Hear Me Lord

 "Hear Me Lord"
(George Harrison)
From the George Harrison album All Things Must Pass

George Harrison kicked off his post-Beatles solo career with a bang, releasing the epic and exquisite All Things Must Pass. Being allotted only two songs per Beatles album, Harrison had built up an extensive backlog of songs from 1968-1970. Thus, when it came time to begin recording in May 1970, he had enough songs for a double album. By the time of its release in October, All Things Must Pass had swelled to a triple album, the third disc being comprised mostly of in-studio jams.

Harrison assembled an impressive cast of musicians to help him record, including Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Klaus Voormann, the Apple band Badfinger, Dave Mason, Gary Wright, Peter Frampton, Bobby Keys, Jim Price, Alan White, and, famously, the band that would become Derek and the Dominos: Eric Clapton, Carl Radle, Bobby Whitlock, and Jim Gordon. Carl Radle plays on 11 of the album’s 23 songs. The others feature Klaus Voormann on bass.

Radle’s bass line on “Hear Me Lord” is a little uncharacteristic of his playing, in that he has a basic skeleton of a line that he continuously embellishes. It would be much more typical of his style to play the same pattern over and over with little to no embellishment.

Some of the variations of his bass line for this song are a little tricky rhythmically, and may take some time to work out if reading notation isn’t your strong suit. One thing that will help is to learn the 4-measure pattern below. This is the basic groove he’s playing for most of the song (everything but the chorus, which is only heard twice)—if you think of everything else as just an embellishment of this line, it will be much easier to work out.

The pattern above will also serve as a good starting point for your own improvisations. Try playing it and adding in your own Radle-esque embellishments. Keep these things in mind when you’re improvising:

1. Radle rarely varied the first measure of the pattern too much, likely to avoid interfering with the vocal melody. 
2. On the E chord (second measure of the pattern), Radle sticks to notes within the E pentatonic scale (E-F#-G#-B-C#). His most frequent embellishments on this chord involve repeated E’s on beat 1 (see m. 42) and a G# on the 4th sixteenth note of beat 3 (see m. 18). He does not alter beat 4 of this chord until very late in the song, as it is fading out.
3. In the 3rd measure of the pattern, the C#7 chord, Radle always keeps the walk-down intact (C#-B-A-G#), but often embellishes it with upper neighbor tones (see m. 75). 
4. The 4th measure of the pattern is subject to the most variation. Harrison’s vocal phrase has already ended, as has the backing vocal response, “hear me lord,” so Radle does not need to worry about stepping on anything. He can just play some kind of fill to set up a repeat of this 4-measure pattern (or the chorus).

Video - Bell Bottom Blues

Bell Bottom Blues
(Clapton)
From the Derek & the Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

Here's a video of the bass line for "Bell Bottom Blues," one of my favorite Carl Radle bass lines. The transcription can be found here.

Video - Don't Know Why

Don't Know Why
(Bramlett/Clapton)
From the Eric Clapton album Eric Clapton

Here's another video of a great Carl Radle bass line. The transcription can be found here. I play a couple parts with different fingering than I indicated in the tablature--specifically, using the open G in the pattern that appears in measures 5, 6, 9, 10, etc. It works either way, but the open G felt a little more comfortable today.

A Man of Many Words

A Man of Many Words
(Buddy Guy)
From the album Buddy Guy and Junior Wells Play the Blues

This track was recorded in Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida in October 1970, just as Derek & the Dominos were finishing work on Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs. Three of the Dominos--Carl Radle, Eric Clapton, and Jim Gordon--play on this track, while Dr. John adds piano. Clapton plays on most of the songs on the album, but "A Man of Many Words" is the only one to feature Radle. 

This is a simple song with a fun groove. The 2-measure riff heard in the intro utilizes syncopation over a bVII – IV – I chord progression (also known as a “double plagal progression”). Radle plays the same lick every time this riff is heard, with the only variant being an eighth note F or D on beat 2 of the first measure of the pattern (compare measures 1, 3, and 19 in the full transcription). 

On the verses, Radle maintains a lightly syncopated feel with another 2-measure pattern. The first measure is relatively sparse, but the staccato quarter note followed by a dotted half gives it a nice bounce. In the second measure of the verse Radle provides a little eighth note syncopation, ascending from scale degrees 3 to 4 to 5.

