Not only the song is amazing as a whole, it has spectacular contributions from each instrument, vocals, and whatever criteria you say...
Plus, for a new listener it was catchy and not too hardcore complex and dense. All the complexity is very well disguised between simplicity - something that Bill Bruford describes very well on his "Bruford and the Beat" video.
So, if we focus on bass playing, this song has it all. The genious bass riff - that is one of the symbols of the song, the way it is played and the timbre of the Rickenbacker.
On his Starlicks interview video, Chris revealed that he doubled the bassline with one of Steve Howe's guitars. On my latest YouTube clip, I tried to recreate this technique using my 360.
On I went, and for the past weeks, started to examine where and how those overdubs appear on the recording, and of course the main bassline itself.
Here are some notes that some of you may find interesting to read. Again - this is what my ears tell me, the truth only The Fish knows!
1- The first two repetitions of the bass riff (instrumental) have that reply (E D B - B A G) that Chris usually plays live -I am not sure if it was originaly played by Chris or if it was Steve. Both play it live.
2- The overdubs occour on some verses only - starting on the second verse "The music dance and sing".
3- On the very last verse where the lyrics go "your way...call it morning..." the guitar overdub goes one even one octave higher, rejoining the original octave on F E D C... "in and around the lake"
4- The very last note on "I'll be there with YOU" it's a low E from a guitar. Who played it?... don't know but in my clip it was me
5- I can hear two basslines playing the "drifting cloud" section. The main one plays the same theme as the guitar, but then there is this very low bass sound superimposed very low in the mix. I even thought that it could be the Hammond organ, but then after listening to Roundabout's "Early rough mix" I was sure that it was a bass, played with some fuzz or overdrive.
After hearing this alternative Roundabout mix, i still couldn't hear well enough the secondary bassline. If you listen closely, the mixer only turns up the fader a bit higher on the last two repetitions.
On the initial repetitions I tried to "reconstruct" what was happening. I still would hear the second bassline pattern but sometimes it sounded to my ears that it was played an octave higher on the first two bars of each repetition. On the other hand I also believe it's possible that all repetitions were played on the same octave, only I was hearing the harmonics produced by the sound of a Rickenbacker bass guitar with a good amount of overdrive very low on the mix, and consequently being able to perceive the octave (first harmonic) generated by it.
I opted to play the two versions of it, alternating the octave pattern, and I am very interested on what would be your opinions!
This bassline not only harmonises with the Hammond organ work (rhythmically it's the same), it goes with the drums accents too... and it is this secondary bassline that provides those high-register slides just after "the words will make you out and out". If you check the live versions, Chris plays a mix of elements of this two distinct basslines.
So what could have happened on the original recording? Why is this secondary bassline so faded out, only to emerge on the last bars. I can imagine that on the final mix they thought it would produce too much of a mess having two basses. However, on the last bars the high-register slided did sound so cool, and it was a pity to leave them out ("...and out"). Thus they opened the fader for these last bars, and that's where you can hear better, not only those slides (so well that you can think it's part of the main bassline, cause by that time it is just the low E ringing out) but also all of the rest of the notes, and they do produce some chaos on the final mix... which I even think that suited the song appropriately, as serves for generating a climax and soon calming down with the percussion and finaly... silence.
It's quite hard to describe these thoughts only by my words, perhaps it won't sound so complicated when you watch the clip.
I hope it will turn out interesting for you, and will be waiting for your agreements and disagreements, as always
link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-sAYChijwA
Miguel
Of course, Sly & TFS went a little beyond Motown!