on fretless on that too)

[SJA]

[quote name='Shaggy' post='67502' date='Sep 29 2007, 09:21 PM']Permafrost / Magazine[/quote]

I wondered about that one-

turns out he (Barry Adamson) was bending strings on a fretted (Ovation Magnum), with chorus on it-
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlnOGL-7dV4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlnOGL-7dV4[/url]

sounds good on fretless though.

what a band, way before their time.

Edited September 29, 2007 by SJA

[Rich]

[quote name='SJA' post='67520' date='Sep 29 2007, 10:32 PM']there's a nice fretless mini-solo in the long version of Gary Moore's "empty rooms".
there are clips on youtube with Bob Daisley playing it live, I think it was [b]Mo Foster[/b] who played it on record.[/quote]It certainly was, and he's another geezer well worth checking out fretlessly. His solo album 'Bel Assis' is superb. (As is his book '17 Watts?', it's a scream.)

[ARGH]

[quote name='Shaggy' post='67502' date='Sep 29 2007, 09:21 PM']Generally find anything short of balls-out rock, and especially balllads/acoustic numbers, works better on fretless so long as you keep it subtle.[/quote]
I dunno,If you wanna hear fretless in Death metal you cant go far wrong with 'Individual thought patterns' by Death. Steve D's work with Sadus is hot too.

[ARGH]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='67503' date='Sep 29 2007, 09:26 PM']The great thing about David Jay's bass playing with Bauhaus is half the time you don't realise it's fretless until you hear the occasional slides he puts in.[/quote]


Sorry ,but best David J track for me is 'Shes in parties' ......great intro,the BBC session version is the best.

[Shaggy]

[quote name='SJA' post='67526' date='Sep 29 2007, 10:50 PM']I wondered about that one-

turns out he (Barry Adamson) was bending strings on a fretted (Ovation Magnum), with chorus on it-
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlnOGL-7dV4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlnOGL-7dV4[/url]

sounds good on fretless though.

what a band, way before their time.[/quote]
You're absolutely right of course, hadn't mentioned it as (a) they're totally obscure now, and ( I've banged on about the god-like genius of Barry Adamson on this forum way too much. He's the reason I bought a Magnum (not the choc-ice!) What fabulous atmouspheric music he, John McGeogh (guitar) and Dave Formula (keyboards) made - Howard Devoto's vocals could grate, but top songwriter. Superb live band.

[quote name='ARGH' post='67570' date='Sep 30 2007, 08:37 AM']I dunno,If you wanna hear fretless in Death metal you cant go far wrong with 'Individual thought patterns' by Death. Steve D's work with Sadus is hot too.[/quote]
I'll check that out for sure, and I guess what I meant was the more subtle and "moody" the music is, the more fretless becomes appropriate - probably digging a deeper hole for myself here! I'm basically a fretless player, but my main band at the moment is a covers band, we do a couple of hard-rock numbers and I find I can only get the aggressive upper-neck riffing nicely on my fretted Sabre (Avatar), so use it for the whole set as I can never be arsed to gig 2 basses...........hmmm .....double neck maybe?


[quote name='ARGH' post='67571' date='Sep 30 2007, 08:39 AM']Sorry ,but best David J track for me is 'Shes in parties' ......great intro,the BBC session version is the best.[/quote]
Saw Bauhaus in the v early '80's and can only recall the singer (Pete Murphy?) wearing a very holey black all-in-one underwear thingy. Did an astonishing version of "Bela Lugosi's dead" that went on for ever.......

I think one thing aparent from this thread that the late '70's - '80's was the main era for fretless, or am I wrong?

[Krysbass]

A few good fretless lines, not overly demanding, but they sound good just the same IMHO.....

Black Velvet - Alannah Myles
Feel Like makin Love - Bad Company
Can't Get enough of your Love - Bad Company.

Brand X are worth a listen for some more challenging fretless - particularly the Product and Unorthodox Behaviour albums.

[jacko]

[quote name='Krysbass' post='68096' date='Oct 1 2007, 12:59 PM']Brand X are worth a listen for some more challenging fretless - particularly the Product and Unorthodox Behaviour albums.[/quote]

Good call. I'd recommend having a go at 'April' from the product album.

Level 42's 'Dune Tune' is a good fretless work out. takes a bit more effort than doing it on fretted. The slapped finale sounds really cool on fretless.

i tend to switch to fretless on most of the softer rock numbers in our set such as....
You stole the sun - manics
dakota - stereophonics
gravity - embrace,
but it it also works well for harder numbers like Vertigo or 7 nation army with a bit of attack switched in.

[Viajero]

A Sceptic's Universe by Spiral Architect. 'Technical Metal', so a difficult listen, but the bass player nails some frightening parts accross the whole album on fretless.

[Merton]

[quote name='Rich' post='67534' date='Sep 29 2007, 11:19 PM']It certainly was, and he's [Mo Foster] another geezer well worth checking out fretlessly. His solo album 'Bel Assis' is superb. (As is his book '17 Watts?', it's a scream.)[/quote]
Yes indeedy. Thoroughly bloody nice bloke too. He was genuinley interested in my views on fretless playing when I met him 2 or 3 years ago, and I'd only had a fretless for about 6 months.