The bass line for the entire verse is based on this 2-measure pattern. Radle plays it four times over the G chord, transposing the second measure down an octave on the second and fourth repeats. He then transposes it down a perfect 4^th to D when the chord changes (m. 15).

The core of the song is over in about a minute. The next nearly 3 minutes is just a vamp on the intro groove. As we have come to expect from him, Radle sticks to his basic pattern, varying it only slightly on occasion.

A full transcription of the bass line is below.

Sugar Sweet

Sugar Sweet
(Freddie King)
From the Freddie King album Burglar

Radle plays a great boogaloo line on “Sugar Sweet” from Freddie King’s 1974 record Burglar. The bass is crystal clear and very up front in the mix. The rest of the album features a different band, but on this song King’s backing band was Eric Clapton’s band circa 461 Ocean Boulevard: Clapton, Radle, Jamie Oldaker, George Terry, and Dick Sims.

Radle improvises a lot on this song, but the basic groove is below. When the chord changes to F or G, he essentially just transposes this groove.

A full transcription is below.

Let It Rain

Let It Rain
(Clapton/Bramlett)
From the Eric Clapton album Eric Clapton

Like “Coming Home” from Delaney & Bonnie and Friends On Tour with Eric Clapton,
“Let It Rain” is credited to Eric Clapton and Bonnie Bramlett, but it was almost certainly a collaboration between Clapton and Delaney. Delaney was at the top of his game in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as Bobby Whitlock said, “everyone wanted a piece of what Delaney had.” And it seems Delaney was willing to spread it around, giving away songwriting credits, among other things.

“Let It Rain” is the last song on Clapton’s first solo album. Carl Radle plays bass on every track on the album, and turns in a masterful effort on this classic. For the verses and choruses, he has a pretty concrete skeleton of a line that he sticks to, but he continually improvises around it. Radle’s concept for the line is to hit the root of the chord then walk up or down, diatonically or chromatically, to the root of the next chord. (“Diatonic” means notes within the key. “Chromatic,” generally, means notes outside of the key. In this case, a chromatic walk-up or –down means moving in half-steps regardless of the key.)

Looking at the first few measures of the first verse, we see Radle’s path through the chord progression. He plays the root (D) on the downbeat of the first measure. He leaps briefly to the 5^th of the chord (A) on the “and” of beat 2, then back to the root. At the end of the first measure he begins a diatonic walk-down (D-C-B) to the root of the next chord (A). In measure 2, he takes a similar approach. He plays the root of the chord (A) on the downbeat, moves to the 5^th (E) on beat 3, then moves back to the root to begin a chromatic walk-up (A-A#-B) to the root of the next chord (C). In the third measure, he plays the root (C) on the downbeat, then walks down diatonically to the next root (G) on beat 3, then walks up chromatically (C-C#) to arrive back at the root of the next chord (D).

Radle approaches much of the song this way. Even when the chord progression changes for the guitar solo, he keeps this idea of approaching the root of each chord via a chromatic walk-up or walk-down.

In playing a melodic bass line—rather than just playing chord roots, or a repetitive riff/pattern that gets transposed up and down the neck—we essentially have two options: play a line based on the scale (diatonic or chromatic) or play a line based on arpeggios (root, 3^rd, 5^th, 7^th, etc.). Often a line will be some combination of the two. Much of the bass line for this song utilizes the scale. Radle doesn’t explore arpeggios much until the outro (mm. 89 to the end). At this point, the line becomes almost exclusively arpeggio patterns. Or, more precisely, it makes use of major pentatonic scales, which are root-2^nd-3^rd-5^th-6^th. You can think of the pentatonic scale as a major scale without the 4^th and 7^th, or as a major arpeggio plus a 2^nd and 6^th above the root. In this way, a pentatonic scale is somewhere in between a diatonic scale and an arpeggio. In the example below, I have labeled each note of the scale, with the 2^nd and  6^th in parentheses to show they are members of the pentatonic scale, but outside of the arpeggio.

A full transcription is below.

