Give examples of songs on studio albums where the band has a regular full-time bassist but for whatever reason, the band's regular guitarist handles the bass duties on one or more songs. I've heard plenty of examples of this over the years but can't recall specifics. I'm pretty sure Ace Frehley in Kiss and Keith Richards in the Rolling Stones are two examples...
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One which immediately springs to mind is 'And You Tried So Hard' by Gong from Camembert Electrique - Daevid Allen switched to bass for that one.
Steve Jones played bass on all of Never Mind The Bollocks with the exception of one track which Glen Matlock was on. Sid wasn't up to the task.
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Jimi Hendrix played bass on Electric Maryland
Hendrix played bass on quite a few tracks.
If I recall correct, but probably more
Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)
Long Hot Summer Night
Gypsy Eyes
some if not all of 1983...(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
All Along the Watchtower
House Burning Down
Definitely a lite pet peeve of mine because a lot of guitarists play bass without a bass players' feel and -- well, at least for me -- is quite annoying to listen to...There are a few guitarists that play bass well but listed below are two that I dont think that do:
Joe Satriani plays a lot of bass on his albums and they have that one-dimensional feel to them
Jeff Lynne is another great example of the above: Excellent songsmith, horrible bass player. His bass lines have that one-dimensional feel and kind of lifeless (imo)......he played bass on many of ELO's later albums (and Traveling Wilburys), particularly on Secret Messages where Kelly Groucutt hardly played or sung on (leading to Groucutt's lawsuit of Lynne of which was settled out of court with a slice for Groucutt)
Paul Stanley also often played bass on his own songs on the Kiss records. I know it's been said it's him playing bass on Love Gun itself, for instance. I think the way it worked out was, they were always under such tight deadlines, whoever had an idea of what the bassline or the guitar riff or whatever, would play it. So Paul and Ace would play bass on the songs each of them wrote, and apparently, there's also examples of Gene Simmons playing at least rhythm guitar on his songs.Originally Posted by Garden Dreamer
In the case of The Stones, i read an interview with Bill Wyman where he said that they would work on a song for a week or longer, then say one day he might not be feeling well, so he'd call in sick, and that would be the day the band would end up cutting the "master take", with Keith on bass. Apparently, he'd get annoyed about that, as if Mick or Keith should have said "Right, we'll put off cutting the song until tomorrow when Bill's here". For what it's worth, that's the band's producer, Jimmy Miller playing drums on You Can't Always Get What You Want.
Not a guitarist, but I remember reading that one the Greg Kihn song Jeopardy, his keyboardist and bassist switched roles.
For KISS, add Paul Stanley, Bruce Kulick, and possibly (drummer) Eric Carr to that list.
Apparently, Sid was literally sick in bed, which I forget which band member it was who was said that turn of events proved "fortunate" for the recording sessions.
I forgot about REM -- there was a period (early 90s) where they were all switching roles ---both Peter Buck and drummer Bill Berry played bass on a few tracks.....I have always considered Mike Mills to be an excellent bass player so I often wondered why they did this but artists will be artists
Probably because someone who isn't the bassist comes up with a bassline, and it's easier to have him play bass on the final recording than try to get the regular bassist to cop the vibe the other guy has.I forgot about REM -- there was a period (early 90s) where they were all switching roles ---both Peter Buck and drummer Bill Berry played bass on a few tracks.....I have always considered Mike Mills to be an excellent bass player so I often wondered why they did this but artists will be artists
Of course, on the Boston records, nearly all the bass lines (as well as most of the other instruments) were played by Tom Scholz.
I seem to recall there was a Who single, I forget which one, where Townshend ended up playing bass, because Entwistle was unavoidably detained.
The last time I saw The Church, which was about 6 or 7 years ago, already, Marty-Willson Piper played bass on a couple songs.
And there's apparently a gaggle of Pink Floyd songs where it's Gilmour playing bass, not Waters.
Didn't John or George play bass on Hey Jude?
