Bass transcription: Kings of Leon – “Manhattan”

Kings of Leon’s fourth album, Only by the Night (2008) was the record that brought them global recognition, charting inside the Top 10 in multiple territories. The album spawned successful singles “Sex on Fire”, “Use Somebody”, “Revelry”, “Notion”, and “Crawl”. This tune, “Manhattan”, was released as a single in Australia and also received heavy radio airplay in the UK.

The song features for ear-grabbing, high-register playing from Jared Followill:

Kings of Leon – “Manhattan” bass transcription PDF

“Manhattan” bass performance notes

• The guitar playing on “Manhattan” is fairly minimal, with the bass providing much of the harmony. The opening bass part features 3rds played high up the neck – time to dust off those ledger line reading skills!
• During the chorus – which has minimal lyrics – the bass is the melody. As in the intro, we’re in the upper reaches of the fretboard. The melodic phrases all use an open string followed by a ‘slide from nowhere’ up to the higher register; it doesn’t matter where you start, as long as you land in the right place.
• The chart looks daunting at first glance because we’re really dealing with two parts at once – a sustained open string and the upper-register 3rds, but it’s much easier to play than it is to read.