Sir Paul as bassist

[Jorja]

Give me a minute to get my flame-proofing in place here .... OK, all suited up and here goes nuthin':

I've never been a Beatles fan. I don't like most of their music and can't stand Paul McCartney's voice. (Fire at will.)

BUT, I keep hearing what a great bass player he was/is and out of curiousity would like to listen to some of their stuff with that in mind. Would someone recommend a few songs for me to find on YouTube that would be good examples of his bass work?

TIA

PS - None of those bullets hit me 

[tmccormick87]

I'm not firing at you Jorja, although I AM a fan of Pauls. 

I very much enjoyed the Beatles back in the 70's although I don't listen as much anymore. I still have some of Paul's Wings material on vinyl, even though I no longer have a turntable, lol.

I guess I've never considered Paul a great musician, and I'm not sure what's on YouTube, but I've always liked the song Day Tripper, for it's guitar/bass riff. I'd have to pull some music out to give you any further ideas. A lot of Paul's best songs are piano heavy, which I like, since I played piano for many years. I just love Let It Be, which I played a lot back then. I tend to think of Paul as a better songwriter, than a player I guess. If I think of some better songs, I'll let you know.

[Jorja]

I'm not firing at you Jorja, although I AM a fan of Pauls.  :laughing7:I tend to think of Paul as a better songwriter, than a player I guess. If I think of some better songs, I'll let you know.

Good thing too, something tells me you're a pretty good shot, Teri  !

See, I've always thought of him as a songwriter ahead of musician/singer too. There's no denying the talent there, all four of them are/were brilliant, it simply wasn't part of my life soundtrack, to use that tired old cliché. Matter of fact, my next-to-least favorite song on LROE is 'Center of the Universe' because it has that Beatle-esque sound to it. 

I'll see if I can find Daytripper on YouTube, thanks!

[tmccormick87]

You're right Jorja, CoU does have that Beatles sound. It's not a fave of mine either. I can't think of the name of the Beatles song it reminds me of, but I know it's not one I care much for. I can hear the tune in my head, but can't think of the name at the mo. 

[anthony]

I bet he is a better drummer than Ringo though! 

[Bigfanger]

Paul was doing bass runs like no one else back in the day. He was an innovator. Some stand-outs for me are:

All My Lovin'
Dear Prudence
Getting Better
Good Day Sunshine
Hey Bull Dog
Nowhere Man
Paperback Writer
Penny Lane
Rain

The bass lines in these songs are pure genius to me. Very few bass players played like this back then, or now for that matter!

[anthony]

oooooh... get back in the knife drawer, you young cynic.
Believe it or not, Ringo is one of Henley's drumming heroes! Go read this, from L&M's archive,for all the info, but this is a thumbs up to Ringo

I have always found Ringo to be an amusing chap, the quote from Lennon, when asked if Ringo was the best drummer in the world "he's not even the best drummer in the beatles" always makes me chuckle.

To be fair as Henley so insightfully says, in a way only he can. Playing complicated drum parts isn't always the best bet. Look at meg white and how simple but effective her drumming has been for the White Stripes!.

Think we took it off topic though .... 

[janisjoplin]

This is from the interview L&M have on their news page that Don did with The Salt Lake Tribune............................

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12308943


QUOTE Interviewer..........Lyrically, what inspires you? Musically, what inspires you?

Don's answer...............Lyrically, the works of Paul Simon and Randy Newman -- and sometimes Leonard Cohen. Musically, everything from good bluegrass picking to Paul McCartney's bass playing, UNQUOTE 

There you have it.......................The Don likes Paul as a bassist 

[Jorja]

Paul was doing bass runs like no one else back in the day. He was an innovator. Some stand-outs for me are:

All My Lovin'
Dear Prudence
Getting Better
Good Day Sunshine
Hey Bull Dog
Nowhere Man
Paperback Writer
Penny Lane
Rain

The bass lines in these songs are pure genius to me. Very few bass players played like this back then, or now for that matter!

Bigfanger, I really appreciate your taking the time to list these for me. I made it through three of them:

My Bull Dog - tried very hard but could hardly make out the bass line for the singing
Rain - again, hard to hear the bass behind the singing, but what I heard sounded good
Nowhere Man - same as the above plus the YouTube I found had a great animation to go with.

So, I will conceed that Sir Paul is a very good bass player, but I couldn't make it through any more songs, sorry. Apparently I'm a full-blown philistine, but I'd rather listen to nails on a chalkboard than Lennon & McCartney singing. 

[RobMac]

Sorry to say, but the Beatles were and still remain my first musical loves. Paul was one of the first bass players to play melodic bass runs in rock. A Day In The Life, Something, Paperback Writer, are all great examples of his dextrous style.

To me, John and Paul were the perfect rock singers. They could pull off ballads and rockers with equal ease, plus John had the most haunting voice in rock.

And Ringo was and is a damn good drummer with a distnct approach to playing backbeats. Joe Walsh can attest to how good Ringo is.

[janisjoplin]

And Ringo was and is a damn good drummer with a distnct approach to playing backbeats. Joe Walsh can attest to how good Ringo is.

I've always wondered why Ringo's drumming got such a lot of negative press.

Sounds good enough to me 

[chaim]

I've missed this thread...When I was reading the first post, "Hey bulldog" was the first song that came to mind. I see that was already mentioned. Paul's bass makes the verses really groove. However, if someone thinks the bass is too busy there, I can understand that too.