Cover Tune Archives - Page 32

Aaron Gibson shared this touching video of his solo bass arrangement of the Grateful Dead’s “I Will Take You Home.” Aaron said, “For Daughters and Dads and in memory of Brent Mydland”. Mydland, of course, was the Dead’s keyboardist until his death in 1990. He cowrote this song with John Perry Barlow as a lullaby for his two daughters. Gibson...

Jimi Hendrix’s virtuosic playing inspired millions of musicians, not just guitarists. Evan Brewer sent us this great medley of Hendrix tunes arranged for solo bass with his own twist. Evan starts with a filter-laden “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” before kicking into a riff from “Hey Joe”, then into a nice tapping version of “Little Wing” and wrapping up with “Fire”.

Facebook friend Art Araya shared this remarkable and unique video of bassist Doug Alexis performing his own take on “The Chicken”. The tune, written by Pee Wee Ellis, was made popular of course by Jaco Pastorius. This has to be the most creative version we’ve heard yet.

Viaceslav Svedov typically offers super high energy takes on a variety of all-bass cover tunes. Here, he shows a more laid back style with one terrific cover of Bob Marley’s beautiful “No Woman, No Cry”. Is there anything Viaceslav can’t do? Editor’s note: We loved this so much, we decided to transcribe it. Check it out.

Here’s a cool video of Ed Friedland, aka the Bass Whisperer, building up a full on version of Steely Dan’s classic “Do It Again” during a 2010 clinic at the Bass Emporium in Austin, Texas. After “giving the drummer some,” Friedland fills out the tune’s bass line, chords and melody before ripping into a tasty solo.

This one is blowing UP! Dirty Loops has done it again. This time the Swedish trio has created a pumped-up version of Justin Bieber’s hit “Baby,” with an absolutely killing solo from bassist Henrik Linder at the 1:41 mark. Dirty Loops has a reputation for taking pop songs we can’t stand and making them awesome. If you haven’t heard of...

Zander Zon has just shared his latest all-bass performance, this time covering Metallica’s “The Unforgiven” in his signature style. Zander using piccolo strings (gauge 020-052) and special tunings on his Zon for his performances. For this video, he incorporates reverb, distortion and some echo. Amazing, as usual.

George Lacson turns in this nice solo bass arrangement and performance of “Unthinkable”, written by Drake and originally produced and performed by Alicia Keys. George’s Warwick Streamer Stage 5-string is tuned B-D-G-D-G for this tune.

Bassist Nick Mason put together a great all-bass arrangement of the Randy Newman song, “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”, made popular by the original Toy Story. Nick said he was inspired to arrange this piece after seeing Toy Story 3. If you’re interested in working on this one yourself, you’re in luck. Nick has posted a chart for download...

Jaco Pastorius wrote it and performed it. Many bassists have re-imagined it. Richard Bona may have turned in my favorite remake version of “Teen Town” yet with this live performance. I love what he does with the fretless. What do you think? Drop a note in the comments below.

Viaceslav Svedov slows things down a bit (for him) with this awesome all-bass cover of Rush’s “Tom Sawyer”, in his latest video. This guy can do it all.

For our last bass cover of the week, we’re featuring Youtuber Fokfokbraj and his own bass arrangement of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”. While the audio isn’t stellar, the arrangement and performance are top notch. And, this seemed perfect for chilling on a Sunday morning.