Peter Buck and Mike Mills are both multi-instrumentalists -- Buck plays mandolin and assorted unothodox instruments, like concertina. Mike Mills is a good guitarist in his own right and a decent piano player that played piano on a few earlier tracks (like "Dont Go Back To Rockville"). Bill Berry is actually an OK bass player..... For whatever reason, they were really exploring this in the early 90s and its prevelent on the Automatic For The People album...although their music was good in the early 90s and I should have been into this, REM had actually lost me years earlier around "Document": I was a huge fan of their early sound and, although I think they matured satisfactorily, there was a sense of "rural innocence" on those early albums and that was what attracted me to them in the first place. That sense disappeared around "Document" so my interest in them waned
and, yeah, all the really good basslines by Pink Floyd (including "Money", "Young Lust", and many others) were done by Gilmour, who is an example of a guitarist with decent bass player's feel...he also did all the fretless parts on "Hey You" from "The Wall"
Didnt Trevor Horn play bass on a track on Yes' "Drama"?
Andy Latimer on “Skylines” from Rain Dances. I really love that part!
Yes, on “Run Through the Light.” They gave Trevor the bass part on that one because Chris was playing piano on that song.
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
There's a lot of Beatles songs, especially later on, where they switched instruments. Lots of tunes with Paul playing guitar (perhaps most famously on Taxman), and quite a few where John or George play bass. In particular, when Paul played piano, one of the others would play bass. Let It Be, for instance is John playing bass. I forget if it's George or John playing bass on Hey Jude.
I'm not sure about Money. I had the understanding the period of Gilmour playing bass started more around Animals and The Wall. I could have sworn I saw an interview once where Gilmour implied they had hired a session player to do the fretless bass on Hey You. I do remember an interview around the time he released About Face (where nearly all the bass lines were done on a fretless) that he could "only play fretless well enough for the demos". I do remember that supposedly, Waters won a "musician" poll in one of the UK magazines (probably Melody Maker) and he thanked Gilmour for helping him win it.
Oh, and of course, both Waters and Gilmour are playing bass in the intro of One Of These Days. One is panned hard right, the other is panned hard left, the two of them playing different basses. I think Gilmour said they sent a roadie out to buy some strings for one of the basses, but he apparently got sidetracked trying to pull birds or whatever. So according to Gilmour, one of the basses is a "bit dead sounding" because it had old strings on it.
I stand corrected -- well, partially: I just researched it and Waters did play the Money bassline...However, it was entirely Gilmour's creation....and Gilmour also re-recorded it for "A Collection of Great Dance Songs", which is probably where my mis-information came from.
but Gilmour did play the fretless on "Hey You" ( a Zemaitis fretless bass).... In a magazine interview, Gilmour even scoffed at the idea of Waters playing a fretless - I guess they were still at odds at the time
Heres a list of songs that Gilmour played bass on
The Narrow Way pts. 1-3
Fat Old Sun
One Of These Days
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (pt. VI)
Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Sheep
Comfortably Numb
Don't Leave Me Now
Goodbye Blue Sky
Hey You
Mother
Nobody Home
The Show Must Go On
The Trial
Waiting For The Worms
Young Lust
Money (A Collection of Great Dance Songs)
High Hopes
Wearing The Inside Out
Tom Petty has played bass on a few tracks (he was the bassist in his first band).
Frank Zappa played bass on most of the album Zoot Allures.
Interesting. I'd always wondered, and just figured that Paul overdubbed himself, or they called in Klaus Voorman.
If you watch the clip of them doing Let It Be in the movie, John is playing, I think, a Fender Bass VI. The Long And Winding Road is another song where John played the Bass VI.
I just looked up Hey Jude on Wiki, and there it says Paul played bass as well as piano, so he must have overdubbed it on there.
Also some of the songs on Obscured by Clouds? The pictures from the sessions have quite a few with Gilmour on bass and Waters on guitar.
Fred Frith plays bass on many albums
Like here in Aqsak Maboul (wrong album cover displayed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4rNbvmaysY
“Pleasure and pain can be experienced simultaneously,” she said, gently massaging my back as we listened to her Coldplay CD.
Ian Anderson plays most of the bass in Stormwatch.
The only time to date I've seen him live was with John Zorn's Naked City where he was the bassist.
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