January 27th 2025

I think it might be time to add a few more transcriptions to my Bob's Basslines website. For your perusal this time, there are eight lovely basslines of varying complexity.

Back in the early 1980s, Judas Priest were part of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (along with bands such as Tygers Of Pan Tang, Saxon, Chrome Molly and even early Def Leppard and Iron Maiden), so I was used to hearing them play things like Breaking The Law and Living After Midnight. I heard almost nothing of them or their work, other than the comedy heavy metal leather and studded wristbands they wore, for close to 10 years until 1990 when somebody played me the Painkiller album. Wow! What a difference a decade makes. Three of their songs went straight onto our set list; Painkiller, Between The Hammer And The Anvil and Night Crawler. Now you can have a go at these great tracks yourself but beware, Painkiller flies along at a frantic pace and you'll need to have a fast right hand to keep up.

Keeping things in a rock vein, although not as metal, I've put up Straight Through The Heart from Dio's Holy Diver album and another Ozzy song; Perry Mason. The Ozzy track has a lovely rolling bassline and is a pleasure to play.

We now move away from the rockier stuff and go to 80s pop. Madness had a massive hit with a cover of Labi Siffre's It Must Be Love and now you can play along to this two-tone/reggae/ska track from the nutty boys. Next is the Ian Dury And The Blockheads song Sex & Dugs & Rock & Roll which is very easy and won't be too much of a problem to get your fingers around.

Finally, another one that my sixties band has been playing about with, some early Cliff Richard And The Shadows with Do You Wanna Dance?

Don't forget to bookmark this website, follow on Facebook and let all your bass-playing friends know about bobsbasslines.com. Tell them that I don't use cookies, I don't charge for the music, there aren't any annoying popups, absolutely NO ads and you don't need to sign up or log in. Just download and start playing along to some fantastic music. See you next time for another dose of low-end loveliness.

October 6th 2024

Welcome back to Bob's Basslines. You're just in time for another batch of great basslines to look over, download, and play along to. I still don't use sign-ups, cookies, pop-ups, log-ins, subscribe/emails, adverts, restrictions on numbers of songs that you can download, and definitely no money needs to change hands!

For your delight on this update we have the very last two songs of my Rush collection - Dreamline and Bravado from their 1991 album, Roll The Bones. I have a couple more Rush songs which are partially transcribed and I may go back at some point and finish them, but for the moment, that's all of my Geddy material.

I'm still playing in a 60s tribute band and here's a couple more from that era that we've been experimenting with... Get Back from the Beatles is currently opening our first set and another Liverpool beat band, Gerry & The Pacemakers, had a big hit called Ferry Cross The Mersey. Neither of these is difficult to play but they're great songs and well worth visiting.

Back in the late 80s I discovered a band called Dokken and was impressed by the guitar playing of Mr. Scary himself, George Lynch. He went solo in 1990 and formed the band Lynch Mob, who released two albums in fairly quick succession; Wicked Sensation which was a fairly good album but was eclipsed by his self-titled second offering Lynch Mob. I've transcribed the first four tacks from this second album; Jungle Of Love, Tangled In The Web, No Good and Dream Until Tomorrow. I'm expecting to go back at some point and finish off transcribing the whole album. In the meantime, enjoy these four tracks.

To finish off we have two tracks that are quite different. AC/DCs Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be is exactly what you'd expect with a great guitar riff over a pedal tone bass - have fun with this tack. Finally something a bit different, from Joe Jackson with It's Different For Girls. It's just a song that I liked when it was released, and there's a rambling, sort of bass solo at the end of it. If you don't already know it, have a listen and see what you think.

That's it for this update so download, print and play your hearts out. If these aren't to your taste, then there's still lots more to come and if you haven't done it already, then make sure you bookmark the website and like the Bob's Basslines Facebook page to keep informed of more great basslines.

August 7th 2024

Time for some more Bob's Basslines for you to play along to.

