After a certain point in the solid gold back catalogue of The Beatles, picking a favourite Paul McCartney bassline becomes akin to picking your favourite song by the band. It’s not only that there’s a quite frankly ludicrous amount of options, but it’s also that they’re all different kinds of options. It means that there isn’t an outright best of the bunch; there’s only what speaks to you best at that moment.
After all, there are days when the madman thrashing of ‘Helter Skelter’s’ low end is precisely what you need. Others are when ‘The Ballad of John & Yoko’s’ steady riffing hits the spot. There’s something here for everyone, and thus, if you’re ever in a position where you need to learn the bass guitar and learn it quickly, going through Macca’s back catalogue will teach you more than any beginner’s course ever could.
Specifically, Abbey Road is the port of call if you’re ready to take the next step from being someone learning the bass to being a bass player. The playing on that record has already had oceans of ink spilt about it, and with damn good reason. Somehow, McCartney finds the sweet spot between showing he’s a virtuosic player while never overpowering the songs, providing a low end for each song that’s simultaneously melodic and solid as a rock.
‘Come Together’ is an obvious choice for his best moment on the record, and it’s arguably the best bass riff in rock history. The seedy thrust of ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ is the kind of bassline that sneaks up on you, but once you realise it, you recognise it’s the beating heart of the song. The entire side two song suite is just one sensational bass workout after another. However, the very best moment on that album is also the best bass moment of McCartney’s considerable discography.
How Paul McCartney peaked as a bass player on ‘Something’
This will take a couple of listens to really get. After all, if the first thing you think about when you hear ‘Something’ for the first time is “my, the bass playing is remarkable”, then I’m truly sorry to say it, but you might just be beyond saving. ‘Something’ is helped by being all-around one of the best songs in the entire Beatles back catalogue, with everything from Billy Preston’s Hammond organ and George Martin’s string arrangements to basically everything George Harrison does on his masterpiece being essentially perfect.
That’s nothing new for Abbey Road, though. It’s The Beatles’ best album not only as songwriters but as a band, too, with each Fab playing completely out their skins the entire time. Clock Ringo’s astonishing drumming if you don’t believe me. Paul has a myriad of high points on the record, but the bassline he lays down for ‘Something‘ is awe-inspiring. Melodic and technical, yet always supporting the song above everything else. Not everyone agreed about this, though.
In an interview with Bass Player, Paul McCartney talked about this bassline in particular, relaying, “I always try to get a bit of melody out of the bass part, but not too much—you can get in the way if you do it all the time or play too many notes. You have to be selective, or else the composer can get a bit annoyed. I don’t think George was too pleased with what I did on ‘Something’ at first; I mean, I had to sell it to him!”
I think I speak for all fans of four strings when I say, thank God he did.
