There’s always a slight suspicion that the bass player in the band wants to be the guitarist. When Paul McCartney first saw The Quarrymen at the Woolton Church Fete and eventually joined his band, there was no way he was going to usurp John as the guitarist. And his young pal George Harrison was adept on lead guitar. So, reluctantly, Paul picked up the bass. And got very good at it.
One of the greatest ever bass players is a woman: Carol Kaye. You may never have heard of her. She became the most in-demand session bass player in the 60s and 70s and plays bass on Pet Sounds and Wichita Lineman. Here’s some other artists she played with: Ray Charles, Bobby Womack, Cher, Dusty Springfield, The Supremes, The Temptations, Buffalo Springfield, Frank Black, Love, The Mothers of Invention, Simon and Garfunkel, The O’Jays, Neil Young, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Frank Sinatra, The Crystals, The Righteous Brothers.
Do female bass players have a different approach? I’m not sure you can divide it by gender – this episode is more a celebration of great bass players who so happen to be female and shining a light on them. What one can say, however, is that in the past they may have felt a little like second class citizens within the band and that includes Talking Heads, Pixies and Sonic Youth, despite Tina Weymouth and the two Kims Deal and Gordon being a major element in defining those bands’ sounds.
I hope, when one considers more recent bands, that such power dynamics have dwindled in significance, but maybe it still lingers here and there.. Sneaks, the first artist, is entirely a bassist-singer project and elsewhere artists such as Emma Kupa in Standard Fare are effectively band leader. On funk bands such as Bush Tetras and ESG, it would be impossible to imagine the bands without the bass calling the shots - and they happen to be all-female projects anyway. In bands such as Superchunk the bass is more a valued team member, but pull their weight nonetheless.
Hope, as ever, you enjoy the selections.
Tracklist:
Tough luck, Sneaks
Snakey, Wombo
Philadelphia, Standard Fare
Too much money, Automatic
So sick, Unrest
Driveway to driveway, Superchunk
You can’t be funky, Bush Tetras
Moody, ESG
Had ten dollaz, Cherry Glazerr
Easier said, Sunflower Bean
Hold me up (thank you), Khruangbin
Tame, Pixies
The empty page, Sonic Youth
Listening wind, Talking Heads