I was listening to Sympathy on Ya-ya's yesterday and was struck by how different it sounds from the BB version. Well it's live of course. Charlie is amazing. No other drummer would do what he does. His Hi Hat work is amazing; so busy but never cluttering. Anyway I hear that Bill is playing basically that same galloping beat that Keith plays inthe studio on Bass. But Keith is basically palying the rootnotes on the E and D chord. Then for the A he slides down to the C# and walks up chromatically back to the last E. There's a lot of implied notes in between but that's basically it. Bill does the same for the first two but for the A he goes up to the rootnote of A only to slide down to the E again. It's all rootnotes with him. Then in true Bill fashion he always throws in the fifths. On some turnarounds on YaYa's he even walks UP instead of down. So for the E he is on E for the D chord he goes up to F#, then to E to walk back down to the E, stopping in on the Ab on his way down. All this basically on the A string. This might sound coml;ictaed but is just real simple stuff. It just is very intersteing in the difference of bass playing because it creates such different harmonies. Bill always has his left hand in that fifth position. Lots of his early standout Bass palying is based around this. Like the prominent bass on Jigsaw Puzzle is much of that.
DJ just recently said in an interview about Keith's bass playing that Keith loves to throw the low 4th into a chord. So if you are in B e.g he would be playing a low E. this doesn't make sense. has anyone else heard this? where if they were in A he would pl;ay a D? That actually fits in with his whole obsession with the sus4 chords.
Sorry to get so tech but this is interesting to me.

why doesn't it make sense? If you are on low 4th the 1st then can be seen as the 5th. As far as I remember (can't listen or check bass at the moment) Keith plays the 4th to the rootnotes on Sympathy though not the low 4th.

Good post Chelsea. I like this kind of stuff but I don't see why you think using the low 4th doesn't make sense. It works just fine an octave up. And as you point out, C#, a third, is used in place of the root note A on Sympathy so it's not so unusal to use harmonic subsitution. Also check out the use of the low 4th on the F# chord in the opening of Rocks Off.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-08-24 22:28 by ChrisM.

Bill often used thirds and fifths instead of the root note. Two great Wyman examples of textbook bass playing are the studio "Miss You" and the Still Life "Just My Imagination".

I just re-read my post and ralized I didnt' explain clearly what I thought was strange. DJ said that about Keith's Bassplaying. He says that e.g if the guitars are playing an A chord Keith will maybe play a D on the Bass. I know as an added note in a chord that's nothing major. It is howerevr interesting when you play that note on the Bass under that chord. It makes for a huge fat overall ring. Tells me much about Keith's piecing together of harmonics on a track.
As far as the SFTD thing goes. I find it ineterstting that the difference in what Bill and Keith play explains the difference in sound of the song. What each one opf them play is ...well it's whatever they play.
On the studio of "Happy" Keith actually achieves some huge fat harmonies. They are just so subtle, not overproduced so it's not in your face.

Chelsea posted this back aways...may be of some interest to ya....

Darryl Jones interview in Bass Player August 2005 mentions the Stones.

BP: Can you talk about the Rolling Stones' compositional process, and your part in it?

DJ: The first thing that happens is Mick and Keith get together and throw around different riffs and ideas. Keith once told me that sometimes he'll play an old tune on the piano, like something by Hoagy Carmichael, or a blues tune, and as his hands fall to different places, things will occur to him, and that's how he'll come up with a song. Then Charlie comes in and they start doing a little recording, and then they start adding people. Recently, I've discussed bass lines with Mick more than I ever have, because he's evolving, and he has a better idea of what he's looking for in a bass line.

Then we'll try a bunch of different stuff - we'll try straight eighths, we'll try partial straight eighths, we'll try a full-blown line, we'll try doubling the guitar-until we come up with something he's satisfied with.

Keith is much more hand-off. He just puts the idea out there and lets you develop it in a way that's more organic to you. The interesting thing about Keith's writing now is that I can recognize a certain thread that goes through it, and i know a bit about the way he plays bass, so now I have repertoire of things Keith will do to make the bass line his, to give it those "Keith" characteristics. Like, instesd of playing the root note, he'll play a 3rd lower. i try to add those things to their writing to try and make it a little more Stones-ish.

ROCKMAN

Very cool.

I ain't stupid, I'm just guitarded.