We all know Paul McCartney as a fabulous songwriter and singer, but it's easy to overlook what an influential bass player he is as well. Paul, along with Motown's James Jamerson, changed bass playing from laying down a foundation of root notes to a melodic thing of beauty.
Although the following video may not be comprised of the best examples of Paul's genius, it does give you an idea of his style.
You'll hear individual snippets from the songs "With A Little Help From My Friends," "Come Together,""Golden Slumbers," and "Band On The Run" with the bass mostly isolated. Sometimes you'll hear other instruments also on the bass track (like the tambourine on "Help From My Friends"), which wasn't all that unusual, according to Beatle engineer Ken Scott's book Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust (which I was lucky enough to help him write). Have a listen.
After The Beatles became hit makers Paul McCartney played more and more keyboards on basic tracks and did all his bass tracks as overdubs. Paul liked this process because he felt it helped him forge a better bass line that fit better with the other layers of the song. Some say that's why his lines were so melodic, and nowhere is this more in evidence than in George Harrison's classic "Something" from the classic Abbey Road album.
Here's the isolated bass track and some things to listen for.
1. You can hear the influence of Motown'sJames Jamerson in the way connects the notes between sections, weaving a line that gets from one part to another in a sometimes unusual manner.
2. The part is busy by today's standards with some sections that make you think, "How'd he think of that?"
3. The part isn't played perfectly as there are some occasional brief timing issues, usually being a little late on a note.
This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. It's a visual map of the legendary Motown bassist James Jamerson's bass line on Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." It's been traveling around the web and social media lately, but I want to take a more detailed look.
1. Take notice to the bass line in the intro, it's actually the lead line with the other instruments acting more like a pad.
2. This visualization is pretty cool because you can easily see that some of Jamerson's trademarks are a lot of octaves and chromatic lead-ins to the root note of a chord.
3. When you listen to the track, the bass line sounds undisciplined, but there are actually repeated motifs that Jamerson varies each time through a section.
4. Stepping away from the bass a bit, take a listen to the vocals. Marvin's hard to the left and Tammi's hard to the right.
5. Listen through to the end as you'll hear the real ending that didn't make the final mix.
Thanks to my buddy Larry Smith for the heads up on this video.
It's time for some Motown magic with the isolated bass track from the Marvin Gaye masterpiece "What's Goin' On." The song features bassist James Jamerson at his best, even though he played the song laying on his back as he was blind drunk!
Motown songs from this era were recorded on an 8 track where many instruments were mixed together, but Jamerson always got his own track. Here's what to listen for:
1. Jamerson's timing. Regardless of what physical state he was in, the man's timing is impeccable. He's always spot on. Remember, this was way before the days of DAWs and the cut and paste mentality that we have today.
2. He was free to play what he wanted. Contrary to what we do today, there was no set part for Jamerson to play, so he free-forms it for the entire song (and most of the others he played on too), and pretty much never repeats a lick.
3. Jamerson's tone is unique in that the sound was damped by a piece of foam underneath the strings at the bridge. He never replaced the strings unless one broke, and the neck of the 62 FenderPrecision was reportedly so warped that it was unplayable except to him. The bass was taken direct and intentionally slightly overdriven at the console.
4. Jamerson's technique was also unique in that he only used his index finger to pluck the strings.
We all love those old Motown tracks recorded in Detroit in the 60s, and one of the driving forces behind them was the innovative bass playing of James Jamerson. He's been massively influential to bass players since, and rightfully so; the man was truly original. Here's the isolated bass and drum tracks to the great Marvin Gaye's hit "Ain't That Peculiar," which reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1965. Here's what to listen for.
1. The bass sound is straight out of the 60s, with all of the high-end was automatically rolled off. The thinking back then was, "It's a bass instrument. It doesn't need any high-end."
2. Likewise, the bass is out in front of the drums, while the drum sound is very undefined. Again, this was the sound of the 60s when there were only a couple of mics on the drums and the bass anchored the mix.
3. The leakage is really interesting. If you listen on headphones, you'll hear the piano and horns in the background, proving that they actually did track with the entire band.
4. This is one of the more controlled bass parts played by Jamerson, who follows the bass pattern pretty faithfully throughout the song. In other songs of the period, his playing was much more free-form.
If you like these isolated tracks, you might also like my Deconstructed Hits book series that takes an X-ray look inside different hit songs from different genres and eras.
Motown's James Jamerson is ones of the giants of the bass world, so it's always a pleasure when we can get to closely study his work. Here's a video of his isolated bass in The Four Tops hit "I Can't Help Myself (Suger Pie Honey Bunch)." As you listen, take notice to a few things:
1. The leakage of the rest of the band onto the bass track. Most of the recording of those early Motown hits recorded in Detroit were done on an 8 track tape machine, which means that many of the instruments had to be recorded together on the same tracks. The bass was the exception as it always had its own track, but that didn't mean that it was totally isolated. Since it was recorded through an amp, you can hear the rest of the band playing as well, which is something that we probably wouldn't stand for today. Didn't seem to hurt anything here.
