My guitarist would always pick the hardest bass songs, meanwhile he plays a whole note e minor chord and raises his hand and everyone cheers, plays a blues box solo, with all the boomer bends, cheers. Meanwhile, im chugging along, trying to make sure the song doesn't fall apart. The first world problems us bassists must bear. Dicks!
No kidding, I tried to be the bassist with a couple guitar buddies to jam, and Mike Dirnt had me killing myself for 6 hours trying to get a few songs off Dookie and Insomniac down... I was not very successful.
I was never a Springsteen fan. Was offered a guitar gig in a Springsteen tribute band. What a song writing, arrangement, and part playing education that was! I'm still not a big fan but my appreciation of him and his band was cemented. I do love Thunder Road.
Gary is the guy in the background that doesn't get near the notoriety of the rest of E Street, but he is the glue that keeps it together. Awesome tutorial!
As a guitarist my singer and I went to Nashville to record a major 3 song demo under the direction of an awesome producer..we had no idea of the other two session players we were going to be using..turns out it was Craig Kramph on drums and to my later surprise Gary W. Tallent.. my producer said to me after a break..”You still don’t know who you’re playing with do you”? No I said.. and he told me E.Street Band Gary Tallent.. I was floored to say the least.. his bass licks were incredible and on one song he had that Beatle type McCartney runs like on the song “Rain” flip side of “Paperback Writer”…To this day I will never forget my recording with Tallent and Kramph!!!
Where's the show? Bogarts? Anyway, the drummer on this one is Ernest '"Boom" Carter. Before the ascending chromatic, he does a 16th triplet roll; kick,hat,snare, that Max won't touch. Gary is tough to copy on 1st 3 albums, starting on "Darkness", Bruce asked him to play more simply, which he did for the most part. He played a Danelectro Longhorn short scale bass, I would roll tone off the J-bass for a throatier sound. There are fake -able tunes, this ain't one of 'em, good call.. :>}
Max Weinberg didn't play drums on the studio track. It was Ernest "Boom" Carter. He replaced Vini Lopez when he was fired, but left the band with David Sancious to form their own band. He only recorded the song Born to Run. Max is on the rest of the album.
Ive played in Springsteen tribute bands for the last 8 years. Garry Tallent is so underrated as a bass player. As you say, he is so active you get tired of chasing down all of his lines. Listen to the album "The River" and hear him roar.
That's right, never underestimate how hard a ubiquitous or seemingly simple song actually is. I learned this lesson while teaching a kid 'Long Live' by Taylor Swift. The chords are easy enough on their own but the structure is all over the place. The kid took 3 weeks to learn it 😆
I was going through comments waiting for someone to mention FGTH cover. It was actually the first version I ever heard and fell in love instantly ❤ and when I heard the original for the first time I was kind of disappointed because there was no bass solo , just some “stupid” sax 😂
If you listen to the isolated track again, you'll notice that he lets the octave on the E ring out while he returns to the lower E, so it's almost like a chord.
A good bass line is so integrated into a song that you may not even notice how much is going on, very similar to this song. It is special how a really excellent bass player can add a lot of movement and embellishment without going too overboard. It adds interest that you didn't even know you wanted or needed! I do think there is a fine line where if you add too much, now you are just showing off and it hurts the song instead of helping.
That's what I noticed first when I discovered The Boss on album with good speakers or headphones: Especially the upbeat songs have pretty busy basslines. Born In The USA (the album) is pretty funky as a whole - sliding up is a theme on many songs. Turns out that stuff isn't a bold as you might thought and actually pretty well arranged and played.
Love this! Springsteen tunes and this one in particular are just epic, such a feel good tune! I do love the sax solo in this, and that chromatic part, it's so good! it really sets it up for the next part of the song. Love the Stones shirt. I think I have 3 Stones shirts now haha. The bass looks and sounds awesome! 🤘🏻🔥 Good luck at the benefit, hope it goes well and lots of money is raised, I know for sure you'll rock the 4 tunes you're playing on. 🙂
What a fun bassline! Funny, because nothing is really difficult to play in isolation, but to play it in the song, tight and with people you haven't played with... yeah I see the challenge. I love this! The worst part for me would be to play it with a pick, but that is also why I've grown my nails. Now I have two picks on my fingers, similar sound, similiar function but I can very quickly strum over 2-3 strings at once. I hope you nail it on stage!
