Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

If I had to chose the song that turned me on the most to Chris Squire's bass playing, that would be Roundabout.
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

here's Roundabout from Yesterday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bUtX6nwh0U
We had a Blast..
Chris Plays his New Rick too...

Mike, it sounds great! If all the show was that tight... for sure it was a blast! What about the new Rickenbacker?

Thanks!

M

Great vid/playing, thanks for posting that! I think you've got it down pretty well there. I haven't really done any close comparisons, but it sound great to me.

Can you give some details on the setup (amps/effects/etc.) you used on the bass? The sound is great!

cjj wrote:Great vid/playing, thanks for posting that! I think you've got it down pretty well there. I haven't really done any close comparisons, but it sound great to me.

Can you give some details on the setup (amps/effects/etc.) you used on the bass? The sound is great!

Hello CJ, thanks for your reply. Although on my other clips I used the Sansamp Bass Driver DI, this time I recorded direct to Guitar Rig software. There is one particular amp emulator there - the "citrus" (which is an alternative unofficial designation for "orange". I found that amp emulator quite close to the Roundabout studio sound. I was inspired by the fact that Chris Squire was using by that time guitar amps to get a more distinctive tone (or at least it has been said so).

That, plus the roundwound strings, ands the use of the bridge pickup only, and playing with the pick behind the horseshoe (as seen on several live performances).

Miguel

mikeyesfan wrote:here's Roundabout from Yesterday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bUtX6nwh0U
We had a Blast..
Chris Plays his New Rick too...

Mike, looks like you had the same seat that I had last night in Columbus (my audience was much quieter, however).

That "new" Rickenbacker is Chris's FOOW custom finish. I'm not sure when he had that done or why he decided to bring it out on tour, but it sounded great.

Since it's fairly obvious that Roundabout will be played (no real spoiler there) let me say how happy I was to hear the complete, FRAGILE version performed, middle section & all

And, Miguel, as usual, you display your excellent work here for all of us to enjoy! Many thanks! For those curious about the guitar / bass doubling, Steve Howe confirms in his book that his 1935 Gibson FDH model guitar was the one Chris used to double the bass line. Steve also says that this pre-war Gibson was used to compose a lot of Yes music on, including parts of Close to the edge.

Nice job, Miguel!

Roundabout was my first experience with Yes. I was 5 when it came out and though I don't remember the bass at the time I'm sure it had an influence on my picking the song as my favorite. It was nice having older brothers that listened to great music!

Miguel,

Amazing stuff, I still don't know how you do it!

I have a lousy ear, and trying to figure out Chris' lines by ear is just about impossible for me, I get parts but can never get the whole song down.

I wish Chris would make a video like Steve Howe did showing him playing all the parts.

Thanks for showing us it CAN be done!

Excuse the late addition - I just saw this thread. Nice work, Miguel! I also had fun with this classic work of Mr. Squire's. Here's a mix I did of 'Roundabout' in which I added harmonies to the overdubbed riff in the beginning using my own '68 4001 MG:

Roundedit

I got pulled into a 'one-gig-only' band for a special occasion a couple of years ago...playing drums...and one of the tunes was Roundabout. We covered it in the first band I was in (1975), but I played bass on it then. It was a gas playing the 'Bruford' stuff. The bass player for this gig was great...a young guy who was playing in the gamelan at the time. It was the first time I'd heard him play bass...he was apologetic because he's a 'finger' player, and had never used a pick and wasn't about to start. We told him not to worry and just go for it, and he sounded great. I was...impressed. Anyway...

Since we're talking specifically about this tune...I brought this up a while ago, but couldn't get anyone to 'bite', so I'll try it again. As we were rehearsing the tune over a couple of weeks leading to the gig, and because I was drumming on it for the first time, I was getting some fresh impressions of the thing. I had always found it to be the 'funkiest' tune in the Yes catalog, and suddenly it dawned on me...it's total influenced, shall we say, by Sly Stone's 'Higher'...it's most evident if you compare the Wakeman B3 solo in R'bout with Sly's harmonica solo in Higher...you could easily lift either one and paste it into the other tune. (By the way, in my book this 'allegation' is the highest form of compliment to Yes, and especially to Bruford and Squire).

So waddya think...am I nuts? No wait, lemme narrow that question down...

Interesting theory. I've always been interested in the connection between bands and their influences. Considering Chris Squire's publicly confessed love of the Motown sound, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the Yes men were influenced by the Sly tune. Can't judge for myself since I'm not familiar with 'Higher,' so I'll have to look it up.

Well, why not review the alleged 'source material' right here? There are many versions of this tune, but why not shoot the moon with this one, live at some kind of '60s deal called "Woodstock":


You don't need to listen to the full 10 minutes to form an opinion about my assertion...but hey, it wouldn't hurtcha to...
Of special importance when considering the validity of my idea: the drum line, which relies heavily on strong snare quarter notes on the beat, with the bass drum playing off-beat syncopated responses...basically the thing's being driven by snare; and, the bass bouncing on the 'G' root, with 'turnaround' chromatic walk-ups from the open 'E'. I don't recall that rhythm construction in anything before "Higher", and it certainly describes the Roundabout chorus/vamp-behind-the-solo structure to me...as an experiment, next time you listen to R'bout, at the end of the quiet little cadenza in the middle (Twenty-four before my love and I'll be there...), as the B3's grinding into action, try sayin' "BOOM-lacka-lacka-lacka-BOOM-lacka-lacka-lacka"...

Anywaze...thankyewfalletinme be mice elf agin...

(Oh yeah...I just remembered Squire at some point saying his favorite single was "Dancin' In The Streets" by Martha And The Vandellas...some more 'grist for the mill'...)

In "modern versions" of Roundabout, Chris even quotes that exact phrase (at 2:05 in Dale's clip) on the bass. He was always a little influenced by Motown / Soul and even mentioned Larry Graham (I believe, I'll have to dig up the actual magazine to verify) when talking about Roundabout in an 80's interview. Of course, Sly & TFS went a little beyond Motown!

Nice post, Dane! Why am I up this early on a Sunday?