We Built This City bass tab by Starship

Bass tabs

The original (by Starship, NOT ‘Jefferson Starship’) is played either on a synth or a 5-string.
If you don’t have a 5-string – go out and get one! (Perfect for transposition and much more flexible).
Otherwise, you’ll just need to work out for yourself what to play where the 5th is used.

Tab without timing info is only half the job, so I’ve adapted this from another version and re-tabbed
(and corrected) it with bar lines & the usual (US-style) note-duration stuff.
As it’s quite repetitive, I’ve used repeat marks and indicated how many bars (of 4/4) this covers.

Intro (soft bass, largely a-capella)
  w   w   w   q+e q+e q  w   w   w   w (fades) w  w
G|-----|------|------|----------|------|------|------|--------|-----|-----||
D|-----|------|------|----------|------|------|------|--------|-----|-----||
A|-1~~~|(1)~~~|------|----------|-1~~~~|(1)~~~|------|--------|-1~~~|(1)~~||
E|-----|------|-1~~~~|1---3---5-|------|------|-1~~~~|(1)~~~--|-----|-----||
B|-----|------|------|----------|------|------|------|--------|-----|-----||

Inter-verse fill
   qe eh  q q h  e q eh   q q h   w
                  1 =========|| 2 =====||
G||----------|---------|-----------|-----------||--------||
D||*---------|---------|-----------|----------*||--------||
A||------1---|-X--0----|------1----|--X--------||-X------||
E||*-1-------|-------3-|-1-1-------|-----0--1-*||--------||
B||----------|---------|-----------|-----------||--------||

Verse
   qe e q q  q q q q  qe  e q q  q q q q
     1-7 =============||  8 ===============||
G||------------|----------||-----------|---------||
D||*-----------|---------*||-----------|---------||
A||------------|----------||-----------|---------||
E||*-1—--1-1—X-|-1-1—1-X-*||-1---1-1—X-|-1-1—0-0-||
B||------------|----------||-----------|---------||


Pre-chorus Pt 1 (“Marconi plays the mamba…”)
  q q q e e  e e q q q  q q q  e e  e e q q q
E|--------------|----------------|---------------|----------------|
E|--------------|----------------|---------------|----------------|
E|--------------|----------------|---------------|----------------|
E|--------------|----------------|---------------|----------------|
B|-3--3--3--3-3~|~(3)-3--3--3--3-|--1--1--1--1-1~|~(1)-1--1--1--1-|


Pre-chorus Pt 2 (“Don’t you remember…”)
  e e q e e q  qe eh  q q h  qe eh qe qe q
G|-------------|-------|--------|-------|--------|--------|
D|-------------|-------|--------|-------|--------|--------|
A|-------------|-------|--------|-------|--------|--------|
E|-------6-6-X-|----6~~|-X-5-3~~|----6~~|--------|--------|
B|-6-6-X-------|-6~~---|--------|-6~~---|6—-5—3~~|(3)~~~~~|

   q q q e e e e q q q  q q e e q qe qe q   qe qe q  w
  Chorus                  1 ============|| 2 ==========||
G||---------------|-------------|--------------|----------||----------|---||
D||*--------------|-------------|--------------|---------*||----------|---||
A||--1--1--1--1-1-|1-1-1--1--1--|-0--0--0-0--0-|----------||-3--------|---||
E||*--------------|-------------|--------------|-1--3--5-*||----5--6~~|-X~||
B||---------------|-------------|--------------|----------||----------|---||


Inter-verse fill
   qe eh  q q h  e q eh   w
G||----------|---------|-----------|-------||
D||----------|---------|-----------|-------||
A||------1---|-X--0----|------1----|--X----||
E||--1-------|-------3-|-1-1-------|-------||
B||----------|---------|-----------|-------||

Verse 2 (as verse 1)

Pre-chorus, Pts 1 & 2 (as before)

Chorus (as before)

Bridge Pt 1
  w    h  h  w   q q q q
G|-------|--------|------|---------|
D|-------|--------|------|---------|
A|-------|--------|------|---3-5-3-|
E|-6~~~~~|~X------|-6~~~~|-6-------|
B|-------|-----6--|------|---------|

Bridge Pt 2 (“It's just another Sunday...”)
   q e q q e  q q h   e e q q q   qe e h   e e q h
        1 ======||   2,3,4 ====||
G||------------|---------||---------------||------------|-----------||
D||*-----3-----|---3--X--||------3--2--3-*||------------|-----------||
A||--0-0---0-0-|-1-------||--1-1----------||------------|-----------||
E||*-----------|---------||--------------*||-1---1-1----|-1-1-1--X--||
B||------------|---------||---------------||------------|-----------||

Verse 3 (as Verse 1 – except there’s a ‘popped’ note in the 4th bar)

Pre-chorus Pt 1 (with ‘radio voice’ over)

Pre-chorus 2 (part sung, part ‘radio voice’)
  e e q e e q  qe eh  q q h   e q eh q q q q
G|-------------|-------|---------|--------|----------||
D|-------------|-------|---------|--------|----------||
A|-------------|-------|---------|--------|----------||
E|-------6-6-X-|----6~~|(6)-5-3~~|-----6~~|(6)-5-----||
B|-6-6-X-------|-6~~---|---------|-6-6----|-—----6—5-||

Pre-chorus Pt 1

Pre-chorus 2

Final Chorus
   q q q q q  e q  qe  q q q q  qe qe q   qe qe q
  Chorus               1 =======|| 2 ======||
G||----------|-------------|---------|----------||----------||
D||*---------|-------------|---------|---------*||----------||
A||--1-1-1-1-|-1--1-1---1--|-0-0-0-0-|----------||----------||
E||*---------|-------------|---------|-1--3--5-*||--------~~||
B||----------|-------------|---------|----------||-5--6---3-||

   q q q q q  e q  qe  q q q q  qe qe q   qe qe q
  Chorus               3 =======|| 4 ======||
G||----------|-------------|---------|----------||----------||
D||*---------|-------------|---------|---------*||----------||
A||--1-1-1-1-|-1--1-1---1--|-0-0-0-0-|----------||-3--------||
E||*---------|-------------|---------|-1--3--5-*||----5---6-||
B||----------|-------------|---------|----------||----------||

Fade out
   q q q q  q q q q
G||----------|----------||
D||*---------|---------*||
A||--1-1-1-1-|-1-1-1-1--||
E||*---------|---------*||
B||----------|----------||

************************************

| x  Dead note
| *  (with double bar lines) repeat mark
| ~  Vibrato/sustain
| e  'Eighth note' (quaver)
| q  'Quarter note' (crotchet)
| h  'Half note' (minim)
| w  'Whole note' (semibreve)

Combinations of the above imply 'dotted' durations - eg 'qe' = dotted crotchet, 'he' = minim+quaver