This time it's the complete Permanent Waves album which contains some of the best Geddy Lee basslines in the Rush canon. The opening track, Spirit Of Radio, probably has as many different interpretations as there are transcriptions available, but I think (hope?) I've got it pretty accurate. Back in the 1980s I even designed and built an electronic circuit to slow my cassette player down to half speed so that I could hear exactly what was going on with that run down on the intro. The problem was that the drums were louder in the mix than the bass and made it sound like there was a triplet or two being played. After a close listen on my waveform editor, I now think that the toms play a triplet but the bass just plays eighths. I have even added an extra .pdf file of the intro with the guitar part shown against the bass so that you can see how it all fits together. Famous last words? Well, head over to the song page and see for yourself!

The tracks, in album order, are;
The Spirit Of Radio, Freewill, Jacob's Ladder, Entre Nous, Different Strings and finally the nine-and-a-half minute epic that is Natural Science.

The usual Bob's Basslines recommendations apply, ie/ No signups, no registration, no logins, no adverts, no charges, I don't use cookies and definitely none of those irritating popups either. Just find the song you want, download, and play it on your bass.

May 19th 2024

I think it's about time I gave you all some new basslines to have a play with, so here's seven selected songs to strike your strings to. First of all there's some of John Deacon's Queen bass work; the poptastic Headlong, the rocktastic Hammer To Fall and one he wrote himself - You And I. Next we have Hell's Bells from AC/DC's classic Back In Black album. Some more rock next with Great White's Rock Me. Leaving the rock genre we move on to some Spencer Davis Group and their best known hit from 1965 Keep On Running. Last, but certainly not least we have Unsinkable which is the first track from the latest Judie Tzuke album, Jude The Unsinkable, which is well worth a listen and available from her tzuke.com website.

So there you go, more bass goodness to keep your fingers out of trouble for a short while. Remember, as usual, that with Bob's Basslines you don't have annoying popups, cookies, registration, sign-ins, charges, or adverts. Just download and play your bass. See you all soon for....

February 10th 2024

Two updates in three days. Well, you can't get much better than that! This time it's yet another full Rush album; it's a double album too. I have, for your bass-playing pleasure, A Show Of Hands which was taken from the tour to promote Hold Your Fire. These basslines were transcribed from the double vinyl release in 1989, and I say that because I also had the VHS tape and noticed that the basslines were slightly different on the video.

The tracks, in album order are...

The Big Money, Subdivisions, Marathon, Turn The Page, Manhattan Project, Mission, Distant Early Warning, Mystic Rythms, Witch Hunt, Force Ten, Time Stand Still, Red Sector A, and Closer To The Heart. So there you go, 13 tracks to keep your fingers busy until the next upload.

As usual Remember to bookmark the website and like/follow the Bob's Basslines Facebook page to keep informed about the latest uploads.

NO signups, NO charges, NO cookies, NO ads, NO popups and NO b/s - just download and play yer bass.

February 7th 2024

Time for some new basslines I think. Here's a small update for the moment with another larger one coming at the weekend. I'm still playing with my 60s tribute, Carnaby Street, and so I've got four classics for you to have a go at. First up is the weirdly named Do Wah Diddy Diddy from the legend that is Manfred Mann. It starts off with the usual root/fifth bassline, typical of the period but gets a bit rockier on the outro. Hold Tight from the weirdly named Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch is next on the list. There's nothing weird about Shakin' All Over by Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, just classic rock n roll which wouldn't be out of place in a modern rock band's set list. The final 60s song is Somebody Help Me from the Spencer Davis Group who are probably best known for Gimme Some Lovin'. We move forward to the 1970s for the next two songs... Killer Queen is a killer Queen track and has a brilliant bassline from the often overlooked John Deacon. Jona Lewie's anti-war song (not a Christmas song, honest) Stop The Cavalry was going to be added at Xmas but I never got around to it. Finally we've got Judas Priest with One Shot At Glory from their excellent Painkiller album. It's a wonderful 90s shred-fest.

So there you have it, enough to keep you going until the next update. Could it be more Rush? Well, bookmark this website and give the Facebook page a like so that you can find out. Let all your bass playing buddies know, and tell them that I don't use cookies, I don't charge for the transcriptions, there are no irritating pop-ups or adverts, No sign-ups or log-ins required either. See you at the coda!