2. Listen to how Jamerson's articulations change throughout the song. Sometimes he has a smooth release and sometimes it's staccato and chopped off. This is something else we would probably replace today, asking him to play it one way or another throughout the song.
3. There's a mistake that Jamerson makes throughout the first third of the song as he plays a major against a Dm (the third chord in the pattern) over and over. At some point he realizes the mistake and makes the change (it's only one fret difference). Not that this has ever bothered the millions of listeners that have enjoyed the song. In fact, if it weren't for the isolated track, no one would probably hear the difference.
This track is a perfect example of how modern production techniques have changed from the 1960s. Today we look for more precision and isolation, but we often lose the feel and groove as a result. That said, the track is proof that a hit is still a hit, mistakes and all.
I may have posted this before, but it's so cool that it's worth posting again. Here's a great video that shows off the virtuosity of Motown bassist James Jamerson on The Four Tops 60's hit "Bernadette." For most of the song you hear just Jamerson's bass, then the other parts of the song are gradually brought in, then muted.
Jamerson was truly one of a kind in that he didn't actually play a part as much as he played a groove. He's incredibly solid time-wise even within a flurry of pickup notes, and has style that's uniquely his. In fact, what's so cool is that he's given free reign within the arrangement to play what he pretty much as he wishes while the guitars and piano hold down the rhythm.
Also keep in mind that everything you hear was done on 8 track!
When musicians, especially bass players, refer to Motown records of the 60's and early 70's, they usually think about the late great James Jamerson, who anchored many, but not all of those great hits. A bass player who played on just as many hits but has never gotten nearly as much acclaim is Bob Babbitt, who played on big hits like Smokey Robinson's "Tears Of A Clown," Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," Marvin Gaye's "Mercy, Mercy Me," Gladys Night and the Pips "Midnight Train To Georgia," The Capitol's "Cool Jerk" and many more.
Bob was as much a part of the legendary Funk Brothers as Jamerson, and he was featured in the excellent Standing In The Shadow Of Motown movie and all of their subsequent concert tours. Sadly, Bob passed away yesterday at age 73, but you can get a feel for this great and humble man from this video, where Bob explains how he got his break into the fairly closed Motown family.
Reader David Plantz requested a song analysis of what happens to be one of my favorite songs, "You Get What You Give" by the New Radicals. It's a 1999 song that was a moderate world-wide hit, but unfortunately established the band as a one-hit wonder. Like all song analysis, we'll look at the song itself, the arrangement, the sound and the production.
The Song
"You Get What You Give" follows a pretty standard formula pop form that looks like this:
Intro, Verse, B section, Chorus, Interlude, Verse, B section, Chorus, Solo/Bridge, Chorus, Outchorus
There are several items of interest here. First the intro is unusual in the way it forecasts the song with the entrance of separate instrument elements, the outro is unusual in that it's almost like a total separate part instead of a repeating chorus, and the turnaround from the chorus to the verse has a very unusual chord change that really grabs the ear.
The Arrangement
The arrangement of the song is pretty interesting in that the various elements play different parts in the song than you'd expect.
* The Foundation: This is held down mostly by the drums.
* The Rhythm: The double-time piano
* The Pad: None
* The Lead: The vocal and guitar solo
* The Fills: Vocal answers
What's particularly interesting is the bass part played by Sasha Krivtsov, which is very reminiscent of James Jamerson's best bass lines for Motown. It's melodic and the part is very fluid, so even though it's part of the foundation element, it moves the song along just as a rhythm element would.
The Sound
An excellent example of a modern hit, the sound of "You Get What You Give" has depth without sounding too large. This is accomplished mostly by the use of a timed 1/4 note delay on the voice and guitars, a big snare reverb that's not too predominate in the mix, and a dry piano. Nothing sounds too compressed so that you actually notice it, which is always a sign of good engineering.
The Production
The intro tells you everything you need to know about the production, as you can hear various layers of piano, guitars and sound effects as it builds to the verse. I especially liked some of the background vocal harmony answers like in the end of the 2nd verse, and the wide stereo vocals on the outro. All in all, a very well-made record.
Today we'll take a look at the individual tracks of the multitrack of Marvin Gaye's seminal hit "What's Goin' On." The song was recorded at a low point in Marvin's career. Depressed over his partner Tammi Terrell's death, he was about to quit music and try his hand at pro football with a tryout with the Detroit Lions, when Obie Benson (of the Four Tops) presented him with the germ for the song.
This is the song that has one of the greatest recording session stories ever. Marvin was anxious to record the song, and after gathering the other Funk Brothersin the studio, found legendary bassist James Jamerson drunk in a bar. Jamerson was so hammered, in fact, that he couldn't sit up without falling down. He would up playing the song laying on his back on the floor of the studio. What's even more amazing is that the part he played was written, and he read it down like the legend he was. Here are some things to listen for.
1) Marvin's vocal is, of course, great, but listen to how shaky the background vocals in the intro are. Marvin's football friends from the Detroit Lions were among the singers and participated in the crowd noise that occurs later in the song.
