Check the Bass player on some of the recognized hits in american music!

kirkout

DCPG
BGOL Investor
That’s amazing how people judge someone by their looks and write them off. If they knew who she was they would’ve been kowtowing and genuflecting. And let her conduct the interview inside the studio regardless of who was inside recording. I bet money whoever was renting out the studio would not mind. The history lesson they could’ve learned. They may have learned a thing or two about playing the bass and music in general. That was crazy how they gave no fucks. I am never too busy to learn about history or learning something, period. Wow.
 

geechiedan

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
There's a dispute about who played on Steve Wonder's I was made to love her, Carol Kaye or John Jamerson.

Who played bass on this track is a matter of dispute. Motown used top Los Angeles studio musicians like Carol Kaye for some of their recordings at this time, but records of these sessions are either nonexistent or inaccurate, as certain union rules were bypassed to make them happen. Kaye has a clear memory of playing on this track, and she told Songfacts about it. "The first four bars were written, so that thing was pretty straight," said Kaye. "The first bar was written to give me an indication of what they wanted the rest of the tune. And then another part I can remember was written - that triad lick was written. And I screwed that one up. [laughing] I mean, you always remember when you make a mistake on the hits. I made plenty of mistakes, but the feel of the record was good, and that's the main thing. So the rest, I was on my own. No problem, a lot of chromatics and just aiming for the triads and stuff."

Refuting Carol's claims is Allan Slutsky, author of Standing In The Shadows of Motown. His research shows that James Jamerson, who was the bass player of the Motown house band The Funk Brothers, played the bass on this track. All Motown associates he contacted, including the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team, said it was Jamerson. Hank Crosby, who co-wrote and did production on this song, signed an affidavit saying that the bass line was performed by Jamerson.


IMO its possible they BOTH played on the track at different sessions but for the released recording producers choose to go with Jamerson... :dunno:

THE INTERVIEW:
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Songfacts: You're doing three or four songs in a session, though.

Kaye: Oh, at least. Five sometimes. And then with the Motown cash dates, we would do six to ten tunes. And you're creating lines on that stuff, too. It was kind of hard at times to make each one sound different, but that's what you did.

Songfacts: That's an interesting point you bring up. You're creating these lines, so it's not like you're just in there going through the motions of what somebody tells you.

Kaye: That's right. And the tunes are always very different in nature.

The curator of the Motown Museum tells us that there is no official list of credits as to who played what on their songs. Motown opened an office in Los Angeles in 1964 and did a lot of recording there away from their Detroit base. These recordings were not documented, possibly because they skirted certain union rules, but various accounts, including interviews with Motown engineer Armin Steiner, say they happened. Carol points out that Motown's Funk Brothers - and their bass player James Jamerson in particular - created the classic Motown sound, which the Los Angeles crew would use as a template when they got the call. She kept a record of the 168 dates she recorded with Motown, and while some of these recordings did not make it to the final mix, Motown was a very smart company, and was not likely to record with the best session players in Los Angeles only to use them as demos.
Songfacts: The Stevie Wonder song that you played on, "I Was Made To Love Her." Can you tell me about coming up with that bass riff and what happened during that session?

Kaye: Well, the first four bars were written, so that thing was pretty straight. The first bar was written to give me an indication of what they wanted for the rest of the tune. And then another part I can remember was written - that triad lick was written. And I screwed that one up. [laughing] I mean, you always remember when you make a mistake on the hits. I made plenty of mistakes, but the feel of the record was good and that's the main thing.

So the rest, I was on my own. No problem, a lot of chromatics and just aiming for the triads and stuff.

Songfacts: Did you ever make a mistake and have the producer like it?

Kaye: Oh, yeah. In fact, a lot of times they'd tell me to add more of that or something. When I recorded "Elusive Butterfly" [by Bob Lind] it was at Sunset Sound. It was kind of a boring tune. I think it was D-flat or something, and it stays a long time in that chord and then it moves in a funny way to the next chord - it's like a sidebar phrase or something like that. I missed it and I went to go up to the G-flat or whatever and I missed it and I came right back down. I did a slide up and down. And they stopped and I thought, "Uh oh, he caught me." He said, "Do more of those!" [laughing] So the slide was born, then. I'd stick that slide in here and there on the records I cut.


WAIT. SHE WAS THE BASS ON THE BRADY BUNCH THEME???:guitar03::blush:

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Songfacts: Do you have a favorite of the TV themes that you've done?

Kaye: Oh yeah. Well, a lot of them. I love "Hikky Burr," which was the Bill Cosby thing that I did. I loved Mission: Impossible, and I loved M*A*S*H. Some of the things, like Wonder Woman and The Streets of San Francisco, I loved that. It Takes a Thief, that one I like. Kojak, Brady Bunch was fun, except it was a lot of trouble. But I had a chance to play all the 16th notes that I like to play. But they wanted a lot of highs on my bass. I loved them all, because they were all fun to cut.

Songfacts: Are you still getting some residuals when these shows air?

Kaye: Yeah, not much. They're cutting down on the royalties now, so there's not much. What they pay on is the hit records that they re-use in a film. So you get a check once a year. I think I got 5 cents a year for King of Kings. [laughing] That kind of thing. So yeah, a little bit, but it's less and less and less. And the union really tries, but they don't have enough people to police it. And then to try to get the money out of companies these days is really tough, too.

 

DWBass

Rising Star
BGOL Investor

While she did play on a lot of pop hits back in the 60's, I don't believe she ever played on any Motown hits. James Jamerson played on the majority of them until Motown moved to LA. She embellishes a lot on her resume. They may have tried her out but quite honestly, she didn't have enough soul to play Motown.
 

nworba

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
There's a dispute about who played on Steve Wonder's I was made to love her, Carol Kaye or John Jamerson.
It seems that Carol kaye was called in to do a bass part on a lot of old Motown recordings when they were recorded where James Jamerson's bass lines were eventually used. Nobody has explained why that happened!
 

Wobble Wobble

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Carol Kay. Bootsy Collins hipped me to her in an interview.

Man, between The Funk Brothers, Stax, James Brown's band, The Wrecking Crew in LA and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (The Swampers), it seems that's 75 percent of the hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s.

Fact: The Staple Singers "I'll Take You There" is ultra-Fonky, right? Especially the baseline break by Pops Staples, right? Wrong - it's not Pops, it's David Hood from Sheffield, Alabama of The Swampers - a group of Country & Western musicians. I mean, the keyboardists nickname is Spooner fer crissakes. For clarity, the Muscle Shoals Horns were all black, though.
 
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