November 26th 2023

I said in the last update that I had another Rush album almost ready to go, and I did. It was their 1977 release, A Farewell To Kings... Until I checked my transcription of Cygnus x-1 against the recording. It took a few weeks to sort it out but I finally managed to get it right (I think/hope!). Anyway, give it a try and see what you think. The tracks in album order are - A Farewell To Kings, Xanadu, Closer To The Heart, Cinderella Man, Madrigal and the magnum opus that is Cygnus x-1 Book I: The Voyage. That should keep you busy until the next addition to the website.

If you haven't already done it, then give the Bob's Basslines Facebook page a like and bookmark this website too. Lots more bass stuff to come and no signups, no charges, no cookies, no adverts, no popups or anything else that makes the internet annoying!

October 22nd 2023

Well, it's been a while since I last added to the website so it seems like I should add some more basslines for you to play with. I've got the Marching Out album from Yngwie Malmsteen but as it's the whole thing, see the post below for details.

Well, as I said earlier this year, I've joined a 1960s tribute band so there's a couple of hits from that era... Beggin' by the Four Tops was covered not long ago by someone 'modern' (Don't know who and can't be arsed to Google it!), so you might recognise that one. It's quite a catchy little number and simple to play, so have some fun with that one. As a kid I used to watch the Monkees TV programme during the school summer holidays and grew to love some of their material. One of the standout tracks was Pleasant Valley Sunday (originally a folk-y song about suburban tedium written by Carole King) which has a great bass part and is surprisingly complex for what sounds like a straightforward bubblegum pop song. It's got quite a fast tempo and is great fun to play, so enjoy wrapping your fingers around that one. The sixties wouldn't be complete without The Beatles and the Stones, so I've added I Feel Fine and Under My Thumb. Both are simple to play.

Now we move on to some more modern songs (Are 70s and 80s still modern?). First up is Tina Turner's big hit The Best (yeah, there's no 'Simply' in the title). Two Alannah Myles songs - Lover Of Mine and Black Velvet which has a five string detuned a semitone. Big Country scored a hit back in the 80s with a song called Chance and chances are you'll recognise the song, even if you don't recognise the title. Richie Blackmore's Rainbow had a lovely track called Do You Close Your Eyes? and you can open your eyes, download and play it. I think at this point we need more Ozzy, so here's the wonderfully punchy Desire and the masterpiece title track to his early 90s album No More Tears. More of that album is in the pipeline so remember to bookmark this website, and follow/like the Facebook page to keep informed of new updates.

Talking of masterpieces, I have added the Iron Maiden epic Fear Of The Dark to round off this update. Lots of notes in that one to keep your fingers busy.

October 22nd 2023

As I promised above, here's the full Marching Out album from Yngwie Malmsteen. Lots of harmonic minor riffs to enjoy here and I use some of them for dexterity exercises too. Tracks as they appear on the album in order are...

I'll See The Light Tonight, Don't Let It End, Disciples of Hell, I Am a Viking, Overture 1383, Anguish and Fear, On the Run Again, Soldier Without Faith, Caught in the Middle and Marching Out.

Enjoy this one and I'll see you back here soon for more bassy goodness. I even have another Rush album almost ready to go, and you know how much you love a bit of Geddy.

June 16th 2023

Rush are always a popular addition to Bob's Basslines so here's another great Rush album for you to play along to - Hold Your Fire.

Here we find Rush in full "synth" mode and Geddy plays some really interesting basslines which will keep your fingers busy and happy for most of the album. I say "most" because this album contains the song Tai Shan, which appears to be their least liked song by fans of the band. Tai Shan is still fun to play as it's done on a fretless so there's lots of opportunity to make it interesting to play by using loads of slides and left-hand vibrato. It also has the track Lock And Key which I think is the only time that Geddy used a 5-string bass. Prime mover has an interesting note that grows in length by an eighth note with each pass.

Anyway, on to the 10 tracks that are on the album, in order of appearance...

