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Paul McCartney and his Basses
- Thread starter JD Supernatural
- Start date
This pic just showed up on the Meet the Beatles for Real site. Seems it's the second of the two Jazz Basses, as evidenced by the logo placement and no lollipop tuners. Joe English in the background so this is probably circa 1976. Great pic of the bass.
The book that comes with the remastered version of the White Album has a really good pic of the first Jazz Bass, with Paul wearing it while seated at an electric piano. Will scan and post when I get a chance.
Joe
The book that comes with the remastered version of the White Album has a really good pic of the first Jazz Bass, with Paul wearing it while seated at an electric piano. Will scan and post when I get a chance.
Joe
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This pic just showed up on the Meet the Beatles for Real site. Seems it's the second of the two Jazz Bass, as evidenced by the logo placement and no lollipop tuners. Joe English in the background so this is probably circa 1976. Great pic of the bass.
The book that comes with the remastered version of the White Album has a really good pic of the first Jazz Bass, with Paul wearing it while seated at an electric piano. Will scan and post when I get a chance.
Joe
This looks like it's from the London Town sessions on a boat in the Virgin Islands, 1977. It's the clearest photo I've ever seen of his second Jazz.
Here’s that pic of the first Jazz Bass from the remastered White Album book. You can see the logo is the standard transition version, complete with the “Jazz Bass/Electric Bass” part. Would love to know what happened to this bass.
I've heard that too. A lot of groups in the 60's had gear stolen right off their trucks as they were setting up on stage to play. A good enough reason for dedicated a security detail.
A fun pic of Macca playing a right-handed Precision Bass upside down. Pic is from the Meet the Beatles For Real website. Waiting for confirmation but might be from Clapton's wedding to Pattie in 1979. Chime in if you have info!
A fun pic of Macca playing a right-handed Precision Bass upside down. Pic is from the Meet the Beatles For Real website. Waiting for confirmation but might be from Clapton's wedding to Pattie in 1979. Chime in if you have info!
A larger version. Looks like Jim Capaldi on drums and Zak Starkey on guitar. (Yes, he plays guitar, too).
Same with Jamerson, for me.
Conversely there are players with good tone who I don't like the playing of!
Santa left the Abbey Road Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition under the tree. Haven’t had a chance to listen but did browse the included booklet, hoping to find a pic of the first left-handed Jazz Bass. No dice. But there’s a fantastic pic of Macca playing his Ric, finger-style, with the bass sporting tapewounds. (Sorry about the glare...) As a bonus, there’s a great pic of George playing the band’s right-handed Jazz. Have a gander.
I always thought that there was a coin toss to see who would play bass.
Paul won the coin toss so he became the bass player.
Paul won the coin toss so he became the bass player.
I've never heard that. I think it was more like George obviously had to be lead guitarist because he was the best player of the three of them, and John simply refused to switch to bass, so Paul had to do it.
There are a handful of things in the Beatles' story that seemed at the time like bad luck or bad decisions, but which turned out to be exactly the right thing for them. Failing the Decca audition led to them working with George Martin and the Abbey Road engineers. Dumping Pete Best (a very unpopular move with their Liverpool fans) meant they got Ringo, who as a personality, a drummer, and a singer was the perfect fit. Paul may not have been enthusiastic about playing bass, but he proved to be the ideal bass player for the group, and one of the great rock bass players of all time -- not as a technical virtuoso, because none of the Beatles were brilliant technicians, but as an innovator in using the bass for independent melodic lines and as a master of finding the right bass part for a song. John and George could play bass when necessary, but their bass lines were never more than functional.
@Craig4003 -
I agree with most of what you said. However,
George actually added some nice bass parts which were more than functional on tunes including “Old Brown Shoe,” “She Said-She Said,” Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (which I would have guessed was Paul) and the “bass-type” part he played on “Two of Us” (actually played on guitar.)
Nice post!
I agree with most of what you said. However,
this point not so much.
George actually added some nice bass parts which were more than functional on tunes including “Old Brown Shoe,” “She Said-She Said,” Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (which I would have guessed was Paul) and the “bass-type” part he played on “Two of Us” (actually played on guitar.)
Nice post!
I hadn't realized George played the bass on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". That is a pretty good one, and especially impressive considering that he hated the song.
- Nov 27, 2003
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You also shouldn't ignore the fact that Lennon could play a bit of bass too and do it proficiently.
He does chordal stuff and even gets a little funky.
I never would have thought in a million years Maxwell's Silver Hammer had George on bass.
It's documented as such, but I agree with you 100%, as it sounds way too much like Paul.
