![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Paul-McCartney-December-1967-The-Beatles-Musician-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n
Wed 4 June 2025 18:51, UK <\/p>\n
There\u2019s an argument to be made that Paul McCartney\u2019s<\/a> bass is one of the most-heard instruments in history. After all, according to reports, The Beatles have sold over 1.6 billion singles in the United States alone, along with 177 million albums. Globally, their album sales have reached an astonishing 600 million.<\/p>\n If those figures hadn\u2019t been ratified ten times over, then they wouldn\u2019t be believed. Especially considering that the population on Earth was only 3.1billion when the Fab Four first emerged. The sheer size of reach McCartney achieved doesn\u2019t even incorporate the millions of fans who have witnessed him live or purchased his solo records. <\/p>\n With numbers like that to his name, it is simply impossible for Paul McCartney not to have influenced every bassist that has followed, at the very least, in some far-removed, nebulous sense, the sound of The Beatles will have shaped them. Their impact was so seismic that you were either inspired by them or inspired to not be like them, but you certainly couldn\u2019t ignore them.\u00a0<\/p>\n His melodic technique has been cited by countless players as a pivotal milestone in the evolution of the instrument, giving rise to artists such as John Paul Jones and Rush\u2019s Geddy Lee<\/a>. His trademark trick was that his stunning complexity only became apparent when you isolated the bass part. He flowed with the song so rhythmically that some of his acrobatics are barely noticed when you listen casually. However, even heroes have a hero, and Paul McCartney is no different.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, who is Paul McCartney\u2019s favourite bassist?<\/p>\n During a Q&A with fans, Macca was asked the instrumental question: \u201cWho was the biggest influence upon your bass playing?\u201d to which he responded with a seemingly casual nonchalance: \u201cThe biggest influence on my bass playing was James Jamerson, who played on many of my favourite Motown releases\u201d. <\/p>\n For those born this side of the century, it\u2019s hard to quantify just how impactful Jamerson\u2019s four-string was. The rhythm behind some of the greatest pop hits during the most impressive explosion of pop records of all time, his place in the pantheon of bass players, is confirmed even without the many admirers he has since influenced. <\/p>\n Sir Paul McCartney is certainly not alone in lauding the heralded Motown man of the four-string. <\/a>Dougie Payne, who plays bass in Travis,<\/a>\u00a0exclusively told\u00a0Far Out, \u201cI saw the movie\u00a0Standing In The Shadows of Motown\u00a0and became utterly obsessed with [bass player] James Jamerson. I started obsessively listening to his basslines\u201d.<\/p>\n He adds, \u201cThen I heard a story about how he was playing on stage in a club once and Marvin Gaye arrived and physically dragged him off to come and play on his record in the studio. Jamerson was so steaming drunk that he played all the basslines lying down. I\u2019ve tried doing it myself,\u201d Dougie joked, \u201cAnd it\u2019s just about impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Paul-McCartney-1972-Musician-Kurt-Schollenberger-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ Kurt Schollenberger \/ ETH Library)<\/p>\n