What Beatles songs did George Harrison play bass on?

Possible

The Spreader would come in if you needed the bass folded in compared with the rest of the kit even though they both reside on just one track - i.e., 'shuffling' the sum and difference vectors such that the width of the stereo pair (in this case tracks 1 & 2) depends on frequency.

Since the documentation suggests kit/bass on one track it seems there is a possible explanation other than the documents just being wrong.

 

Mal is right, when you listen to the left channel, you can hear the rhythm guitar too. While the lead guitar in the left channel is just a leakage onto the drums kit mic, the rhythm guitar is the direct mic sound. Most audible during the middle eight right after when I was a boy line.
Could it really be some mishap with routing the signal onto the tracks during the recording process?
Bass going onto the guitar track and rhythm guitar going onto the drums/bass track?
The recording was done after all day mixing, any mistake would be understandable.

Ondra

 

The issue of whether or not Paul played bass on She Said She Said is not definitive. IIRC, Paul thought he played it, then they got into an argument about something, and he left the studio and George and John finished the song without him. It seems odd for someone as keen as Paul to not show up at all, forcing George to play it.

 

I hear some kit in the right channel with the bass, both rolled of at 700 Hz is my guess...

 

I read an old interview in which he specifically said he had played bass guitar on "Old Brown Shoe" and "Taxman".

This does not exclude other songs mentioned here

 

For all Paul knew it could have been John, as unlikely as that is. Paul said he is not on it.

 

I really doubt the spreader/shuffler was used for the following reasons:

1) It's been stated it wasn't used on pop sessions.
2) I can't imagine they would care enough about moving the bass towards the center on a last minute, secondary stereo mix, especially when plenty of other stereo mixes have the bass hard in one channel.
3) It would appear the shuffler moved *higher* frequency sounds towards the center, not bass frequencies.
4) It's unlikely that, even ignoring 1-3, the spreader could so cleanly separate out the drum and bass sounds.

So now we've moved on to the bass being recorded partially on the guitars track *and* the rhythm guitar being partially recorded on the drums/bass track? *Could* it be a routing mishap? Sure. But it sure doesn't seem likely.

It's worth noting that, unless I'm missing something, we don't know exactly what documentation exists. Lewisohn made (incorrect) assumptions elsewhere in his book, either without hearing the tapes or not understanding what was on them; it doesn't seem out of the question that's also the case here. How many people *swore* over the years that the mono and stereo mixes of 'Help!' had to be from the same take and the differences were a result of "deft George Martin/Norman Smith editing"?

 

I read the Taxman one awhile back, don't think he said he played on that, pretty sure it was mentioned Paul played lead and he said I played bass on some songs (or something similar).

 

George definitely does not play bass on Taxman and has never claimed he has, nor has anybody else until today.

 

When and where did Paul say that?

 

Shall we fire up the old "Oh Darling" bass debate again? For what it's worth, I'm still not sure who plays bass.

 

John brought it in pretty much finished, I think. I'm not sure but I think it was one of the only Beatle records I never played on. I think we'd had a barney or something and I said, 'Oh, **** you!' and they said, 'Well, we'll do it.' I think George played bass.
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

 

I wouldn't think it was forced at all. George definitely showed up at the Revolver sessions with a brand-new Burns Nu Sonic bass guitar. There are many photos from the era showing George playing the bass, one or two with headphones on as if he was actively recording with it. The question remains whether he plays it on She Said She Said, or perhaps some other track on the album? Why else would he be photographed playing it in the studio, with headphones on? I suppose it's possible he played a guide track while Paul was playing piano or guitar (at least one picture without headphones shows Paul on his Casino and George with his Nu Sonic) but that doesn't seem likely. I don't recall Paul not being definitive about his whereabouts on the song. He quite clearly has said he's NOT on the record because of a row with John. Ron

PS How do we upload pix here?

 

Categorically?

Maybe Geoff had more interest in his job than you give him credit for

I think it went wider or narrower to compensate for different distances when using Blumlein pairs or M-S techniques (see section 5.4 here: http://www.phaedrus-audio.com/stereosonic.pdf). Not what I'm suggesting it was used for here (i.e., it really was designed for Stereosonic orchestral/ live music recording) but maybe by '66 a little more experimentation at EMI isn't out of the question.

You can hear the drums and bass on the right channel, especially the kick - shuffling on the REDD would give a roll off above 700 Hz, I think.

