George Harrison on Bass!

[iamthebassman]

I've been learning a lot of Paul's bass lines lately, and while some are simple some of them are deceptively hard. I was surprised at "I Saw Her Standing There" since I always thought it was a pretty simple song with an easy bass line. It took me a couple of days to play the line at the speed he played it, and he sang lead while playing that line. There is a clip on YouTube of them playing it live, and he plays it and sings with seemingly no effort.

I play in a Beatles trib band and ISHST is one of my favorite early Beatles songs to play, it really moves along.

 

[bassman10096]

...ISHST is one of my favorite early Beatles songs to play, it really moves along.

+1 I've played the song with a vintage rock outfit for about 2 years now. It's more challenging than it sounds at first, isn't it? Paul's bass lines on some of the early songs are busy, but so harmonically "in place" that they don't sound busy. His bass always seems so appropriate to the song. Not a bad thing to try and emulate.

 

[mastercaster]

Thank George Martin for teaching the members of the Beatles a lot about chord changes, more sophisticated song structure, arranging/orchestration, recording techniques, etc.

The Beatles ability to absorb influences from all directions was amazing. Check out "The Songwriting Secrets Of The Beatles" by Dominic Pedler. Published by Omnibus Press.This 800 page book is an enjoyable and easy read, a songwriting master course. Available on Amazon.co.uk for a couple of years. Due on Amazon.com in 2007.

 

[GlennW]

If you ever want to make a Beatles fan mad tell him Sgt. Pepper was George Martin's best album.