‘Disco Inferno’ is a song by The Trammps, a disco group that were popular throughout the seventies. The song had limited success initially but found widespread popularity after it was included on the soundtrack to the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever. It was covered by Tina Turner in 1993 and remains a disco classic, one that’s required study for any disco/funk bassist. The bassline on the original recording was performed by Ronald Baker, who as well as being the bassist with The Trammps, was also a producer, songwriter and arranger. He regularly worked with Philadelphia-based songwriting/production team Gamble and Huff.
A transcription (with TAB and without) is available for this course. To download it, please visit the Free Stuff page.
This course contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above:
In this video I will be playing through the song using a Fender Custom Shop ’67 Precision bass.
In this video I’ll be giving a brief overview of the song and its bassline. I’ll also be giving you some advice on how you can find an appropriate tone.
In this video we’ll be covering the descending two-bar intro of the song.
In this video we’ll be working through the groove that is established after the two-bar intro riff. This line is reused for all of the song’s verse sections, so it’s an important part to get down.
This video covers the bassline from the chorus that follows the intro. This line forms the basis for all subsequent chorus sections in the song.
This video covers a small variation that occurs at the end of the second verse.
In this lesson I’ll be covering song’s middle 8 section, which follows the third chorus. The bassline here is very different from the two parts that make up most of the rest of the song.
In this video I’ll be talking about a very minor variation in the bass groove that occurs in the third verse.
In this final video I’ll be demonstrating some variations on the chorus bassline that are heard towards the end of the song.