The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Gibson Basses => Topic started by: Chris P. on April 04, 2017, 12:30:26 AM
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Did we already discuss this picture?
(http://images.eil.com/large_image/PAUL_MCCARTNEY_AND_WINGS_WINGS%2BOVER%2BAMERICA%2B%2B%2BPROMO%2BBOOKLET-234954b.jpg)
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This version is a bit dark. In the other pic you showed me yesterday the Gibson EB is more visible.
So Macca (or in this case Denny Laine) did use the original violin bass after years of toying with that cheap-ass German copy :mrgreen:
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Uhum! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Denny probably didn't know that there were different violin basses and marvelled at the stamina of his boss in the Star Club with an EB hanging from his shoulder for 12 hours on end!
The weight of the Höfner on those long Captagon-fuelled Hamburg gigs must have been an argument (along with the fact that it didn't look silly played leftie and that Paul came from a guitar scale).
It's not unlikely that The Beatles came across an EB while in Hamburg. Reputedly, the first owner of an EB in Germany was James Last - the later Easy Listening orchestra leader - when he was still a bassist, he came from Hamburg and had a top notch reputation as a (initially acoustic) jazz bassist at the time. He later sold his EB to Ladi Geisler (who equipped it with a P split coil and used it for his click bass sound before totally switching to Fender) who was playing with Bert Kaempfert, another Easy Listening king who recommended The Beatles to Decca and also produced their first few singles with (and without) Tony Sheridan in 1961/62 - prior to Brian Epstein and George Martin taking them under their helm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgkAgyQgEH4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nBj-3NhtpA
That bass on Ain't She Sweet sounds nothing like the bass on early Beatles EMI/Odeon recordings, but very Bert Kaempfert-like the way it is raised in the mix, Kaempfert dug a loud bass, it was part of his recipe to make "dance music with no annoying sounds". We all know how guitars sounded back then! :mrgreen:
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Somebody knows his Beatles history. Lawyers are expected to know all kinds of trivial details.
I hadn't seen that photo before.
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Are there any studio or live Wings tracks that are clearly distinguishable as the EB?
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Bert Kaempfert, another Easy Listening king who recommended The Beatles to Decca and also produced their first few singles with (and without) Tony Sheridan in 1961/62 - prior to Brian Epstein and George Martin taking them under their helm.
Wow! Bert Kaempfert... Never knew! I think my dad had a couple of his 8 tracks.
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I'm hardly a Beatles expert, I mostly just like their music (ever since I was a child, I remember listening to the Magical Mystery Tour EP of my 9 years older brother and being spellbound by both the music and their clothes, I must have been around 8 or 9 back then, I heard especially Macca's "Your Mother Should Know" over and over, that repetetive melody really stuck in my head).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roWy3WJVUaU
But the Liverpool/Hamburg Star Club years have been so under the magnifying glass in Germany (for obvious reasons) that you were bound to pick up catchwords such as "Tony Sheridan", "Pete Best", "hairstyle change from duck's arse to moptop (= Beatles fringe, as reputedly "invented" by Astrid Kirchherr, Stu Suttcliffe's German girlfriend from the art/French Existentialism world, and forcefully proposed to them "to look less 50ies")"
(http://placerileluinoe.ro/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/deschidere-mare-Astrid-Kirchherr-si-Stuart-Sutcliffe-.jpg),
"Bert Kaempfert" and "failed Decca Sessions" (a spectacularly bad business decision by Decca) even if you only rarely picked up a music paper.
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Just yesterday I listened to Ain't She Sweet and thought, 'the bass is really loud here'. And now I read this. What a coincidence. I never knew that Bert Kaempfert produced that recording.
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It's why I love Bert's recordings! That bass line has Chris Squire volume and that is saying something! :mrgreen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66TLrby1R1g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iKF8OxWVh4
That is him during - allegedly - those Beatles sessions:
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J7gElfHaUFI/Tpsp_4telVI/AAAAAAAACGg/w63qrISWaTs/s1600/Bert-Kaempfert-Sessions-T-SheridanBeatles-Sin-data-ca62.jpg)
(http://www.belgian-beatles-site.com/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/music/b-s-de-polydor-0230-1.jpg?itok=MxFLDm0m)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-detITVm9-RM/TicydpZ4FOI/AAAAAAAAA0U/CKkChTUdXl8/s1600/The-Beatles-Aint-She-Sweet-396.jpg)