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The little annoyances
Roger’s bass playing rarely get the same recognition as the other musicians in the band. Here’s one example when it does — a professional, Berklee educated, and Deep Purple hating (shock! horror!) bass player learns the Highway Star bass line and discovers the beauty of it.
For bass players, tackling a Deep Purple song means stepping into a world of groove-driven rock, and Highway Star is no exception. Roger Glover’s driving bass line locks in with Ian Paice’s drumming to push the song full speed ahead.
In this video, Sharon jumps in as fast as possible, breaking down the bass line and figuring out what makes it tick. With a mix of groove, pentatonic phrasing, and a few tricky surprises, it’s way more than just root notes. Can she keep up with the energy and speed? Watch and find out!
Thanks to Scott’s Bass Lessons for the video.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Love the video, except that Roger played with a plectrum.
March 23rd, 2025 at 01:48Uwe will be out of this world with this , be prepared for a little comment……………….sorry a rather large story etc. Cheers.
March 23rd, 2025 at 04:56Why all the hate for Deep Purple!?!? Where does that come from?
March 23rd, 2025 at 05:35He is remarkable 💜
March 23rd, 2025 at 07:22W-o-w! Keep in mind: these things were being played on the spot. Unf…believable!
March 23rd, 2025 at 18:31@ 3 – I have come across people who don’t like DP and also other artists DeeperPurps. There are many out there no doubt. As to this video, staged or what? I am suss in this current world of the ‘look at me everybody” and the so called ‘reaction’ scenario, feigning being shocked etc. It could be ‘real’ though, but then as I said in this world that is deemed ‘real’ too. Is it really bad ‘comedy’? Call me a cynic. Having said all that, I did relent a few weeks ago and watch Kenny Aronoff playing and writing Yes music to the song Changes. It was all hyped by the people doing it of course as all these things appear to be. Hype it up, it is Hollywood after all. Kenny was fine though in his admiration and determination, a fine drummer who has recorded and played with so many wonderful artists. Playing off the cuff to someone they have apparently never heard before. I ‘knew’ the guy who does those drumming videos, I have watched many of his takes on the great drummers and I don’t mind him as he is sincere and genuine in his take on it all and a fine drummer too. But man where they ‘excited’ by it all, him and his crew with him at that time. Aronoff knew who Yes were of course, but not that song apparently. I prefer Uwe’s take on bass playing and players. He has always had a good demeanour in explaining things, plus he won’t go on about being so shocked by it all and he definitely WILL NOT say he doesn’t like DP. For the record I couldn’t watch this ‘take’ on Roger’s bass playing, I tried to, but you know me. Cheers.
March 23rd, 2025 at 20:48Uwe’s so-not-out-of-this-world-comment:
Fräulein Renold is one of those former YouTube bass Wunderkinder some parents insist to put on display there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qGsibEe8hw.
She is both: Boundlessly talented and absolutely clueless as to what makes a good rock bass line work, a lot of people in that jazz/funk/fusion netherworld are. They only ever listen to the same bass role models and music and their ears are not really attuned to rock, much less to what the bass does there. So, yes, she can work out the notes Roger plays quickly, but her grasp of why he did what he did is superficial at best. It is like asking abstract artist Jason Pollock to comment a naturalist portrait painting.
Overall, Roger’s bass line to HS is quite neat, not simply replicating what Ritchie does one octave lower (in fact Roger eschews that for great parts of the song, we’ll get to that later), but creating an interesting substructure with its own little riffs and melodies, all of it played with impeccable forward drive.
Yet when she plays along, I’m sorry, it doesn’t sound like Roger at all (and it’s not just for lack of a pick or not playing a Ric over a growly Marshall ), he’s “driving the bus”, whereas she doesn’t and consequently sounds like a hundred other funky-jazzy schooled bassists aping/mocking a rock bass line – it’s like Nick Fyffe (ex-Jamiroquai) sounded when he stepped in for Roger on a couple of gigs. I’m glad I went to one of those (Kunstrasen in Bonn in 2013, Roger had to sit that one gig out due to shoulder pains) because it was ear-opening to witness how much allegedly “inconspicuous” Roger co-determines the DP sound. All the Roger-drive and -pulse had left them on that gig.
