Papa Was A Rolling Stone

[Soulstation1]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=e1zvA41qcVg

bad ass version

i've got no musical skillzzz

bass line on this song is pretty simple

[catesta]

I thought the first thing every new player learned was the Barney Miller bass line.

[Harold_Z]

It's all about cookin'.

[JSngry]

Timing. You got it, you got a groove. You don't, you don't. And if you kinda do, hey, welcome to the music business...

Think about it - you got, like, one note to play in a bar, and three notes to play in the bar after that. There's how many right places to put it? Less than a handful. And it needs to be exactly there every time.

Now, how many wrong places are there to put that one note? Literally an infinite #. Playing more notes is a convenient way to rig the odds in your favor, since most people will get some of the notes in the right place most of the time. But so what about that? That's not being good, that's just being average.

Like so many other things, if it really was that easy...

[Dan Gould]

I thought the first thing every new player learned was the Barney Miller bass line.

What? Its gotta be a toss up between "Smoke On The Water" and "25 or 6 to 4".

[jazzbo]

Nah, it's either Bitches Brew or Sunshine of Your Love.

[AllenLowe]

Day Tripper -

[Harold_Z]

I looked back on the you tube comments to find out who the bassist is. No luck, but it did reveal that the singer is Donny Hathaway's daughter.

Good bass playing. This stuff is all about laying in the cut, putting it in the pocket, or however you want to say it. It's all concept and this bass player's got it. Check out James Jamerson with a totally different setup on the instrument than this player. James is flatwound strings, the bridge mute, high action and a Fender Precision. Here's it's roundwounds, relatively low action and a modern non Fender bass. Both setups work.

Quote of the day by Jim : hey, welcome to the music business...

[Rooster_Ties]

So, with the exact same timing -- could you net a similar (but different) effect on upright??

Could an all-acoustic group pull this tune off??

(Trumpet, Piano, Bass, Drums to start with. Don't have time to watch the clip again to see what else you'd need. Probably guitar.)

Edited June 1, 2008 by Rooster_Ties

[Harold_Z]

You could. Different but just as groovin'.

It should also be said that the bassist ain't goin' nowhere without the right drummer.

[Larry Kart]

"Barney Miller" theme bassist was Chuck Berghofer. Story is that what was written wasn't coming off, and Berghofer said, "Let me try something" and supplied that introductory lick, which made the theme and for which Berghofer got thanks but no further coin.

P.S. Some sources credit Jim Hughart, not Berghofer, but I know that Berghofer claimed to have done it as described above, and I have no reason to disbelieve him.

[zen archer]

I thought the first thing every new player learned was the Barney Miller bass line.

What? Its gotta be a toss up between "Smoke On The Water" and "25 or 6 to 4".

You are all WRONG ...when i started playing Bass my teacher had me play "On top of old smokey "....over ...and over..

and over.....

[DukeCity]

This thread reminds me of the joke about the guy who starts taking bass lessons: He goes to his first lesson and the teacher gets him all set up in the correct position, then they work on plucking the E string. Next lesson they spend the hour just plucking the A and D strings. The guy misses his third lesson, and when the teacher asks him where he was last week, the guy say, "Oh, sorry man. I had a gig."

[John L]

Timing. You got it, you got a groove. You don't, you don't. And if you kinda do, hey, welcome to the music business...

Think about it - you got, like, one note to play in a bar, and three notes to play in the bar after that. There's how many right places to put it? Less than a handful. And it needs to be exactly there every time.

Now, how many wrong places are there to put that one note? Literally an infinite #. Playing more notes is a convenient way to rig the odds in your favor, since most people will get some of the notes in the right place most of the time. But so what about that? That's not being good, that's just being average.

Like so many other things, if it really was that easy...

Yea, that rhythm for the bass riff is not so simple. Usually, you can just feel it. That one I have to count off.

[jazzypaul]

So, with the exact same timing -- could you net a similar (but different) effect on upright??

Could an all-acoustic group pull this tune off??

(Trumpet, Piano, Bass, Drums to start with. Don't have time to watch the clip again to see what else you'd need. Probably guitar.)

Yes, we can. One of these days, I'll get video of my trio doing our medley of Papa Was A Rolling Stone/Eleanor Rigby (which, on set lists shows up as "Papa Was Eleanor Rigby" natch).

If you can do it on upright, guitar and bongos, I am sure a larger group could pull it off.

[Shawn]

First bass line I learned was the Peter Gunn theme.

[Soulstation1]

my sister just bought a fender precision bass (light blue) over on ebay

maybe even lighter blue

she has ALL the musical talent

just tried the bass line on the hammond a-100

left to right on the keyboard

5th Black Key

about 2 / 3 seconds later

6th BK Twice

4th BK

5th BK

Edited June 2, 2008 by Soulstation1

[Soulstation1]

guy was selling a fender precision bass made in mexico in the paper

son played it 10 times max

it's in great shape

Edited June 3, 2008 by Soulstation1