What Beatles songs did George Harrison play bass on?

Ah right, cheers!

I haven't got access to any of the albums at the minute, so I was trying to work it out by playing the 3 songs through in my head instead. I really should find something else to do

 

Sorry Pete, yeah it's Long and Winding Road. Don't listen out for the flubbed notes while comparing it to the timing- if you do you'll always hear them!

Doesn't really matter- it's such a beautiful song, even John's sausage finger bass playing on the Fender VI can't ruin it.

 

You know I've read about other supposed Beatles flubs, but this is the one that is the most titanically blown out of proportion, by far. I outright don't hear some of what is claimed here, and overall think the performance is just fine, and then some.
I don't mind playing that's, what might be termed as loose. There are other Beatles botches, but I don't hear any that actually impede the overall performance. This certainly doesn't for me.
I also play bass, and I've talked to other bass players & had them listen to it, and I've read other bass players aware of this book too, and they think it's a crock as well.

 

The glissando is part of the arrangement. Without it, the track ain't Long and Winding road!
Macdonald's book is littered with annoying things like this. He hates Sexy Sadie and Glass Onion. I mean...

 

I never knew that. I must have missed that in the Lewisohn book. What day did these sessions take place? does anyone have the book handy?

 

The irony is I'm not even a fan of the Let It Be material, so the only reason I'm ever likely to deliberately listen to The Long And Winding Road again is just to hear these supposed flubs!

So don't worry, it won't be ruining anything for me

 

Every time I hear a Beatles song with John on bass I wonder why Paul didn't just hand him a tambourine or something and overdub the bass himself. John clearly didn't give the slighest bit of a damn about his bass playing during the "Let It Be" sessions.

 

I think it was at the final sessions in January 1970 (maybe January 4, 1970?--I don't have the Lewisohn book handy), when it was just Paul, George, and Ringo, without John, after recording "I Me Mine". Linda also added background vocals to "Let It Be" at that time too, so it is Paul, George, and Linda doing the background vocals on that one. Arnie

 

Did John really play bass on Helter Skelter? Or is it Paul and John and what we mainly hear is Paul's bass? It's rather simple, but it sounds quite competent to my incompetent ears...

Now, back to George!

 

(Apologies for the threadcrap!)

 

Paul played bass on Helter Skelter. Even before listening to the isolated bass (thanks to RockBand) I knew that was the Rickenbacker.

George didn't play bass on "She Said She Said". All of them recorded the backing track, it was only the vocal overdubs that were handled just by John and George.

 

Not according to George AND Paul. Both said George played bass on the track. Hey, one Beatle could be mistaken, but two? Ron

PS There are photos of George playing bass during the Revolver sessions and they look like actual session pics.

 

John is on bass on Helter Skelter. Paul plays guitar(the opening part).

Evan

 

Sorry, one, two and THREE Beatles can be wrong. On that "roundtable" part on Anthology, when George, Paul and Ringo are discussing various things, at one point George says they recorded Paperback Writer on 8-track, none of the others disagree. They're all wrong, of course.

So, no, George isn't playing bass on "She Said She Said", Paul is, he (Paul) just didn't record any backing vocals for it.

Mark Lewisohn, on the Beatles "Recording Sessions" book states on page 84 that the basic track for the song was "...drums, bass and two guitars", so we need all four Beatles here.

 

Unless Lewisohn is mistaken and it's ONE guitar on the basic track. I know we've talked about this before, but no one here has heard the session tapes, so there's no definitive answer either way. And yea, I know the individual Beatles had/have troubles remembering recording details, but Paul says he's not on it and the bass SOUND and performance is NOT a Rickenbacker nor a Hofner. George recalled, as far back as 1977 or so, that he played bass on She Said, She Said and a "few" other Beatle tunes. Eventhough by 1995, he had forgotten (or was simply ribbing Paul) that he had played bass on Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight. Ron

 

Look, I also believed Paul didn't do anything on "She Said She Said", but when I had to figure out the bass part to play with a band, that bass line has got to be his. The choice of notes and the style of playing are very McCartney. Doesn't sound at all like a "guitarrist turned bassist for a session" kind of style.

I was confused, checked Lewisohn's book and those two things confirmed it to me.

 

If George had a bass "style", the one on She Said She Said is his.

Evan

 

We can definitively say that the backing track consisted of 4 musicians playing at the same time and that the backing track consisted of drums, bass and 2 guitars played at the same time. This pretty well proves that Paul is on the track.

Maybe John played drums and Ringo played guitar but all 4 Beatles are playing at the same time on the backing track. This being the case I'd say it is most likely Paul is on bass but it certainly could be George on bass and John and George on guitar but Paul is on there. He isn't on the background vocals so I would think he remembers the fight that lead to him leaving the studio before his vocal was done.

I don't think we need the session tape as the recording sheet and track layout offers the proof that the backing was bass, drums and 2 guitars.

 

Chris, we've talked about this before, but how can we tell definitively? Even Lewisohn says an extra guitar was overdubbed on a vacant track, after a tape reduction. How do we know that two guitars are on the basic track. It's not the best-sounding recording from the era, but I can't hear three distinct guitar tracks. If you know how we can tell what the basic track instrumentation consists of, please let us know. Best, Ron

PS I suppose George could have played bass and Paul guitar, especially if it was a basic track. By this point in their career, just about anything could have been tried. Still makes me wonder why both George and Paul agree(d) that George played bass on this one.

PPS I don't have the Recording Sheet with me. Can you describe the instrumentation layout?

 

It just doesn't sound like Paul's 1966 style of bass playing to me!

Evan

 

You place a lot of faith in the recording sheet reflecting precisely accurately what went on at the session. We know this is not always true; I Want to Hold Your Hand's fails to mention the overdubbed vocals for instance. However the only 100% reliable document is the actual session TAPE so we do need that before we can all be sure.

The fact that both Paul AND George have mentioned this song as being one George played bass on, and as early as January 1969, not in the mid 1990s, is more conclusive than conjecture about styles and who played what and what may or may not be on the tape.

(And I don't hear George singing on She Said She Said either- i hear two voices, both belonging to JWL. Bring out the multi tracks, I say!)

 

Forget the recording sheet, you simply can't end up with that collection of instruments unless they were recorded playing at the same time.

There were 3 takes of She Said She Said. Take 3 is the 'best' basic track. Each take has drums + bass on track 1 and 2 electric guitars on track 2. This means 4 musicians playing simultaneously.

 

George and Ringo laid down the rhythm section track first then.

Evan

 

So it is written- but is that what is on the actual physical "I'm holding it in my hands right now" tape? None of us KNOW- that's the truth- we can hypothetically surmise one way or another, but you don't KNOW that's what's on the tape any more than I KNOW it's not.
HOWEVER
Two guys who WERE THERE say Paul's not on it.
I'm kind of leaning towards thinking maybe they knew.

 

Wha? So the backing track was just drums and bass and they overdubbed to guitars onto every take including the rejected takes? Not likely.