Although I've been listening to pop/rock music for well over fifty years, I've only recently discovered something with respect to the personnel featured on a couple of very well known tracks.

First, Rod Stewart's hit single Maggie May, recorded in 1971 at the same time as The Faces were also riding high in popularity. Rod used session musicians and one or two band members from The Faces for this song, but I was surprised to learn that it was Ronnie Wood who laid down the bass part for this seminal classic from Stewart's solo career.

Second, another favourite of mine, the Rolling Stones' song Sympathy for the Devil, first heard on their 1968 Beggars' Banquet album. Although Bill Wyman was still very much with the Stones during this period it was in fact Keith Richards who laid down the bass part with that unmistakable samba beat.

Back in the day I was also led to believe that Noel Redding didn't play bass on Jimi Hendrix's recording of Hey Joe from 1966, thinking that it might even have been Chas Chandler who did, since he was the ex-bass player with The Animals. However, as most people now know, Noel Redding, a lead guitarist, was persuaded by Chandler to play bass for The Experience, but was initially quite nervous about it. As for Hey Joe, Hendrix showed him what runs he wanted Noel to play, and that's what we hear on that track. By the time Electric Ladyland came along, with it's lengthy jams and flights of fancy, Noel was a lot more comfortable and was able to bring some of his old guitar playing influence to bear on his bass playing.

How many other tracks are there out there where the nominal bass player took a back seat while a subsequently well known track was being recorded?

Can't quote specific tracks but I'm sure Dave Gilmour play bass on some Pink Floyd tracks inplace of Roger Waters.

yeah quite a few tracks actually. dave plays drums on the narrow way too. one of the days (of all tracks!), fat old sun, comfortably numb, pigs, sheep, hey you, mother, young lust, the trial, some other wall tracks, and part of shine on you crazy diamond


john lennon plays bass on helter skelter and george harrison plays bass on a few beatles tracks like he said she said

there must be loads really. especially with pop acts where a bunch of blokes in the studio put together the music and the lead singer comes in and lays down a vocal and the band goes on tour. manic monday released by the bangles uses the original backing tracks that prince recorded and you can hear the original backing vocals, so that's him on bass whilst the bangles bassist is "credited"

Is that 'One of these days' from 'Meddle'? I've always loved that...pure bass...converted me to the Floyd.

40 on U2s war album think Adam went home so Edge added it himself. when they played it live Edge would play the Bass

John Lennon played the bass on 'Let It Be', 'The Long and Winding Road', and 'Rocky Raccoon'. I'm sure he played it on a few other Beatles songs too.

"Yesterday", as I recall only features Paul, and on the acoustic guitar and not the bass.

She's Leaving Home only features the orchestra, I don't think the Beatles play on that at all.

Bowie. Boys keeps swinging
Drummer Dennis Davis played the bass

McCartney played bass on She Said, She Said and although Lennon supposedly played some bass parts on Helter Skelter, most of what you hear is by McCartney.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Said_She_Said

macca apparently is unsure if he even played on it according to this, which says it's george on bass

And Adam would play the guitar..Red Rocks for example.

I had a live recording of Fleetwood Mac that I can't find but recall a track on which Peter Green switched to bass part way through and went off on a lengthy bass solo. Might have been on Green Manalishi but I'm not sure.

Redding latterly had a huge chip on his shoulder as regards his contributions to the JHE, he always thought he wasn't accorded enough respect.

On the same topic:

John Lennon and Paul McCartney play everything on 'The Ballad of John and Yoko'; George and Ringo were off elsewhere and Lennon wanted to record it right away.

Ritchie Blackmore plays bass on all but three tracks on Rainbow's 'Long Live Rock 'n' Roll' album.

Steve Jones plays all the bass parts on the Sex Pistols' 'Never Mind the Bollocks' album.

Ian Anderson plays bass on all but three tracks on Jethro Tull's 'Stormwatch' album.

