Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘Subway to Venus’

This song is from Mother’s Milk, the fourth album from Red Hot Chili Peppers. This album features some of Flea’s funkiest bass work, and this song is a great example. It’s a track that has not been heard live since the early nineties, and one that is really only to hardcore fans of the band. Nevertheless, it features a fantastic bass part from Flea.

The bassline for this piece is built around a heavily syncopated fingerstyle funk groove. This is a line that highlights the influence of bassists such as Jaco Pastorius and Bootsy Collins on Flea’s playing. There’s plenty to get to grips with here: in addition to the fingerstyle funk lines, there are upper register licks, complex unison lines and some simple slap parts.

To download the transcription (available with TAB and without), please visit the Free Stuff page.