'Never Gonna Give You Up' Has A Crazy Bass Line!! (tabs & tutorial) 

Lesson material: www.talkingbass.net/the-crazy-rick-roll-bass-line

good to know this lesson will never give me up, let me down, run around, or desert me!

Thank you, Mark. I really appreciate the breakdown.

Your lessons are awesome!

Honestly, I was never able to make out the bass line in this song, and thanks to this video, I know why. I'm gonna try and listen harder. Now that I know it's in there somewhere. Lol!

Great lesson, & love your pacing!!

Never Gonna Give You Up" is a song by English singer Rick ' Astley, released on 27 July 1987 .

😮 Whoa, I wasn't aware of this tune. Great Funky Bassline, just another one on the list. Still working on "Come on, Come Over". 😊

Band "let's throw a ricvk roll in the set! It's only 4 chords' Bassist '.......,.,.,'

The bassline of this song is so “mechanic”, because this was time when HOUSE music just got commercial, and this song felt a lot like house (which was a part of its success in the charts). I remember this song being distinct from other songs because of this very different bassline, which was not quite playing along with the chords, but playing “something else” instead (“stubborn” in a way, ignoring the rest of the song, but somehow still managing to blend in). The premise of house music back then was sampling a bunch of different things and blending them together, that’s why the bassline feels so “off”. I’d suggest you to take a look at yet another Stock Aitken Waterman song: “Nothing’s gonna stop me now”, by Samantha Fox. This bassline is very special, ritch in terms where it goes, although it’s all octaves. Because of this, it’s quite hard to remember how to sing the song (the pitch of the mellody), and you’ll find some unsuccessfull karaoke attempts here on RU-vid. It’s a synth bass, plus slaps on the real bass.

You are good mate. My new bass hero

Thanks. I'll just say I was expecting to hear you play the bass part along with the song at some point, to better understand how they blend together...

Mark, yet another fantastic video, a polite suggestion from me however! will one of you 'You Tube', bass gurus PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE cover some of 'Robert (Kool) Bells' , Kool & the Gang, bass work while this Disco/Funk genius is still with us, may I again politely suggest you start with 'Fresh' because this is THE song that got me into Bass playing.... Ta Muchly !! For the sake of argument it's always a 'Barm cake" !

Surprised you omitted to say that this bassline was purloined from Trapped by Colonel Abrams! The Colonel could do with some respect for his years of service.

I slapped this on a gig, played slightly different to you but I'm sure you are more correct than I was.

Nice

playing this to someone is the most OP rick roll because they don't know this is the bassline from the song so they won't defend themselves 😈 as you see this comment is not edited and gonna tell you guys it's a joke so don't start a war in the replies

My bass sounds nothing like that think it's just a 5 string metal machine sounds wicked trying this

Learning this line is like a Rick roll in itself! Very unintuitive

There's a brilliant video on YT of some kid playing this line with a pick. Sounds awesome! I still don't know what a rickroll is; was it just the way he danced?

Yeah. I had to transcribe that one and then try to play it at a gig. It was a nightmare.

This one will turn out very useful 😂😂😂😂

Look up never gonna give you up isolated bass. Many people have gotten close without it but put that on 0.75 speed and get it perfect. Also curious how you got that tone. Is it gated fuzz?

fjb