Classic Rock

Most of my favorite Bowie Bass lines have already been transcribed.  Although 12/8 is not my favorite time signature to read or transcribe in,  Trevor Bolder did a great job crafting a very melodic bass line over a busy chord progression.

Most of my favorite Bowie Songs already have bass transcriptions available.  I was pleasantly surprised when I didn't find one for this Blue Eyed Soul Classic.

Something to play besides Margaritaville.  RIP Jimmy

Until the SESAC issue is resolved with youtube, No Dylan videos are available.    In the meantime here are couple of my favorite versions Dylan with the Band and Sue Foley.   The Dylan and the band version will take some time to get right.  I've already transcribed the Sue Foley version and will share shortly.  I like to transcribe different versions of a song to see how different bass players handle the chord changes.

There aren't many Bob Dylan bass transcriptions available, so its time to fix that.  This is an interesting blues bass line played by Henry Strzelecki.  Dylan plays the intro solo and doesn't seem to follow the standard 12 bar blues form.  After the intro Robbie Robinson plays the rest of the solos.  On the bass it appears that there are a lot of hammer-ons played.  I notated that in the first verse.  For those interested here's a link to every version of the song recorded in the studio. Its interesting how the song and bass line evolved over the recording process.  https://youtu.be/CeH91pDW4yw?si=AJSYpxweqIwV8ZHX

I'm a big Allman Brothers fan and this is a interesting take on one of there classic songs.   I've done a complete transcription.  For the video, on some of the repetitive parts, they are only repeated twice.   I've added the times so you can follow along to the song while reading the pdf.   This song only has a few sections that repeat,  The chorus has very cool bass line, it first appears on page 2 of the transcription Section E. 

Sometimes you forget how great an album is.  I hadn't listen to this one all the way thru in a while.  John Klingberg does a  fantastic job crafting great melodic bass lines.  Moondance, Crazy Love and Into the Mystic have bass transcription available, so I'm working my way through the other classic songs on this album. First up is Come Running.  Nothing really difficult here, but the bass definitely makes the song groove with lots of subtle variations to explore.   On the A chord he plays the 8th and 5th and on the D chord plays the R 2nd and 3rd working back towards the A chord.

Released after Astral Weeks, Moondance is considered Van's commercial resurrection.  Even with his extensive catalog of releases, Moondance is the album that seems to define him.  John Klingberg  played on this album as well as on His Band the Street Choir.  Unfortunately passing away from a heart attack at the age of 39. 

Had to learn this for a band I play in.  It was harder than I expected.  The Rhythmic pulse falls on the 1, 2+  and 4. Additionally there is a measure of 2/4 in the verse .  Definitely was worth the effort to transcribe and really learn the song.   I do like the bass line over the G chord in the chorus.  Also room for some improve at the end.

So this is my T for Texas Story.  I was playing an open jam and the Guitar player doesn't call out the tune , he starts playing the intro guitar.  I had never played the song so I basically played the bass line to One Way Out by the Allman Brothers.  

So I finally gave it a good listen and they are pretty similar at the beginning and you can play it through out  the whole song and it will work. I've done a complete transcription.  Like my Molly Hatchet transcription. For the video, on some of the repetitive parts, they are not repeated   I've added the times so you can follow along to the song while reading the pdf.   

A straight forward song I needed to learn.  I found the chorus to be interesting.  First measure he plays an A note on the and of 4 as a Pickup into the 2nd measure of Bm.  When going from Bm to C#m (measure 3) he starts the pick-up on 4 (not the and of 4 which is what I would have expected. 

 I've always been a fan of Woody Allen's bass playing. The addition of both Woody and Warren Haynes helped revitalize the ABB in the early 90's. Unfortunately, Woody left us too soon.  This song is a good example of Woody's style.  The bass has a sixteen-note pulse, but it never feels like he's over playing. Check out the transcription of his bass playing on the original version of Soulshine compared to the transcription of Willie Week's bass on the Gov't Mule version.  Both transcriptions can be found in this thread on talkbass.com 

Note: This has been updated to fix a few en-harmonic issues

Another great song of a solid album.  The Band and Music from Big Pink get all the attention, but this album belongs right up there with them.   If you haven't listen to 50th Anniversary reissue, you need to.  The album sequencing is changed  (for the better in my opinion).   As usually it took me a bit to notate Rick Danko's timing. It appears to me he's using the fretless Ampeg again. 

Update: 10/10/25 

Ive been going back and reviewing some of my older transcriptions. I'll add a note if I do update them. 

Original Post :

I had a tough time with this transcription.  Rick Danko switched from the Fender Jazz he had been using to a Fretless Ampeg AMUB bass around the time this album was recorded. I did my best to capture the spirit of the fretless for a fretted bass.