The Winner Takes It All Bass Cover

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TJH3113

As one commenter on my poll said, “The winner took it all!”, so here it is - “The Winner Takes It All” by ABBA off of their album, “Super Trouper” which came out in 1980 and featured the incredible Rutger Gunnarsson on bass. (edit: I just learned that it was Mike Watson who played bass on this song, could've fooled me)

This song won out by a non-wavering 70/30 split. Maybe I should have specified that both songs in the poll were by ABBA, as I’m sure that more than one person thought that “One of Us” was the Joan Osbourne tune, but every vote counts…no electoral college here. Both ABBA tunes have, in my opinion, great bass-lines and neither were easy to learn, but “One of Us” was a bit of a bear and I look forward to uploading it at some point in the near future.

What can I say, ABBA wrote some great tunes and this one was no exception. I think their arrangements, melodies, background vocals, and orchestrations are incredibly sophisticated for, what was considered to be, “Pop Music”.

I didn’t have anything in mind to write about, so I’ll just do a “stream of consciousness” thing.

00:21 - I wish that higher note would have come out stronger, but the only way I could reliably get both notes to ring out was by lightly plucking the string from beneath/below with my middle finger. For some reason, when I played it normally, I would often wind up muting the lower note. Playing it this way had its perils as well - too hard and it would sound like a slap bass-line. Too soft and it would sound weak. I went weak on this take.

00:39 - Not sure what this smile was bout, I’ll chalk it up to things looking up in the storyline and my mood being affected by the lyrics.

00:48 - This fill was so intense that I tried eating my face from the inside out. In all seriousness, Rutger’s playing has such a spontaneity to it that I find incredibly difficult to transcribe. To me, he seems to just float around the neck, dropping his fingers and hitting notes at random, but all the notes he lands on are the perfect ones. It really took an immense amount of concentration my part to play that with any sort of “smoothness” and I can only imagine what it must be like to play with such ease.

01:06 - This little fill took a surprisingly long time to get down.

01:37 - Another variation of the fill at 00:48. I knew that both the notes that slid down were different, but I really had a hard time distinguishing exactly what they were. It might have been a combination of his tone being a bit “bassy” along with his “loose and fluid” manner of playing. Notice how he slides down, then back up and then down again. Obviously please with myself, I smile again.

01:56 - I love the the way the feel of the song changes at this point. It has a “military” feel to me as the lyrics take a more serious tone and the melody reaches higher, intensified by the background vocals and orchestrations.

02:38 - The stupid.

02:58 - That voice!

03:42 - I thought the slide here was a very nice touch.

03:59 - I play, unaccompanied, through a verse and chorus.

Remember my friend Mark who passed away suddenly last month? Lynn and I took his two cats into our home. We had a visit today from CPS (Cat Protective Services) to do a wellness check. The caseworkers were Mark’s Daughter, Rhapsody, and his two Granddaughters, Sophia and Genevieve, along with Mark’s Sister, Angela. They’d never met the kitten, Paris, but they knew Gabby well and she was as happy to see them as they were to see her. There were some tears and lots of pictures taken and then the girls were off to find some of our other cats who were hiding throughout the house. We ended the visit with a nice lunch on the Newburgh Waterfront where we told the girls that Gabby was their cat and we were just taking care of her for them and that they could visit with her or ask for pictures anytime they wanted.

I'm playing the Guild B-301(formerly 302)A. It's been fitted with a Babicz 3 Point Replacement Bridge and a Zero-Mod Thumb-Rest.