Why Paul McCartney Remained the Bass Player for Wings
Paul McCartney is easily the most famous bass player of any band. It’s rare for any bass player also to be a frontman, yet that’s precisely what he did when he was with The Beatles. McCartney admittedly enjoyed playing the guitar more, but he still stuck with the bass when he formed his second band, Wings.
Paul McCartney felt audiences wanted to see him play bass with Wings
Paul McCartney had been with The Beatles for over a decade, and many had grown accustomed to seeing and hearing him on bass guitar. However, with Wings, McCartney had much more freedom since he was the leader and frontman of the band. Still, McCartney was a showman at heart, and he knew many fans wanted to see what they were familiar with.
In a 1994 interview with Guitar World, McCartney said he stuck with the bass guitar because he wanted to give audiences what they wanted.
“I always approach a tour by thinking as if I’m not there,” Well, this geezer McCartney’s going on tour, what would I like to see him do? Well, I’d like to see him play bass – he’s good on that old bass. So I’d think, I must play bass. The man in the audience, the girl in the audience, would expect me to play bass. I’d probably want him to do Yesterday, so we’ll sling that in somewhere.”
McCartney wanted to play guitar for The Beatles
Initially, Stuart Sutcliffe was the bassist for The Beatles. However, he left the band early on, and they needed someone to take his place. In an interview with Reverb, McCartney said he didn’t want to play bass since it wasn’t usually an attractive role within a band. However, George Harrison and John Lennon already owned guitars, so he reluctantly accepted the role.
“I didn’t have a guitar, see, so I couldn’t really say, ‘But I want to be a guitarist.’ They’d say, ‘Well, get a f****** guitar then—that might be a start!’” McCartney said. “As I say, I’d been playing piano, which was on the stage, and that was quite good for me, gave me a lot of piano practice. I couldn’t really play, but I learned. So I was quite glad to get back in the front line.”
McCartney felt it was harder to play bass with Wings
The Beatles were a mostly equal group, with all four members playing essential roles in the band. While Lennon and McCartney were co-leaders, Ringo Starr and Harrison still had a say and were able to write songs if they wished to. The band also had Apple Corps. and manager Brian Epstein to handle any business issues.
With Wings, Paul McCartney had to handle everything himself while also being the band leader. He told Reverb that being passionate about playing bass was harder since he had so much more responsibility.
“I think it was okay, but I think I never quite had the interest that I had during that sort of dream period around Sgt. Pepper and Rubber Soul, when I was doing something,” McCartney said. “See, with Wings, I was now the band leader, the business manager, the this, the that…In The Beatles, I’d been free of all of that. We had a manager, we had three other great guys.”
“I think there was like a prize period when I was playing my best bass, and I think after that I had so much to do that I wasn’t free to just do the bass,” he added. “I could concentrate everything on writing the song, singing harmony with John, or playing the bass, pretty much my role, or maybe playing a bit of piano or guitar or something.”
