Don't Know Why

Don't Know Why

(Bramlett/Clapton)

From the Eric Clapton album Eric Clapton

“Don’t Know Why” is another song that came from the fruitful months of collaboration between Eric Clapton and Delaney Bramlett, from the fall of 1969 through the spring of 1970. Bramlett was a huge influence on Clapton, and helped him gain confidence in his singing and songwriting. This is mostly a Delaney Bramlett song. In a 1970 interview with Melody Maker Magazine, Clapton said, “it was an idea Delaney had when he came to England, and we finished it while he was staying at my house.” It’s essentially a gospel ballad, the type of song Bramlett could write in his sleep.

Radle’s bass line leaves plenty of space, but still moves around enough to keep things interesting. Had this song ended up on a Clapton album in the later ‘70s, Radle likely would have played a simpler, stricter line, probably closer to the style of “Wonderful Tonight.”

The verses and choruses feature very similar grooves. Radle uses the pattern below often, with only occasional variation of it.

The song builds in intensity to the final chorus and outro, which is just a two-measure tag repeated multiple times before fading. This outro is one of the funnest parts of the song to play. On the C and Bb chords, Radle plays the roots embellished with upper neighbor tones. Then on the F chord, he ascends through two octaves of an F pentatonic scale.

A full transcription is below.

Where There's a Will, There's a Way

Where There's a Will, There's a Way

(Bramlett/Whitlock)
From the Delaney & Bonnie album On Tour with Eric Clapton

This transcription of “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way” is taken from Delaney & Bonnie's On Tour With Eric Clapton. (Also see my transcription of "Coming Home" from that album.) On the verses, Radle sticks with a one-measure groove in constant eighth notes. When the chord changes from D to G, he keeps the same pattern, but transposes it up a perfect fourth. He maintains the straight eighth notes in the chorus, but notice how in the second half of the chorus, the pattern is cut in half, from four beats to two beats. This helps build excitement and makes the chorus feel like it is really moving forward.

In the bridge, Radle simplifies his line melodically, playing mainly roots, but incorporates a little more syncopation. This is a really effective method of building tension, which is the primary purpose of the bridge in this song--to provide relief from repetitions of the verse and chorus, but also to build tension that can be released by a return to the verse. Playing a more active bass line might have made the bridge feel frantic. Instead, Radle increases the energy of the song with less melodic movement and slight syncopation.

A full transcription is below.

Alcatraz

Alcatraz
(Leon Russell)
From the Leon Russell album Leon Russell and the Shelter People

Leon Russell’s “Alcatraz” from his 1971 album Leon Russell and the Shelter People, is based largely around a G minor groove. While the rest of the band is just vamping on Gm, Radle plays a tight, one-measure groove that becomes the main riff of the song. His line is built around the root, 5^th, and 7^th of a G minor chord.  Russell had a penchant for large bands with many layers of sound, perhaps something he picked up from his days with the Wrecking Crew. This recording has three guitars, piano, organ, drums, and percussion, all stacked on top of Radle’s bass. With all of that going on, Radle keeps his groove simple and steady, rarely varying it, other than adding the C on beat 4 of the 2^nd measure in the example below. Even this unobtrusive addition he uses sparingly. His role in this song is to be rock solid and provide a foundation for the guitars and keyboards to improvise over.

His bass line on the chorus is more linear (melodic) and relies heavily on neighbor tones (nt) and chromatic passing tones (cpt). He varies this line slightly from chorus to chorus, but the basic framework remains the same.

A full transcription is below.

Cocaine

Cocaine
(J. J. Cale)
From the Eric Clapton album Slowhand

I decided to continue the trend of the last few weeks by posting another J. J. Cale song. Like last week's transcription of "After Midnight," this is Radle's bass line from Eric Clapton's cover released on the 1977 Slowhand album.

This is a typical J. J. Cale song, elegant in its simplicity. The chord progression just alternates between E and D for most of the song. There is no chorus to speak of, just a refrain at the end of each verse that steps down E – D – C – B. So by learning a few measures of music, you’ll be prepared to play this whole song.

Radle’s groove is appropriately simple. During the verses, he usually plays the root of the chord on beat 1, the 5^th on beat 3, then back to the root on beat 4. (See sample measures below.) At its core, it is essentially a simple country bass line. He embellishes it regularly, but this is the basic groove.

During the riff (heard in the intro and after each refrain), Radle alters his line only slightly. He consistently plays D-E sixteenth notes on the “and” of beat 4 in the E chords. (See sample measures below.) It’s just a little pickup to get to the D chord. This is kind of a tricky spot to feel. If you play it by yourself with a metronome, it’s not too hard. But playing it with the recording feels a little weird, because it plays against the rhythm of the guitar riff, rather than playing with it. It creates a nice little rhythmic counterpoint, but if it isn’t entirely locked into the groove, it’s easy to make it feel sloppy.

A full transcription is below.