I'd suggest the bass line in Games People Play is very much locked in with the chords.

For example, the piano and guitars are playing:

Bm Bm Am Bm A G A6 ...

And the bass part is:

B B A B A G A ...

That said, I agree with your analysis. There are a lot of songs where I think the bass is playing some sort of root & fifth sort of thing. Then I actually listen, and... nope. Not locked into the kick drum at all, but it just works. It just blows me away what the bass player is doing, and I'd never even noticed. But that's the point, right? wink


-- David Cuny

My virtual singer development blog
Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?

BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.