Just to give some context and to prep you for everything that we’re going to explore here let’s take a song with an amazing guitar part that might not be played by who you expect.

For those of you who don’t know, the solo on that track was played by Eric Clapton, apparently added when Harrison wasn’t completely satisfied by the first recording. Now, I’ll bet that’s not much of a surprise for most folks out there. As far as I can tell it’s pretty common knowledge, but still kind of an interesting tidbit. Oh and then there’s this.

(I will continue to watch that video and insert it into any post I can for as long as I can)

A little more surprising (though still not mind blowing) is that Harrison put down some guitar for Clapton on Cream’s song Badge.

Now there’s some guitar work at about the 1:40 mark that sounds an awful lot like George, but he’s only credited with rhythm guitar and has apparently explicitly denied playing that part. If he had, I would’ve been a little bit more stunned. Still, this gets points for being a collaboration that I hadn’t heard about up to this point.

But the piece that literally had me cursing at my monitor is a little nugget about Layla from Height Five Seven.

Apparently, that’s Duane Allman over the piano coda. A little more research turns up the fact that he wrote the riff for the main “rockin’” portion of the song, and that Allman played on two of six (6!) guitar tracks.

That’s nuts.

I had no idea that Allman had anything to do with that recording, but the degree to which he was involved is especially entertaining. I don’t know why it’s always so gratifying to learn these things, but it is.

Bonus: from the same source, who knew that this was Bobby Womack on bass?

Double bonus: here’s Billy Preston rockin’ out with the Beatles.

In all seriousness, I’ll plug Height Five Seven one more time. You should go check it out. I spent entirely too much time over there, which is the reason I’m writing this post at 4am.

I think Cheesefoot needs to get out more… needs to get up more. Maybe he should kick it with Borf.

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Just Wanna Dance Yrself Clean – The Hood Internet
Flying Overseas – Theophilus London
Momma – Dudley Perkins
Journal of Ardency – Class Actress
So Light is Her Footfall – Air
What Did He Say – Nite Jewel
Hearts – oOoOO
Hydrant Game – Quasimoto
Make the Road by Walking – The Menahan Street Band
Man on the Moon (The Anthem) – Kid Cudi
Hootie Hoo – Outkast
Conant Gardens – Slum Village
C.R.E.A.M. (Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers Mix) – The Wu-Tang Clan
Rapping 2 U (feat. Lakutis) – Das Racist
Brown Paper Bag – Me & You
Turn Me Away (Get Munny) – Erykah Badu
Mary Jane (DJ Green Lantern Remix) – Rick James
Track (feat Phat Kat) (instrumental) – J Dilla
Lugu Lugu Kan-Ibi – David Darling & Wulu Bunun Tribe

The story you find on YouTube about Jamerson is that Gaye went out into the bars of Detroit to find him drunk, pulled him back into the studio, and got him to put down the bass line to the track below laying on his back. You can see Jamerson sitting next to Gaye in some of the footage in the video below.

And in case you missed it, here’s an isolated version of that same bass line.

The most fantastic thing to me about Jamerson’s playing is the way that he can be the absolute heart and soul of a track one moment, playing the piece that you’ve known your entire life, and in the next moment he’s playing a riff that sounds like it could be a whole new song, some little gem that’s been sitting there behind the hit you’ve known. Check the Ain’t No Mountain bass line in the video below. For the first thirty seconds the bass is exactly where you would expect it to be, nicely mirroring the harmonies, pretty much what you would expect having heard this song a million times. Then for about fifteen seconds Jamerson just goes bonkers. I’d missed it behind Marvin and Tammi’s combined efforts at that point in the song, but it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Four tracks below for you to check out. Nothing new, but plug in your headphones and listen to the bass for a bit.

I Was Made to Love Her

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Bernadette

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Sunny

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Standing in the Shadows of Love

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Damn. Say a prayer for Aretha.

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Taking care of business.

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Who You Wit II – Jay-Z
You Know How We Do It – Ice Cube
ATLiens – OutKast
Still DRE – Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg
Tops Drop – Fat Pat
The Red – Jaylib
E=MC2 – J Dilla feat. Common
Hot Damn – The Clipse
You Know My Steez – Gangstarr
Hypnotize – The Notorious BIG
Paid In Full – Erik B. & Rakim
Definition – Black Star
The Payback – James Brown
Givin’ Up Food for Funk – The JBs
For the Love of Money – The O’Jays
Thief’s Theme – Nas

Just tryin’a mix it up. Little this, little that.

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Sunshine (Ratatat Remix) – Jay-Z feat. Foxy Brown
Odessa – Caribou
Radio Freq – Dead Prez
Baby Can’t Stop – Lindstrøm and Christabelle
You Know What – NERD
A Tu Lado – Julieta Venegas
Comme Ci Comme Ca (The Twelves Remix) – Terry Poison
Solo – Chew Lips
Steady – Idle Warship and Mick Boogie
Happy – The Bamboos
URAQT – MIA
Golden Strings – Rockets
Hey Uh – What You Say Come On – Roy Ayers Ubiquity
Umi Says – Mos Def
Bubbles – Ellen Allien & Apparat
Be Still – Big Boi