The Dave Clark Five's "Don't Let Me Down"

About a month ago, I listened to The History of the Dave Clark Five, and I became interested in the bass part of "Don't Let Me Down."  It follows a paradigm that - with some variation - I've noticed in a lot of rock and roll songs from the '50s with a I IV I V IV I progression.  For the first three chords (I IV I), the bass part arpeggiates the chords with a root, third, fifth, sixth, minor seventh figure (which is then played backwards to return to the root).  For the next two (V and IV), there are arpeggiations of pure triads (root, third, fifth, third), and then the last chord (I) goes back to the root, third, fifth, sixth, minor seventh figure.

It wasn't until notating "Don't Let Me Down" that I realized that it diverges from that at one point.  Near the end of the piano solo there's a D (the fifth scale degree) instead of an F natural (the minor seventh scale degree).  In the notation, this is the first note of the fourth measure in the fourth line.

(click here for a larger image)

I have a few extra comments (I can't really say "notes") about my notation.  First, I can't for the life of me draw a good-looking quarter rest.  Second, I think there may be some glissandi that I didn't indicate.  I wasn't sure if what I was hearing was part of the bass line or the saxophone, but since I couldn't figure out a good way of playing those glissandi, I didn't include them in my notation.

The Dave Clark Five's "I Need Love"

A couple weeks ago, I listened to The History of the Dave Clark Five.  I wanted to figure out the bass part to "Don't Let Me Down" (because I thought it followed a pretty common paradigm, which it does; hopefully, it'll be the notation I post next week), and I got my bass out even before the first disc was over.  Sort of by accident, I figured out the bass part for "I Need Love" (the last track on the first disc) while waiting for the disc to finish.  The majority is just the same four notes repeated over and over again:

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I wrote this out by hand because I don't know how to insert the squiggly lines that indicate glissandi in the MIDI in my DAW.

I probably could have shortened the second line (I have the four-bar phrase, and then the same four-bar phrase within repeat signs, which is sort of redundant), but I thought it might be a bit more clear (as far as what note has a glissando to which) the way I have it here.  And then, since the bass part repeats, I just repeated what I had.

I hadn't realized until I started notating that the last G in that repeated four-bar phrase has a glissando back to the first C.  Because of that, it seems like that four-bar phrase is played on only one string.

Rick Huxley

I'm a bit late in writing about this, but I had two papers to write for classes this week.

On Monday, Rick Huxley died.  I didn't find out about this until Tuesday, but when I did I was sad.  I started thinking about the Dave Clark Five because that's the band he was in.  So I remembered that they were one of the first bands I was listening to when I really started getting into music.  I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the year they were inducted (2008), and on the return trip, I happened to find their first American LP (from 1964), which I bought for only $1.98.  Later, I found their second American LP (from 1965).

The Dave Clark Five - Glad All Over (1964)

Because of a particular clause in their contract, their records are really hard to find.  I may be mistaken, but I believe it's something to do with the rights of the records being reverted back to the band if they haven't sold after a particular amount of time.  This is why it cost me about $50 to buy The History of the Dave Clark Five about five years ago.  It was worth it though.

I remembered that "Because" was one of the first songs I learned to play on guitar (though I've forgotten it now, and I'm not entirely sure that the chords I had found were correct anyway).

But the more I got thinking about it, the more I realised that while it's sad that Rick Huxley died, I'm not going to be as sad as I would if someone in my own family were to die.  That's the weird sort of grieving you get when a public figure dies.  Certainly you're sad, but because you didn't know personally know that person, it doesn't affect you as much.  I felt the same way when Davy Jones died in February.  I was sad that he died, of course, but I didn't personally know him.  Furthermore, the Davy Jones whom I was familiar with was the 20-year-old Davy Jones from the Monkees.  Not Davy Jones in 2012.

So, it's a weird, sad thing when someone whom you admire but don't personally know dies because you're grateful for what he's done and his death reminds you of how important that is to you, but his death won't have as large an effect on your day-to-day life as it will on those who personally know him.

Rick Huxley's bio from The Dave Clark Five Return! (1965)

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