devnulljp
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Actual studio footage ... it was Paul McCartney
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James Jamerson or Carol Kaye
- Thread starter Pietsch
- Start date
To me, they were studio legends who cut many, many hit records. Who cut this one or that one is of no interest to me in light of the huge bandwidth of their careers. Both were jazzers at heart, and over time I've sensed that Carole's lines tended to feel more precise against Jamrs' somewhat more loose and improvisational feel, but my goodness they were both masters in the different locales of SoCal and Detroit, which I'm sure factors into this. Carole in Detroit might have felt stiff to the Funk Brothers, and James might have struggled in LA having to do film and TV scores precisely with his ad-libbing.
They were both in their right place at the right time and routinely drew magic out of thin air.
They were both in their right place at the right time and routinely drew magic out of thin air.
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The sad thing is the difference between what either of them got paid for the session. $25?
I don't know if this came up in the other threads, but it feels more like a Jamerson line given the use of open strings on some of the quick 16th note passages as well as the song being particularly well adapted to "the hook" style of playing (dragging across multiple strings, etc.) I have actually played this song both fingerstyle and with a pick in band settings and I think the sound on the recording is fingerstyle.
With this settled, now I can sleep better at night.It took two closed down threads and a page of this one to figure that out
That track was recorded by a talented bass player, one that played on countless records and never got the well deserved credit or recognition.
One weird angle about all this, just an observation:
People like Carol Kaye did this as a day job.
You get up in the morning, head to the bathroom, get dressed, grab a coffee, get in your car and drive to the studio. You clock in at 9 sharp, record two classic hit songs that will still be played on radio stations around the world five decades later, have your lunch break, record two more hit songs that will still be played on radio stations around the world five decades later and at 5 pm, you clock out and head home.
You do this five days a week and sometimes come in on Saturdays, for your entire working life, accumulating thousands of records you played on in that process.
Do you think you have an accurate recollection of what songs you did or did not play on?
People like Carol Kaye did this as a day job.
You get up in the morning, head to the bathroom, get dressed, grab a coffee, get in your car and drive to the studio. You clock in at 9 sharp, record two classic hit songs that will still be played on radio stations around the world five decades later, have your lunch break, record two more hit songs that will still be played on radio stations around the world five decades later and at 5 pm, you clock out and head home.
You do this five days a week and sometimes come in on Saturdays, for your entire working life, accumulating thousands of records you played on in that process.
Do you think you have an accurate recollection of what songs you did or did not play on?
I think it was Sid Vicious on both Stevie's and the Beach Boys.
That was the magic of the 60s and no one who was there could know it. As for memory, if you are Mary Lou Henner you remember everything. Some people save documentation. $25 was a pretty good day's wage, but compared to legacy value? Wow what a difference
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The main difference in styles between Jamerson and Kaye is "finger vs. pick". It sounds to me the bass in this video is played with a finger.
On the other hand, Carol Kaye has said that by the 1960's, she and the other session players she worked with were being paid more than the President.
LA AFM union rate hourly scale was $50 to $100 per hour for session players in the mid-1960s. Motown was also union paying $150 per 3-hour recording session. Even so, musicians often work "off-the card" for demo tapes at lower rates.
No disrespect to Carol who played in loads of fantastic records but I have heard that her memory can be quite optimistic on what she played on.
Mystery solved! Makes a lot more sense to me, given Carol did lots of work with the Beach Boys and I believe JJ has played on other Stevie tracks. I don't remember if it was one of the two cited prior, but I recollect someone called Carol "senile" in the thread she participated in on here...
Oh, Talkbass...nobody is above reproach here
They doubletracked bass lines a lot in those days.
I remember visiting a bassist/musicologist's website like a year ago (cannot remember his name), and that guy had literally done a PhD somewhere around this topic. If he's on Talkbass and bumps to this thread, he probably has the definitive answer!
EDIT: Brian F. Wright is the name of the scholar behind the mentioned research
EDIT: Brian F. Wright is the name of the scholar behind the mentioned research
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Same with Pretty Purdie! What's going on in the heads of those early session legends...
