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JasO
New member
In the course of doing research for my 1981 Guitar Player cover story called "Women In Rock," I did a lengthy interview with Carol Kaye about her years playing guitar and bass at sessions in Los Angeles. Parts of this interview appeared in an "as told to" sidebar, but a lot of it was never published. A few days ago I listened to the tape and discovered a wealth of interesting details about Carol's experiences as a studio musician. Highlights include her recollections of playing guitar on most of Phil Spector's dates during the 1960s, as well as her work with the Righteous Brothers, Sonny & Cher, the Beach Boys, Quincy Jones, and many others.
Here's an excerpt from the Beach Boys section: "They used all studio guys, except for Carl [Wilson]. Carl would be in the booth, on 12-string. He mostly played 12-string. And he’d sit and play with us, but he’d be in the booth and the rest of us would be out in the studio. Lyle Rich played acoustic bass – there was an acoustic bass on there too. But you couldn’t hear the acoustic bass except like on 'Good Vibrations' – for a while there’s two parts there. I played the higher part.
"Now, Brian Wilson wrote all of his lines. Once in a while I played a fill or something that was mine, but I can’t lay claim to any of Brian’s bass lines. But the feel – if you listen to 'Good Vibrations,' that feel is a jazz feel. It’s a walking feel [sings main bass riff]. That’s pure jazz, and Brian was greatly influenced by jazz. He was influenced by the Four Freshman – you know, they way they sung. Barney Kessel, Howard Roberts, and I were constantly on those dates. We were constantly being amazed by Brian, because he’s the one that arranged it all, and he came up with all the ideas and everything. We met the other Beach Boys – they were really nice and all that – but it was Brian’s talent, really, that did all that stuff. On the Pet Sounds album, I played bass on all except one tune." In another answer, Carol revealed that while Brian wrote out the music, he tended to put the stems on the wrong side of the notes and the studio musicians typically had to change the key.
Carol also details some of her better-known commercials, film scores, and TV work, as well as her studio gear and specific effects devices. A fan of the Fender P Bass through a Super Reverb, Carol was also the first person use play fuzz bass in a major motion picture (the Gibson Maestro heard in In the Heat of the Night).
If you're interested, I've posted the whole conversation here:
http://jasobrecht.com/
Here's an excerpt from the Beach Boys section: "They used all studio guys, except for Carl [Wilson]. Carl would be in the booth, on 12-string. He mostly played 12-string. And he’d sit and play with us, but he’d be in the booth and the rest of us would be out in the studio. Lyle Rich played acoustic bass – there was an acoustic bass on there too. But you couldn’t hear the acoustic bass except like on 'Good Vibrations' – for a while there’s two parts there. I played the higher part.
"Now, Brian Wilson wrote all of his lines. Once in a while I played a fill or something that was mine, but I can’t lay claim to any of Brian’s bass lines. But the feel – if you listen to 'Good Vibrations,' that feel is a jazz feel. It’s a walking feel [sings main bass riff]. That’s pure jazz, and Brian was greatly influenced by jazz. He was influenced by the Four Freshman – you know, they way they sung. Barney Kessel, Howard Roberts, and I were constantly on those dates. We were constantly being amazed by Brian, because he’s the one that arranged it all, and he came up with all the ideas and everything. We met the other Beach Boys – they were really nice and all that – but it was Brian’s talent, really, that did all that stuff. On the Pet Sounds album, I played bass on all except one tune." In another answer, Carol revealed that while Brian wrote out the music, he tended to put the stems on the wrong side of the notes and the studio musicians typically had to change the key.
Carol also details some of her better-known commercials, film scores, and TV work, as well as her studio gear and specific effects devices. A fan of the Fender P Bass through a Super Reverb, Carol was also the first person use play fuzz bass in a major motion picture (the Gibson Maestro heard in In the Heat of the Night).
If you're interested, I've posted the whole conversation here:
http://jasobrecht.com/