Up til about a couple years ago, used to do this track in one of my cover bands. I got the bassline about 95% spot on. Played it for several years. Always went down well. Took me probably a week to learn it. I’ve seen a couple other bassists do it in other bands locally and they never got even half of it correct
I don't think you mentioned in, but in the intro and chorus', the bass STAYS on the E for the first bar while the rest of the band goes to A and B, and then on the repeat it switches chords. This is such a subtle detail but I think it provides just that much tension and eventual release for the intro/chorus of the song.
Memory is a fickle mistress. If I had a dime for every time I thought I could hear a song or a part in my head, only to listen to the recording and discover how far off I was... well, I'd have a whole s-load of dimes. Also, sometimes you may know the part, but playing it proves to be more difficult that you figured. Or, even more likely, you'll have the part down but nailing the feel and capturing the groove is a banana of a whole different color. I remember playing Born to Run in pep band (trombone player) and how absolutely bombastic it was. Whatever you think of Bruce, the E Street Band is a mutha.
Man, I had no idea so much was going on in that song. I too always thought it was a simple 3 chord follow that I could play around although I did know the chromatic walk down. Now I need to go back and learn this from scratch. I'd love it if you put out a detailed instruction video for the bass for this song. Looks like a great bass line to learn, or in this case multiple bass lines for one song 😂
You could do one like this on the drum part just insane. Wasn’t Max, was Earnest Boom Boom Carter. Max does an approximation live and of course it works, but he can’t exactly replicate this. Lots of skills E Street!
”How hard can it be”. Thats what I said before I started to record bass on my own backing tracks😂 I was not as tight as I thought and I have a little more respect for bass players now 😉
I discovered Greta van Fleet a little while ago, and just started to learn bass (I have been playing guitar on and off for like 20 years, so I'm not a complete beginner). I was like "oh, it's just bass, how hard can it be?" I still can't play a single GvF bass line.😂
I have to watch out for those 5 words. (For me, those words pop up in moments of completely unjustified personal hubris.) Question- do you prefer Jazzes over the P bass?
@@TheArtofGuitar Yeah, I didn't know that either - I had to go verify it. Max played on every other song on the album - I wonder why he didn't play on that one?
As has been pointed out, Ernest “Boom” Carter was the drummer on this track…funny how although Max has played this song thousands of times it never really sounds “right”. Garry Tallent is a tasteful and creative bassist, there’s lots of goodies floating underneath the surface on these great songs. Finally, I can’t imagine denying yourself of enjoying Bruce’s outstanding music because of “his politics”. Silly.
@@TheArtofGuitar it sounding good is not the actual point right, ,maybe fruityloops now has a very good stem separator, or serato sample if you might know it. i was thinking you might be able to hear tones better in songs you try to break down. someone could also do it for you if you needed it, just for a starting point.
It's not Max Weinberg on drums, it's Ernest Carter. What's funny is Max admits he bullshits his way through the drum break live because he hasn't figured out how to play it like the record.
People think Springsteen music is trite and simple, not always. Not in a lot of cases, his band was far more talented than they got credit for. All of them.
@@TheArtofGuitar Wow, then the sound engineer did a really good job of making the sound really round. Especially here 02:31. It is a amazing bass tone, and it sounds so much like he is using his fingers. - But no argument here if the the isolated bass in the link is from the original. Because it is clear there that that is a pick. Thanks! Really interesting video :) The bass is so good in this song, I have never noticed. I would definitely hire this guy.
