Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea has dubbed Sir Paul McCartney “the greatest rock bass player”.
The ‘Can’t Stop’ group’s bassist has described the Beatles legend’s “lyrical and melodic” playing as “just so beautiful”.
Speaking to Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson on the podcast ‘Where Everybody Knows Your Name’, Flea said: “I think Paul’s the greatest rock bass player. He’s just great. I mean, there are so many guys that are great in different ways, but Paul’s bass playing is so lyrical and melodic, and it’s just so beautiful. One of the things I’ve heard is that he put the bass on after. A band like mine, the bass sometimes the song starts with bass lines, so coming first, or the music comes first.”
He added of their unique approach: “Whereas I think Paul and John and George, when they wrote songs and Paul would do the bass. And after multi-tracking came in, at the beginning of them, they just went and played live and would do it after, like ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’, the melody is already there. So then he’s doing, like a counter melody, so the bass is like a melody as opposed to just rhythm, and that’s amazing. He’s amazing.”
Meanwhile, the billionaire musician recently enjoyed “looking back” on Wings in the documentary ‘One Hand Clapping’.
The film – directed by David Litchfield – details the recording sessions for the band’s live studio album of the same name at London’s Abbey Road Studios back in 1974 with rare footage and interviews and it’s set to debut in cinemas next month with McCartney admitting it was a thrill to travel back in time.
He said of the project: “It’s so great to look back on that period and see the little live show we did. We made a pretty good noise actually. It was a great time for the band, we started to have success with Wings, which had been a long time coming.”
The footage was filmed back in the 1970s at the height of Wings’ fame for a TV special which was never aired, and the film now features a new introduction from the man himself as well as a “backyard session” with the musician performing Buddy Holly songs and unreleased track ‘Blackpool” on his acoustic guitar.