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11.31am
2 August 2021
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Is anyone else familar with the term “machine-gun bass” that describes a technique Paul would use sometimes? I define it as a rapid repetition of single, usually high bass note, usually used as a fill or lead-in into a new phrase or section.
The earliest example I’ve found is in “Hello Goodbye ” at 2:13. I’m still looking, but I’ve also found them in2′
Hey Bulldog at 2:13 (coincidentally)
Paperback writer at 0:12
Yer Blues at 1:10 and 1:40
I’ve been able find just about nothing online about this. I presume I came across the term while reading some book about the Beatles, but I have no idea where. I’ve searched the indexes in the books I have to no avail.
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Beatlebug, The Hole Got Fixed, ewe27.42pm
8 January 2015
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No, I’ve never heard that term and I’m a bassist of almost 40 years. I think I know what you’re getting at, and I tried looking up Pollock on the songs you mentioned to see if he thought that motif had a “proper” name (I’m sure it does in some dictionary somewhere), but I found nothing either. I’ll keep looking later and get back to you on it.
The following people thank ewe2 for this post:
Beatlebug, prinzlerI'm like Necko only I'm a bassist ukulele guitar synthesizer kazoo penguin and also everyone. Or is everyone me? Now I'm a confused bassist ukulele guitar synthesizer kazoo penguin everyone who is definitely not @Joe. This has been true for 2016 & 2017 
but I may have to get more specific in the future.
1.24am
Moderators
27 November 2016
Offline This is a great topic – it’s a really effective bass fill imo. Another (non-Beatles) example is the start of Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting
I too would love to know the actual name of it – and indeed if it has an actual name.
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ewe2#AppleHoley2024: Make America Great For The First Time
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3.28am
8 January 2015
Offline That reminds me of yet another one, by Colin Moulding in XTC’s The Loving (YT: The Loving (2001 Remaster))
at around 3:30 when the final chorus starts and then he really digs into it, a fantastic bit of bassing (that’s a word! if it isn’t, I just invented it!). I still haven’t found a word for it, I asked around in a discord and no one understood what I was getting at, oh well, I’ll keep at it.
This wouldn’t be restricted to bass, this would be something you’d hear on guitars and you hear it all the time on mandolins, what do they call it when its done there?! Someone suggested tremolo but that’s a volume effect. So then I went back to the source, the Beatles Complete Scores for all the songs you cited. Unfortunately there was nothing special about the notation:, most were notated as either 16ths or triplets of 16ths (for reasons best known to themselves, the score writers decided Yer Blues was written in a mixture of 6/8 and 12/8. This sort of thing usually happens because its convenient for score writers and no-one else!). So back to square one. 
The following people thank ewe2 for this post:
The Hole Got FixedI'm like Necko only I'm a bassist ukulele guitar synthesizer kazoo penguin and also everyone. Or is everyone me? Now I'm a confused bassist ukulele guitar synthesizer kazoo penguin everyone who is definitely not @Joe. This has been true for 2016 & 2017 but I may have to get more specific in the future.
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