@@Atlas65 Also, I use this "Geddy" tone when I do bass videos so it's more audible for my listeners. It's a bit jarring but gets the sound to a frequency that's easy to hear even on an iphone. :)
You are the absolute opposite of what we are doing in our band. We play our covers in our own style and absolutely do not dig into such details. We have some fluctuations in our instrument covering, so sometimes I play guitar, and when we are in full number, I play keys. E.g., the sus arpeggios in the Summer of 69 - sometimes on guitar, sometimes on a piano ... just having fun. In The Tale That Wasn't Right by Helloween, I play the verse swinging chords on harpsichord sound on keys. Sounds even more interesting. We prefer our own covering style over a precise one. Of course, there is a part of laziness involved. But who cares, definitely not our audience. Maybe some precise musicians like you are. But they are not our target group. We just pick some song we can cover, learn the basics, and if there are some significant details even a common listener would notice, we learn them. Or we just mix more songs with similar or common parts into one - e.g. we play Mama I'm coming home fluently switching into Paranoid finished again with the Mama closing picking riff. Or from Cocaine to Beat it. In the end, 99% of people are having fun, including us. But when I need some detailed analysis eventually, I know where to go.
I'm learning these benefit songs in detail because I don't know what to expect playing with these other pro musicians for the first time. If they come with the heat I'll be ready, if they just do the 'jam' versions of it, I can roll that way too. Just don't want to wing it and have everyone else playing it at a higher level, wouldn't be fair to the them or the song in this circumstance.
@@TheArtofGuitar I agree. When you are doing a one-time gig with new musicians, or you're a substitute, it is totally different than playing with your friends for decades, knowing each other and the common approach to the music. But I must admit that learning some song to detail has undeniable musicianship evolvement benefits. But you need to overcome the initial hurdles and laziness.
as a 40 yr old shredder i love playing bass songs with tabs on jewtube like humans play guitar hero.tool and muse is most fun but michael jacksons earth song is something.type o negative bass way underrated
The drummer on this is Ernest “Boom” Carter. Max plays on the remainder of the tracks on the album.
So, to put it another way, Guitarist shocked by the amount of work us bassists have to do sometimes 😜
🤣🤣🤣
My guitarist would always pick the hardest bass songs, meanwhile he plays a whole note e minor chord and raises his hand and everyone cheers, plays a blues box solo, with all the boomer bends, cheers. Meanwhile, im chugging along, trying to make sure the song doesn't fall apart. The first world problems us bassists must bear. Dicks!
No kidding, I tried to be the bassist with a couple guitar buddies to jam, and Mike Dirnt had me killing myself for 6 hours trying to get a few songs off Dookie and Insomniac down... I was not very successful.
Bass can be wildy melodic and syncopated. Then cats like Geddy, Jack and Glen sing while playing it. Not a joke at all.
I was never a Springsteen fan. Was offered a guitar gig in a Springsteen tribute band. What a song writing, arrangement, and part playing education that was! I'm still not a big fan but my appreciation of him and his band was cemented. I do love Thunder Road.
I've always wanted to do a metal version of Thunder Road.
As a bassist, videos like this validate the work good bassists put into their craft.
Gary is the guy in the background that doesn't get near the notoriety of the rest of E Street, but he is the glue that keeps it together. Awesome tutorial!
That Black Jazz is absolutely stunning
Fender Geddy Lee signature Jazz Bass.
As a guitarist my singer and I went to Nashville to record a major 3 song demo under the direction of an awesome producer..we had no idea of the other two session players we were going to be using..turns out it was Craig Kramph on drums and to my later surprise Gary W. Tallent.. my producer said to me after a break..”You still don’t know who you’re playing with do you”? No I said.. and he told me E.Street Band Gary Tallent.. I was floored to say the least.. his bass licks were incredible and on one song he had that Beatle type McCartney runs like on the song “Rain” flip side of “Paperback Writer”…To this day I will never forget my recording with Tallent and Kramph!!!
Kick ass bass tone
Awesome. This is why the E-Street Band and Bruce Springsteen are famous. Make people think it is simple. Thanks so much for sharing!!
One of the best concerts I have ever seen. Bruce & the E-Street band. So good.
Where's the show? Bogarts? Anyway, the drummer on this one is Ernest '"Boom" Carter. Before the ascending chromatic, he does a 16th triplet roll; kick,hat,snare, that Max won't touch.
