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What makes a great McCartney bass line
18 May 2013
8.02pm
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fabfouremily
Sitting in an English garden
Rishikesh
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^^^^ ‘endearing’, you choose your words carefully, I see :D

Thanks for the tips and the link. I do try and listen to my parents one as much as possible but a) it’s in a funny room in our house where’s there is often a lot of mess (I don’t like mess) and b) my dad’s not overly keen on me using it (hence I have my own, even if only a mono).

I have listened to a few isolated songs before but I can’t recall ever listening to ‘DP’, I’ll check it out.

Thanks :D

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19 May 2013
12.51am
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Funny Paper
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Thanks for that Dear Prudence isolation.

Two things about Paul’s bass playing there:

1) He’s a very careful bass player — you get a sense he has mapped out every little thing.  I prefer that to musicians who say “oh I’m just winging it, man, don’t think too much, just feel the music, blah blah effing blah”

2) Near the end I swear he’s doing the thumb-tapping technique I thought was pioneered by Larry Graham of Sly & the Family Stone.  (Then when he combines the thumb-tapping with some gravelly intricate runs way down deep, it reminds me of some of Paul Jackson’s bass work, of Herbie Hancock fame.)

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19 May 2013
4.21pm
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SatanHimself
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I strongly urge everyone to download those Rockband tracks in the other thread.  If it all seems like techno-jargon, just download a free program called “Audacity” and then drop one of the Rockband files into it and hit play.  You can then isolate every single track, and strip the songs down to their base elements. There are soooooo many surprises buried in those mixes.

E is for 'Ergent'.

19 May 2013
7.21pm
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SatanHimself
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Another treat.  Here’s just Paul & Ringo on “Something “:

E is for 'Ergent'.

20 May 2013
4.58am
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Gerard
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I want to hear Paul’s first approach with Something , I heard that George wanted to simplify Paul’s bass line.

22 May 2013
5.31pm
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fabfouremily
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^^ Nice, that track. I’ve only recently felt the urge to listen to isolated songs, and now I’m really enjoying listening to them all. I don’t know why I never did sooner. I don’t think I felt right ”taking the songs apart”.

Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.

(Passover - I. Curtis)

22 May 2013
5.37pm
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SatanHimself
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I’ve found that when you isolate the tracks it really allows you to get an idea of how amazingly innovative they were, especially when you consider that a good chunk of these tracks were recorded on equipment with about 5% of the functionality of your average free multitrack recording software.

E is for 'Ergent'.

22 May 2013
5.39pm
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fabfouremily
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Yeah, I’m really picking up on that. I knew they were amazing before but I appreciate them even more now.

Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.

(Passover - I. Curtis)

22 May 2013
7.31pm
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meanmistermustard
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Listening to the isolated broken down Pepper rockband tracks really opened my eyes to how much went into the making of that album, all done on four tracks with reductions, and just how good it is. Many artists nowadays cant get close to the depth in sound of Pepper yet have far greater equipment at hand.

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21 July 2013
12.53pm
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Anderson
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1) He’s a very careful bass player — you get a sense he has mapped out every little thing.  I prefer that to musicians who say “oh I’m just winging it, man, don’t think too much, just feel the music, blah blah effing blah”

I can’t say that I agree with that.  I’d say that McCartney was actually pretty big on spontaneity. Both “Hey Bulldog ” and “Sexy Sadie ,” for example, feature a lot of obviously “off the cuff” riffing.   

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21 July 2013
2.56pm
Ben Ramon
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I think it depends on the song and the period. You can certainly tell that a lot of the Sgt Pepper basslines were mapped out and every little nuance considered for maximum effect, as well as some of the later stuff (particularly Something ).

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21 July 2013
9.21pm
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SatanHimself
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I was watching a special on CBC (here in Canada) last night all about the ‘Out There’ tour.  Paul was talking about their work in the studio after touring, and he said that not having the burden of potentially playing the songs live allowed him to create these wildly complicated bass lines.  

I just looked it up (because it only just debuted last night).  If you have 22 minute to spare, here’s the special!  It’s sort of fluffy, but still fun: 

http://music.cbc.ca/#/blogs/20…..-McCartney

E is for 'Ergent'.

23 July 2013
9.43am
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Joe
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Regarding the bass playing, I think it depends on the sort of song. If you watch him playing Get Back on the Apple rooftop, you can tell that he’s improvising a lot, which is understandable as it’s quite a simple song. Whereas on a song like Mr Kite! it sounds like a structured and precise performance.

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I once read an interview with a bassist in a Beatles tribute band (can’t remember which one). He said the basslines on songs by John and George tended to be more adventurous, almost as if he was bored in the studio and wanted to liven things up for his own amusement.

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17 January 2023
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Sea Belt
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Heart Of The Country (first song on the B side of RAM). I like the way he tones down the bass in volume almost making it sound like an acoustic bass.  Also when he seems to be doing a two note chord with his bass at the pivotal point in the song where the chords go from E flat to F to G, where the bass notes are
 
Eflat + G,
F + A,
G + B
 
bb17.PNGImage Enlarger

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24 January 2023
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sir walter raleigh
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Yes a very subtle bass part that really adds to the song, while it still feels very stripped down and acoustic, you can’t replicate the feeling and sound of that song without the bass line. 

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