James Jamerson Isolated Bass Track: I Can’t Get Next to You
Here’s James Jamerson‘s isolated bass track from the Temptations’ “I Can’t Get Next to You”. This comes from the original Motown master tape.
Be sure to check out our previous coverage of the isolated bass and drums for “Ain’t That Peculiar“.
Thanks to Rick Suchow for this one!
James displays everything about what each bass note can be. James implied so much between the notes, too. I think his control of note decay shows where the funk is just as strongly as his pluck does, and his touch is magnificent.
Bass Player Magazine ran a great transcription of this back in 2004 (October or September I think from memory). And also if you Google Arcellus Sykes, he’s also done a transcription of this that you should be able to download.