What do you think? Does this bass line actually deserve the hate it gets? Or do you think it’s not that bad?

If you're listening to this song You may think the chords are going wrong But they're not, we just wrote it like that

I wouldn't argue against the possibility that John was bored or even passive-aggressively not putting his best effort forward. But I always liked the bass on this track - it's minimal but I think the "strange" rhythm choices and sliding actually compliment the song really well to give it a bit of a lost feeling. The slides always caught my ear in a good way, and make me imagine footsteps disappearing into the darkness (just as it disappears into the piano dancing on some higher notes). One other thought: I believe Paul was not shy at all during this time, and would have easily been coaching John while they learned the song, and giving feedback if he didn't like what he was hearing. And no matter how petty John was feeling, I think he would respect the long-standing working mode between him and Paul where the writer of the song got the final say in how it was performed. That's my understanding anyway.

The bass never ruined the song for me. Maybe it contributes to it’s character. Taking it as is it adds a sorrowful nostalgia and almost angsty edge to a song I can image would strike Lennon as being potentially saccharine. Also, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t prefer a Phil Spector version of the Beatles.

Ive been a Beatles fan since i was a little kid and this song was one of my early favorites. Always loved the pure emotion that it carries, and i also alwayys loved the wierd slides that John does on the bass on that exact moment, idk it brings a magic feel to the song.

There’s a scene in the “Get Back” docco where Paul is instructing John how to play the bass on LAWR. John didn’t seem dismissive or upset. Paul was just trying to help him on how to play bass notes on a song Paul had written.

I actually think the notes are so burned into our consciousness now, they "work" in that the genius of the song survives even with musical "mistakes". If he was trying to sabotage the song, he didn't succeed!

The definitive LAWR for me will never be the Phil Spector version, with the over the top orchestra, but rather the version on "Let it be... Naked". A different take that is simply stunning. That version also features no mistakes from John, and is overall just a better arrangement IMO.

Funny, since John accused Paul of subconsciously sabotaging his songs.

I imagine John never thought he had put down a satisfactory bass track. As I understand it, the project was abandoned, and was only released after Phil Spector got a hold of the tapes.

Good video. Don't fret. The song went to #1 and all of us non-musicians don't notice it.

Not being a musician, I don’t have the musical theory to figure out what it was, but now that you demonstrate it, i understand the musical discomfort I always had when listening to it. The only “mistakes” that I like are the slides, which gave a distinctive style to this song, as it is never played like this anywhere, because McCartney would have never done it like that.

The Naked version of the song is just perfect. Phil Spector just choose the wrong take as usual. Nothing was ok in his version of this masterpiece. I hated most part of Let It Be but with the Naked version it became one of my favorite Beatles album. It's just perfect!

The 'take' used on the album is basically an early run through...it just happened to have a great McCartney vocal. Lennon wasn't too sure of the chord changes at this point so the bass is a bit uneven. Don't forget that those tapes were lying around for many months. During that time the Beatles split. The reason McCartney rerecorded the bass on Let It Be was because it was going to be their final single. McCartney was unhappy with the choice of take on TLAWR and the overdubs used on the album. He preferred the 31st January version as heard on Let It Be...Naked. The bass is fine on that version! Also there was a big argument about the release date of LIB and the McCartney Lp hence why he had little or no involvement in the albums creation.

The mistakes and bizarre glissandos are part of the song to me. I love it as it is.

I had never heard this song before I started watching this video, but after listening to the original version I have to say the bass line sounds alright.

I love all the “mistakes” in Beatles songs. That’s just how the songs go. I like it so much better than music that’s overly produced until it’s “perfect”. In particular, I love the bass slides in Long and Winding Road, I would miss them if they were gone.

Paul could easily have overdubbed his own bass line…..but he didn’t. End of. I suspect John thought that Paul would be doing it so he didn’t worry about it. It was just jamming on his part.

