Not-so-proud Mary.
Have you ever suffered from ‘Musical Chinese Whispers’? I certainly have.
Every day, it seems, is a school day: Not so long ago, I heard a live performance of Tina Turner’s ‘Proud Mary’ on a TV show and had a ‘what was that?’ moment during the song’s signature unison line. Clearly, the bass player on the gig was definitley wrong, because that certainly wasn’t what I had played for the last decade…
Oh dear. I seem to remember learning ‘Proud Mary’ in the car on the way to a gig. Or maybe it was one of those songs that I learned on the gig. Anyway, I’d been playing it wrong for nearly 10 years, and nobody had corrected me (this could be because most people have a habit of ignoring what the bass player is up to, which is both a curse and a blessing).
I immediately went back to the source to check and, sure enough, the bass doesn’t follow the horns. Instead, we’re treated to a much more interesting countermelody – we go up while they go down. Check out the transcription below:
Tina Turner – ‘Proud Mary’ bass transcription PDF
Sometimes, it’s good to listen to the original recordings of all those tunes you’ve been gigging for years and see how far you’ve strayed from the ‘correct’ part. If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to fact check ‘Superstition‘ before I embarrass myself in public yet again.