Abbey Road but it's just Bass

[Martin Walker]

Hi everyone!

Now forgive me if you've all heard this before, but it was a new link to me, and EXTREMELY illuminating.

Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Paul Mcartney's soloed bass performances across the entire Abbey Road album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceNvbYZ2p8o

Martin

[Wonks]

Just hear that compressor working on the Come Together opening! Far less obvious on the album with the other instruments.

[Jadoube]

I found that surprisingly fun to listen to....

[Tim Gillett]

I'd read somewhere that Paul had been an early adopter of DI ing the bass guitar. Not so here it seems, at least if the bass was recorded to its own track.

[Arpangel]

The bass line on Come Together is so clever, the way the slide fits in, the tenptation these days would to loop a tricky bass line, but to play it in real time for the whole track, a lot of people couldn't be bothered to do that these days, and you'd instantly loose feel.

[Zukan]

Great link! Thanks Martin.

[John Willett]

The bass line on Come Together is so clever, the way the slide fits in, the tenptation these days would to loop a tricky bass line, but to play it in real time for the whole track, a lot of people couldn't be bothered to do that these days, and you'd instantly loose feel.

Of course - you need a great PERFORMANCE from the musician to get a really great recording.

[Martin Walker]

I'm pleased to see that everyone is reacting in the same way that I did - I found Paul's performances fascinating, especially all the slight variations, occasional muted notes, slides and so on. Quite a revelation hearing them in isolation!

Martin

[Arpangel]

The bass line on Come Together is so clever, the way the slide fits in, the tenptation these days would to loop a tricky bass line, but to play it in real time for the whole track, a lot of people couldn't be bothered to do that these days, and you'd instantly loose feel.

Of course - you need a great PERFORMANCE from the musician to get a really great recording.

A friend worked in a private prep school, one day someone was playing the piano in the music room, can't rember which one but it was a Beatles song, someone walked up the hallway and complained about "the noise" my friend said "do you know who's playing that piano?...it's Paul McCartney" they got a bit of a shock when they saw him sitting there!

[N i g e l]

Great link



Thanks

[N i g e l]

in UT, searching for

"ABBEY ROAD BUT ITS JUST"

brings up other instruments too.

Its nice to hear some of the quieter elements of the performance that get drowned out in the mix.

[The Bunk]

Eeek! My Band used to play "Come Together" and comparing how our bassist did it to how PM played it now makes me cringe...!!

[Arpangel]

Eeek! My Band used to play "Come Together" and comparing how our bassist did it to how PM played it now makes me cringe...!!

Yes, I've been in similar situations with other Beatles songs, when you hear McCartney play anything you can tell he really does know, and has a great talent of how to inject true Soul into something, the inflections, the feel.

[N i g e l]

He will be headlining at Glastonbury next year.

https://www.nme.com/festivals/glastonbu ... st-2568890

[The Elf]

Interesting, but...

[Martin Walker]

Interesting, but...

My thoughts entirely - elder statesmen, or top of the bill on the long-lived legend stage perhaps, but headlining...



Martin

[Ronnie Wibbley]

Lovely stuff.

[Eddy Deegan]

I can't quite listen to an entire album of naked bass but I listened to a few sections of the video (and rather enjoyed all of them). He can certainly play the thing. It got me thinking though.

Given the status of the band, and the iconic nature of their music, I think it's easy to ascribe some sort of 'mysticism' to such performances where there probably shouldn't be. I don't mean to detract from Paul as a bass player (nor am I qualified to) but surely there must be many bass players out there who have laid down tracks with equal aplomb.

Also, if you write a piece of music yourself (or in a band) then it's naturally a good fit for your particular style and can be hard for others to reproduce 'accurately'.

I'm not in any way denigrating the masterful stuff that Paul did back then, but to me that's what it is - a very good performance from a really good bass player playing jolly good music... and I reckon there must be loads of other stuff out there from loads of other performers that's just as good, but falls short on the 'iconic' front through no fault of its own.

That said, a great link and very enlightening to hear some of that stuff