I'm a guitar player beginning to pick up bass, and I think this stands as a great example of how guitar & bass are different instruments. Sure, they look the same, and mechanically they're pretty similar, but the musicianship that goes into each calls upon different sensibilities. Lennon was a good guitarist (and obviously brilliant musician in general), but he wasn't a bassist, and this showed it. Not the sloppiness, which as you illustrate was just a product of a not-great take, but the choices. I like the subtle changes you make, because it's taking the same general musical ideas and not just playing them like a bassist but INTERPRETTING them like a bassist. You show the little contrasts that make up how to THINK like a bassist. Great video. I'll definitely be checking out more of your channel.

I'm surprised that Paul didn't have John play guitar and George play bass.

Don't think John knew or thought this would be the master take. He was struggling simply because he hadn't learned the chord progressions by heart yet. That's how I see it anyway. Or do we know this wasn't the case?

I love those slides up the neck to nowhere in the song. Without it it sounds like something is missing

John brings his soul to this bass line. "There are no wrong notes" - Miles Davis

In all fairness, the take that was chosen for the album was not supposed to be the final album take. That was recorded on January 31 but not used until the “Naked” album

I found it interesting that both McCartney and Spector didn’t overdub the bass prior to the release. McCartney did go back into the studio with Harrison and Linda and re-recorded the backing vocals, some piano and organ, limited orchestra and of course bass onto Let it Be so I’m nor sure why he didn’t do the same for Long and Winding Road. As for me I felt the bass was dubbed quite low in the mix and didn’t notice the timing or off notes but rather thought it was a nice subtle bass line which actually fit the song. All I picked out was the slides to the notes and the long slides which I liked and felt added to the song.

John knew exactly what he was doing…..I preferred his version.

Thank you very much Paul McCartney for releasing the clean version of this song on Let It Be Naked.

I think Lennon's bass line gives this song an edge and a nice Beatles quality. You can dissect anything enough and find issues. But with this song, I wouldn't change a thing.

I actually think John had a few good ideas for the bass line. These were live takes for which he probably didn't prepare himself enough for. You have to figure each take was a full band playing so any member could have messed up. Paul hit that sour note on the piano on Let it Be and they left it in the mix, although fixed on Let it Be...Naked. The same thing happened at the end of Two of Us when Paul hit a sour note on the acoustic guitar, for the release they used an alternate take ending.

Oh, I liked this!! What a great video and lesson Luke. I'm wasn't that familiar with the song to notice this before so thanks for putting this together. Great lesson for any bassist and your tweaks certainly do make it a better bass line. I would cool with it if you did more of these. As for my take on what happened, you'd have to look how it was recorded. It sounds like John was still trying to figure out what to play. And it would be the producer's job to catch that. I'm thinking it was either recorded live and McCartney did such a great take they decided to leave the bass line, or maybe John was high on some kind of drugs

I remember as a child really liking this bass line, maybe Paul hit a few imperfect note vocals too, I really liked them, they stood out to me, may it's dissonance, counter point from the sub conscious or deliberate, I'll never know

Lennon said playing bass was like being kept behind after school to do homework. He obviously didn't enjoy it! But I like it because it has a little bit funky FRETLESS UPRIGHT BASS quality which I think Lennon has in mind when he recorded TLAWR. Finally, if you deconstruct their recordings there is sourness and offkey musicianship in almost everything the Beatles recorded ie Rubber Soul album. I don't care about any of that because the songs and arrangements are so amazing!

If it was recorded on a bass VI and is harder to get a nice bass tone out of then any standard basses. The design of the bass makes it hard to get good intonation and the strings are much lighter also.

I’m sorry but this man is one of the only KZfaqrs who can actually teach bass. Luke your absolutely amazing

Love your videos. Entertaining but also a lesson that I remember and use for my own songs (I play guitar but my bass is not quite there. I tend to follow the drums more but now I feel confident to branch out a bit.... make things interesting). Thanks.

