Driven Bass Cover

"Driven" by Rush off of their 1996 album, "Test For Echo."

Over the years I’ve been posting, this song has been suggested numerous times, but it’s not one I’d ever considered covering. Mainly because, on the album version, there are some really apparent bass overdubs which was a really unusual thing for Geddy to do. As far as I know, it’s their only song that has that going on. Also, I knew I’d have difficulty with the double-stop parts in the verses. As often happens, those seeds (suggestions) germinated over time and I began sniffing around the song, figuring out ways I’d be able to manage it.

As far as the overdubbed section went, I listened to the studio version and then the live version, where he does a bass solo, and made a hybrid part out of the two - studio/live. For the double-stop parts, he does something with his thumb to get the open A string going (I believe he used a similar technique on the song ”Turn The Page”) but I played it finger-style just as I did on my ”Turn The Page” cover. Live, on the last verse of the song, he stops playing the double-stops and only changes the top notes, leaving the root as a high C. I didn’t include that part in my version. Confused yet? Me too.

If someone really wants to see the live version covered, don’t look at me.

I took an extended break from playing this summer to work on my Halloween project. That break lasted a good two months or so and this was one of the songs I started working on when I picked my bass back up. Talk about blisters. I didn’t play for another 3 weeks or so preceding our party and thought it might take another few to get back in shape. But, our party was on Saturday, I started playing again on Monday and it felt pretty good, so I recorded a new batch of songs on Tuesday. I managed to get another Rush song, as well as a “sort of” Rush song, in that batch.

Once again I’ve found myself way behind in responding to subscribers, comments and messages, but I promise I’ll get caught up.