Beatles Bass Lines

This is my transcription of Paul McCartney's bass line on the Beatles song "I'll Cry Instead" from the 1964 album A Hard Day's Night .  I am playing a Hofner Beatle Bass (HCT 500/1) through a SansAmp VT Bass Deluxe. My bass is strung with LaBella flatwound strings.  Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

This is my transcription of Paul McCartney's bass line on the Beatles' song "Paperback Writer," released as a single in May 1966. The song was recorded during the Revolver sessions in April 1966. McCartney played guitar on the basic track (along with George Harrison), then overdubbed his bass line with his 1964 Rickenbacker 4001S. Recording bass as an overdub afforded him the opportunity to be much more adventurous in what he played. This bass line, while it provides a suitable support for the song, is fairly soloistic, a feat he would repeat the following day for the recording of the single's B-side, "Rain." Lennon referred to this song as "son of 'Day Tripper'" because of the heavy guitar riff. McCartney's approach to the bass line, however, is one major difference between the two songs. On "Day Tripper" he doubles the iconic guitar riff on bass, adding more emphasis to it. For stretches of the song, the riff and drums ...

Here is my transcription of Paul McCartney's bass line for "We Can Work It Out." This song was recorded during the Rubber Soul  sessions in fall of 1965. Though it didn't appear on the album, "We Can Work It Out," along with its partner on the double-A-side single, "Day Tripper," were released the same day as Rubber Soul  in December 1965. 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

This is my transcription of Paul McCartney's bass line on the Beatles' song "Doctor Robert" from the album Revolver (1966).  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

There are several songs in the Beatles' catalog for which there is some controversy over who played what instrument. One of those songs is "She Said She Said," recorded in June 1966 for the Revolver album. During the recording session for this song, Paul McCartney had an argument with John Lennon and stormed out of the studio. He claimed he didn't appear on the recording of that song at all. But is his memory accurate? Who played bass on "She Said She Said?"

Here is my transcription of the bass line on the Beatles song "She Said She Said" from the 1966 Revolver album .  This is a song primarily written by Lennon. It was the last song recorded for the album and there is some controversy over who actually played bass on the recording... stay tuned!!! 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

This content is adapted from a presentation I gave in the Beatles area at the Pop Culture Association (PCA) Conference in New Orleans, LA, April 2025. The panel, which also featured Beatles scholars Allison Bumsted and Tom Pace, focused on using the Beatles music as a subject for analysis in a college classroom. 

The bass line on "Yellow Submarine" from Revolver  (1966) is fairly straightforward, but does feature some nice moments.  The passage after the lyric "And the band begins to play" is a little unusual. The backing track of guitar and bass continue with the regular chord progression - Am-C-D7. The brass ensemble, however, comes in playing a different chord (essentially just playing figure suggesting a G major triad). I had never actually noticed this discrepancy until I transcribed the bass line.  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

The "Taxman" bass line is one I often see transcribed incorrectly. While I'm not a fan of most of Giles Martin's remixes, his mix of this song brings out a lot of details in McCartney's bass line. For one thing, when the bass line jumps up an octave on beat 2 of the main groove, most transcriptions just have one D as an 8th note - but it's pretty clear that McCartney plays two 16th note D's. The bridge bass line is also almost always transcribed incorrectly, with a C instead of a B. Slowing down the recording and isolating the bass part, however, makes it clear that McCartney is playing a B. 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 George Harrison

Here's a video bass lesson on how to play Paul McCartney's bass line on "You Won't See Me" from the Rubber Soul  album (1965). Learn a few patterns and choose your own adventure! I am playing a 1985 Rickenbacker 4003 strung with LaBella flatwounds. Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney Full transcription is below (no tab)

Here is my bass cover of the Beatles song "Here, There and Everywhere" from Revolver  (1966). This is a song primarily written by Paul McCartney. The bass line is fairly simple and straightforward, which is entirely appropriate for this breezy ballad. McCartney primarily plays chord roots with only occasional embellishments.  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 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

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...

Arpeggios abound in McCartney's bass line for "You Won't See Me" from 1965's Rubber Soul . It is repetitive, but also constantly changing. McCartney finds numerous ways of subtly varying the patterns.  It's hard to imagine him playing this bass line even 6 months earlier. Not because he couldn't  have, but because he wouldn't  have. He certainly played some great bass lines before the Rubber Soul album, but his concept of what the bass line could be in a pop song changed so much in mid-1965. He went from playing solid, supportive lines to playing melodically, his bass offering a contrapuntal voice to sit at the bottom of the musical texture. 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 Full transcription is below (no tab)

My bass is a little out of tune in this video. The recording is tuned somewhere between Eb and E. I'll have to redo this video at some point, but for now, do your best to ignore the wonky tuning. "Nowhere Man," the Lennon/McCartney song from 1965's  Rubber Soul , features one of McCartney's supremely melodic bass lines. While the vocal harmonies are probably the most recognizable part of the song, the extremely active bass line keeps the song moving.  This song, with its jangly electric guitar, tight vocal harmonies, and introspective lyrics, seems to be a response to "Mr. Tambourine Man," the Bob Dylan-penned song that was a #1 hit for the Byrds earlier in 1965. It is kind of ironic, though, because the Byrds were modeling their sound largely on the Beatles (with a touch of the Beach Boys as well). Roger McGuinn played a Rickenbacker 12-string electric guitar similar to the one George Harrison played in A Hard Day's Night . The Beatles inspired the ...

This is one of the funnest videos I've made because I got to play two bass parts! On George Harrison's song "Think for Yourself" from Rubber Soul  (1965), McCartney played a bass line as usual, then overdubbed a second bass running through a fuzz pedal. They are similar lines, but not exactly the same. The fuzz bass part essentially becomes a lead guitar. There are a couple of songs in the Beatles' catalog that feature two basses, but this is the most prominent and intentional example.  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 George Harrison

"The Word" from Rubber Soul  (1965) is one of McCartney's funkiest bass lines. It shows the influence of Motown bassist James Jamerson and Stax bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn. It has melodic passages in a couple of places, primarily at the end of each verse under the lyrics "It's so fine/It's sunshine," but this groove is most notable for its repetition of a one-measure pattern that gets transposed from D to G. It also has some really fun and tricky fills. 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