Art of Dying

 Art of Dying
(George Harrison)
From the George Harrison album All Things Must Pass

Radle’s bass line on “Art of Dying” is, characteristically, simple, repetitive, and supportive. The song begins with a 4-measure guitar intro. The band comes in at measure 5 with a descending melodic line over an A minor chord. Radle keeps this anchored by repeating the same one-measure riff six times until the harmony finally reaches an E7 chord. 

 

On the verses, Radle plays primarily on the off-beats. His line is mostly root notes, with occasional passing tones, but the syncopation, accenting the “and” of each beat, builds a great deal of tension. This tension is finally released when he settles into a more regular rhythmic pattern in the last four bars of each verse, once again emphasizing the beat rather than the off-beat. 

 

Radle makes a mistake in the transition from the end of the first verse into the second, landing on E on the downbeat of m. 33 instead of A (at approximately 1:00 in the recording). He quickly leaps up to A, but doesn’t reestablish his syncopated pattern until m. 34. It seems that little slip threw him off for a second, because he makes another mistake in m. 35. Just looking at the transcription, or even playing it, nothing seems wrong. But if you listen to Carl in the recording, he hits that G on the “and” of beat 2 and releases it suddenly and awkwardly. It’s not really a bad note, it just seems like it wasn’t what he meant to play. 

 

Those little mistakes were certainly not significant enough to render this recording unusable. It just shows that the energy and feel of a performance is more crucial than 100% accuracy. If this had been recorded today, those errors likely would have been fixed in editing, but in the 1960s and 1970s, recording was done on tape. If someone messed up, often it meant that the whole band would have to redo the entire take. Thus, performance mistakes were much more common in recordings in the pre-digital age.

And now, a bit of speculation for fun…

Another item of interest is the groove Radle plays for the interlude in mm. 73-78 (starting at approximately 2:15 in the recording), which uses the same progression we heard in the intro. Radle again plays a one-measure pattern, but it is different from the line he played in the intro. This may not seem significant, but it is actually extremely atypical for Radle. In a section like this, usually he would have a set line he is going to play, and play it the same way each time that section appears. This alternate groove sticks out and makes me wonder if it was a mistake and he just went with it, or if he was still experimenting with the bass line and was just trying out a different option. 

 

The latter scenario seems somewhat difficult to believe. The rest of this bass line has been worked out so well. His line on the bridge (mm. 53-68) is carefully constructed, to the point that it is being doubled by a guitar. Even comparing the last four measures of each verse (mm. 29-32, 49-52 and 97-105), a section that would lend itself to improvisation, Radle is very consistent in what he plays. So what happened in these other spots? 

This alternate groove in mm. 73-78, along with the minor stumbles in mm. 33-35, are interesting artifacts in Radle’s playing. Mistakes in and of themselves are not interesting. Everyone makes mistakes. You can hear mistakes in many recordings from this era. But the alternate groove in mm. 73-78 may not have been a mistake. It may have been a deliberate choice. And while it is an okay choice, it is an unusual choice for Radle. And when studying a bassist’s playing style—as is the purpose of this blog—investigating and questioning atypical choices can help shed light on the typical choices the player makes.

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.

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.

You

You
(George Harrison)
From the George Harrison album Extra Texture (Read All About It)

This song was released on George Harrison’s 1975 album Extra Texture (Read All About It), but was written five years earlier during the recording sessions for All Things Must Pass. Harrison originally wrote the song for Ronnie Spector, who intended to include it on a 1971 solo album, which ultimately never materialized. The basic tracks were recorded in 1971 featuring the some of the same musicians who participated in the All Things Must Pass sessions: Carl Radle, Jim Gordon, and Gary Wright, plus Concert for Bangladesh participant Leon Russell. “You” is a strong song and became a top 20 hit in the US for Harrison, so it is a wonder it took Harrison so long to return to it. It is in a similar style to much of All Things Must Pass, bearing a particular resemblance to “What Is Life.”

The song is built around a 4-measure riff, which Radle plays, doubled by multiple guitars. This riff, seen below, is heard throughout both the verses and choruses, which comprise most of the song. A brief pre-chorus and an 8-measure bridge provide the only relief from this riff.

Though the pre-chorus is only 4 measures long, and simply stays on one chord the whole time, it plays a major role in making this song work. With so much of the song being dominated by the main riff, the pre-chorus serves as a way of building tension that is released when the riff returns for the chorus. Radle plays a simple, 1-measure pattern with light syncopation. This repetitive pattern helps the pre-chorus feel static, like it’s not moving, which in this case is a good thing. Had he played a melodic line that had some sense of forward motion over those four bars, the pre-chorus would have lost its sense of tension. The point of the section is to interrupt the main riff, and leave the listener suspended in wait for its return. Radle’s groove here helps achieve that, and provides a nice contrast to the melodicism of the main riff.

As you play through the bass line, be careful with the key signature. In F# major, all notes in the scale are sharp except B. Watch those E#’s especially!

A full transcription is below.