Return to Forever's "Medieval Overture" on bass - LRRG

[briancdn]

It's been over three years since you have uploaded this video so my question to you is can you play it properly now?

[DivinePonies]

OHMAHGOD IT'S RICKENBACKER!

[smilingeuterpe]

Great job man, nice rick :D

[CribNotes]

So cool to see younger guys enjoying this stuff. I bought this album when I was 14 in 1976 and played it till the vinyl wore out and had to buy a new one. My parents thought I had lost my mind.

This song is one of the best drum tracks EVER.

[t3hgir]

Valiant effort!

[SwimmingInReverie]

good attempt, you got most of the rythms right. Now you just need to work on the phrasing and correct notes. Keep working on it man, RTF is no easy task.

[eternityiscold]

One of my ultimate favorates. Try vulcan worlds, without your brain going 6943857gjbcvjkg. <.<

Love this band. Sophistifunk and dayride are also personal favs. Specially for drums.

[Allmanfan456]

Awesome! I love Return to Forever. Stanley Clarke is insane. for a challenge you should try and tackle Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy. Its insane. I can barely play it.

[zodiakironfist]

I have the tune. Got it fairly recently. It does not sound like something you can figure out in an afternoon....or ten for that matter. It is that way with all of RTF's stuff. Amazing playing throughout. If you can play that, you have my deepest respect, man.

[Allmanfan456]

My god its such a pain in the ass. I had to watch a video of a guy playing it to get one part of it. Other then that I figured it out by ear. Not easy. Makes my hand cramp up not even a minute into the song.

[Lookingn]

Great job

[Vladeras81]

great sound!

[orlandez22]

Hey Man! Great Effort!! Stanley Is A Hard Ass Bass Player To Keep Up With But I Think You Did Your Justice. Sick Rickenbacher Too I Might Add! I Love The Whole "Romantic Warrior" Album. Memorized It From Start To Finish.

[zodiakironfist]

From a guy who has no videos, friends who use pictures of Hitler as their avatar, and a channel covered in potty and racist references, I would imagine you are far more in need of a life than me. And just because you made a hobby of sucking your own balls doesn't mean that others wish to join you in such stupidity.

[wolfstan64]

Nice Job!! This is a rough one- RTF is a must have for all bass players- I'm still working on this one

BTW I have tickets for RTF here in August- can't wait!!!!!

[korgrandi]

Very gutsy to take on such a piece of work. You did a great job. I used to think the best bass players were Harris, Flea and all them rock players and then, 4-5 years ago I went to see Trio! formed of Stanley Clarke, Jean-Luc Ponty and Béla Fleck. I was blown away. Stanley was playing an upright bass in that show and I couldn't believe the quantity and quality of notes he was getting out of there.

Anyway, I hope you didn't quit this ambitious project.

[miamigroove]

whoa...start by getting a 60HZ noise reduction plz...i thought my monitors went bad :)

[ventosa1237]

y ya lo sacaste vieja ?

[Sunchild333]

great! now all you have to do is play inquisition from Colosseum II hahaha! Check it out on the tube if you haven't heard of it yet. It's simular to return to forever at times. Progressive rock and so on...do try it =)

[zodiakironfist]

OK...I will check it out.

[doubts]

I hear you mate... keep up the hard work.

[zodiakironfist]

Learning this album is a life-long quest. I'm still on that journey...slowly trodding along. Thanks for dropping by, and thanks for appreciating such obscure, yet badass music.

[mahavishnu018]

Try Magestic Dance, Sorceress, Romantic Warrior, then Overture. Those are the easier bass songs. Save The Magician for last!

[AnnaKOnUT]

Hi! You did a great job trying to match Stanley Clarke's bass notes in 'Medieval Overture.'Thank you!

[acaros55]

dude please help me Im trying to play this song but i really dont know the technique i should use for the really fast part like in 3:10 please help me by the way i have the right transcription in case u want it

[Skogferd]

Dude.... I think you should go for the tabs.

[zodiakironfist]

I do not use tabs and probably never will, but if you are trying in an off-hand way to say that some notes are off, you're right. I am not trying to fool anyone...read the blurb.

[Skogferd]

Nah man, I'm not trying to come off as an arse here. It's just that what Clarke does is unbeliavably hard to get through if you are trying to hear everything with your ear. You're on your way to nail it though, so keep workin' at it.

[roxburynight]

nice job dude. Stanley Clarke is the man!

[bananabaconcake]

Oh good I always loved this song! Great job.

[LamontCJ]

Keep On!! It's very hard and you do a good job trying to cover the greatest bass player in the world!

[OnBasses]

Bass tabs site?

[zodiakironfist]

I didn't play this using tabs, just my ear (which is why I have more than a few notes incorrect...LOL). I doubt that very much RTF is on any tableture website, anyways.

[lowend]

Ok Rob-I gotta give you tons of respect for putting this tune up-VERY nice job!!! Not easy stuff, but really-I'm in awe:)

How about Vulcan Worlds now???:)

-Best-

Gav

[zodiakironfist]

Whoa...that's a tall order. I'll see what I can do about playing more RTF (that is not "Sorceress", which is way easier).

[jep115]

Appreciate the pluck to attempt such music. Next time try to complete your phrasing without settling for a few correct notes here and there - Good shot though! Good Luck

[OutsideinsidE]

Request: some Jaco Pastorius

[zodiakironfist]

Jaco is unfortunately outside of my ability to replicate well. He is a very controlled bass player with a real jazzy feel. I am more like getting your teeth ground down with a chainsaw. I am afraid that with my set of skills, I could not do him justice.

[JerkVegas86]

Good try bro....

