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Grooviest Paul McCartney bass lines?
- Thread starter deepestend
- Start date
I am jamming with a new group of guys who asked that I learn Come Together...I'm digging this song!
So simple but so...good!
Yes. Maybe not the best Maca bass line *cough* Penny Lane *cough* but easy enough to learn... gives you a beautiful look at Beatles song structure at its best. Something is also great, but it is really difficult, at least for me. And... Come Together is very accessible as well.
I have really been thinking about this lately and wish I could ask Paul. Did he consciously change after the Beatles or is it just the way Paul's portion comes out without the others. His bass sound changed, his vocal style changed, hos song choices, etc.
This has always had one of my favorite McCartney bass lines, not one of his most intricate lines but love the sound, but Just about any Beatle tune has a cool bass line in it, he's the reason I'm a bass player:
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Groove and innovative, melodic bass lines are two different things to me. I am a big fan, but his music and subsequent playing to the song almost always was more melodic than groove oriented if that makes sense... and he always plays to the song.
Letting Go-especially the live version on Wings Over America- has a great groove to it. It's a simple bass line but he lays it down heavy, hard .. and nasty. It's a great bass song. Come Together and Revolution are a few other good examples
Letting Go-especially the live version on Wings Over America- has a great groove to it. It's a simple bass line but he lays it down heavy, hard .. and nasty. It's a great bass song. Come Together and Revolution are a few other good examples
To me the bass on Think For Yourself off Rubber Soul blew my young mind. I'm surprised nobody mentioned it.
I've been meaning to learn this one for about 30 years, I should probably have a crack at it ... this year for sure
So who played it? Pre-internet I assumed Paul played all the bass parts. Things were much simpler that way
I think I remember reading that it was George on the Bass VI ?Side note, the recent Giles Martin remixed White Album has a consistently amazing bass sound on every track. No matter who was playing or which bass was being used.
The correct answer is George. I read it somewhere too.I've been meaning to learn this one for about 30 years, I should probably have a crack at it ... this year for sure
So who played it? Pre-internet I assumed Paul played all the bass parts. Things were much simpler that way
Side note, the recent Giles Martin remixed White Album has a consistently amazing bass sound on every track. No matter who was playing or which bass was being used.
He always used a Fender VI when he played bass.
Baby, you're a rich man. Unconventional choice. But after only listening to the Beatles for 6 months, that song always stood out to me as to why I love Paul McCartney's bass playing.
I think Lennon liked a loud bass with a lot of bottom, I love the beginning of Baby You're A Rich Man when he plays that quick note and then scratches at the strings with the pick until he comes in, McCartney always had that deep sound in Lennon tunes, love his musical bass ideas. I play bass because of McCartney, I'm a geezer and first heard them in Jan 1964 when they first burst on the scene, I was 10 and just had to play that "humming guitar" I didn't know what it was called but loved it right away. I got my first bass about 4 years later after other instruments and have been playing ever since. I never realized so many bass players love the bass in this tune until i read through the thread tonight.
Here's another Lennon tune with deep bass, and very cool part.
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Here's some great ones from Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, it's loaded with great melodic intricate bass lines that are indispensable to the songs they're in. I've got to say that it has unbelievable bass in almost every tune, that album could keep you busy for a while, great bass sound too. To me this was the pinnacle of McCartney's experimental bass phase and his melodic playing, NOBODY ever played a bass like this anywhere before. Paul made bass a lead instrument in popular music.
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My personal favorite Beatles song has a simple, groovy bassline - which like most Paul basslines acts as a secondary melody
Nowhere Man has always been my favourite McCartney bassline
