{"id":881795,"date":"2026-09-03T10:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T10:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/881795\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T10:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T10:48:14","slug":"i-got-over-the-fact-that-i-was-lumbered-with-the-bass-i-realised-the-control-you-had-over-the-band-they-cant-go-anywhere-man-ha-power-revisiting-a-classic-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/881795\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI got over the fact that I was lumbered with the bass \u2013 I realised the control you had over the band. They can\u2019t go anywhere, man. Ha! Power!\u201d: Revisiting a classic Paul McCartney interview from our archive"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you might have noticed recently, we\u2019ve been doing daily dives into our expansive archive, fishing for some of the most interesting interviews that MusicRadar\u2019s (and its adjacent) writers have carried out over the years. Today, we\u2019re bringing up to the surface a genuine gleaming treasure – a classic interview with arguably (is it arguable?) music\u2019s most important living figure, Sir Paul McCartney<\/a> himself.<\/p>\n

The interview, which we republished in 2023,<\/a> was originally conducted back in 1994 by writer Tony Bacon<\/a> as part of his research for the first edition of his extraordinary The Bass Book<\/a>. It was first published back then in what was our sister publication Bass Magazine.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At the time, Sir Paul was in the midst of creating The Beatles<\/a> Anthology, and was in quite an open, reflective mood.<\/p>\n

\u201cMcCartney could not have been more generous, entertaining, and candid in the few hours we spent together,\u201d wrote Bacon at the time, “I started by asking about my favourite period of his bass work with the Beatles, during the making of Sgt Pepper.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCartney explained to Tony that the hailed Pepper was the record where he really locked-in to the idea of the bass being able to be a motor for independent melodies as opposed to merely a rhythmic instrument.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was really when I got into that. That was probably what ended up being my strongest thing on bass, the independent melodies. On Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds<\/a>, you could easily have had [he sings a root-note version through the first few chords].<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been like Louie Louie or something. Whereas I was going [sings the Lucy bass-line], just running through that,\u201d said Paul. \u201cIt\u2019s only really a way of getting from C to F, or whatever, but you get there in an interesting way. That became my thing, doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Paul\n<\/p>\n

Paul was understated on his Beatles heyday; \u201cWe did some great stuff\u201d (Image credit: Robert Kern\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Paul also explained how he initially felt the bass was a burdensome instrument – having took the role on following the departure of initial bassist Stuart Sutcliffe.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the word go, once I got over the fact that I was lumbered with the bass [laughs], I did get quite proud to be a bass player, quite proud of the idea. Once you realised the control you had over the band, you were in control. They can\u2019t go anywhere, man. Ha! Power!\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI then started to identify with other bass players, to talk bass with the guys in the band. In fact, when we met Elvis, he was trying to learn bass, so I was like, \u2018You\u2019re trying to learn bass, are you \u2026 son? Sit down, let me show you a few things\u2019. So I was very proud of being the bass player. But as it went on and I got into that melodic thing, that was probably the peak of my interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

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\"Paul\n<\/p>\n

Paul realised that the bassist role had unexpected potential; \u201cOnce you realised the control you had over the band, you were in control. They can\u2019t go anywhere, man\u201d (Image credit: Keystone\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Paul went on to explain how he developed as a bassist – and popularised many now firm ideas about what a bassist should do in a band – during the Beatles\u2019 decade of creative brilliance. He was, however, shy about taking all the credit himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t personally credit myself, but thanks for that. But I think James Jamerson<\/a>, him and me, I\u2019d share the credit there. I was nicking a lot off him.<\/p>\n

“That was the thing, though, it did become a lot more of a funky instrument: it was becoming almost like a drum, the rhythmic possibilities. It was very exciting, that, and it also gave me something to keep me interested,\u201d explained Paul.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe danger with bass is that everybody else has got the interesting jobs and you\u2019re just the last guy to get a part, and literally you get the root notes, two in a bar. But actually\u2026 now, I quite like that, I like the simplicity. Sort of country and western bass playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul then told Tony that playing many of those trademark melodic bass parts could be quite difficult, especially if he was singing lead\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing for me that was hard was because some of these parts were independent melodic parts, it became much more difficult to sing, it was like doing this [pats his head and rubs his stomach].<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I had to put a little special effort into that, which made it very interesting. If you were singing ‘She was just 17\u2026’ and going [sings energetic bass-line], well\u2026 that became the skill, I could just learn [sings I Saw Her Standing There<\/a> bass-line], nicked from Chuck Berry as I\u2019m sure you know, I\u2019m Talking About You.<\/a> I\u2019ve given him credit, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Paul\n<\/p>\n

Paul with a five-string bass in the late eighties (Image credit: Rob Verhorst\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

Near the end of the interview, which also covered McCartney\u2019s bass choices and plectrum\/thumb preferences, Macca updated Bacon on the then in-development Anthology project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very good. Funniest thing is that we don\u2019t always agree on the memories, because it\u2019s 30 years ago. So it\u2019s hilarious\u2026 on camera,\u201d laughed Paul. \u201cThere\u2019s one bit, Ringo\u2019s telling a story, and he says, \u2018At that point George had a sore throat\u2026\u2019 Camera pans to George, George says, \u2018I thought it was Paul\u2019, and the camera pans to me, and I say, \u2018Well I know it was John.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019ve worked it out since, I say this to people: if Ringo thought it was George, it wasn\u2019t Ringo; if George thought it was me, it wasn\u2019t George; I thought it was John, so it wasn\u2019t me. It must have been John, he was the only one left! But this is funny, for the definitive bloody thing on the Beatles. It\u2019s great, you\u2019ve just got to laugh. It\u2019s so human, so real. We forget\u2026 who cares? We did some great stuff. Exact analysis was never our bag. And it obviously still isn\u2019t!\u201d<\/p>\n

Read this full legacy interview with Paul McCartney here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As you might have noticed recently, we\u2019ve been doing daily dives into our expansive archive, fishing for some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-881795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}