Climbing the White Ladder to success
Like many artists, it took UK singer-songwriter David Gray many years of releasing music to become an overnight success. Starting in 1993, his first three albums found critical acclaim in the folk-rock niche, but failed to bring Gray commercial success. 1998’s White Ladder (or, more specifically, its major label re-release in 2000) changed all that, signalling the start of a meteoric rise to fame and becoming the tenth-best-selling album of the 21st century. My mum even had a copy, which means that it must have been seriously popular.
‘Babylon’ was the second single released from White Ladder, and although it didn’t top the charts on either side of the Atlantic it went on to become Gray’s signature song:
The bass line on ‘Babylon’ was played by David Gray’s longtime collaborator Craig McClune, who tracked bass and drums on several of Gray’s records over the course of his career.
David Gray – ‘Babylon’ bass transcription PDF
‘Babylon’ bass line performance notes
Craig McClune’s part demonstrates a great deal of skills that are vital to any successful musician. Most notably, the bass line is a lesson in rhythmic variety, harmonic awareness, and restraint.
1. Less is (often) more
McClune leaves plenty of space for David Gray to settle in before his entry in bar 17. As the song progresses, the bass part is always appropriately supportive; just the right amount of activity in the the verse, and (almost) nothing more than root notes for the chorus.
2. Repetition vs. variety
Take a look at the chart and you’ll notice that there are essentially just two rhythms that carry the whole song; one for the verse (more syncopated, and with use of rests and staccato playing) and another for the chorus (a good exercise in reading tied rhythms).
If you’re new to tied notes – or, you could do with a short refresher – then this might be helpful:
Note the simple, yet effective contrast between the two sections; the sustained notes of the chorus do a fine job of supporting the simple, anthemic chorus vocals, while the verse’s more clipped articulation helps to lend the section a sense of forward motion.
3. A little harmonic knowledge goes a long way
Check out the chord symbols on the chart for ‘Babylon’ and you’ll notice that there aren’t many – I count five different chords in the whole song, and the majority of the tune is essentially Eb to Ab (we’re in the key of Eb major, so chords I and IV are exactly what we’d expect to find in a successful record).
Mostly two rhythms, and mostly two chords. Dull, right? Not necessarily. All it takes is some awareness of chord construction to liven things up a bit. Take another look at the chord sequence and you’ll see lots of slash chords (Eb/G, Ab/C etc).
What’s a slash chord? They can look confusing at first glance, but once you’ve learned to decipher them it’ll be plain sailing. What we’ve got here is clever use of first inversion chords; the guitar is perpetually playing Eb/G to Ab, but the bass notes mean that we hear the progression as plain-old-root-position Eb (less floaty, more grounded) to Ab/C (less predictable, more interesting).
During the link section, the choice of inversions is reversed by the bass, giving us Eb/G to Ab.
Knowing a little about what’s acceptable to play other than the root goes a long way.