My source was Ian Macdonald's encyclopedic Revolution In The Head, which details all the Beatles tracks down to individual takes. He track credits are: McCartney - vocal, lead guitar bass; Lennon - backing vocals, lead guitar, bass, tenor sax; Harrison - backing vocals, rhythm guitar; Starr - drums. However, his mostly praiseworthy efforts do contain some rather odd personal opinions. For instance:

"In one early version, Helter Skelter persisted for a grandiose twenty-seven minutes. Condensed for release on the 9th September, the result was nonetheless ridiculous, McCartney shrieking weedily against a massively tape-echoed backfrop of out-of-tune thrashing. Critics differ over whether it is Starr or Lennon who complains of having incurred superficial damage to his digits. Few have seen fit to describe this track as anything other than a drunken mess."

It's one of my favourite Beatles tracks.

On She Said, She Said: Lennon - vocal, rhythm guitar; McCartney - bass; Harrison - backing vocal, lead guitar; Starr - drums, shaker.

It's interesting to see that the wikipedia entry credited Ian Macdonald as the source of the information shown on their page, whereas mine is quoted directly from the pages of Macdonald's book.

I wasn't there so have to go on other peoples word about it. books can have mistakes though. the 27 minute helter skelter isn't circulating on a bootleg or anything is it?

There's an alternative version on the relevant Anthology album, but I'm not sure if anybody would want a 27 minute version. I always think of it as one of the first punk tracks.

I always thought the 'blisters' complainant sounded like John, or possibly Ringo. Never thought it was Paul.

I don't think anyone has ever suggested it was Paul. I've listened to it over and over again and although I originally thought it was Ringo, that doesn't really make sense, so it must have been Lennon complaining either about thrashing his guitar (or even making percussive bass sounds) for such a long period. Although he's credited with bass and rhythm guitar, I can't see how he could do both. It doesn't sound like a track that was carefully over-dubbed.

Someone has probably already pointed to the Wikipedia page for Helter Skelter, but rather than post the link I've copied the relevant bit here, where you can see that actually it was Ringo who complained of blistered fingers ...

The song was recorded many times during sessions for the White Album. During the 18 July 1968 sessions, the Beatles recorded a version of the song lasting 27 minutes and 11 seconds, although this version is rather slow and hypnotic, differing greatly from the volume and rawness of the album version. Another recording from the same day, originally 12 minutes long, was edited down to 4:37 for Anthology 3. On 9 September, 18 takes of approximately five minutes each were recorded, and the last one is featured on the original LP. After the 18th take, Ringo Starr flung his drum sticks across the studio and screamed, "I got blisters on my fingers!" Starr's shout was included on the stereo mix of the song. At around 3:40, the song almost fades out, then quickly fades back in with three cymbal crashes and Ringo's scream (some sources erroneously credit the "blisters" line to Lennon; in fact, Lennon can be heard asking "How's that?" before Ringo's outburst). The mono version (originally on LP only) ends on the first fadeout without Starr's outburst. The mono version was not initially available in the US as mono albums had already been phased out there. The mono version was later released in the American version of the Rarities album. In 2009, it was made available on the CD mono re-issue of the White Album as part of the Beatles in Mono CD box set.

According to Chris Thomas, who was present, the 9 September session was especially spirited: "While Paul was doing his vocal, George Harrison had set fire to an ashtray and was running around the studio with it above his head, doing an Arthur Brown." Starr's recollection is less detailed, but agrees in spirit: "'Helter Skelter' was a track we did in total madness and hysterics in the studio. Sometimes you just had to shake out the jams."

Hope this settles some arguments!

Always loved this track.

Except about who played bass

Not that it really matters though.

Agree, but just for the record the Helter Skelter personnel, according to Mark Lewisohn and Alan W. Pollack, were:

Paul McCartney – lead vocal, electric guitar, bass, piano
John Lennon – backing vocal, six-string bass, electric guitar, sound effects (through brass instruments)
George Harrison – backing vocal, electric guitar, electric slide guitar, sound effects
Ringo Starr – drums, cowbell, vocal shout
Mal Evans – trumpet

I can only assume that John played the sixer like a regular guitar and hoped for the best!

Did Sid Vicious ever actually play bass?

Steve Jones played bass on Never Mind the Bollocks.

I think he may have played a bit on one track. Though I thought Glen Matlock played the bass on the album before he was sacked. Sid really could not play though he did do some stuff live.

Watching footage of Sid 'playing' live, he seemed to use it more of a percussion instrument, using only one string.