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April 16th 2025

Welcome back to Bob's Basslines! I've broken the 500 songs barrier with this update, so chances are that there's got to be something on the website that you like and want to play.

This time I'm going to give you some songs by an artist that I first heard in 1975, when a song called Highfly was being played on the radio. That artist was John Miles, and a year later he released Music which was quite a big hit here in the UK. I suppose it's not really a Prog Rock song, although I'd be quite happy to label it Prog Pop due to it's structure, extended instrumental sections, time and key signature changes, guitar solo and tempo changes. John's writing partner was bassist Bob Marshall and I believe he's playing on all the tracks here. I heard last night that Bob has had a fall and is currently in hospital recovering, so get well soon Bob. Soon after Music was released, tastes changed when Punk Rock happened and John never really received the recognition he deserved in the UK. However, he became quite well known in mainland Europe for his regular appearances at The Night Of The Proms, and around the world as the guitarist in Tina Turner's touring band.

Here, for your enjoyment, are Bob Marshall's bass parts for John's first five albums released between 1976 and 1980. There's quite a range of styles here, covering prog, pop, soul, rock, jazz(-ish), and the pure cheese of Lady Of My Life! There are some really nice, rounded chord progressions and great rock riffs to explore. I've even transcribed some of the left hand piano and string parts so that you don't have too long waiting for the bass guitar to start up. This is not Dream Theater so there's nothing too tricky to play, and you should be able to comfortably sight read the vast majority of it.

As usual, remember to bookmark this website, give the Facebook page a like, and tell all your bass buddies that this website has NO cookies, NO sign-ups, NO log-ins, NO adverts, NO charges, NO popups and NO spam. Simply find a song you want to play, download it, print it and play. See you next time for more bass.

 

REBEL

STRANGER IN THE CITY

BONUS TRACKS

ZARAGON

MORE MILES PER HOUR

BONUS TRACKS

SYMPATHY

These albums are fairly easy to find on vinyl but if you want CDs then they're a little more tricky to get hold of. I recommend that you look out for 'John Miles: The Decca Albums' box set as this has the first four albums. I don't think that Sympathy was released on CD so you'll have to track down a copy of the 12" if you want to play along to it. Cherry Red records may be able to help as they stock some of John's music, also the proper royalties will go to John's estate and the rest of the musicians involved. More Miles Per Hour and Sympathy have almost the same track listing, although a couple of the songs have differing basslines. Also, it's worth getting the bonus track CDs just for Sweet Lorraine and House On The Hill as they are fantastic rock songs. If all else fails, then it might be a good idea to ask the good folk on the Official John Miles Facebook page who will probably know the best places to look.

 

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!

 
 
 
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