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Post by joshilynhoisington on Mar 2, 2022 1:35:19 GMT
It's funny, the Beach Boys really are not really a very acoustic-guitar-y band, despite all the textural experimentation the band did, the acoustic guitar was never a big part of their sound in any way. So it's hard to pick out an especially interesting idiomatic use of the acoustic guitar. I'll go with the thick three-acoustic guitar texture of the "Please let me Wonder" chorus as a favourite moment.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 3, 2022 18:54:37 GMT
Shall we continue?
Meghan Trainor claimed it was all about that bass. Seems excessive. But it's at least partly about that bass. So up next, what is your favorite example/usage of bass, be it standup, electric, or whatever else? (Gotta have strings, though, no synth. That's its own category, to come later.)
Bass
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Post by joshilynhoisington on Mar 4, 2022 4:12:07 GMT
I Just Wasn't Made for These Times.
Increasingly I believe the electric bass on this track to be a short-scale six-string bass, likely a Danelectro. It's almost the perfect example of Brian almost cello-like conceptualization of the electric bass, that burned incandescently for such a short time.
Ray Pohlman starts by playing a circular figure relatively high in the instrument's compass with a clicky tone but light touch, a good octave above the string bass's more pedestrian (in the literal sense, kind of) descending low line. Then, for the second phase of the song, the string bass and electric unite all'unisono with the electric really digging in, then they break apart again for the pre-chorus, then reunite in ecstatic union again for the chorus. Good stuff.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 4, 2022 12:35:50 GMT
I won't say it's necessarily my pick, but the first thing that comes to mind is a tune we were (I guess somewhat humorously, considering it is on Pet Sounds) discussing in the Friends album thread, "Sloop John B."
There is nothing whatsoever about the part itself that stands out: it's very basic (though the way it enters the song during the first verse is pretty cool, while it works its way into the settled part). It gives the song such an insistent drive. And the electric bass tone is almost nasty, it has such power.
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Post by carllove on Mar 4, 2022 13:13:19 GMT
For me it's a toss up between "Don't Talk" and "Here Today".
I think there are actually an electric and upright bass on "Don't Talk" - Carol Kaye and Lyle Ritz. The way the line follows the vocals instead of mirroring the vocals is almost Jazz like. It adds so much to a song that is in my top 5 of Beach Boys songs.
"Here Today" - Somewhere between the Beatles and Bach. The part during "You've got to keep in mind love is here today, And it's gone tomorrow, It's here and gone so fast", is just perfection.
Also a big fan of the bass line on "Busy Doin' Nothin'". I like a good bossa nova.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 4, 2022 14:25:16 GMT
Honestly it seems like the whole Pet Sounds album could be nominated for best bass. So many cool--and inventive--parts.
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Post by joshilynhoisington on Mar 4, 2022 15:38:53 GMT
I won't say it's necessarily my pick, but the first thing that comes to mind is a tune we were (I guess somewhat humorously, considering it is on Pet Sounds) discussing in the Friends album thread, "Sloop John B."
There is nothing whatsoever about the part itself that stands out: it's very basic (though the way it enters the song during the first verse is pretty cool, while it works its way into the settled part). It gives the song such an insistent drive. And the electric bass tone is almost nasty, it has such power.
The intro and the bridge parts are great. If you have the 5.1 mix of Sloop John B and the ability to split the channels, you'll find that Mark graciously used one channel upon which to put only the drum and bass sax track. One of my favourite things to experience in this life is hearing off-mike instruments on isolated Beach Boys tracks, and on this particular isolated track, you can hear Carol enter -- typically at Western, they'd put the drums up in the front right corner facing the middle of the room, and then the electric bass would go next to that set up. So Carol's amp was probably 6-10 feet away from Hal's overhead mic. The thing that's strikes me about it is how low her amp volume must have been.
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Post by joshilynhoisington on Mar 4, 2022 15:42:08 GMT
For me it's a toss up between "Don't Talk" and "Here Today". I think there are actually an electric and upright bass on "Don't Talk" - Carol Kaye and Lyle Ritz. The way the line follows the vocals instead of mirroring the vocals is almost Jazz like. It adds so much to a song that is in my top 5 of Beach Boys songs. "Here Today" - Somewhere between the Beatles and Bach. The part during "You've got to keep in mind love is here today, And it's gone tomorrow, It's here and gone so fast", is just perfection. Also a big fan of the bass line on "Busy Doin' Nothin'". I like a good bossa nova. Don't Talk is a very jazz ballad kind of bass deal, especially if you consider the string bass, which is playing arco, with the bow, the whole time other than the descending unisons coming out of the choruses. It's a nifty effect, with Carol playing the palm muted, percussive staccati and the string bass its lugubrious whole notes below. Here Today is very much in the same vein as IJWMFTT with the String bass and Electric bass often playing completely different parts, then uniting in dramatic moments.
