Bass Player: Chuck Rainey

Steely Dan and it’s constituent composers have a reputation for engaging some of the greatest session bassists in history including Tom Barney, Marcus Miller, Anthony Jackson and WIll Lee. One of their most consistent employees is session legend Chuck Rainey whose lines are featured across many Dan albums throughtout their history. The title tune of their 1976 album ‘The Royal Scam’ carrys a credit that iindicates that the bass duties were shared with Walter Becker but, for the purposes of this transcription, we are assuming that the bass part was played by Rainey. The tune is essentially a root note based part with two bars of something more intense but, with those two bars aside, it is an easy read. The chart has no key signature but is in C minor so could have included three flats in the key signature to make it even easier to read.

I inadvertently did a second transcription of this in 2025 which I credited to Walter Becker (the web remains silent on the matter). The new one is slightly different as I counted to pulse at twice the speed. What a plonker.