The Evolution of Rock Bass Playing McCartney Style

mgauction · Post by **mgauction** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:50 pm

This article is written from the perspective of Paul McCartney's influence on rock bass playing. Few instances we already know, but you won't find this in depth discussion in any of the current books written on the Beatles:

http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/paulbass.htm

Have fun -- It's a great read!!

fran4001 · Post by **fran4001** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:13 pm

Wow, some good stuff there! Thanks for that Mike!

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:37 pm

I read this somewhere before and I agree 100% McCartney was the and still is the man on bass. I liked what I think was either Sheehan or Will Lee who said that his playing is in all of us at this point. I also liked the line about how the fact that McCartney's genius at bass isn't so evident as the solo guys' because his lines were interwoven into the music so well. Very good article about the man who inspired me to pick up a bass. That's all I wanted to play after hearing them for the first time early in 1964.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:01 pm

I know I give him a lot of grief about his insipid solo songwriting...but one cannot say enough about the man's bass playing, which would have been incredible enough without the addition of his superlative singing.

My hat's off to him...(and then it's right back on when I think about "Mamoonia").

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 6:12 am

Just listening to Anthology, disc 1 yesterday, and there's a bit of live (TV?) Beatles on there. Even early on, when his lines were simpler, they were strong and propulsive, and locked tight with Ringo.

I've seen videos of other bands of the era, and they just didn't have that.

Helped separate the men from the boys, that ballsy bass.

tomg · Post by **tomg** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:07 am

I couldn't finish reading it. It's way too sugary sweet for me. The guy may have as well wrote that Paul was the awesomest bass player ever.

It's short on substantive analysis and long on gushing compliments.

I'm a -huge- Fabs fan as I'm sure everyone here is, but comments like this make my blood sugar rise:

""With The Beatles" was the first album where ROCK bass playing first crawled from the ocean and breathed air."

I should also add that little of what I read is either new material or insightful. A lot of it is retreads from other stuff that most of us are familiar with already.

None of this changes the fact that Macca is the reason I picked up the instrument in the first place and that I still consider him A-Number-1 in my bass player heart. I still get a thrill from listening to the bass lines on Beatles records. I don't think that will every change.

fran4001 · Post by **fran4001** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 11:28 am

Agreed that it isn't exactly "60 Minutes" quality analysis! But, it's great to read something remotely musical about Paul, not Mop-Toppy stuff. It also points up the need for a real scholarly dead serious analysis of his work. Or at least something substantial like the treatment some have given James Jamerson, ala Standing In The Shadows. Paul really was the man for most of us!