[satan165]

wow, alot of ignorant ass comments here. videos of stanley clarke basslines (full songs no less) are amazing enough, i cant believe anyone could even attempt this song. my judgement: CLOSE ENOUGH! well done

[zodiakironfist]

Yeah...some people do not take the time to read blurbs. I didn't want to spend an entire month hammering out the tidbits of this tune, but I definitely wanted to put a RTF tune out there. So this is the result. I stand by it, but promise the next one will be in a greater state of completion.

[thecool9]

alot of it sounds out of tune, doesnt sound like you're really taking the time to learn it

[zodiakironfist]

Just like you didn't take the time to read that I already knew that.

[basserx78]

Pretty cool! That's a tough one to pull off.

It's worth the effort, I think. Keep on

pluckin'!

[TheBassPlayer10]

lol, stanley clarke rocks, to say he has twice the "umph" shows what you know about anything particularly bass ---> (zero)

[zodiakironfist]

Even though I generally agree with you about Stanley rocking, I do take umbridge with insulting Nate over his opinion. Why does your disagreement have to come with an insult? Surely we are all more mature than that.

[TheBassPlayer10]

"You've got twice the umph and four times the growl that he has ever dreamed of having" i guess that did it, its a ridiculous statement

[edrphenrique]

tem muita nota errada ai irmao

[zodiakironfist]

As noted in the blurb. Like I said, it's a biscuit that's still baking.

[gabdragon]

i give some props for even trying this

[JayhawkJazzy]

My father plays a lot of bass (I couldn't do it if I wanted to), and I thought this was VERY impressive and I really enjoyed it. Great job!

[tool772]

WOW! I missed this one!? I can't even begin to say how impressed I am with this! I am giving you a flat out 20/5 for this Rob!!! I couldn't begin to understand how you would even go about trying to figure out this song? Impressed for life. :)

[PDXguitarlegend]

Wow, Rob just when I thought I couldn't get more impressed, you blow me away with some Stanley Clarke. They really were a monster band. DiMeola is amazing too. His Casino album - talk about shredding. One of my favorites of the genre was John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra. And of course Jeff Beck's forays into fusiondom, 'Blow by Blow' and 'Wired'. Man, I could go on... 5*s!

[basserx78]

You'd probably enjoy Stanley Clarke's "Journey

To Love" then. It features Jeff Beck,Lenny

White,Chick Corea,John McLaughlin,George Duke,

Steve Gadd,David Sancious and others!

[zodiakironfist]

I knew it! A Jaco man...my hypothesis is correct! I got into playing bass for the girls (and to be cool like Steve Harris), but that reason went out the door as soon as I got a girl. Then it became all about stress-relief and escapism....I disappear into songs. Thanks for the convo, as always, Nate.

[zodiakironfist]

LOL. Are you a Jaco man, Nate? In my experience, bass players that like Jaco hate Stanley and vice-versa. Me, I'm clearly a Stanley man....after all, my bass playing is full of wank and many say (not you, but some) that my tone is nasty. Must be Stanley's influence.

[kingofvwcosmos]

Holy crap! That's the coolest thing I've ever seen. You got me listening to more Stanley Clarke.

Favorited, 5 stars, the works.

[zodiakironfist]

You should definitely see his version of the songs from this album (he plays it correctly, and I ....uhh...improvise). Check out the Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant over to the side on "Realted Videos". It will blow your mind. Changed the way I thought of music forever. And thanks a bunch for dropping by, king.

[mshofz28]

I have the album and now the CD that has this piece and Munkybarz is correct about the brass ones. Anything Stanley does is pretty much amazing. I saw RTF on a tour in 1982 or 1983 and was blown away. Al DiMeola is quite amazing too.

[Munkybarz]

Yikes! You've got brass ones for even tackling this tune. Beauty rendition my friend. Jeez. It's certainly been a day or two since I've heard any RTF, and this one definitely takes the cake. Way to go Rob! 5'erd and faved. We're all here because we're not all there.

[zodiakironfist]

Like I said, I turned on the camera in case something good happened...it didn't, but there is no sense wasting a video. And I wanted you guys to see me get my ass kicked by a tune....what better band to kick my ass than RTF?

[robass5]

woah awesome never heard this before .

[zodiakironfist]

The music of RTF is a must-have for the musician who wants to hear music they most likely will never be able to play correctly. It's a white whale, but one that is terribly fun to hunt.

[senateb]

thanks for introducing me to this band

[zodiakironfist]

No prob....this is an album that is perhaps one of the greatest pieces of music EVER, and barely anyone knows about it.

[JazzySaxE]

talent

[zodiakironfist]

...or lack thereof.

[bytor721]

Dude, RTF?!?!? SWEET! I'd almost forgotten about them. (even attempting this one speaks volumes about your ability) Me and my friend occasionally try to prog out with Di Meola's Race With the Devil on a Spanish Highway, but this one is way more bass intensive. Great job, mistakes and all!

[zodiakironfist]

RTF is some tough music, but it trains my ear and my fingers simultaneously. Why is Stanley my favorite bass player? Because I can't play his stuff worth a crap....lol.

[kasquiblius]

I approve this bass cover. Great job man!

[zodiakironfist]

Thanks a ton.

[PookLowEnd]

OK, this is how I choose to describe this video:

HOLY CRAP!!!!

Wow, Mr. Rob, when I thought I had you figured out, you post this. It is truly amazing. Seems like Pricilla got a serious workout today. Perfect bass to do this tune in, I think. The Schecter (who's name I forget) would be too thundery. Did I mention HOLY CRAP yet?

Know Medesky, Martin and Wood?

Holy crap....

[zodiakironfist]

Yeah, I don't believe they had active pickups in the 70's, so that rules out Wulfgang.