Omer Plays Bass . . . Billy Joel - Pressure (bass cover)
Bass by Doug Stegmeyer
Bass Used in this Video: Dingwall Guitars Combustion 5
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Sometimes an artist just connects with audiences and can really do no wrong for a period of time putting together a great run of albums, songs and tours. One of the best runs was the Billy Joel run, from the early 1970’s through to the mid 1980’s, perhaps the only singer/piano player to rival Elton John’s run in the ‘70s, putting together an impressive Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame career of 9 (of his total 13) hit albums between ’73 and ‘86 selling a big portion of the 85 million albums Billy has sold in the US (estimated at 150 million worldwide) including his 23x Platinum “Greatest Hits – Volume 1 & 2” a top 10 all time sales album in the US and making him one of the biggest artists out there of all time.
During this run, Billy always had a great band anchored from ‘74/‘75 to ‘88 by Liberty DeVito on drums and Doug Stegmeyer on bass. In many ways, Liberty and Doug were to Billy as Nigel Olsson and Dee Murray were to Elton John – the solid rhythm section foundation for the band where other players came and went but they presided over the groove on so many great albums, songs and tours. Playing with a piano player can be challenging for a bass player – with potential for muddying up the bottom end with conflict and competition between the bass part and the left hand on the piano but Doug, like Dee with Elton, managed this challenge brilliantly producing great and interesting, well-constructed parts on some best written songs ever. After leaving Billy in ’88, Doug continued to do sessions and play with other artists until sadly taking his own life in ’95 but leaving a great body of work.
“The Nylon Curtain”, the album that featured this song ‘Pressure’, is kind of where I checked out on Billy Joel, however I still really enjoy his catalog. ‘Pressure’ is a very purposefully chaotic song with a great synth part, interesting "Billy Joel style" instrumental bits and even better vocal performance from Billy, the track builds and recedes in a detached and cool paranoiac urgency throughout. I think it is Doug’s bass part, played with a pick however I did not, and the switch between the syncopation and the eighth note groove that propels this mood – like in the first chorus where it starts syncopated and then mid-chorus just slides into the groove that just opens the part up and then back again. I always believed this song was my first exposure to a 5-string with low B, however in watching some live videos from this tour, Doug usually played a Fender Tele bass and the low D at the end of the bridge section would require the E string to be dropped to a D however in listening to it the notes just sound too tight to be D-tuned. I don’t know so I used a 5-string (and the Dingwall low B sounds so great ;-). The muted pick notes in the syncopated verse work well finger style but is tricky to come out of the eighth note groove and back into the syncopated rhythm without turning it around on itself. Good part on a good track like Doug did so often on Billy’s tracks. This song contains some of my most favourite lyrics like “with your faith and your peter pan advice” “cosmic rationale” and “in the ninth, two men out and three men on” with Billy showing what a great lyricist he is - describing in second person the pressure he was under at the time with the business and keeping this run going all in a well written song that you can sing to in the car. If you haven’t watched the doc “Hired Gun” Liberty describes this period very well. Cool part, great song and fun to play.
Disclaimer: I am not saying this is exactly how Doug Stegmeyer played this song, but it is how I would play it if I was playing it at a gig.