The Bass Line That Started Disco ‘Fever’

#bass #history #analysis #transcription #disco #paulthompson
Digging into the Bee Gees and the unsung brilliance of the bassist on most of their iconic disco hits: Maurice Gibb. I'll break down the bottom on "You Should Be Dancing" (from CHILDREN OF THE WORLD, 1976 - before Saturday Night Fever) and how Maurice creates and develops a great bass line over ONE drum beat and ONE chord. I'll also talk about how his gear switch (to Fender) changed the band's sound as well as Stephen Stills' amazing connection to this hit song!

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[leokimvideo]

Maurice Gibb was the Bee Gees secret weapon, the quiet achiever who glued so many of their songs together by Bass, keyboards and his vocals.

[josephromano]

Maurice Gibb was a killer bass player thanks for reminding us how great he was!!

[deborahherman]

Maurice was the whole package: multi-instrumentalist, amazing singer, writer, and by everyone's reports, a solid good human being.

[fviannaval]

I've always loved Maurice's bass playing! His bassline on "Nights on Broadway" is another gem from this period.

[drunk_vee_yuhhh]

What I love about Maurices bass playing is that he knew how to drop in the perfect accent notes. Nothing flashy, just good solid bass grooves.

[OriginalOldSkoolFunk]

Another outstanding analysis Maestro. Many people like to kind of joke about Disco music, but the Bee Gees were exceptional musicians and you do a great job breaking it down. These gentlemen were on top of their game and on top of the charts quite a bit in the 70's and rightfully so... 👍🏾

[ngc-hoxd]

Killer bass lines! We need more of this in popular music.

[abacadaniel]

Maurice was a legend, I love nearly all of his bass lines. ✌️☺️

[WilliamSmith-mzqz]

Thank you I didn’t know Maurice Gibbs was that gifted a musician.

[cinemaipswich]

Maurice Gibb had a wonderful voice too. With his brothers they had harmonies that just can't be beat. Their earlier music, before Disco are wonders that I love.

[simbaking]

I grew up listening to these disco bass lines...Maurice was a frickkin genius!

[strat]

Always loved the scale bass intro of "I started a joke", "how deep is your love" too, and all of Maurice's basslines.

[davidwinthrop]

Maurice is one of the most under appreciated bass players ever. His feel and the space he left made his bass lines so musical and flowing while at the same time singing 3-part harmony with Barry and Robin. Fantastic musician!

[arts]

Thanks for giving Maurice his due. He is often overlooked when talking about the great bassists in music!

[PaulBSafar]

Man, this is huge. It's a revelation actually !
Now it seems to me that this man influenced all the disco and funk bass players after him, and I'm not sure they're all aware of that.
Thank you very much for this accurate analysis.
Paul, french funk lover.

[latonyahemingway]

One of my favorite and most influential bass players .
No one could out disco bass Bernard Edwards from Chic and Maurice from The Bee Gees .

[hotruss]

I like that Maurice introduces rests between notes. It gives enough space for other instruments to shine thru the mix.

[rivertalesien]

Maurice Gibb contributed so many great hooks to their songs; if you go back to his 1968 solo recording, On Time, you'll hear where he really started to develop a sophisticated feel and arrangement that would later explode on Main Course, Children of the World and, of course, Saturday Night Fever. Great video, thank you for sharing.

[alanarkham]

I needed this video
M Gibb needs to be recognized as a great bass player worldwide

[isalovez]

This was very short but informative. I'm a college student who recently got into the bee gees and definitely Mo was very talented. All 3 of them were. As Barry said Mo had very good musical insight he just knew what to add and where >< RIP Mo, treasured forever.