H-Gang
This week’s track is from Donald Fagen’s (Steely Dan) solo album Morph the Cat. This is another late night gem I discovered on my girlfriend’s music device while driving home from a gig. Although the band is absolutely grooving the real reason I’m doing this one is that the backing vocals in the choruses are amazing. Who has BV’s that dense and right up in the mix?! I love it.
The bass line itself is a very precise affair. At first listen it can seem sterile and uninspired but upon close inspection it develops nicely throughout the song and is full of little improvised gems. Compare Choruses 1 & 2. The quaver pickups on beat 2 in bars 2,4,6, and 8 of chorus 2 really help the chorus kick along. There are more, investigate the score, see what you can find. It’s a great example of a session bassist (Freddie Washington Jr.) enhancing the written part while staying true to the spirit of the line.
This was recorded on my custom built 5 String with Aguilar DCB pickups and an Aguilar OBP-3 preamp. I had both pickups on full and about a quarter turn treble boost. I went into my Markbass Compressore with a medium attack/release and set the threshold so most most notes were compressed. The ratio was just after 12 o’clock. I boosted 2k in Logic by about 5db with a Q of .57
Thanks for reading. If you like the song, make your own video and tag me on social media, @jproudbass on twitter and instagram.
Till next week.
Jonathan Proud 