Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

A friend mentioned to me yestrerday that Paul McCartney did not play on She Said She Said and that this is well documented.

Has anyone here heard this before? BTW, it seems that it took John, George and Ringo 9 hours to put this together. Did Paul dub the bass part after the session? Does he play on it at all?

I would appreciate hearing your thoughts and interpretation of this great song.

I've read that as well - I think in 'Revolution in the Head.' Ian MacDonald (if that is indeed where I read it) makes the point that this song has the least amount of Paul's 'fingerprints' of all the Revolver songs. Also, I seem to remember reading elsewhere that Paul stormed out of the session after an argument. Wish I could remember for sure where I read this stuff!

The meter is odd, like many of John's songs, but the recording itself is pretty straightforward. As in, no flowery arrangements or complex studio trickery. It might have taken a lengthy session to work out the meter, then for George to add the bass. (I've read a theory that George plays bass on She Said She Said.) That would make a certain amount of sense, since the bassline on SS,SS contains very few McCartney style flourishes.

That's just what I've heard. I'm not sure how much faith I have in it, though.

to me , it is Paul playing the bass part. Listen to the end of the song, that's not George?
If there was an argument it could have been possible that John wanted an reserved bass, no click sounds and no funky playing.

And , as I mentioned elsewere in the forum, it could have been George on rhythm guitar and John
playing the distorted lead guitar part on his Epiphone Casino. But that's another topic...

In Barry Miles' book Many Years From Now Paul told the story that he left the session. It's George playing bass, and he's also singing the harmonies at the end of the song (repeating John's lines). No Paul at all...

Walter Everet (The Beatles as musicians ) quotes Barry Milles’ book about an argument between McCartney and Harrison that led to George to play bass in this track. Everet also adds the following. “ George had photographed with a Burns bass during these sessions; this recording would then mark his first bass playing on a Beatles track since his chromatic overdub onto “I want to hold your hand”


I think Everet says this photo:

If Paul left the session after an argument with George about Paul's bassline, you'd think Paul might have been a tad more empathetic as he instructed George on how to play the guitar line on I've Got A Feeling, captured in the Let it Be film. Or maybe it was just a little payback! Interesting that George walked out of the Let it Be sessions...

"his first bass playing on a Beatles track since his chromatic overdub onto “I want to hold your hand”
A bass or not on "I want to hold your hand",
on "Komm gib mir Deine Hand" the cromatic overdub
is played on a guitar!

Just to backup George on bass...according to Lewisohn's book even the backup vocals were George, no mention of Paul anywhere in the session for the song

Poor old quite George must have been pretty ticked to walk out of a session.

yeah, there is no way that paul is on that track, one can easily hear in the end that it is john and george singing all of the harmonies. The track really could have benifited with the addition of pauls harmony. Also, in the let it be sessions bootlegs that I have, one can hear them jamming to she said....and paul is playing some very complex little bass fills on the hofner. while john sings the missing licks and plays his guitar