The bass parts in 'The Long And Winding Road' that are usually described as errors are *not* errors. John plays the same pattern *exactly* at the same three locations in the song (bar eight of each verse). Which proves that the pattern was pre-meditated and executed according to John's intent.

John once complained that on John's songs, McCartney was always in experimentation mode, but with McCartney's he was very specific as to what he wanted. Maybe this is just John trying to get even a little bit.

Hi, I like it when somebody shares his point of view on matters regarding The Beatles. I Think the D might better have been a Db, but the rest of it is a very nice, supporting bassline. (that's me thinking as a bassplayer). The slides sound to me like a very nice embellishment, especially if you keep in mind the close bandwith John had to deal with, in other words how Paul told him to play. But in the end it's all a matter of taste. I would however keep in mind to listen to it as a total. I like the original bass line, perhaps even because its capriciousness.

Luke, yours is much smoother, and supports the song, instead of waffling through it. I especially like your change (and Paul's example you borrowed) where instead of half ass slides, you did ascending melodic bass notes in steps, with a descending bass slide for the end of the phrase.

I think he did it on purpose and I think that mr. McCartney approved. When he’d played the notes as it should, it would’ve been a slick love(sick) song. But with all the “mistakes” it gives the song more intensity. So in my opinion it’s more about the feeling the song transfers and note about what should or shouldn’t.

In his last interview about the Beatles (Playboy, 1980), John accused Paul of "subconscious sabotage," naming a number of songs. It's bizarre because this is the only incident in the Beatles where sabotage seems to have been the order of the day. Paul wrote four major songs for the LP and John wrote a ditty (Dig A Pony), having to resurrect Across The Universe from 11 months earlier. John also said (1970, Rolling Stone) that he was "stoned on H all the time and didn't give a s***" which is indicated on the 14 Jan "two junkies" interview that immediately preceded the session - he must have taken something potent to perform as we see him in Get Back. The terrible bass guitar playing may just have been H lowering his capabilities. The reference version of Long And Winding Road was recorded on 26 Jan - Phil Spector chose the version with the best overall feel and best lyric, and then smothered it with orchestra and choir presumably to hide John. Let It Be Naked features a take from four days later, with no Spector elements, worse lyric but at least John is in order.

This is why i love the internet/youtube/Beatle obsessives/nerds etc etc For over 60 years i've known this song, never have i thought anything was wrong with the bass! No one i know has ever mentioned the bass, i've never heard anyone else ever mention the bass, yet (apparently) the world is full of people who hate the bass and think it was deliberately "bad" (spoiler - it wasn't!). Some people need to listen to music and calm down! Sheesh!

I just discovered your channel, it's amazing! I just have to ask, what strings are you using?

I always assumed Paul went back and recorded it himself for the album

Was it payback for Hey Jude? Did he leave it bad to take a sad song and make it better? 🤔😁

From a songwriting perspective, I'd say the best way to "fix" the Long and Winding Road bass is to see how Paul McCartney played it as a solo act (or with Wings). I'd say that's the way it "should" be played. I'd be curious if Paul's changed it at all over the decades; the longer he's been around, the more he's embraced the Beatles nostalgia, so my naive guess is these days it'd be pretty close to the original, while perhaps in the 70s/80s he spiced it up a bit.

The bass is so understated in TLAWR that it's practically irrelevant. Paul's vocals and the orchestration clearly take center stage, the bass line is an afterthought. Moving on.

John said in an interview he hated Long and Winding Road .. thought it was too indulgent.. but I doubt he sabotaged it .. but probably very nonchalant about his playing .. who knows. I do wonder why Paul didn’t fix it before it’s release, maybe he didn’t want to insult John? But George’s bass on Two Of Us is brilliant..

A fascinating analysis. Who can say what was going on during that session? It was towards the end the Beatles road. Just mailing it in? The question that kept forming in my mind was, "How did the song get out of studio in that state?"

If you look at the song metaphorically “A Long and Winding Road” is a journey of ups and downs and is sometime discordant hence the choice of baseline which is sort of in most listeners’ subconscious. I have never thought it sounded bad and I sing an symphony choir and hear violins out of tune!