2) The kick, drum kit and congas are on three separate tracks, which was normal in 16 track recording at the time. The configuration provides just enough flexibility for the mix however.
3) Listen to how the two guitar interact with each other. A Motown trademark, each play a complimentary part and have different sounds, but when put together they make a single bigger sound.
4) The vibes played by Jack Ashton outline the chord changes, which is another Motown trademark.
5) Eli Fontaine's soprano sax part wasn't written into the arrangement, and was a first take run-through that Marvin liked so much he kept in, and it became the signature line of the song.
6) Marvin's two vocal takes were left in the song after the engineer misunderstood what he was asking for. Marvin liked the effect so much that he used it on many of the subsequent songs that he recorded.
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Staying with our bass theme for the week, here's the isolated bass part for the Jackson 5's first hit "I Want You Back." Although everyone assumes that Motown great James Jamerson played bass on the track, it was actually bassist/saxophonist Wilton Felder of The Crusaders.
1) The sound is typically Motown, even though the song was recorded in Los Angeles instead of Detroit. It's very present with a lot of high end, and the part is very even without sounding too compressed.
2) By today's standards, the track is a little shaky, with lots of little timing mistakes. There's even a couple of mis-fretted notes and a phrase or two that sounds a little tentative. A producer today would not have kept this though, and probably would cut a few takes and then cut and pasted them together, or just move a note here or there.
3) But the feel is great, the song was a hit, so who cares about the inconsistencies.
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Yesterday I talked about how Paul McCartney was, in my opinion, the most innovative bass player in rock besides James Jamerson. It wouldn't be fair not to listen to Jamerson after listening to Paul, so here are a number of Motown hits featuring Jamerson's signature bass playing. Of course, Jamerson was one of the mainstays of the Motown house band known as the Funk Brothers.
Here are a couple of his greatest parts including Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On, and The Four Tops' Bernadette.
1) On What's Goin' On, listen to how Jamerson builds the intensity of the track as it goes on. You can just feel him pushing the track as his line gets more and more complex and he digs in harder.
2) Jamerson's bass has a distorted edge to it. He supposedly went direct while recording and used an Ampeg B-15 when playing live, but the tone on this song sure sounds like a B-15 to me.
3) Bernadette may be Jamerson's masterpiece. He's playing a fairly busy part yet it's always in the pocket and always seems effortless.
) Bernadette is also a really good example of how a Motown track is put together when you hear all the instruments fall in with the bass.
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Paul McCartney has never gotten nearly enough credit for his innovations as a bass player. I personally believe that he's the most influential bass player of the rock age besides Motown's James Jamerson.
Like Jamerson, McCartney playing evolved into mini-melodies, being part hook and part counterpoint to the rest of the instruments in the band. As a result, the band always sounds full even with a minimum of overdubs.
I believe this was because the bass became an overdub that happened in the late stages of Beatle tracks, instead of being recorded the traditional way during tracking of the basics. This allowed Paul the freedom to come up with a line that fit better with the final track.
Here's an interesting video that showcases McCartney at his best (except for the last track). Have a listen to A Little Help From My Friends, Come Together, and Band On The Run.
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Today we're going to listen to the great James Jamerson, the bass player for Motown's Funk Brothers. Widely regarded as one of the best bass players to ever play, he's loved not so much for his technique (which was formidable) but for his choice of notes. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Four Tops hit "Bernadette", which shows Jamerson at his best. This song is also available on the Standing In The Shadows Of Motown Deluxe box set.
Here's what to listen for:
1) Listen not only to Jamerson's choice of notes, but his unusual timing as well. He plays with a freedom rarely seen in todays recordings. It's amazing that he can stay as funky as he does. Also listen to how he pushes the groove, even as he plays around the set part.
2) At :37 the rest of the rhythm section is gradually brought in. Once again, notice how prominent the tambourine is to the groove of the song.
3) Also listen to how well the 3 guitars work together. In the chorus, one plays straight quarter note chords, while the other plays a high string mandolin-like part and the third plays a high pedal note. Along with the tambourine, this 3 guitar array is the heart of the Motown sound.
4) The only vocal of this mix comes at 2:38 with the single word plea of Tops singer Levi Stubbs. It hits really hard and is perfect for this mix.
5) After 2:38, all of the instruments re-enter, this time including strings and horns to complete the mix.
This is a really great example of the signature Motown sound, and James Jamerson at the peak of his personal powers. Enjoy.
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" by the New Radicals. It's a 1999 song that was a moderate world-wide hit, but unfortunately established the band as a one-hit wonder. Like all song analysis, we'll look at the song itself, the arrangement, the sound and the production.
" The song was recorded at a low point in Marvin's career. Depressed over his partner Tammi Terrell's death, he was about to quit music and try his hand at pro football with a tryout with the Detroit Lions, when Obie Benson (of the Four Tops) presented him with the germ for the song.
" Although everyone assumes that Motown great 
played bass on the track, it was actually bassist/saxophonist 
of The Crusaders.
.
, and The Four Tops' 
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