As you might have noticed recently, we’ve been doing daily dives into our expansive archive, fishing for some of the most interesting interviews that MusicRadar’s (and its adjacent) writers have carried out over the years. Today, we’re bringing up to the surface a genuine gleaming treasure – a classic interview with arguably (is it arguable?) music’s most important living figure, Sir Paul McCartney himself.
The interview, which we republished in 2023, was originally conducted back in 1994 by writer Tony Bacon as part of his research for the first edition of his extraordinary The Bass Book. It was first published back then in what was our sister publication Bass Magazine.
At the time, Sir Paul was in the midst of creating The Beatles Anthology, and was in quite an open, reflective mood.
“McCartney could not have been more generous, entertaining, and candid in the few hours we spent together,” 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.”
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.
“That 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, you could easily have had [he sings a root-note version through the first few chords].
“It would have been like Louie Louie or something. Whereas I was going [sings the Lucy bass-line], just running through that,” said Paul. “It’s 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.”
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.
“From 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’t go anywhere, man. Ha! Power!” Paul said.
“I 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, ‘You’re trying to learn bass, are you … son? Sit down, let me show you a few things’. 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.”
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’ decade of creative brilliance. He was, however, shy about taking all the credit himself.
“I wouldn’t personally credit myself, but thanks for that. But I think James Jamerson, him and me, I’d share the credit there. I was nicking a lot off him.
“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,” explained Paul.
“The danger with bass is that everybody else has got the interesting jobs and you’re just the last guy to get a part, and literally you get the root notes, two in a bar. But actually… now, I quite like that, I like the simplicity. Sort of country and western bass playing.”
Paul then told Tony that playing many of those trademark melodic bass parts could be quite difficult, especially if he was singing lead…
“The 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].
“So I had to put a little special effort into that, which made it very interesting. If you were singing ‘She was just 17…’ and going [sings energetic bass-line], well… that became the skill, I could just learn [sings I Saw Her Standing There bass-line], nicked from Chuck Berry as I’m sure you know, I’m Talking About You. I’ve given him credit, though.”
Near the end of the interview, which also covered McCartney’s bass choices and plectrum/thumb preferences, Macca updated Bacon on the then in-development Anthology project.
“It’s very good. Funniest thing is that we don’t always agree on the memories, because it’s 30 years ago. So it’s hilarious… on camera,” laughed Paul. “There’s one bit, Ringo’s telling a story, and he says, ‘At that point George had a sore throat…’ Camera pans to George, George says, ‘I thought it was Paul’, and the camera pans to me, and I say, ‘Well I know it was John.’
“And I’ve worked it out since, I say this to people: if Ringo thought it was George, it wasn’t Ringo; if George thought it was me, it wasn’t George; I thought it was John, so it wasn’t 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’s great, you’ve just got to laugh. It’s so human, so real. We forget… who cares? We did some great stuff. Exact analysis was never our bag. And it obviously still isn’t!”