 

He doesn't sound very sure about it. I wonder if Ringo, George Martin, or Geoff Emerick have any recollections about that session?

 

You are right. I just re-checked the interview. My mistake

Paul plays bass and lead guitar on Taxman

 

Right. My mistake.

 

Or he's misremembering and it was "Good Day Sunshine" - that can't be Paul on bass.

 

*If* Paul didn't play on the She Said She Said session, there's no question that Lewisohn's account is incorrect. Notably, that it would have been impossible for the basic track to have drums, bass, and two guitars.

At what point?

Brian Kehew:

"Regarding the Sum & Difference/Spreader controls: We found NO evidence that any pop engineer used these controls at all.

No one remembered doing so (they did such little stereo work), and the controls were intended for stereo issues of classical recording. Not that they couldn't be circumvented and used for "other panning games", but many didn't: Similarly, note the number of Beatles drums recorded on track 1 that ended up panned hard Left in a stereo mix; they could easily have re-patched just to put drums to the Right, but they didn't care so much... So, mis-applying the circuits designed for a classical pair of mics probably didn't even enter anyone's mind.

(Keep in mind, we asked people "Didn't you EVER try the CLASSIC eq boxes when mixing to get a new EQ sound?" and I don't recall a single confirmed instance, creative as they were. There were some things that just stayed as they were.)"

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/6956573-post58.html

Brian Gibson:

"The REDD51 consoles were NOT modified to accept tape replay inputs on channels 3-6. The normal "re-inject" circuit always brought the returns of tape tracks 1&2 and 3&4 into mic channels 1&2 and 7&8 respectively. This was fine for mono mixing, which was the norm for "pop" recording at this time, but if a stereo mix was needed the outputs of the Studer were padded down on the patchbay and patched directly to mic inputs 3 to 6, which allowed full panning on every track. In practice this usually meant panning the vocals centre, since the backing tracks would usually have been recorded as a stereo mix on tracks 1&2. Bear in mind that these desks were primarily designed for Classical recording, and the facilities were optimised for that purpose. "Pop" recording was a secondary consideration, and at the time of design and construction all "pop" recording was done in mono.
The 360 degree pan pot is NOT the spreader control."

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/6596149-post9.html

Brian Gibson:

"The spreader does not have a "mono" setting, it's just varying degrees of width (see picture below).
I don't recall the 360 degree pan pot ever being used for a mixdown.
Like I said before, if they were doing a stereo mix, we'd just patch the tape returns up 3,4,5 & 6.
The "RTB" book says they used channels 3-6 for the tape returns because that's the way most people (not just myself) recall it was done.
I keep telling people not to forget that the mono mixes are the definitive mixes, the stereo versions were just "throw aways" that were knocked off quickly, often without even George Martin being present. They certainly didn't spend a lot of time and trouble to do the stereo mixes."

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/6929083-post24.html

See above. Also, he has often dismissed the stereo mixes, so it seems pretty unlikely.

Again, it seems like a *big* stretch to assume that they would care about such a thing on what was already considered a secondary mix. Especially considering everything else I mentioned.

Where do you hear the kick on the right?

It's certainly possible he misremembered, but keep in mind his comment is that he didn't play on the session at all, not simply that he didn't play bass. Obviously Paul was present for Good Day Sunshine. And there's ample evidence to suggest he wasn't present for the She Said She Said session.

 

He sounds sure that he never played on it, just not who played bass, he wasn't there so how could he be sure.

 

George may have been playing a guide bass track on Paperback Writer, as there's a murky vibe on there other than the Rick bass overdub by Paul.

 

It sounds like they had an argument in the studio and Paul left at some point. Was that before or after the basic track was recorded? That is the question. We know Paul wasn't there for the backing vocal overdubs. He remembers an argument, but where and when would that have occurred? On the phone before the session? At Paul's St. John's Wood house before the session?

It doesn't sound likely that Paul would pout about an argument for very long, to the point of not showing up at all for the last song recorded for Revolver. In the heat of the moment is a different story.

 

Well, he specifically says he didn't play on it...

 

Paul is not sure about it. What he remebers is that he left the session, but he could have left after he'd done the bass part.
How can he remember exactly? In 1970 interview he was "sure" he does not sing on Come Together, which we know is nonsense.

Ondra

 

"I'm not sure but I think it was one of the only Beatle records I never played on."