Start Me Up... With the Basics
This one comes off of the 1981 studio album “Tattoo You” by the Rolling Stones. Start Me Up became a staple of their set after its release.
Bill Wyman was the bassist for Start Me Up. As typical with most of his parts, he does a lot of variations on the main theme and doesn’t like to repeat a section exactly the same way the next time you see it.
Even outside the music world, Start Me UP is well known for being an opening song everything, especially sports.
There aren’t too many songs that hit the message as straight on as this one to get things started.
Whether you’re playing a bar gig or you’re the music for some sort of event, adding Start Me Up into your repertoire is worth it.
What Was it Like to tab out Start Me Up?
Start me up took a lot more work than I thought it would. I’ve been familiar with the song for a long time, and even played an arrangement of it for my school’s marching band in college.
The lack of repetition made this one take a lot longer. I had to listen through carefully from start to finish for all the changing details.
Typically, a song will have a set structure that I can just copy and paste once I get the Verse, Chorus, and Pre Chorus done. When I do that, it usually has just a few changes.
Start Me up was different in that every line was different, which takes a lot of time.
Do I Have to Play Start Me Up Like You Do?
As a general rule, I typically like to play parts as close to the original as I can. My philosophy behind that is you’re playing a song people know and is part of the soundtrack of their lives. They want to hear the song the way they know it so they can sing and dance along.
I’ve started to change my opinion of this a little bit, particularly because of Bill Wyman. His parts are killer to learn note for note, and even he doesn’t play them the same live as he did in the studio (I have links to that in the following section).
In fact, many bassists don’t play it exactly the same. Gene Simmons of KISS changes his parts all the time, so why shouldn’t you?
As long as it sounds good, go for it! No need to do every hammer-on if you like the sound of picking every note (I didn’t realize the hammer-ons until late in the tabbing process xD)
Also, any of the transitions at the end of a bar or phrase could very easily be a few combinations of notes and still sound right. I chose what sounds correct to the track, but if you wanted to standardize them to whichever sounds best to you and your band, it wouldn’t hurt the song.
Below are some locations that have different variations or options on what you could play (including what I’ve tabbed)
Bar 24 down beat – could be 3,1, or X. not very clearly hit. Each fits well
Bar 27 – probably should end with 1h2, but 2h3 is what’s on the recording
Bar 29 – last 8th could slide up to 3, hammer on to 2 as 16ths, or be 1 as an 8th note as tabbed
Bar 39 & 51 – first note could be two 16th notes or an 8th note. There’s little to no definition on them if it’s 16ths on the track
Bar 43 – Rhythm is more of 16ths from the F to G (3/5) but notation was cleaner as a grace note
Bar 59 – I’ve seen the last 4 notes as 3-0-1-3, 3-0E-0A-3, 3-1-3E-3A
Bar 66 – 2nd 8th note was missed in the recording. I left it in on purpose
Why Did You Play That One Part of Start Me Up That Way?
Bill Wyman left in 1993, so I’m using the performances from before that as reference material (although mostly for style/tone/position and not pitch/rhythm). The cameral also likes to follow Mick Jagger (which makes sense).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8y-Jljv8do
not great quality, but should be Bill (and not Ronnie) on bass here
3:07 – looks like a pick., low on neck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8y-Jljv8do
1990 – same white bass as first video,
1:53 – can see it’s a headless bass
2:14 – low on neck
2:57 – using 1/3 then shifts to use 5 instead of open string in bar 52/53. He also strays from studio here
3:19 – some general positioning during the solo that was added to the song live
4:32 – some general positioning. Also slight synch issues with the audio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGyOaCXr8Lw
Mimed, but has some good shots and he’s sticking close to the studio version
0:30 – fingers
1:02 – Bar 33-38 fingering (but wipes his nose in there too xD) He also does hammer-ons here 1h3
1:20 – pick
1:41 – brief showing of fingering hand
1:54 – back to fingers
2:09 – hammer-on (1h3) w/ pick
2:16 – can see him a good bit from here
2:23- confirms the dead note / ghost note bar 74, then has 1st finger on 3
3:04 – index at fret 3, makes no sense. Doesn’t match pitch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUVGR-xvJPw
2:38 – Pick & 16th notes bar 87
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eknMomAsVZ4
0:50 – pick
1:49 – varies from studio with new walking pattern
2:53 – bar 83
3:09 – Hammer-ons (1h3). Can tell by listening and seeing the pick move once, even though fret hand not shown
3:52 – shows another hammer-on just before camera moves
