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Carol Kaye


stewblack
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She's on so many seminal recordings that, either directly or indirectly, she has to be an influence on anyone who's picked up a bass since. She's on 2 of my favourite songs, guitar on You've Lost That Loving Feeling and bass on River Deep Mountain High.

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22 minutes ago, BlueMoon said:

One of my favourites is I'm A Believer (Monkees)....great line IMO.

Actually, that was Russ Savakus.

You might be thinking of Daydream Believer.  (Nope, that was Chip Douglas)

Edited by MrCrane
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2 hours ago, WHUFC BASS said:

There's a lot of controversy about her claiming to play a lot of the James Jameson lines on the Motown stuff. Dunno why she felt the need to do that as she's played on so many classic songs.

 

I've assumed that's more to do with the huge number of sessions she's played on, and a slightly failing memory, than an attempt to steal anyone's thunder.

Edited by ahpook
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1 hour ago, WHUFC BASS said:

There's a lot of controversy about her claiming to play a lot of the James Jameson lines on the Motown stuff. Dunno why she felt the need to do that as she's played on so many classic songs.

Artists would often record different versions of the same song, sometimes with different arrangements, sometimes with different musicians. I'm not overly familiar with Jameson's or Kaye's history, but it's quite probable that each would have been called in for different takes/versions of the same song. As time goes by, for some songs, even for the featured artist and producer, knowing exactly whose bass part ended up on the released version would be nigh on impossible to ascertain.

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6 hours ago, SteveK said:

Artists would often record different versions of the same song, sometimes with different arrangements, sometimes with different musicians. I'm not overly familiar with Jameson's or Kaye's history, but it's quite probable that each would have been called in for different takes/versions of the same song. As time goes by, for some songs, even for the featured artist and producer, knowing exactly whose bass part ended up on the released version would be nigh on impossible to ascertain.

Exactly. Do we know what version she was claiming? I think everyone knows she's not on the the Stevie Wonder song but she could easily have been on another version.

Back in the 60's and 70's there were lots of versions of songs. Motown recorded some songs a dozen times. They also recorded in LA (CK did play on some of those recordings) and some of those tracks were shipped back to Detroit for overdubs and various parts to be rerecorded. In the end the water gets a little muddy. Jamerson himself claimed to have recorded Cool Jerk, when it was actually Bob Babbitt. And I saw Scott Edwards, on Talkbass, telling Lee Sklar off for claiming one of his tunes. A few years ago, US Session players started to get royalties for their old work, if they registered in time. Maybe this mix up came out of that.

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18 hours ago, SteveK said:

Artists would often record different versions of the same song, sometimes with different arrangements, sometimes with different musicians. I'm not overly familiar with Jameson's or Kaye's history, but it's quite probable that each would have been called in for different takes/versions of the same song. As time goes by, for some songs, even for the featured artist and producer, knowing exactly whose bass part ended up on the released version would be nigh on impossible to ascertain.

Would the basslines have been note for note on each song though? I find it hard to believe that Carol Kaye would play an identical bassline to Jameson and vice-versa.

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CK was a jazz guitarist, which accounts for the pick. She started on bass when a bass player failed to show up for a session so she played the studio bass. Back then most studio players would have used foam to even out the notes, damp the strings and take some dynamics out of the sound.

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1 hour ago, Grahambythesea said:

I always thought it strange that she’s a pick player but stuck a great wedge of foam under the strings to dampen the sound down.

Not quite. She taped felt over the strings as she felt this worked better when using a pick.

See tip 113

http://carolkaye.com/www/education/tips101.htm

and tip 100 here

https://www.carolkaye.com/www/education/tips51.htm

 

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23 hours ago, MrCrane said:

Not quite. She taped felt over the strings as she felt this worked better when using a pick.

See tip 113

http://carolkaye.com/www/education/tips101.htm

and tip 100 here

https://www.carolkaye.com/www/education/tips51.htm

 

Thank you so much for sharing these links. What fascinating reading.

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