Gary is tough to copy on 1st 3 albums, starting on "Darkness", Bruce asked him to play more simply, which he did for the most part. He played a Danelectro Longhorn short scale bass, I would roll tone off the J-bass for a throatier sound. There are fake -able tunes, this ain't one of 'em, good call.. :>}
Max Weinberg didn't play drums on the studio track. It was Ernest "Boom" Carter. He replaced Vini Lopez when he was fired, but left the band with David Sancious to form their own band. He only recorded the song Born to Run. Max is on the rest of the album.
Ive played in Springsteen tribute bands for the last 8 years. Garry Tallent is so underrated as a bass player. As you say, he is so active you get tired of chasing down all of his lines. Listen to the album "The River" and hear him roar.
That's right, never underestimate how hard a ubiquitous or seemingly simple song actually is. I learned this lesson while teaching a kid 'Long Live' by Taylor Swift. The chords are easy enough on their own but the structure is all over the place. The kid took 3 weeks to learn it 😆
E Street Band don’t mess around. All great players
The version by Frankie Goes to Hollywood is the best version and also quite bass heavy.
I was going through comments waiting for someone to mention FGTH cover. It was actually the first version I ever heard and fell in love instantly ❤ and when I heard the original for the first time I was kind of disappointed because there was no bass solo , just some “stupid” sax 😂
lol sometimes it sucks to learn songs where each section is played differently every time it’s repeated
Can also suck playing the same thing repeatedly though😅
I think it's because they couldn't agree on which variation sounded the best, so they decided to use all of them. 😁
Literally every McCartney bass line I've ever tried to learn
If you listen to the isolated track again, you'll notice that he lets the octave on the E ring out while he returns to the lower E, so it's almost like a chord.
Bruce is awesome. Great songwriter and really underrated lead guitarist.
Bruce’s band originally had deep R&B / jazz roots so yeah… they can play! The Wild,Innocent, and E Street Shuffle record is the best examples of this
A good bass line is so integrated into a song that you may not even notice how much is going on, very similar to this song. It is special how a really excellent bass player can add a lot of movement and embellishment without going too overboard. It adds interest that you didn't even know you wanted or needed! I do think there is a fine line where if you add too much, now you are just showing off and it hurts the song instead of helping.
Thoroughly enjoyed this video and breakdown…so good!
That's what I noticed first when I discovered The Boss on album with good speakers or headphones: Especially the upbeat songs have pretty busy basslines. Born In The USA (the album) is pretty funky as a whole - sliding up is a theme on many songs. Turns out that stuff isn't a bold as you might thought and actually pretty well arranged and played.
Love this! Springsteen tunes and this one in particular are just epic, such a feel good tune! I do love the sax solo in this, and that chromatic part, it's so good! it really sets it up for the next part of the song.
Love the Stones shirt. I think I have 3 Stones shirts now haha.
The bass looks and sounds awesome! 🤘🏻🔥
Good luck at the benefit, hope it goes well and lots of money is raised, I know for sure you'll rock the 4 tunes you're playing on. 🙂
What a fun bassline! Funny, because nothing is really difficult to play in isolation, but to play it in the song, tight and with people you haven't played with... yeah I see the challenge. I love this!
The worst part for me would be to play it with a pick, but that is also why I've grown my nails. Now I have two picks on my fingers, similar sound, similiar function but I can very quickly strum over 2-3 strings at once.
I hope you nail it on stage!
Up til about a couple years ago, used to do this track in one of my cover bands. I got the bassline about 95% spot on. Played it for several years. Always went down well. Took me probably a week to learn it. I’ve seen a couple other bassists do it in other bands locally and they never got even half of it correct
Been watching your videos for about a year now and can’t believe how time has passed by so fast
I feel that way about life in general.
I don't think you mentioned in, but in the intro and chorus', the bass STAYS on the E for the first bar while the rest of the band goes to A and B, and then on the repeat it switches chords. This is such a subtle detail but I think it provides just that much tension and eventual release for the intro/chorus of the song.
