Wilton Felder's "I Want You Back" Isolated Bass

I always question myself when I post old song nuggets, because I don't want to seem like I'm dwelling in the past. The fact of the matter is that so many of these isolated tracks are interesting and fun to listen to, not to mention occasional teaching moments. Take for instance today's track - Wilton Felder's bass track on the Jackson 5's first hit "I Want You Back."

Felder was not only a great bass player but was actually better known as a tenor sax player, as he was one of the founding members of the great Jazz Crusaders. He was also part of Motown's studio team when the company moved to Los Angeles.

There are lots of cool things to listen for on this cut.

1. Listen to the tone of the bass. There's not a lot of really deep bottom to it, which was the case with many records of the time. Engineers didn't concentrate on the bottom end back then like they do today.

2. There's a lot of compression on it. The bass sits at the same level for every note, something also common from the era, especially from the major studios of the time.

3. The playing is very clean, but not perfect. It's about as good as you could get in the days of tape and few tracks, but it's something that we'd fix a little today (although that didn't stop anyone from enjoying the final record).

4. Check out the bridge at around 2:15. Felder plays a difficult part with ease and makes it flow like water.

---

Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this blog at no cost to you (just click here).

"I Want You Back" - Isolated Bass

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.

----------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.