SHAKING HELL
by Sonic Youth

Bass tab by Chris Lawrence (silvercircle@shaw.ca)


LAYOUT: A - B - C


A SECTION				00:00-00:52

Thurston's bassline is pretty muffled on the album, but can be heard easier on live versions:

G--------14-------
D------------13---
A-----------------
E---0^5-----------    sometimes he lets the low E ring a little bit before hammering the A

He sorta plays mutes for the beats between notes:

G--------14-x----------
D-------------13-x-----
A------------------x---
E---0^5----------------
                 
B SECTION				00:52-01:21

Thurston rapidly trem picks notes, listen for timing:

G-------------------------0---
D--------13----------11--11--- 
A---12---12--/11/10--10---/---
E----/----/-------/---/-------
                 
C SECTION				01:21-04:06

On the album, Thurston plays the single descending A note at the start of the verse
and then goes silent for a bit. In the live version on KILL YR IDOLS, he repeats the
sliding A with an additional atonal accent: 

G-------------14-------------14---
D----------13-------------13------
A--12\------------12\-------------
E---------------------------------

At 2:13 on the record, you can hear him softly striking G:

G-----------
D-----------
A---10-10--- x 3
E-----------

Then he just starts trem picking shapes around G:

         2:36  2:42  2:43   2:52
G---0-----0------0----12b----11-----
D-----------------------------------
A--10br---9-----10----10-----10-----
E---/-------------------------------

At 2:59 he begins droning a similar open D with a bent fingered D:

G-------------------------------------------
D----0--0--0--0--0--0---0--0--0--0--0--0---- etc
A-------------------------------------------
E---10-10-10-10-10-10b-10-10-10-10-10-10r---
     /

Around 3:10 start bending the octave on the D string:

G--------------
D---12b---(r)--
A--------------
E---10---------

It's possible that rather than the 10th fret on the A and E, he is playing these
unison notes at the 5th fret of the next string. It just feels like he's bending
them pretty heavily to be at the 5th fret, but I can't be sure.

At 3:18 resolve to an open A string drone:

G-----------------------------
D-----------------------------
A---0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--- etc
E---5-------------------------
    /
                 

Last updated: 09/06/24

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