There could be an easier answer... The engineer used the wrong track/bass take when laying together the record and they didn't notice until it was too late.

This was seriously enlightening! I LOVE your revised baseline!

Great video Luke.... this might only be the 3rd time I've listened to the song since about 30 plus years... back then it didnt make sense to me and thought Lennon just wanted to be different. Whenever I get to jam this song, I just follow the guitarist's chords just to be safe. Thanks to you, I've now got a better reference how to play the bass notes better ♥

As always great content, Luke! I doubt John had any ill intent. But I love the bass work on the 1984 version from the "Give My Regards to Broadstreet" soundtrack.

Ive always loved every component of this song. It is strange; it is unique, but that’s the Beatles

i first heard the song 52 years ago in 1970 and it still sounds great to me now in 2022

I think he was stoned out of his mind - a great musician suffering from diminished capacity. I once submitted a term paper to a professional typist who was also quite stoned, with similar results. Thank God he wasn't a stoned truck driver on a "long and winding road."

Just subscribed. I'm not a bass player. I'm writing my own songs and for the bass lines I use the vast variety of sampled basses out there. This really helps to get a better understanding what bass lines should be like! This is my third video in a row.

Who the hell do you think you are to change this bass line that the all mighty Lennon wrote, to make it better? Well, You’re a musician and You did Your homework obviously to improve something that needed it. Congrats, this was really cool. I never knew how bad the bass line was isolated, but I felt listening to this version every time that something was indeed off. Great job on this!

I listened to the let it be-Naked version and the bass line is hands down fantastic, compliments the song greatly. I listened to the normal remastered version and couldn't hear any bass at all so I think that's also great. Am I missing something?

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Ray Price: “Can you play bass?” Willie Nelson: “Can’t everybody?” *JOHN LENNON HAS ENTERED THE CHAT*

“I’m gonna fix John’s bass” *removes all of the flavorful choices that make the bass line what it is*

As a bassist myself, I never questioned it but you're right about everything you pointed out. Why did John play it that way and why did they leave it? I think Mars 79 has the explanation. Those tapes were lying around for months and most likely, the one that was chosen had the McCartney vocal Spector wanted on the same track as the bass so, he made an arbitrary decision and that was that.

How did I never notice this? I sincerely doubt it was intentional sabotage. I think John was on drugs, not used to playing bass, and screwed it up.

No matter who sings it, in the future. It will always be a great song, please put your heart into it.

I like the bass line the way it is, it's how I remember it, don't forget that the Beatles were breaking up at that time, Phil Spector was called in to Co-Produce the "Let It Be" album, and experimenting with musical signatures/and down beat timing such as the song "Drive My Car" was part of their creative genius, you may criticize, but when it was released as a single in May 1970, a month after the Beatles broke up, it became the group's 20th and final number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Surely if that was not the intended bass line Paul (the perfectionist) would have insisted on adding the correct bass line...?

Interesting, but as a bassist myself, I must say that I never felt annoyed at John's bass on The Long and Winding Road, but I thought he could have done a better job on Fixing a Hole. Great vid!

If John didn't play like he did, the song wouldn't be so popular. It is in fact one of the finest Beatles souls ever. Some of it is down to the quirkiness of his bass playing.