The guy egging Sharon on – I know him from his own podcasts – certainly isn’t any help either. They both fail to see that Roger took the very unusual approach of playing a G in Ritchie’s guitar range (and not one octave lower as a bass usually would), thus really creating a second rhythm guitar sound (and leaving the lower frequencies to Jon’s Hammond) – which yields an amazing shift in dynamics once the bass line eventually does go low and shifts from the high G to the lower open string A riff in the “I love it, I need it …”-part (had Roger started on the low G, the low A would have been a bit higher, but coming from the high G, it’s dramatically – 10 half-steps – lower). I wouldn’t be surprised if more casual listeners have always wrongly identified Roger riding on the high G with Ritchie’s rhythm guitar, it is that prominent in the mix.
Glenn btw did not play the high, but the low G when Mk III or IV performed HS – as a result the driving “second rhythm guitar”-effect was gone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3dfcVAB4Zs
I don’t mind Sharon not liking DP, it’s not music that was made for her generation and it obviously doesn’t match her listening habits, but her lack of deeper analysis reminds me of my jazz bassist teacher in 1978 who didn’t rate Roger Glover as well and pretty much said the same things about him already almost 50 years ago, seemingly unimpressed by his style (and DP as a whole), yet having zero rock feel himself.
See, now I’m mildly annoyed too. 😏
March 24th, 2025 at 00:24#1: Ma! Roger played with a plectrum!!! Waaah! I’ll never get over it!
March 24th, 2025 at 01:39Thanks, Herr MacGregor, but of course my insights to the bass playing of Nick Simper, Roger Glover and Glenn Hughes (or John Gustafson, John McCoy, Neil Murray and Bob Daisley) are the fruit of having listened to the them for half a century! Sharon can’t compete with that and she could certainly play circles around me (and offer more profound comments) when it came down to emulating and analyzing someone like the great Bernard Edwards of Chic or Rocco Prestia of Tower of Power (judging from her style she probably feels more drawn to them than British hard rock bassists).
When young women play bass exceedingly well, they are inevitably drawn to that funky-fusion stuff, I believe it has to do with the appeal all those rhythmic intricacies and nuances hold for their fine motor skills which come natural to (let’s not stereotype: many of) them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYeE2ReYaCc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnLpFw44kfc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf-J_sJB29Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUXJXUUFtB8
March 24th, 2025 at 01:56Well, I’m glad she found some respect for Roger – the bass line for this song has always been a favourite of mine!
That said, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple were my two favourite bands growing up (and still are!) – how on earth can anyone hate both these fantastic bands?!!!
It simply boggles my mind!
I suppose there’s no accounting for good taste for some folks….
March 24th, 2025 at 07:07But don’t just listen to me, here’s a pretty decent explanation of what Roger likes to do on bass …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaI7Gew28tg
March 24th, 2025 at 08:06DP and PF were probably force-fed to her by her parents, Mike, hence the allergic reaction! Just ask my kids about DP, JP and Quo. But now that there are grandchildren in the family, a new cycle begins for me to create havoc with innocent child musical taste buds … 😂
Max still has us all beat though, sacrificing your own son to the Sabbath (0c)cult IS THE ULTIMATE ACHIEVEMENT !!!
March 24th, 2025 at 15:21I quite enjoyed that. She may hate DP but she likes Pictures of Innocence.
March 24th, 2025 at 15:38Tell me how many DP fans outside hardcore base, know that such a song exists at all:)
Those who can, play.
March 24th, 2025 at 17:58Those who can’t, teach
I witnessed Tal Wilkenfeld playing bass guitar with Jeff Beck in 2009, I know what you mean re that style Uwe. It is all a bit too smooth for my tastes but it worked very well in Beck’s group on that night. A very good player and she has done very well for herself and would have been pinching herself being in that band with Beck and Vinnie Colaiuta on the drums. Regarding Roger’s bass playing, a friend of mine at the ’84 gig in Sydney commented on Glover’s bass playing. not liking it etc. I guess some people just compare to others and he wasn’t really a Purple follower at all, just along for the ride with all of us rabid DP and Tull aficionados for that week in Sydney. He was a Jack Bruce fan among others. Yes it does help to be into and know the music, big time in my book. All these ‘reaction’ things on the internet are getting out of control, a bit like the plague did. Cheers.
March 24th, 2025 at 21:36