# Bass line in "Paint it Black"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bass-line-in-paint-it-black/761359
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 31, 2016, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bass-line-in-paint-it-black/761359 "2016-07-31T05:19:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2016, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bass-line-in-paint-it-black/761359/1 "2016-07-31T05:19:47Z")
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.
Dennis
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2016, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bass-line-in-paint-it-black/761359/2 "2016-07-31T05:31:08Z")
Hammond organ pedals. Wyman explains [here.](https://books.google.com.au/books?id=QJ1MAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA35)
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2016, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bass-line-in-paint-it-black/761359/3 "2016-07-31T05:59:41Z")
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?
Dennis
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### Author:  [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2016, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bass-line-in-paint-it-black/761359/4 "2016-07-31T13:05:47Z")
Here’s the relevant passage from the link in Post #2 (with my added notes):
> [@](#):
>
> During the climactic final verse and outro of “Paint It Black”, Wyman repeatedly slams beats _two_ and _four_ with heavy-handed E-string glisses _[slides]_ that sounded like nothing else on radio at the time. “I was the first electric bassist to play those”, Wyman nods. “No one else could play like that, but the Stones quite liked it. When we were finished with “Paint It Black”, though, the boys thought the bass still needed something a bit more _ballsy_. I suggested Hammond organ pedals but then realized I didn’t know how to play 'em! So I laid on the floor and punched the pedals with my fists, like you would a xylophone” _[Note: this is not an orthodox xylophone-playing technique]_.
[This 1960s video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yClt_hDRqs&feature=youtu.be&t=130) 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](http://beta.asoundstrategy.com/sitemaster/userUploads/site153/get-attachment-34.aspx2..jpg) 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.
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2016, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bass-line-in-paint-it-black/761359/5 "2016-07-31T19:45:48Z")
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
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### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2016, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bass-line-in-paint-it-black/761359/6 "2016-08-03T22:57:33Z")
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!
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### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2016, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bass-line-in-paint-it-black/761359/7 "2016-08-04T01:54:06Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2016, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bass-line-in-paint-it-black/761359/8 "2016-08-04T01:57:19Z")
> [@mixdenny](#):
>
> 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?
>
> Dennis
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
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### Author:  [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2016, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bass-line-in-paint-it-black/761359/9 "2016-08-04T04:39:55Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#):
>
> 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.
He did a lot more than that.
He made the song “Expecting to Fly” with Neil Young, for one.