High

High

(Eric Clapton)

From the Eric Clapton album There's One in Every Crowd

“High” is a lesser-known track off of one of Clapton’s lesser-known albums. Riding the success of “I Shot the Sheriff” from the critically acclaimed 461 Ocean Boulevard, Clapton took his band to Jamaica to record the 1975 follow-up, There’s One in Every Crowd. The album mixed reggae, blues, and rock, but was generally underwhelming and seemed like a pale imitation of its predecessor.

Critical disappointment notwithstanding, there are some good performances on this album. From a bass player’s perspective, “High” is the most interesting. Radle keeps the song moving by playing a descending syncopated line, matching the rhythm of the guitar. Aside from a sparse bridge that only occurs once (mm. 62-81), this syncopated line serves as the basis for the entire song. Radle never embellishes it, except for occasionally leaving out the C-D pickup on beat 4 of the 2^nd measure of the pattern (in parentheses below).

A variation of it is used as the intro and outro, and appears after the bridge.

A full transcription is below.

Don't Know Why

Don't Know Why

(Bramlett/Clapton)

From the Eric Clapton album Eric Clapton

“Don’t Know Why” is another song that came from the fruitful months of collaboration between Eric Clapton and Delaney Bramlett, from the fall of 1969 through the spring of 1970. Bramlett was a huge influence on Clapton, and helped him gain confidence in his singing and songwriting. This is mostly a Delaney Bramlett song. In a 1970 interview with Melody Maker Magazine, Clapton said, “it was an idea Delaney had when he came to England, and we finished it while he was staying at my house.” It’s essentially a gospel ballad, the type of song Bramlett could write in his sleep.

Radle’s bass line leaves plenty of space, but still moves around enough to keep things interesting. Had this song ended up on a Clapton album in the later ‘70s, Radle likely would have played a simpler, stricter line, probably closer to the style of “Wonderful Tonight.”

The verses and choruses feature very similar grooves. Radle uses the pattern below often, with only occasional variation of it.

The song builds in intensity to the final chorus and outro, which is just a two-measure tag repeated multiple times before fading. This outro is one of the funnest parts of the song to play. On the C and Bb chords, Radle plays the roots embellished with upper neighbor tones. Then on the F chord, he ascends through two octaves of an F pentatonic scale.

A full transcription is below.

Cocaine

Cocaine
(J. J. Cale)
From the Eric Clapton album Slowhand

I decided to continue the trend of the last few weeks by posting another J. J. Cale song. Like last week's transcription of "After Midnight," this is Radle's bass line from Eric Clapton's cover released on the 1977 Slowhand album.

This is a typical J. J. Cale song, elegant in its simplicity. The chord progression just alternates between E and D for most of the song. There is no chorus to speak of, just a refrain at the end of each verse that steps down E – D – C – B. So by learning a few measures of music, you’ll be prepared to play this whole song.

Radle’s groove is appropriately simple. During the verses, he usually plays the root of the chord on beat 1, the 5^th on beat 3, then back to the root on beat 4. (See sample measures below.) At its core, it is essentially a simple country bass line. He embellishes it regularly, but this is the basic groove.

During the riff (heard in the intro and after each refrain), Radle alters his line only slightly. He consistently plays D-E sixteenth notes on the “and” of beat 4 in the E chords. (See sample measures below.) It’s just a little pickup to get to the D chord. This is kind of a tricky spot to feel. If you play it by yourself with a metronome, it’s not too hard. But playing it with the recording feels a little weird, because it plays against the rhythm of the guitar riff, rather than playing with it. It creates a nice little rhythmic counterpoint, but if it isn’t entirely locked into the groove, it’s easy to make it feel sloppy.

A full transcription is below.

After Midnight

After Midnight
(J. J. Cale)
From the Eric Clapton album Eric Clapton

“After Midnight” was written by J. J. Cale and recorded by Clapton for his first solo album, Eric Clapton, produced by Delaney Bramlett. (Cale also recorded the song for his album Naturally, which featured Carl Radle on bass. See previous posts.) Bramlett initially wanted to call this album “Eric Clapton Sings” because of the emphasis on Clapton’s singing and songwriting rather than his guitar playing. At the time, however, Clapton was not a very experienced singer. On most of the tracks, Bramlett recorded a guide vocal and Clapton later overdubbed his own vocal, trying to match Bramlett’s phrasing and inflection. Because of this, and the fact that most of the musicians were currently members of Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, the album sounds less like a Clapton solo album, and more like a Delaney & Bonnie project.

