about THE TAB
The first pass of the tab was pretty easy to come up with. The bass is present and it’s not a super complex line. Not as much repetition as a standard song. One of the reasons for that is the recording is from a live show in 1967 that was released as a single. That’s also why there’s that grainy audio quality to it.
Once I completed the first pass, there were a lot of small details that I had to comb over, but luckily the shortness of the song really helped cut down on that.
There weren’t many live shows, and those weren’t very helpful either. I got a couple things from them, but I mostly just had to rely on my ears.
One thing I did find really helpful was that in 2006, the song was remastered. I found this after having my tab 95% complete. This has the bass panned hard left, meaning only the left speaker has any bass in it. This made it much easier to hear than before and actually led to a few changes in the tab. I had written up a good bit about a few spots, but this cleared all those up for me.
The biggest one being the walking pattern in bar 16-17, 24-25, etc. I initially thought the progression had the down beat of the 2nd bar with 3 on the G string. I then thought it was left out, and then finally landed where I’m at with 1 on the A. It’s the same pitch, but one octave lower than 3 on G.
There is a part in bar 24 that sounds like a wrong note was played. There’s a clash (or dissonance) you can hear. That happens in live performances. Unlike in the intro to September, I chose to tab what I thought were the correct notes, due to the fact it was a live show, the common progression, and the other repetitions of it in the song. Lastly, it sounds like it wasn’t the bass that played the wrong note. In the 2006 remaster, I don’t hear the dissonance.
I also chose my fingerings for a couple reasons. The first is that Donald “Duck” Dunn appeared to not really shift his hands at all. This led me to use 1, not 6 in the Interlude. The tone of the notes also influenced that choice there and in other spots as well (like when I chose to use fret 5).
Why choose “Soothe Me”?
Soothe Me was a request from a supporter on Patreon. He’s been one of my longest patrons, so I was more than happy to do this for him. Patrons on Patreon have their requests prioritized as one of the perks of supporting me. Even new patrons get to have their requests done as well. As of this writing, I’m able to complete the requests I get from Patreon. So, I covered Soothe Me, since it was next up in the list of patron requests.
RESEARCH
(You can skip this section if you feel like it 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvfq0wpbRGw
(Performance the single was recorded from)
1:36 – position on neck
1:37 – looks like the motion could be plucking an upstroke, but it’s more consistent with playing that with fingers.
1:40 – looks like fender head stock, but body doesn’t look fender in other shots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-lXyNYTZso
Has an outro not on the single. Fingers on Fender P-Bass
0:04 – 1, then 3 in the intro. Hands stay in this same positioning, so it uses open strings, not fret 5 | bar 3 tone doesn’t sound open though
0:35 – good shot
Different bass pattern before “one more time” in bar 17
The cameraman then goes crazy with the zoom in & out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq8oACLAxXc
(2006 remaster)
0:29 – Bass & Piano double on walking at bar 16-17.
0:44 – either no bass, or octave lower than expected down beat of bar 25
1:15 – down beat of bar 41
1:01 & 1:30 – doesn’t hold note through full measure
1:25 – bar 46 – keys play the “te” or “and” of beat 1. Bass is a quarter note
1:33 – 4 on A (C#). I thought it was either G# or A#, but this confirmed I was wrong
1:36 – beat 4 is a quarter note C#
1:37 – bar 52
Additional THOUGHTS
I had a hard time finding out who the bassist for the song was. Donald “Duck” Dunn was Sam & Dave’s bassist for many things, but I couldn’t find the years or if he was on the recording for this. I had to look up what he looked like and compare it to the live videos to verify that it was him after reading a couple people say that it was him on the song.
One thing that helped me determine it was him, was that he used his fingers instead of a pick. The live videos showed that clearly. The 2nd video that shows more also shows it was a fender P-Bass.
Where can I get bass tabs for “Soothe Me”?
You can find links to the play along (YouTube) and Downloadable tabs here for “Soothe Me” and my other covers.
https://samboatmusic.com/bass-tabs/ is a resource for you to find the tabs you need quickly and easily.
It’s a searchable and Sortable table with information and links for my songs. It has the artist, song title, tuning, links to the YouTube video, Bass ONLY Video, blog posts, and printable tabs. As my catalog grows, it’ll be updated to stay current and as useful as possible for you.
Is that all?
Yup! If you enjoy this type of content, you can find more Blogs Here.
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