We start with Force Ten, then move on to Time Stand Still, Open Secrets, Second Nature, Prime Mover, Lock And Key, Mission, Turn The Page, Tai Shan and finishing off is High Water.

Have fun playing these basslines, there's still a few more Rush albums in my collection which I'll put up when I've finished converting them to .pdf. As usual - if you haven't bookmarked the website and the Facebook page, then do so in order to find out when the next batch of basslines are released. Let all your bass playing buddies know that I don't use cookies, I don't charge for the transcriptions, there are no irritating pop-ups or adverts, No sign-ups or log-ins required either. See you next time for more great low-end Bob's Basslines.

June 3rd 2023

I think it's time for some Ozzy. I always preferred Ozzy's solo work over his Black Sabbath stuff, and here's one of my favourite albums; Bark At The Moon. There's some lovely Bob Daisley basslines for you to play, including a couple of nice slide-y fretless pieces so let's have a look at the track listing...

in album order we have Rock 'n Roll Rebel, Bark At The Moon, You're No Different, Now You See It (Now You Don't), Forever (which was know as Centre Of Eternity in the US), So Tired, Waiting For Darkness, and Spiders. For some weird reason, Spiders is tabbed on the Songsterr website as 3/4 time. No idea why that happened, but here it is transcribed Bobs Basslines style (or 'properly' as I like to call it). I have started work on transferring Ozzy's No More Tears album, I haven't worked out all of the tracks but I'll put up what I have soon. I'm not sure what I'm going to put up next time but if you have anything you'd like to see then let me know at bob@bobsbasslines.com.

Don't forget to bookmark this website, follow on Facebook and let all your bass-playing friends know about bobsbasslines.com. Tell them that I don't use cookies, I don't charge for the music, there aren't any annoying popups, absolutely NO ads and you don't need to sign up or log in. Just download and start playing along to some fantastic music. See you next time for more brilliant basslines.

May 19th 2023

Greetings, bass bashers and welcome back to Bob's Basslines. Today's update is all Judie Tzuke, and consists of the complete I Am The Phoenix album and a selection of some of her best songs from the next 6 albums that she released. I've always been partial to a bit of Tzuke since I first heard For You on the radio back in 1978 and she was popular among with rock music fans in her early days, probably because her band was a great live rock outfit as can be heard on the Road Noise live album. Along with songwriting partner and gurn-meister Mike Paxman on guitar, she had Jeff Rich on drums and John 'Rhino' Edwards on bass who both went on to play with Status Quo. John Edwards was a big influence on my playing and today's update includes a great bass solo. Judie's first two albums were the first full albums that I ever sat down and transcribed. I still play along to them, and Judie is still creating wonderful music to this day on her own Big Moon label. You can find all her stuff at her website Tzuke.com and I highly recommend having a little Tzuke in your music collection. Anyway, enough of the Tzuke advert and let's have a look at what's been uploaded for you...

I Am The Phoenix in track order is Black Furs, Higher And Higher, Fate's Wheels, Come Hell Or Waters High, You Were The Place, City Of Swimming Pools, You Are The Phoenix, The Flesh Is Weak, and I never Know Where My Heart Is. The rest of the tracks in alphabetical order are; Everything Will Come, Heaven Can Wait, a cover of the old Free track The Hunter, In Another Country, Katiera Island (Live) with that wonderful bass solo in the middle, Now There Is No Love At All, Racing Against Time, Run To Win, Shoot From The Heart, This Side Of Heaven, Turning Stones, We'll Go Dreaming, and finally, Judie's fantastic take on the Marvin Gaye classic You.

More stuff coming soon so remember to like/follow on Facebook and if you haven't already done so, then bookmark the website. No sign-ups, no ads, no annoying cookie popups and no charges - just great basslines for you to download and play along to. See you soon for more low end goodies!