I play 5 string basses, I have 2 Fender 5 string Jazz basses, I am use to these basses, they present me with better option's as a bass player. Back in the day 'The Beatles' had this 5 string, it is a right handed instrument, so that could mean either could play it. John was a right hander, Paul is left handed, but as he first played a right handed bass, it was a right hand bass, so he could play it upside down. Most left hander's are able to do this. The Beatles by this time, owned a wealth of guitars and basses so I figure this 5 string Fender belonged to them. Depending on how long they had this bass, as to if any of them really had a comfortable feel for the 5 string, and mastered it. As a player of 5 string basses, I definately took awhile to get used to them after playing 4 string basses for most of life. I've been playing 5 strings for going 45 years now, the hardest habit to over come, is the E string is the 2nd string, not the first as had always been the norm. For a long while, I'd be constantly hitting the wrong string, therefore playing the wrong notes in various position's, until I got it, could hear it, to understand it. I had to re educate my thinking, how I played. A 5 string gives me more options up the neck, so for me, I can use the bottom B to start and end bass pattern's along the finger board I know I can grovel around down the low end, but only when required. I use it tastefully, not over use it. As the bottom B runs off normally, positioning is never an issue. I never play the wrong string ever, as I am use to it. John Lennon would have had a similar experience getting use to a 5 string bass. It isn't the same as playing a 6 string guitar, totally different. Same is for a 6 string bass, not at all like a 6 string guitar. I believe Keith Richards has a 7 string guitar which he plays with 'The Rolling Stones'. The 'Let It Be' recording's were somewhat unfinished, somehow Phil Specter was given them, years before he devoured them with his mastering, whether he knew what he was doing? or not, he eventually managed to get all the credit for that release. At one stage, he was asked where the tape's were, he said he couldn't find them, so 'The Beatles set about recreating these songs that they already had put together earlier. We need to remember a lot of these songs were songs that didn't get to be selected for previous Album's, so like a lot of their work, these 'Get Back' session's are them recreating already written material, and finishing them off. As the film reveals. Some think that they just wrote a lot of them during that session, as you can see in the film, they are already familiar. A bit like digging into the vault, and resurrecting the shelf. Sometimes when one does this, it could be years passed, but you hear it all in a new light, new idea's formulate, they were all older, everything had changed.

First off, I don't think ANY musician or artist should be held to such a standard as what would be considered beyond reproach. Secondly, as a bass player, it's REALLY obvious that Lennon was pretty clueless here - whether stylistically or musically speaking. Remember, he was a "lyric man," and the vast majority of Beatles tunes (like LAWR) with any sort of sophisticated harmony was Paul's doing (some George's too). And even with Paul's instruction, you can just hear that Lennon is just "playing notes," not really interpreting or feeling notes. There's no shame in correcting a lacking bass line. And I think you did a bang up job of it too by holding true to the approach that was taken in the song. And I agree on all points, it just really needed a couple bad note corrections as well as some subtle stylistic (we're talking TASTE, not pandering) changes. Great job!

Fifty years later and _still_ we fight over their crumbs... The Long And Winding Road (another great work by the greatest band ever) is melodically so strong that it shines in spite of a weak bass performance. Next!

Considering that this occurred when they were all doing their own songs, I have to wonder why Phil and Paul didn't fix it.

Good video! Just a quick question. What's the tool you show at 2:44 which extracts the notes out of a wave file ? Thanks ;)

Variation in note length is called "texture". You don't often see it in bass lines but John is a guitar player who played bass for a song. I've been playing guitar for about 30 years. Two years ago I picked up bass and can't put it down. I also use texture in my bass playing. Also, those "wrong" notes may have been 100% intentional and the rest of the band may have noticed them and called them "genius". Sometimes playing out of key is the right thing to do. "What the song wants" is what the creators want out of the song. But here's an alternate theory: John had the blues, remembering his friend Stu Sutcliffe, who wasn't that great of a bass player but was a true friend and a talented artist who would have gotten 'good enough' by the time the Beatles got a break. So maybe it was sabotage. Personally, I like how it sounds. What matters to me more is how it sounds not what it looks like on paper or whether it follows the rules that were made to be broken in the first place.

I have played electric guitars and basses for 30 years but I still love what Lennon does in this song. The slides are perfect and the dynamic change of long and short notes are also very good.

Never thought of this as sabotage, but have thought about John's harmony in the last few notes of Yellow Submarine chorus as a hilarious bit of sabotage.

Hello! Can someone tell me the name of the software shown at 2:44 ? Thank you.

