The Importance of Bass in Songwriting

Walking on the moon started as a bass line that was just in my head late one night in the hotel and the unit. And I built a message in a bottle just on a series of ninth chords. So for me, it's more interesting than fifths. Fifts are very, this is it, power chords, whereas ninths are more open-ended. They also like augmented chords and diminished chords which are probably reminiscent of standards from an older time in songwriting. But there's something very unstable about a diminished chord or an augmented chord that invites progression,. whereas fifths don't.