Bass: Paul v. George | Fab forum

I know most of you will say Paul here but think about it, George played bass on Old Brown Shoe and She Said She Said and those songs had terrific bass lines. There's more but I can't think of any. So far I say George because he was such a lunatic on it.

Well it's obviously impossible to say that George was better than Paul, but I've been listening to the Lennon bass songs, particularly Rocky Raccoon and they are pretty funny. I mean, they aren't exactly great bass lines because there doesn't seem to a pattern to any of his playing, but he's getting the job done. He adds a lot of color to that song with his bass line as well as his harmonica playing.

MrBig said:

GniknuS said:

Well it's obviously impossible to say that George was better than Paul, but I've been listening to the Lennon bass songs, particularly Rocky Raccoon and they are pretty funny. I mean, they aren't exactly great bass lines because there doesn't seem to a pattern to any of his playing, but he's getting the job done. He adds a lot of color to that song with his bass line as well as his harmonica playing.

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I think Paul was the light-noted one where as George really tried to keep on rhythm. That's why I like George better, he didn't focus on being fancy he focused on getting the timing right.
 

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I guess I've never really compared the two though, and you're right his playing particularly on Old Brown Shoe and Birthday is quite surprising considering that he can't have had that much practice on the instrument. Ok, I'll listen to his bass songs, then follow them with my favorites of Macca's; The Word, Come Together, Rain, and Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.

Paulrus said:

According to Revolution in the Head, Paul played the bassline on Old Brown Shoe while George tracked it with the guitar

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George said in an interview that he played bass: http://www.creemmagazine.com/_…..ew001.html

Paulrus said:

Ah, okay then. Speaking of John playing bass, listen to the bass on The Long and Winding Road. It's horrible

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He was probably too bored.

George said in an interview that he played bass in that. I believe it too. It's very Georgie.

paulsbass said:

MrBig said:

I know most of you will say Paul here but think about it, George played bass on Old Brown Shoe and She Said She Said and those songs had terrific bass lines. There's more but I can't think of any. So far I say George because he was such a lunatic on it.

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 Tell me this thread is a joke.

It must be.

No one in his right mind would seriously consider George a better bass player than Paul McCartney, the man who created all those bass lines on the "Sgt. Peppers" album and on "Abbey Road" and so many others (While my guitar, Paperback writer, Hey bulldog, Tomorrow never knows, Taxman, I saw her standing there etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc etc.)

Ok, George played a (very) few excellent riffs on the bass. Fine. Macca did hundreds of excellent bass lines just with the Beatles! And I don't just mean a riff, like on "Old brown shoe", but real bass work. Check out the Sgt. Peppers album, as I said, and learn about the possibilities of this often underrated instrument.

another great early example is "Nowhere man", not usually known for the bass work. But listen how Paul spices up the totally simple chords with rhythmic and melodic finesse.

"She said, she said" is a fantastic guitar song – and has one of the most "boring" bass lines of any Beatles song. I always wondered why Paul didn't put more effort into it – then I realized it wasn't him at all, but just George doing a solid, but boring bass.

So in a way you proved that Paul was OBVIOUSLY the FAR better bass player. I think George would have been embarrassed when confronted with this theory.

I still can't believe you were NOT joking…

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Yeah this thread is the equivalent of saying that Paul was a better drummer than Ringo, but only having 3 real examples of Paul's drumming with the Beatles as compared to hundreds by Ringo.