One of my favorite bass lines is in the closing part of “Paint it Black”. It is a single, hypnotic note played three times as the melody pauses: “whum, whum, whum”. It has an odd, droning sound. What instrument is used to play this? I always assumed it was just a bass tweaked through a fuzz box, but after I read about how they experimented with the song (adding a sitar, etc), I wonder.
Hmm, the text doesn’t show. But, an organ? That’s really interesting. The book is about the fretless bass, and that itself is a clue, I think he was sliding the note a bit. So I guess he is able to slide the note on the organ somehow?
Here’s the relevant passage from the link in Post #2 (with my added notes):
This 1960s video of the Stones performing (or more accurately, miming, at least instrumentally) “Paint It Black” shows Wyman’s bass-playing with glissando/slide technique during the coda (Wyman second from right).
While “Paint It Black” is considered to be in the key of E minor, the recorded version is almost a semitone higher. Modern recordings of the Stones playing the song live are in E minor. This suggests, similar to “Light My Fire” discussed recently in another thread, that the record was speeded up slightly when mixed for release.
Regarding Wyman’s discussion of using “Hammond organ pedals”, Wyman is credited, on the Wikipedia page for the song, with playing the Hammond B3 organ. The B3 has foot pedals which allow a bass part to be played with the feet. So, it would seem, that the bass part in the coda of “Paint It Black” is a blend of electric bass guitar and Hammond organ foot pedals, by doubling them together.
Wow. So much effort and talent to get those few, dramatic notes! It’s nice to know that what stands out in the song for me was memorable enough for him to write the story of it.
It reminds me of a story about the dramatic ending of Roy Orbison’s “Running Scared”. He had been singing it falsetto and it was getting lost in the mix. Somehow he managed to sing that last note (G above high C) in full natural voice. When he looked around after ending, the band was dumbstruck, just standing there with open jaws at what they had just heard. That single note pretty much became his signature work, he almost always ended concerts with “Running Scared”. It was the last note he sang in public before he died.
Dennis
In one version of that song it sounds like someone is dribbling a basketball, in perfect rhythm. Not Charlie Watts, I’m sure; he had enough to do in that song, God knows!
Trivia: Jack Nitzsche who wrote the “The Last Race”, featured in Village of the Giants and Death Proof, and also wrote The Razor’s Edge soundtrack… played piano on Paint it Black.
I just assumed that slid note was a slid note on an electric bass. It slides up to a B just before the 1 beat and then slides down right after, three times, bam bam bam.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk