Opening Communication Bass Cover HD

Описание: Today would have been, my friend, Mark Parisi’s birthday. He passed away suddenly last summer. Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s I played in a couple of bands with Mark. My personal favorite was Crisis and Mark was the singer. He was just a great guy. Fearlessly creative and excruciatingly upbeat and positive. Even after we stopped making music together we remained close friends. He was one of the first people who I introduced to Lynn when we started dating, so she’s known Mark for nearly 30 years herself. Back in the Crisis days, I’ll always remember Mark and his huge binder full of lyrics that he’d carry around with him. Whenever we’d start working on a new song he’d flip frantically through it, looking for something to use as a starting point. Sometimes he’d find something that would fit perfectly. Sometimes the lyrics and phrasing might require some tweaking. And other times he’d write something from scratch. Whatever he did, it was always interesting, heartfelt, and melodic. Happy Birthday, Mark and rest in peace. Oh, Mark’s cats, Gabby and Paris, have settled in nicely, becoming a part of our big, happy family.


If you’d like, pay a visit to Mark’s memorial page to read a little bit about him. I’m pretty sure his daughter, Rhapsody, wrote it. I would love to get a copy of the eulogy she wrote for his services. You had to hear it. It was stunningly beautiful.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/rec...


The song is “Opening Communication” and it’s one of mine that I brought to the band. For most of our songs, either Eric or I would bring in a core idea or the basic structure of a song and then we’d all collaborate on it. We did have a couple of songs that we wrote from scratch that were born out of a rehearsal “jam” but, usually, either he or I would bring in the rough sketch. My songs were normally “riff-based” and something that would hold my interest when I would play them on my own. I was always impressed by what Eric would put on top of my bass-lines. He’d always come up with something interesting that would enhance it and not obscure it.

Here’s a link to the Soundcloud page that has all the songs we recorded. They are available to download for free if you hear something you like. Remember, they are 8 Track home recordings that were made using 1/4" reel to reel tape.
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Here are some points of interest that Eric brought to the song.

Opening guitar part/chorus @ 00:00 - 00:05
(Don’t laugh, but I never really thought about where his opening guitar part came from. It didn’t strike me as something that occurred anyplace else in the song. It turns out that it’s what he plays over the chorus, but hearing it on its own, you might never have guessed that.)

The modulation up to E during the lead @ 02:34
(Who doesn’t like a little modulation every now and then?)

The rhythmic shift during the last verse and pre-chorus @ 03:14
(It’s a simple trick that he used in a few of our songs that creates the illusion of a new part when it’s really just the same chords played in a different way, over a different beat)

The one extra beat (a 5 count instead of a 4) before going into the chorus @ 04:08
(Eric would also throw in little curveballs like this all the time, just to create a bit of interest… and, maybe, to keep everyone on their toes)

Some observations on my bass part…

Of course, I’ve went triplet-crazy throughout the whole song.

I swiped this part @ 00:53 -00:56 from someone, I just can’t remember who.

I was definitely channeling my inner Al Di Meola in this section @ 01:51 - 2:06
(I even wrote the harmony part for the guitar @ 02:00 - 02:04)

02:44 - 02:46 Some similar pull-offs make an appearance again later in the song.

The line @ 03:49 - 03:53 was definitely influenced by the bass beneath the guitar solo in “Emotion Detector” by Rush.

The drums rushed a little just at the beginning of 05:46, but this was in the days before Pro-Tools and we just had to play through and rush along with them.

More pull-offs @ 04:06. Actually, after listening to them, these were little quicker and trickier than the first set.

Now seemed like a good time to get a few more notes in there via triplets @ 04:42 and beyond.

Often, by this point at live shows, my hands would be cramping up pretty good. This was before I really knew how to set up a bass to get it to sound and play the way I liked. So, often, and depending on the time of year and how the neck of my bass was reacting to the weather conditions, my action would be really high and I’d need to play extremely hard. Playing a quick, drum/bass unison run seemed like the smart thing to do @ 05:09 & 05:16. On the bright side, my action was only high for about half of the year.