Beatles Bass Lines

Paul McCartney’s bass playing on the Beatles’ 1965 album Rubber Soul is outstanding and is light years ahead of his playing on the previous album Help , which had been released only 4 months earlier. McCartney’s bass playing on Help and earlier albums was solid and appropriate for the songs they were writing and the musical styles they were playing. But with the recording of Rubber Soul , several things occurred/converged that led to this giant leap forward in his approach to creating bass lines.

Paul's bass line on the Beatles' song "I'm Only Sleeping" from Revolver  (1966) is bouncy and melodic. Much of the line is based on a root-fifth motion, but this isn't a simple "country" groove. Measures 1-2 provide a good example. He plays the root on beats 1 and 2, moves down to the 5th on beat 3, and then beat 4 is 5th-root in 8th notes. The bass line on the refrain is similar though slightly more embellished. But the basic idea is the root on beats 1 and 2, the 5th on beat 3.  With all of McCartney's other bass highlights like "Something," "Rain," and pretty much all of Sgt. Pepper , his Revolver bass lines are often overlooked. But this is a great bass line and is very fun to play. I am playing a 1985 Rickenbacker 4003 through a SansAmp VT Bass Deluxe. My bass is strung with LaBella flatwound strings.  Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Here's a cover of Paul McCartney's bass line on the Lennon/McCartney (but primarily Lennon) song "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" from the Beatles' 1965 album  Rubber Soul . This was the second song recorded for the album, but was completed on the first day of recording, along with "Run for Your Life." The bass line on "Norwegian Wood" is fairly straightforward and not as adventurous as McCartney's bass lines on "Nowhere Man," "You Won't See Me," and many others on this album. It is, however, solid, functional, and an entirely appropriate bass line for the song. Playing a more active line may have distracted from the simplicity of the song. The song was inspired in large part by Bob Dylan, who had demonstrated that pop/rock songs could be more sophisticated lyrically than the traditional "teen romance" song of the 1950s and early 1960s. The song is notable for being the first widely released popular s...

Paul McCartney plays a great R&B groove on "Drive My Car," the opening track from 1965's Rubber Soul album. He was beginning to be inspired by bass players like James Jamerson of Motown, Donald "Duck" Dunn of Stax Records, and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys (and, unknowingly, Carole Kaye of the Wrecking Crew who played bass on many of the Beach Boys' iconic recordings). These players showed McCartney that the role of the bass in a pop song could be far greater than he had imagined.  For "Drive My Car," McCartney basically copied Duck Dunn's bass line on the Otis Redding song "Respect," which had been released earlier in 1965. The chord progression is different, but the groove is almost exactly the same. I am playing a 1985 Rickenbacker 4003 through a SansAmp VT Bass Deluxe. My bass is strung with LaBella flatwound strings.  Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney's bass line on George Harrison's song "If I Needed Someone" from the Rubber Soul album (1965) is really fun to play, but is also pretty easy to learn. It mostly involves playing one measure again and again--but it's a good measure!!  Below is a video breaking down this fun and simple groove.  

John Lennon's song "Run for Your Life" has what is probably McCartney's least imaginative bass line on the 1965 Rubber Soul  album. It certainly is not a bad bass line, it's just not as inventive as what he played on most of the rest of the record. It is solid and supportive, but offers little in the way of innovation. It sounds like something he might have played on the previous album, Help! . This is not entirely surprising, as "Run for Your Life" was the first song recorded for Rubber Soul . Perhaps McCartney hadn't yet realized how adventurous he could truly be with his bass parts.  The lyrics on this song are problematic and always make me cringe. The opening line, "I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man" was taken from an Elvis Presley recording of a song called "Baby Let's Play House" by Arthur Gunter. Lennon takes that threat of domestic violence as the subject and tone for the rest of th...