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Post by carllove on Mar 4, 2022 16:56:33 GMT
For me it's a toss up between "Don't Talk" and "Here Today". I think there are actually an electric and upright bass on "Don't Talk" - Carol Kaye and Lyle Ritz. The way the line follows the vocals instead of mirroring the vocals is almost Jazz like. It adds so much to a song that is in my top 5 of Beach Boys songs. "Here Today" - Somewhere between the Beatles and Bach. The part during "You've got to keep in mind love is here today, And it's gone tomorrow, It's here and gone so fast", is just perfection. Also a big fan of the bass line on "Busy Doin' Nothin'". I like a good bossa nova. Don't Talk is a very jazz ballad kind of bass deal, especially if you consider the string bass, which is playing arco, with the bow, the whole time other than the descending unisons coming out of the choruses. It's a nifty effect, with Carol playing the palm muted, percussive staccati and the string bass its lugubrious whole notes below. Here Today is very much in the same vein as IJWMFTT with the String bass and Electric bass often playing completely different parts, then uniting in dramatic moments. Thanks so much Joshilyn for explaining what is going on with the bass in those songs. It just amazes me all of the details in these recordings. Between yourself and Stephen Desper, I have gained so much knowledge and even more respect for the music of The Beach Boys.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 4, 2022 18:17:13 GMT
Only a year later but a different universe of bass playing, how about Ron Brown's three tracks (per Craig S) on Wild Honey? "Darlin," "I Was Made to Love Her," and "Here Comes the Night." The former two in particular are pretty cool.
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Post by carllove on Mar 4, 2022 18:33:41 GMT
I almost mentioned the bass on "I Was Made to Love Her", but since it's a cover, I left that one off. Great bass playing there. The Boys getting funky! If I want to get in a good mood - I play my cassette of Rarities that has "I Was Made to Love Her" with the extra tag.
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Post by joshilynhoisington on Mar 4, 2022 23:10:16 GMT
Only a year later but a different universe of bass playing, how about Ron Brown's three tracks (per Craig S) on Wild Honey? "Darlin," "I Was Made to Love Her," and "Here Comes the Night." The former two in particular are pretty cool. The whole Ron Brown thing is pretty interesting, it's not entirely clear what all he ended up playing on, unfortunately he doesn't make the contracts, maybe because he was being paid out as a touring band member. But those three tracks are likely candidates for being him indeed, and he certainly brought the level of competency up a bit when he took over from Carl or Brian. I wouldn't say his reading of the IWMTLH bass line is the most crisp, but it's quite respectable. He's certainly someone it would have been great to hear more from directly -- I don't know if anybody in Beach Boys Land really knows what happened to him?
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 4, 2022 23:23:12 GMT
Only a year later but a different universe of bass playing, how about Ron Brown's three tracks (per Craig S) on Wild Honey? "Darlin," "I Was Made to Love Her," and "Here Comes the Night." The former two in particular are pretty cool. The whole Ron Brown thing is pretty interesting, it's not entirely clear what all he ended up playing on, unfortunately he doesn't make the contracts, maybe because he was being paid out as a touring band member. But those three tracks are likely candidates for being him indeed, and he certainly brought the level of competency up a bit when he took over from Carl or Brian. I wouldn't say his reading of the IWMTLH bass line is the most crisp, but it's quite respectable. He's certainly someone it would have been great to hear more from directly -- I don't know if anybody in Beach Boys Land really knows what happened to him? If he's still around, this seems like a great opportunity for beachboystalkmatt...
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Post by B.E. on Mar 5, 2022 14:01:46 GMT
I plan to catch up in this thread at some point, but for now: the bass in the B-section of “Bluebirds Over The Mountain”. Not necessarily my favorite bass moment in their catalog but one that stands out to me as worth mentioning. I think it’s ear-catching and really propels the song forward. It’s also just a little busier than we are accustomed to with the Beach Boys, but not too busy. I like it a lot.
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sockit
The Surfer Moon
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Post by sockit on Mar 5, 2022 16:54:57 GMT
Another bassline from Wild Honey worth a mention is in "I'd Love Just Once to See You". I know it's a pretty simple figure, but I never noticed until hearing the stereo remix on Sunshine Tomorrow the really nice clean attacks on the bass notes. Apparently picked (something I don't use often as a blues player).
A similar style can be heard in the bassline to Sunflower's "All I Wanna Do". Again, a pretty simple riff, but a really nice clean, warm sound.
Edit: Gotta mention one more (as I hinted at above, I'm a bass guy!) "Time to Get Alone". Here again, clean distinct, and warm tone, but in no ways complex. Interesting to note that these songs I'm mentioning are from about the same era.
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