Chords for Who ACTUALLY Played Genius of Love's Bass Line?

Can you name that tune in four notes? _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ [N] _ Released by TomTom Club on September 6, 1981, Genius of Love remains one of the most popular
songs ever.
The brainchild of drummer Chris France and bassist Tina Weymouth,
this album was produced during a break from their other gig, playing with the band Talking Heads.
A combination of funk, early hip-hop, reggae, and even electronica,
Genius of Love has been sampled almost _ 200 times.
And that bass line?
_ Iconic.
_ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ _ [Ebm] This line works so well on so many levels.
First of all, it's a two-bar, two-chord pattern,
[G] where the rhythm in the first bar _ _ [Bb] _
[B] is mirrored in the next bar. _ _ _
Classic call and response in music.
We like symmetry.
Secondly, the rhythm of the figure lines right up with the pattern in the
kick drum. _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] If you listen hard enough, you can hear co-producer Stephen Stanley's fingerprint
on the mix.
The bass has been mixed at around 150 hertz so as not to interfere with the kick drum.
Also, dig that bend-slide thing up to that B in the first bar.
That combination sounds
most like the record to my ears.
It's just not the same without that nuance.
_ _ _ [B] _ In his book, Remain in Love, Chris France revealed that the groove for Genius was inspired
[Dm] by Zap's More Bounce to the Ounce. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
They both lay right at [A] 103 beats per minute,
_ _ _ _ which is just a little slower and funkier than what was considered a dance [Ab] tempo at that [G] time
at around 120 beats per minute. _ _
_ _ Incidentally, More Bounce to the Ounce was co-produced by the
one and only Bootsy Collins, who gets one of the many name checks in Genius of Love
at 1 minute and 48 seconds.
_ _ _ [Bm] _ _
[C] _ _ [G] This [Gb] is a great example of a Tina Weymouth bass line.
It's focused,
it's precise, [Am] and it carries the tune.
[Gb] And did I forget to mention that she didn't play bass
on this recording?
Listen, I want people to know this.
I wrote the part, but I had to get someone
else to play it at the last minute.
We were given extremely limited studio time, just three days,
and when it was time to do that track, my whole right arm seized up in a terrible cramp
and I couldn't play.
I'd never played in the studio around the clock like we were doing,
so I didn't even know that that could happen.
I ended up waking the assistant engineer.
He was
asleep under the console and I showed him the part and he played it.
Chris was mad, but I really
couldn't play.
My hand wouldn't even close, so we did what we had to do.
These things happen.
So the question remains, who played bass on this song?
The album credits two assistant engineers,
Benji Armbrister, who worked on dozens of albums, including Grace Jones' Night Clubbing
and ACDC's Back in Black, and Kendall Stubbs, who was an assistant engineer on albums by
Talking Heads, Eric Clapton, and Robert Palmer.
But Stubbs has several bass [C] playing credits,
including albums by Jimmy Cliff and Keith Emerson.
This same year, 1981, he played bass on the
soundtrack for the movie Nighthawks.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ [N] Yeah, I think it was probably him, which should not take away
from the genius of Tina Weymouth, who wrote the line and continues to play it [G] today, albeit a
little differently than the recorded version. _
_ [B] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ [Em] _ _ _
Her style is so [F] strong and has always [G] been centered
around serving the music and whatever the music needs.
Full [Dm] disclosure, whenever I [G] start a
youngster on bass, the first bass line I make them go and learn by ear is Psycho Killer.
_ [D] Her bass
lines are just as much about notes and rhythms and accents as they are about focus and attitude
and the [Em] intensity that she brings to the music.
[G] It's Tina, so [E] go and check her out. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [N] _ _