With A Little Help From My Friends

What better place to start this celebration than the universially acclaimed Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The band were through with touring and dead set on making the most out of the recording studio. This can very much be seen as McCartney's record, featuring a wealth of hs compositions as well as him playing both piano and guitar on a number of tracks. This is where his meticulous attention to detail in his bass lines came to the forefront as well.
Each track features a unique line, peppered with McCartneyisms. Apparentley he often recorded the bass last, after the rhythm section was already in place, and was therefore afforded to really sculpt his line to fit into all the spaces left by the others. Even the usually throwaway song sung by Ringo got treated to a great line.

 With a Little Help From My Friends is usually attributed to Lennon, but the arrangement is very Paul-centric. This is a very good example of Paul taking the sub-hook role. The verse's descending line feature roots and thirds and is played quite staccato. The line is easiest to pull off if you star off around the twelth fret, that way the fills won't require you to change positions. Slightly palm mute (especially if you're using roundwounds) and play it with a pick.

Thoughts or feedback? Drop me a line in the comments.

 

Glenn Campbell - Wichita Lineman

Today's transcription is the cool, laid back line from Glenn Campbell's Wichita Lineman, featuring the always interesting pickstyle playing of session ace Carol Kaye.

The whole record starts off with  a distinctive rhythmic figure stated by Carol's bass, which returns in measure 3. She does a two-fret downward slide into the first verse. The bass instantly locks with the bass drum, making occasional fills on the fourth beat (measures 8, 10 and 11) to not interfere with Glenn's vocals and then doing another two-fret slide into the chorus.

The chorus sees Carol in a more subdued mode, outlining the harmony with a chromatically descending bass line and measure 16s rhythmically unison figure.
Carol then lays down whole notes behind the "morse-code" guitar of the interlude.
Verse 2 opens with a re-stating of the intro bass fill and then follows along the lines of the first verse.
What follows is the chorus, opening with a killer fill in measure 29 and then going into the descending line.
My transcription then abondons the bass line in favor of the solo, played by Campbell on Carols Fender Bass VI. If you want to keep holding down the bottom it's the same chords as the verse but I think it's more fun stepping out. Dial up a plunky tone and stomp on a tremolo effect for the best result. The solo is basically stating the verse melody in the bass octaveand adding some cool quarter triplets and a cool polyrhythmic sounding line in measure 42.

This is an incomplete transcriptions, but the are no other segments I've left out. The song only returns to parts we've already seen. I'll complete it someday.

Thoughts or feedback? Drop me a line in the comments.