New Wave - Bass Transcriptions

I had a bit of trouble transcribing this one.  The drummer, Clem Burke does his Keith Moon Impersonation on this one.  The story goes he was he was going off on this take and didn't expect it to be the final version. 

I've seen this notated as 8th notes throughout the song (except the one measure of half note triplets in the bridge).  I do think  the bass player, Nigel Harrison,  "breaks the line up a bit" playing quarter and 8th notes.  He uses this technique on a number of Blondie songs.  Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

What  can I say, I love Blondie.  My first concert,  great Power Pop / New  Wave Tunes and a really cool bass line in this song.  Over the major  chords a classic Root, lower 6th, lower 5th  pattern in the verse.  On  the Am, a descending 8th , b7 5th.  Every bass player should have this  in their repertoire .  The arpeggios played under the C - Cm chord  change are also unique   C  Descending 8th 5th  3rd Root for Cm - b7 6  3rd 6.   On the G chord at the end of the interlude I hear a sustained  note, but you could easily play 8th notes to match the drums.  What do  you hear?  Leave a comment if you hear something different 

Flashback  to the early eighties - Learn a couple of riffs and the bridge and you  have the song.  The verse and the Chorus are the same 2 chords Cma7 and  D7.

I  like this one. Instead of just playing 8 5 8 5 he adds the open E as a  transition between the phrases, so you get 8 5 8 3 over the Cmaj7 and 8 5  8 2 over the D7 chord.  You could just play 8 5 8 5.  I like the  tension the E note adds to the song.

Another great song by the English Beat.  A pretty straight forward song with the same 3 chords thru out.  He varies how the A and G chord is outlined by the bass.  

Another great song off a great debut album.

Another song off a great debut album.  They know how to rock  in 7/4 time.