Allan Slutsky wrote Standing in the Shadows of Motown (1987), digging deep into Jamerson’s work. Jamerson has gotten some acclaim, posthumously. ![]() Imagine being a musical influence on McCartney but never finding out because he didn’t know your name. James was very melodic, and that got me more interested. I didn’t actually know his name until quite recently. Mainly as time went on it was Motown, James Jamerson-who became just my hero, really. And I started listening to other bass players. So when I came to The Beatles I had a little bit of musical knowledge through him, but very amateur. I remember him actually pointing out what a bass was, and he’d do little lessons in harmony. My dad, as I say, was a musician and I remember he would give me little sort of lessons, not actual sit-down lessons, but when there was something on the radio, he’d say hear that low? That’s the bass. ![]() In a 2018 interview with Reverb, McCartney noted that his bass playing was influenced a lot by Jamerson.īut part of it, I think James Jamerson, him and me, I’d share the credit there. Then again, who am I to argue with a Beatle about bass? Paul McCartney and James JamersonĬonsider, Sir Paul McCartney, who knew Jamerson by sound but not by name. That might possibly be giving Jamerson a little too much credit. Licks” Slutsky, Fifteenth Annual Induction Dinner Rock & Roll Hall of Fame In one momentous and soulful trifecta, the instrument found its voice, a fledgling record company discovered its heartbeat, and a generation took a bold step toward finding its groove. Licks” Slutsky, the electric bass was “still an infant” until “the first note Jamerson played on a Motown record.” The man who found the grooveĪccording to Allan “Dr. According to the (now archived) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee page for Jamerson:Īccording to Motown keyboardist and bandleader Earl Van Dyke, “We were sworn to secrecy, and one of the secrets was between James and Benny Benjamin and Uriel Jones.” Jamerson followed the company west when Berry moved Motown’s headquarters to Los Angeles, but the association between Motown and Jamerson ended in 1973. All household names, but the backing band that powered all those songs were almost unknown. The Miracles, The Supremes, The Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, The Spinners, The Jackson 5, and many others. Including more than 100 that reached number one on the R&B charts. But, as part of The Funk Brothers, he likely played on most (if not all) of Motown’s R&B singles. Jamerson wasn’t credited for most of his Motown work (which was not unusual), so most Motown fans didn’t know his name. I’d like to know the story behind that…) James Jamerson and a legacy of Motown hits (Intriguingly he is listed on Discogs as going by “Igor” in one instance. The bulk of those credits are post-Motown. RYM provides 77 credits, and Discogs lists 164 records and singles where Jamerson is credited for playing bass. I’d never heard of Jamerson before reading about his influence on McCartney’s bass playing on the song “Taxman,” but I’d certainly heard his playing long before that.įinding the tracks Jamerson played on requires a little digging. Especially for a man who influenced Paul McCartney’s bass playing. Even now, after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, and being featured in a documentary in 2002, he’s still not as well-known as he should be. ![]() James Jamerson is just one of many session players in the 50s and 60s who went virtually unknown during his lifetime.
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