The role of the bass guitar in rock music was reinvented in the 1960s by players like Paul McCartney, who was heavily inspired by Motown bassist James Jamerson. Jamerson’s melodic style added a special touch to the songs he played on. The Beatles were the leading band of the so-called British Invasion in the 1960s, which demonstrated that British groups could achieve global success with their unique approach to music and songwriting.
Over the course of his career, McCartney had the opportunity to meet and see many other incredible bass players. He shared his opinions on some of them, including the late legendary The Who member John Entwistle.
What is Paul McCartney’s opinion on John Entwistle
Like most Rock and Roll bass players Paul McCartney also was a fan of John Entwistle’s bass playing. He even told the Brazilian newspaper Estadão, that he was the one he would pick to be part of his dream band, although he took a while to choose. The group also would have John Bonham on drums, Billy Preston on keyboards, Jimi Hendrix on guitar and Elvis Presley on vocals.
Over the years, Paul McCartney became a good friend of The Who members and even visited them in the studio once in a while, like in 1977, when he praised John Entwistle’s bass playing on a Roger Daltrey solo track. “Paul walked into the control room while I was recording a particularly fast, flashy solo on ‘Avenging Annie,’ an Andy Pratt song. After I had finished it, he came out on to the studio floor and said to me, ‘That was very nice. But I bet you can’t play country and western.’ I replied by playing a lightning fast, slapping bluegrass passage. Paul muttered as he left, ‘Flash cunt,’” John Entwistle recalled in his memoir notes released in the biography “The Ox” (2020).
John Entwistle said he might have inspired Paul McCartney to use the Rickenbacker bass guitar
They had the chance to meet each other in the early ’60s when The Who opened for The Beatles. Entwistle even said he might have been the inspiration for Paul McCartney to have gotten a Rickenbacker bass guitar. Because when the bands were sharing the bill back then, he had just got a brand-new bass of that model, according to him it was only the second in England. The Who was excited to see The Beatles perform that night, because they had just released “A Hard Day’s Night”, which was the biggest record in the United Kingdom at the time. When he heard they were going to the stage, he got out of his dressing room “(…) Just as John Lennon rushed by. ‘Hey ya!’ he shouted into my face. The smell of beer nearly knocked me over.”
“By the time I recovered, the other three Beatles were already in their dressing room. Coming offstage after our first set, I found myself face to face with Paul McCartney. ‘The Rickenbacker sounded pretty good— what’s it like?’ he asked me. ‘It’s great, nice trebly strings. You just have to watch the angle of the strings in the nut,’ I told him. I guess he must have believed me, he bought one soon after,” John Entwistle said in his memoir notes. They were published in the biography “The Ox”, written by Paul Rees.
McCartney thought bassists like John Entwistle and Jack Bruce were interesting but he had some reservations
Although McCartney praised John Entwistle over the years, he had some reservations about some players like him. In 1990 he was asked by Guitar Player magazine in how he reacted in the late 60s when a “new breed” of lead bassists like Jack Bruce and John Entwistle. “I thought it was quite interesting. To me, it depends who you’re talking about, and what record, but often I thought it was too busy.”
“I often thought it was like the bass as lead guitar. I don’t think it makes as nice a noise as lead guitar. It’s sort of like speed merchants. I’ve never been one. I remember reading where someone said that someone’s the fastest bass player ever. (So) I thought, ‘Big deal.’ You know, there used to be a guy in Britain. I think he’s still around, called Bert Weedon, who used to come onto the children’s TV programs. He used to say, ‘I’m now going to play 1,000 notes in a minute.’ Then he’d get one string and go dididididid and play up and down, hitting it very, very fast. It was quite funny, actually. It’s one thing to be fast, but that’s short-lived. I think I’d rather be melodic. I’d rather have content than just speed,” Paul McCartney said.
The Who inspired Paul McCartney and The Beatles
The Beatle always liked The Who and was inspired by them a couple of times. Like when he read that Pete Townshend said “I Can See For Miles” was the “dirtiest, loudest, filthiest record ever”. That statement inspired McCartney to come up with “Helter Skelter”.
Paul McCartney loves The Who and even admitted over the years that he was influenced by the group led by Pete Townshend, who is the guitarist and main songwriter. It was him who inspired McCartney and The Beatles to record “Helter Skelter”. “You keep up with what’s going on, I do these days, still. Just because it’s interesting. Sometimes inspires you to do things, sometimes you get a little jealous.”
“I remember, with The Who, I read once that Townshend, he was talking to a newspaper. He said: ‘We just done the dirtiest, loudest, filthiest record ever! I went ‘Wow, we gotta do that. We can get louder, filthier and dirtier. So I go into the studio and say this to the guys and that was ‘Helter Skelter’,” he told Marc Moron in 2018 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). The interviewer asks if it was a big ‘f*ck you Pete Townshend‘ and he said “Yeah, man. And I still don’t know about which track he was talking about.”