Never realized these bass line mistakes were there. Paul's piano was loud

Don't know of this is one of those instances but sometimes bands leave mistakes in due to the entire tracks vibe being spot on despite those mistakes. If you listen closely to some zeppelin tracks, even JPJ makes tiny errors here and there. But they stayed . And cover bands even add them in when they perform the tracks. Loving your vids mate. Ive studied McCartney for many years and learnt so many songs and every one surprises, inspires, and amazes me even after 100 plays

John was great with words/lyrics. His songwriting was absolutely brilliant, his rhythm guitar was brilliant, his lead was adequate but Paul McCartney was a far better guitarist than John and I can only think that John couldn’t play bass and so Paul had to play bass.

I don’t understand why they didn’t just record without the bass and have either Paul or a proficient bass player comp the takes in? It’s not like price of tape was an issue for these guys at the end.

I've been playing bass for 45 years and those are asymmetric choices of notes, but, they are not "wrong" choices. Those are Lennon's choices and they actually compliment his uniqueness as a composer. What has McCartney had to say about this?

guessing he was bord or high

I do think you improved it without overdoing it.

@2:45 - Luke isolates a very short segment of a track and uses software to analyze exactly what notes were being played at that time. What software is required in order to analyze a sound segment in this way, and what is the name of the function or command you need to use in order to analyze and determine which notes are being played?

Maybe I’m wrong here, but isn’t there a bit in Get Back where we see Paul telling John the bass line that he wants which John then does. In which case Paul sabotaged his own song.

I’m a bass player so it’s surprising I never noticed this before. I can’t unhear it now. And the changes on your recording make all the difference in the world.

I've never felt or heard the bass to be honest , in this song. The song and Paul's performance takes my focus away from the bass guitar.

I'm quite surprised to read some very negative comments to your video as I sensed in your endeavor a true humility and desire to do things properly. That was an instructive, daring but very interesting video. Maybe you could even have "corrected" this bass line by playing it the way Paul would have, mixing fonction with beauty and using more countermelodies and stuff like Paul used to do. Thanks for you work.

you could ask why Paul didn't go back in the studio and play the bass part himself?

He hated many of McCartneys songs, and I totally understand him. They were not rocksongs, they were rooted in The British Music Hall tradition. Lennon was The Rebel.........McCartney was the nice guy, and thank god they made it work anyway.

The song seems to have garnered quite a few plays over the years in spite of this which might also demonstrate something. Illuminated with a bright spotlight those do seem like defects although I'd never fixated on them before. To me the bassline sounds fine as a experiment with varying some attributes and having a bit too much fun with careless glisses like we all might during a rehearsal. Maybe they just focused limited resources on other issues that would have invited even greater scorn a few generations hence but I appreciate your exploration of this topic and promise to be more careful with glissandos in the future.

The segment of the movie where McCartney and Lennon record the song looks like they're just messing about. I've always blamed Phil Spector--not Lennon--for deliberately sabotaging Paul's song by leaving Lennon's poor playing on the final track.

What’s that app you used to identify the notes?

I always took it as an intentional "souring" of an overtly sweet tune. Never knew that John was playing the bass line.

It sounds fine to me. It did go to #1 on the U.S. Billboard. 👍🎸🎹

A little note... The fender 6 string bass John is using is meant to be tuned a octave lower...... This is from a book on the Beatles instruments

1:17 I think that quote is taken from Ian MacDonald's book 'Revolution in the head'. It's a brilliant and exhaustive breakdown of every single song the Beatles recorded. However, he doesn't shy away from criticism, and Lennon's bass playing does come in for quite a lot of stick on this particular track. On the other hand, he does acknowledge that the basic track was essentially a 'run through' and never intended to be the finished master. Anyone who has seen the recent Peter Jackson film 'Get Back' can see/hear how chaotic most of the sessions for this album actually were. Personally, having grown up listening to all these songs (complete with the so-called 'mistakes') I find it hard to hear them in any other way.