April 5th 2023

I've had lots of music to learn for the new band so updates to the website are quite sparse at the moment. Hopefully, things will be back to normal pretty soon and I'll be back to uploading something every week. In the meantime, here's six new tracks for you to get your fingers back on the bass. I love a bit of Annihilator so there are three of their songs to play in this batch. The Edge is quite an easy one to warm up with, and then come the challenging ones from the Never, Neverland album ie. The Fun Palace and Sixes And Sevens. I started transcribing the whole album and never got round to finishing it. There are another 3 or 4 incomplete songs hanging around that I'll upload if anyone wants to see them. Just let me know on the Facebook page or drop me an email at bob@bobsbasslines.com and I'll get them digitised and added to the site. If not then I may go back at some point and finish working on them anyway.

Foo Fighters get another look-in this time with D.O.A. which was a song that we started looking at and never got around to playing live. Don't Stop Me Now from Queen is next and it's a guaranteed floor-filler. Finally we have Fire To Ice which is a Thunder track from their Laughing On Judgement Day album. This is a lovely, bouncy fun song to play and has some great bass runs in it too.

More stuff coming soon so remember to like/follow on Facebook, and if you haven't already done so - bookmark the website. No sign-ups, no ads, no annoying cookie popups and no charges - just great basslines for you to download and play along to. See you soon for more low end goodness!

March 8th 2023

As I promised last month, it's time for another Rush album. This time it's Presto from 1989 which marked the end of the band's synth-y period and the start of a new guitar-centric sound. I think I remember that Alex Lifeson was feeling a little sidelined and wanted a bit more to do. It's not one of my favourite albums but the opening track has some fantastic riffs with lots of pull-off work - shame that the rest of the album has some quite pedestrian basslines (I call them mid-tempo dirges!), and there seems to be a lot of eighths on the root, but I know that some Rush fans are very fond of this work and will enjoy playing along to these songs.

The songs in album order are... Show Don't Tell, Chain Lightning, The Pass, War Paint, Scars, Presto, Superconductor, Anagram (For Mongo), Red Tide, Hand Over Fist, Available Light.

I know that lots of you love the Rush transcriptions, and I still have plenty more Rush to come, but I'll give them a rest for a while and put something else up for the next few updates. As usual, let me know on bob@bobsbasslines.com or the Facebook page if there's something specific that you'd like to see, and bookmark the the website for quick access. Stay low and I'll see you all next time.

February 12th 2023

It's been a while but here's a few more songs to keep your fingers on the fretboard. I haven't posted much lately as I've just joined a new band and I've been cramming the set into my head, ready for my first gig next weekend. It's a 60s tribute band and I've included a couple of set songs in this update, so expect a few more of that sort of thing coming soon. Anyway, todays mini-update is seven songs long and we kick off with my first Journey song - Anyway You Want It. That's followed by one of the Darkness' album tracks - Black Shuck. We have more Ozzy to play, in the form of Thank God For The Bomb from the Ultimate Sin album and then there's a run of 60s classics... The Monkees' Daydream Believer, next up is Jeff Beck and Hi Ho Silver Lining, Swiftly followed by My Girl which was a massive hit for The Temptations, and I'm finishing off with Roy Orbison's Oh, Pretty Woman.

Last month's Rush album seemed to go down well with everyone and I do have another one almost ready to go, so that should be up in a week or two - remember to like/follow the Facebook page and bookmark the website so you can check it out.

January 4th 2023

Happy New Year everybody! ...and what better way to kick off 2023 than with one of Rush's most popular albums. Yes, it's the complete Moving Pictures album, the one with Tom Sawyer on it. Moving Pictures was the 8th studio album and was on the cusp of Rush moving away from their heavily prog rock influenced stuff, towards the synth-y style that they had in the 80s and 90s. It's still quite a bit prog but the tracks on this album are sounding a bit more first-listen friendly, slick & polished and Geddy is approaching his peak.

In album order, the songs are - Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, YYZ, Limelight, The Camera Eye, Witch Hunt and Vital Signs.

If you haven't done so already, then remember to bookmark the website and give the Facebook page a like/follow and you'll be able to see when there are new updates for you to download and play. Enjoy playing along to these songs, and I'll see you soon for more basslines.

All the transcriptions on this website are free of charge to download for personal use. However, if you wish to help to keep the website up and running then you can make a donation here -

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."