What Beatles songs did George Harrison play bass on?

Not for you apparently, but for most people (me included) it is.

 

There's a difference between it not being clear and you not being able to hear it clearly....work on your listening skills

 

Of course it's George singing the backing vocals. Especially those overlapping lines!

 

+1. Sounds clear as a bell to me, always has.

 

Just stumbled upon this while looking for something else:

I don't have RtB in front of me, but listening now, the drums and bass sure seem to be on different tracks. The drums are mixed hard left, while the bass is center or just left of center (easily heard if you isolate the right channel). I have to wonder if the bass was recorded with one of the vocals.

 

That's one thing about the beatles is there isn't a lot of documentation about these things, primarily from the band members themselves. They can barely remember who played what anymore, I have never really trusted what they say about these things

 

You are right! It is not dead center where the vocals are though. It is indeed left-center, which is strange with the track layout and doesn't make sense at all, but it IS there.

If the bass was done live by Paul (which I still believe is the case), could leakage of the bass amp into guitar track (panned right) cause the shift? Sure it could. But I don't believe it is the explanation, because when you isolate the right channel what I hear is the direct sound of the mic'ed amp not ambience leakage...
Could it be signal routing mistake during the recording process? I mean, that they erroneously did not route signal of the bass mic solely onto track 1 (with drums) but some of the signal was routed onto the guitar track?

Ondra

 

The bass is not played in Paul's style.....too basic.

 

Possible in theory, but it certainly seems unlikely.

Does anyone have RtB in front of them? I'm curious how they claim the song was recorded. I won't be able to look until tonight.

Also, regarding the vocals at the end, it sure sounds like double-tracked John with double-tracked George answering to me. I don't hear any ADT.

 

Sure it is double tracked John and George...

RtB book analysis is based on the recording and Lewisohn's description from Recording Sessions book which based on the studio documentation.

Track 1: drums, bass
Track 2: rhythm and lead guitar
Track 3: vocals John + George
Track 4: vocals doubling (John + George)

this was reduced into another take
Track 1: drums, bass
Track 2: 2 guitars
Track 3: vocals from track 3 and 4
Track 4: high pitched organ (John), lead guitar doubling (George)

With this track layout the routing error is the only explanation.

Ondra

 

I wonder what studio documentation was available to the RtB authors.

Wandering into speculation at this point, but something like this seems to make more sense to me:

Track 1: drums
Track 2: rhythm and lead guitar
Track 3: high pitched organ (John), lead guitar doubling (George) [overdub]
Track 4:

Internal bounce to:

Track 1: drums
Track 2: vocals John + George [overdub]
Track 3: vocals doubling (John + George) [overdub]
Track 4: rhythm and lead guitar/high pitched organ (John), lead guitar doubling (George)

Reduction mix to:

Track 1: drums
Track 2: vocals John + George/vocals doubling (John + George)
Track 3: bass [overdub]
Track 4: rhythm and lead guitar/high pitched organ (John), lead guitar doubling (George)

It seems like too much of a coincidence that the organ/guitar track would *not* be panned somewhere other than hard right *and* the bass would have been recorded on multiple tracks, rendering it left of center in the final mix.

 

Were they able to do ping-pong bounces at that point? I thought the tape machines at Abbey Road had no simultaneous read/write heads in 1966.

 

The J37 was capable of doing internal bounces. This is documented in RtB.

 

Man, I should look for that book today.

 

However, in this version you say that the studio documentation is completely wrong.
It is also against the band's usual recording process which is to record the basic rhythm track, then vocals and the instrumental overdub (tambourine, additional guitar, percussions, whatever works and finishes the song) as the last piece to the puzzle. Which in this case is the high piteched organ/lead guitar overdub.
Yes, the internal bounce is possibility but the studio documentation shouldn't be considered completely useless and wrong. If the final track layout on the box says this...

Track 1: drums, bass
Track 2: 2 guitars
Track 3: vocals
Track 4: organ, guitar

...it is unlikely that the real content would be dramaticly different.

Ondra

 

Does it?

It certainly wasn't uncommon to overdub the bass late in the game at that point. If Paul wasn't present, that makes it all the more likely that it was added later.

 

Well, that's what Lewisohn says and he had the documentation to work from.
He specifically says that the reduction mix was done to combine the two vocal tracks to free up space for the last overdub (organ, guitar).

Ondra

 

I don't have Lewisohn in front of me, but while his work is admirable, it isn't without errors. And of course under my scenario, the reduction mix *was* done to combine the vocal tracks for space for the last overdub. It's just that the last overdub was the bass.

 

Bernard Purdie played the bass.

 

To my ears, "Drive My Car" is Paul on bass (the intro alone is enough evidence for me) with George playing the same part on guitar (after the intro).

"She Said She Said":

John and George on vocals. Sounds like Paul on bass to me.

The kit and the bass guitar could be on one track if the 'shuffler' was employed in the stereo mix - the Spreader/VAL allows the 'sides' to be widened or narrowed according to a filter slope by operating on balance between the sum and difference vectors rather than L and R - designed to be able to get more width in the bass for the EMI Stereosonic system but perhaps it was used here to bring the bass towards the middle a little. The guitars on track 2 seem to have a presence towards the middle too (not just on the right) which would be expected if the Spreader/shuffler was used for tracks 1 & 2 (on channels 1 & 2).

The third guitar and organ are fixed to the right with vocals in the middle so presumably tracks 3 and 4 were positioned that way with the 360º pan pot on channels 7&8.

Who plays bass on "Good Day Sunshine"? That could be George...

 

As I previously mentioned, it is unlikely the spreader and stereo pan pot features on 1&2 and 7&8 were used on pop sessions.

Besides, we're talking about the drums and bass, not the kit and bass drum. There's essentially zero evidence of the drums on the right, but there's plenty of bass sound there.

 

Fixed my post (kit and bass guitar).

I don't see how else you could get the sound we hear on "She Said She Said" stereo mix.

 

What do you mean?

 

Bass folded in compared with the kit, 2 guitars with presence towards the centre as well as being R.

Can you achieve that with your scenario?

 

In my scenario, the bass is on a separate track.

Seems like any guitar sound on the left is due to leakage.

I'm not sure what any of that has to do with using the spreader control regardless.