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Brian Ritchie on “Please Do Not Go” by Jimi Durso
Brian Ritchie on “Please Do Not Go” by Jimi Durso… Click to download Brian Ritchie on “Please Do Not Go”
A too often overlooked bassist, Brian Ritchie did same brilliant work with the Violent Femmes, had a signature style and sound, and was one of the first people I know of to do it on the acoustic bass guitar. “Please Do Not Go”, from the Violent Femmes debut album, feature Ritchie with an 8 bar unaccompanied solo in the middle (measures 28-35).
The song is basically a three chord reggae using the I, IV and V chords in G. The progression is a full bar of G and then a half bar each of C and D. Since no one is backing up Ritchie, this gives him both the responsibility of delineating the chords in his solo line, and the freedom to deviate from it without concern for clashing. Ritchie does both Brian Ritchie – masterfully. The first two bar phrase (measures 28 and 29) he puts the root notes on the strong beats, and does so in the low range (the low G that kicks off bar 28 as well as the C on beat one of the next measure and the D that anticipates beat three). We also hear an emphasis on chord tones: measure 28 is almost exclusively notes from the G7 chord, and in measure 29 we hear C and E (the third of C) on strong beats and D on the strong beats in the second half (as well as a low A to make the D sound clearer).
For the next two measures, Ritchie starts out expanding on the idea he set up, playing almost the same line for the G chord (including the hip trill from the major to minor third, which foreshadows the G minor sound to come), and even starts out the next measure with a C major triad. But when the D chord comes up, Ritchie deviates radically from that sound. He does play a low D, and even does so on some stronger beats (the “four” and the “and of two”), but the other notes, G and Bb, spell out a G minor triad, juxtaposing a bluesy sound.
Toward the end of the measure he starts a G mixolydian scale that he continues into bar 32. He doesn’t play the third of the G chord until the end of this measure, and even then it’s a scalar passing tone to the root of the C chord in the next bar. So he doesn’t necessarily take our ear away from the blues he injected before.
And in bar 33, after revisiting the C major lick from measure 29, he again plays G minor where the D chord should be. A fascinating aspect of this measure: he combines the ideas from measure 29 and 31, so that for the listener it’s at that same time familiar and novel. A very clever way of developing a statement.
For the final two bars, he goes back to G, but goes up from a high G (Notice how for the first two measure of G major, he emphasized the low G, but for the second two, he uses the high G. Also very clever.) Then another variation on the C major lick, and for D this time he just pounds out the root note. This not only brings us back to hearing it as the V chord (after all that G minor stuff he did with this chord before) but also creates a sense of finality to his solo (making it clear to the rest of the band that it’s time to come in with the pre-chorus).
Twang!
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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