Bass Transcription: Crowded House - 'Weather With You'

Crowded House found critical and commercial success outside their native Australia and New Zealand during the early 1990s through hits including ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’, ‘Fall At Your Feet’ and ‘Weather With You’. The band has sold over 15 million albums and collected numerous awards over their career, including an MTV VMA and a BRIT.

‘Weather With You’ was the fourth – and most successful – single from Crowded House’s third album, 1991’s Woodface, reaching the top 10 in 50 countries worldwide.

Crowded House bassist Nick Seymour (who, incidentally, also did the artwork for the band’s album covers) provides a punchy, melodic accompaniment to the Finn brothers’ guitar and vocal harmonies. Right from the start of the song, the bass plays strong, memorable lines that hold up on their own:

Crowded House – ‘Weather With You’ bass transcription PDF

There are many highlights in Nick Seymour’s part, but two that stand out to me are:

The bass part for the intro and verse is the perfect balance of repetition and variation, and somehow manages to include slides, chromatic passing notes, and interesting use of the 9th while clearly outlining the chord progression and not interfering with the vocals. Not bad at all.
The chorus features neat use of chord inversions – this is where the bass emphasises a chord tone that isn’t the root of the chord for the majority of a measure. Take a look at bars 41 and 44 and you’ll see the chord symbol D/F#, meaning that the guitars are playing a D major chord while the bass plays F# (the major 3rd of the chord), creating an interesting first inversion sound.