One year ago today: January 25, 2020, is theere an adjective?
Five years ago today: January 25, 2016, cash only.
Nine years ago today: January 25, 2012, Abaransin?
Random years ago today: January 25, 2015, yclepted?
I love bass playing too much. Up past midnight, there I was amalgamating such sources as I could on-line. It’s only when there are no tabs, cheatsheets, tutorials, lessons, charts, or sheet music that I bother with playing by ear. The rational is simple, use all and any resources you can, since I’ve spent around an equal amount of time learning to use those. I tend to cherry pick the best, then go back and make it sound like the original, so a given bass line may have several inputs. I’ll tell you who’s come a long way: Songsterr. Although you might not know it from examining their bass chart to Jambalaya. It looks blank not because it isn’t written, but it [the music score] is accurate because the song had no bass.
Here’s the song list, I use two broad categories. Country and non-country. So I was surprised to find an exact 50/50 mix. Some tunes have been around so long I was still using DOS, where the file names could not contain spaces. There are 40 songs, but I misinterpreted some of what they sent so the list may not be complete. You get the thrust that this is drinking, dancing, party music. Good, that’s where the money was, is, and will be.
Authority SongI cherry pick the best bass parts from all sources and put them into as novel a bass line as I can before going back and adapting to the song. And I add thirds wherever I can, mainly to the country tunes where the bass players tend to be off in dreamland at times. This is also the spot where I add my specialty—acting like I don’t know what’s next or apparently “playing myself into a corner”. It’s just plain fun and spices up the routine.
Boot Scootin Boogie
Crossroads
FastAsYou
Friends in Low Places
Funk 49
GoodHeartedWoman
GuitarsCadillacs
I Feel Fine
Jambalaya
Keep Hands Yourself
Last Dance Mary Jane
Listen To Her Heart
MommaTried
Neon Moon
Pine Box
Pride & Joy
Rocky Mountain Way
Seminole
Spooky
Sultans Of Swing
Sunshine Love
Suzie Q
The One I Love
Wagon Wheel
Walk Softly
Week Live Dangerous
Where I Come From
Wonderful Tonight
Working Mans Blues
And I’m still wondering how it is that five years in Polk County I’ve never seen or heard of this band. Remember what happened the last time I took this chance. Never heard of them because in 20 years, they so rarely played out. Then, after I’d custom-learned their 81 ancient tunes, they tell me they forgot I had said I wanted a working band. Pretended I meant their day jobs.
Caen Hill locks.
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For some time now, I’ve meant to put in writing my theory on why I play this way. So here goes, unless you want to read about me painting the window frame. I envy people born with musical talent, and took a years-long look at how that applied to me. I don’t admire them, there was a time I could not understand why those who could sing did not do so all day. Not so with musicians, I rapidly learned they had limitations. I decided what I lacked in musical talent could be bypassed by what I called “mechanical means”. I kept reminding myself that I had created a band from nothing when I was 13. Could this pass for talent? Pause for a look at one of the last pictures of walking the doggies by the lake.
I choose music despite my known weaknesses for the simplest of reasons. Music made it possible for me to get what myself and most other men could not get any other way. The second thing was music, though I admit overall, I’ve likely lost on the deal. (But being an accountant, I’m contented that I lost less than otherwise.) My path to the stage was not musical talent, but presentation. If you can’t play, perform. Um, I have no talent for that either, but learned that given enough time measured in quarter-centuries, with experience, I could fake it.
Having received several texts from the band, I’ve picked up they are anxious to play out, and have stalled finding a bass player. Ah, they are established. I need to find out how often they play and how dependent they are on it. I have not told them about Tennessee—but the COVID projections, says Ol’ Joe, show hard times into 2024. Keep people focused on wearing masks instead of losing their jobs.
ADDENDUM
Something has to come along and replace Google. Preferably a startup that will not sell out. Now, Google and buddies just canceled Parler, which was very well funded, but a startup dependent on the revenue structure dictated by big tech. Not good, nor will any new venture be able to get financing, unless they are able to build a completely new infrastructure. But that is expensive and inefficient, I meam, two Internets?. Today I went on-line to find out how to replace drip-cap. I did this years ago and found all kinds of free advice. Today, it was only replies showing installation, not replacement. Hell, if there was no siding in the way, who needs a video? A dumbfeck that’s who.
Same with trying to get some free plans for wooden wall book shelves. They have all disappeared. Way to go, entitlement people. Your lack of ability to get real jobs is well on the way to destroying the whole premise of the Internet. Millennials don’t know the difference. between a book shelf, a book case, a book cabinet, and a book ledge. Then again, that kind of matches their concept of what is a book. Any old one will do. Besides, who needs books when you have Jack Dorsey deciding what you should know.