When Clapton needed another song for his debut album, Radle played him a tape of some of Cale's demos. Clapton was immediately smitten, and chose to record "After Midnight," which would become one of the signature songs from this album. Clapton would later record Cale's "Cocaine" for his 1977 Slowhand album. Much of Clapton's post-Dominos music is seriously indebted to Cale's laid back approach. 

Radle’s bass line on “After Midnight” is a bouncy gospel groove. It is essentially a country bass line with embellishments. The ghost notes give it a percussive feel and infuse it with a sort of instant kinetic energy. The bass line would work without them, but the ghost notes are what makes it groove. Below is a sample measure from the verse, followed by the same line with the ghost notes removed. Play them both and notice how crucial the ghost notes are. The groove is in the ghost notes.

A full transcription is below.

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Layla

Layla
(Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon)
From the Derek & the Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

The title track of the Dominos' album is tuned between D and Eb. Likely the band played in D, but then sped up the tape in the mixing process as a way of increasing tempo and/or heightening the energy.

Carl Radle plays another great supporting bass line on this song. In the intro, the guitar riff features a syncopated melody, with attacks falling largely on the off beats. Radle counters this by playing a very straightforward bass line. His quarter-eighth-eighth line accents each beat, which helps to emphasize the syncopation in the guitar riff. This section would have been far less effective had Radle chosen to play a bass line in rhythmic unison with the guitar. The guitar riff creates tension because it is playing against the underlying groove. By playing a simple pattern on the beat, Radle is able to heighten the excitement of the riff.

Once the song settles into the verse, Radle takes the opportunity to play more active rhythmically, in addition to moving more melodically. His largely stepwise ascent from the low F# on the E string up two octaves to the F# on the G string in the second half of the verse is particularly nice. A long ascending melodic bass line like this is a great way to build drama within the song. After the climax of the high F#, Radle resolves in a shorter, quicker descent to the A.

Also, notice Radle’s use of rhythmic motives in the verse. (A motive, also called a motif, is a short, but recognizable musical device. It can be melodic or rhythmic or both.) In the second half of the verse, he uses two primary motives, shown below as A and B. 

Measures 5-6 in the verse rely solely on motive A, while mm. 7-8 utilize motive B. Motive A can also be found embedded in the groove in the four preceding measures. This use of rhythmic motives helps a bass line feel cohesive and well developed.

The song’s coda, written by Jim Gordon, allows Radle to once again show off his McCartney-esque melodicism. He plays the same basic line with each repeat, only occasionally adding rhythmic embellishments. 

Bell Bottom Blues

Bell Bottom Blues
(Eric Clapton)
From the Derek & the Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

The album Carl Radle is known for more than any other is the Derek & the Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Playing with this band is as close as Radle came to being an equal member, rather than just a sideman. Though it was clearly a project started by Eric Clapton and Bobby Whitlock, Layla was not intended to be just another Clapton solo album. The Dominos recorded this classic double album, toured the US, and began work on a follow-up record before disbanding. 

Radle's bass lines on this album provide some of the clearest illustrations of his style of playing: repetitive grooves with little variation; tendency to play sparse, simple lines to keep attention on the vocal or lead instrument; supporting the song always being the primary goal. In a band where Eric Clapton and Duane Allman are the guitar players, a flashy bass line is seldom warranted.

Radle shows off his McCartney influence with one of his most melodic bass lines in "Bell Bottom Blues." The verse groove is understated and supportive. He leaves a lot of space, allowing the vocals and guitar fills room to be expressive. As you play through the song, notice how few embellishments he incorporates from verse to verse. 

In the pre-chorus and chorus, Radle holds down the bottom end while providing a beautiful countermelody to the vocal part. The B on the downbeat of the ninth bar of the example (taken from the end of the song) is an unexpected choice, but contributes to making this one of Radle's most sing-able bass lines. 

A full transcription is below.