I didn't mention it but I demonstrate it. That is epic sounding for sure.
Thank you for being dedicated to your craft.
"One eye on the drummer and one eye on the paper." You'd look a bit like Steve Buscemi, you know?
I didn't know Geddy Lee played for Springsteen.
Ha! That is a pretty Geddy-sequel
e tone he has here.
Geddy's real name is Gary, same as the bassist on this song :)
Great video, Mike! And your bass tone is awesome, too!
🤩👍
And now I'm also curious if the cover version by Frankie Goes To Hollywood goes into all those details in the bass line. I'll investigate! 😊👍
Dude! You are an inspiration!!! ❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉
Memory is a fickle mistress. If I had a dime for every time I thought I could hear a song or a part in my head, only to listen to the recording and discover how far off I was... well, I'd have a whole s-load of dimes. Also, sometimes you may know the part, but playing it proves to be more difficult that you figured. Or, even more likely, you'll have the part down but nailing the feel and capturing the groove is a banana of a whole different color. I remember playing Born to Run in pep band (trombone player) and how absolutely bombastic it was. Whatever you think of Bruce, the E Street Band is a mutha.
Nice bass tone.
Your bass sounds good!
8:12 *Ernest "Boom" Carter, he just goes crazy in the part.
Man, I had no idea so much was going on in that song. I too always thought it was a simple 3 chord follow that I could play around although I did know the chromatic walk down. Now I need to go back and learn this from scratch. I'd love it if you put out a detailed instruction video for the bass for this song. Looks like a great bass line to learn, or in this case multiple bass lines for one song 😂
You could do one like this on the drum part just insane. Wasn’t Max, was Earnest Boom Boom Carter. Max does an approximation live and of course it works, but he can’t exactly replicate this. Lots of skills E Street!
the E street band is easily my favorite unit, put those guys in a room give the pop goes the weasel and they'll give you a masterpiece
Give Highway Star a try. Nice little finger workout.
”How hard can it be”. Thats what I said before I started to record bass on my own backing tracks😂 I was not as tight as I thought and I have a little more respect for bass players now 😉
I discovered Greta van Fleet a little while ago, and just started to learn bass (I have been playing guitar on and off for like 20 years, so I'm not a complete beginner). I was like "oh, it's just bass, how hard can it be?"
I still can't play a single GvF bass line.😂
Garry is such a cool bass player
Gary Talent earned his name
1:55 "Take my breath away"
I’m not a big fan of Springsteen & band but I give credit where credit is due, they are all very talented musicians…
curious about the bass tone...can you give a little insight?
I have to watch out for those 5 words. (For me, those words pop up in moments of completely unjustified personal hubris.) Question- do you prefer Jazzes over the P bass?
Max weinberg didn’t play on this song it was Ernest carter
Oh weird. I never knew that. Thanks.
@@TheArtofGuitar
Yeah, I didn't know that either - I had to go verify it. Max played on every other song on the album - I wonder why he didn't play on that one?
@@TheArtofGuitar Max plays on all the other songs on the album but not the title track. Born to run was the first song finished for the album.
@@TheArtofGuitar Found a video of him playing it with a band 10 years ago: th-cam.com/video/MyXkB0IeMHQ/w-d-xo.html
Turns out the E-Street Band ain't got no slouch in 'em, not even a little. And they called that guy The Boss, anyway.
say what.. that's insane in the membrane
As has been pointed out, Ernest “Boom” Carter was the drummer on this track…funny how although Max has played this song thousands of times it never really sounds “right”.
Garry Tallent is a tasteful and creative bassist, there’s lots of goodies floating underneath the surface on these great songs.
Finally, I can’t imagine denying yourself of enjoying Bruce’s outstanding music because of “his politics”. Silly.
Who else tapped the table during the awesome chromatic nuclear part?
It's too bad Gary's bass was buried on most of his albums.
do you use stem separation to remove drums etc?
I sometimes use RX8 but it never sounds good.
@@TheArtofGuitar it sounding good is not the actual point right, ,maybe fruityloops now has a very good stem separator, or serato sample if you might know it. i was thinking you might be able to hear tones better in songs you try to break down. someone could also do it for you if you needed it, just for a starting point.
