One of Us Bass Cover

A while back I was reading a “No Treble” thread about Rutger Gunnarsson and someone mentioned this song and what a fantastic the bass-line it had. The title didn’t sound familiar and, after listening to it, I realized that I’d never heard the song before either. I noticed right away that there was a lot going on with the bass part and quickly decided that it would not be worth the time and effort I thought it would require to learn this “unknown song”. After that, it kept popping up fairly regularly as a “suggestion”. I kept going back to it and it grew on me. I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy one to learn, but I wasn’t prepared for as difficult a time as I had with it. As I’ve said before, Rutger Gunnarsson seems to have his own sense of time and rhythm, and pushes, pulls and slides his way around the beat. His note choices and phrasing are always unique and he never plays the same thing twice. It took quite a while and I believed that I’d learned the song as best I could when, in fact, I’d actually cut a few corners, assuming that no one would really notice. After all, I hit all the money notes, didn’t I? I sat down three different times to record the song and each time thought, “I can do better” and would go back and try to pick up on a few more of the minor details and subtle variations. After the third return to the drawing board I decided that I’d done all that I could do and recorded it…and still, I left a few things behind. Like every ABBA song I’ve covered, I fell in love with it and find my self humming and whistling the melody often. Hope you like it.

“One of Us” by ABBA off of their album, “The Visitors” which came out in 1981 and featured the incomparable Rutger Gunnarsson on bass. Like every ABBA song I’ve covered, I fell in love and find my self humming and whistling it often.

I’m playing the Spector Legend that’s been fitted with a Mighty-Mite HAZ Clone Preamp through a SansAmp YYZ pedal.