Where can I hear you play?
Yeah, charts and me don't get along. I listen, learn, and then play (as close as I can).
FYI max w does not play on this track
Good news is, you can play whatever you want and only a bassist will know it’s wrong.
What you call "weirdness" I call "not boring"
It's not Max Weinberg on drums, it's Ernest Carter. What's funny is Max admits he bullshits his way through the drum break live because he hasn't figured out how to play it like the record.
People think Springsteen music is trite and simple, not always. Not in a lot of cases, his band was far more talented than they got credit for. All of them.
But it sounds like Gary is using his fingers on the recording. Why are you using a pick with this aggressive punk tone and attack?
He's using a pick. th-cam.com/video/HQh-6jNeArg/w-d-xo.html
@@TheArtofGuitar Wow, then the sound engineer did a really good job of making the sound really round. Especially here 02:31. It is a amazing bass tone, and it sounds so much like he is using his fingers. - But no argument here if the the isolated bass in the link is from the original. Because it is clear there that that is a pick. Thanks! Really interesting video :) The bass is so good in this song, I have never noticed. I would definitely hire this guy.
@@Atlas65 Also, I use this "Geddy" tone when I do bass videos so it's more audible for my listeners. It's a bit jarring but gets the sound to a frequency that's easy to hear even on an iphone. :)
You are the absolute opposite of what we are doing in our band. We play our covers in our own style and absolutely do not dig into such details. We have some fluctuations in our instrument covering, so sometimes I play guitar, and when we are in full number, I play keys. E.g., the sus arpeggios in the Summer of 69 - sometimes on guitar, sometimes on a piano ... just having fun. In The Tale That Wasn't Right by Helloween, I play the verse swinging chords on harpsichord sound on keys. Sounds even more interesting. We prefer our own covering style over a precise one. Of course, there is a part of laziness involved. But who cares, definitely not our audience. Maybe some precise musicians like you are. But they are not our target group. We just pick some song we can cover, learn the basics, and if there are some significant details even a common listener would notice, we learn them. Or we just mix more songs with similar or common parts into one - e.g. we play Mama I'm coming home fluently switching into Paranoid finished again with the Mama closing picking riff. Or from Cocaine to Beat it. In the end, 99% of people are having fun, including us. But when I need some detailed analysis eventually, I know where to go.
I'm learning these benefit songs in detail because I don't know what to expect playing with these other pro musicians for the first time. If they come with the heat I'll be ready, if they just do the 'jam' versions of it, I can roll that way too. Just don't want to wing it and have everyone else playing it at a higher level, wouldn't be fair to the them or the song in this circumstance.
@@TheArtofGuitar I agree. When you are doing a one-time gig with new musicians, or you're a substitute, it is totally different than playing with your friends for decades, knowing each other and the common approach to the music. But I must admit that learning some song to detail has undeniable musicianship evolvement benefits. But you need to overcome the initial hurdles and laziness.
Not even "Born in the USA?" Granted it's a very difficult song for drummers.
That's one of his worst most overrated songs. 70's Bruce rocks - 80's Bruce, not so much.
Just cause it’s difficult doesn’t mean it’s good. Bruce Springsteen is overrated and his music stinks.
First comment tag
I don't like Bruces' Politics, but he does write some epic songs.
Regardless of his politics, the dude writes and performs incredibly entertaining music.
As long as the follow up to The River wasn't called To The Sea.
Can't listen to Bruce anymore with his politics.
Politics matter not, music is eternal.
Shame on Bruce for giving a crap about others less fortunate than himself!
Good, go listen to Ted Nugent then...
@@deano572 Really? Name one thing he said that's a communist ideology.
day or so rest in between learning songs helps
mate i thought you had the song in your head coz you heard it so many times.isnt it fun getting cought out and learning
as a 40 yr old shredder i love playing bass songs with tabs on jewtube like humans play guitar hero.tool and muse is most fun but michael jacksons earth song is something.type o negative bass way underrated