The inventor of rock Chuck Berry was an inspiration to several music artists that we now know as the greatest including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, and more. Furthermore, Berry is also known as the Father of Rock and Roll. To know how much of an inspiration Berry was to the youngsters we can take the example of The Beatles.
Without Chuck Berry, the Beatles probably would not have been where it is today because during their starting phase they were popular not only for their original creation but they were known because of their covers of Berry songs. Even after they became successful, Berry’s influence could be seen in the Beatles’ tracks. In fact, one of John Lennon’s written songs “Come Together” had a line from Berry’s song You Can’t Catch Me so Lennon was sued.
Paul was also hugely influenced by Berry and he also pinched and used the bass riff from Berry’s song. So from which Berry song did Paul pinch the bass riff, another question is in which song did he use it? well, that is what we are here to diss in this piece.
The Chuck Berry bassline that Paul McCartney used
The bass guitar was introduced just some years before Paull started playing it. And even during his early Beatles days, he felt it a bit hard to play and sing at the same time which is the reason in the early tracks of The Beatles there are pretty simple bass riffs. He said in an interview that it was hard for him to sing because of some melodic parts.
However, he started putting more effort and cracked how to sing as well as play bass riffs. Furthermore, as mentioned we can see Berry’s influence in several of the Beatles’ tracks however, there is one song where Paul took a bassline from Berry’s song “I’m Talking About You” and used it in their song “I Saw Her Standing There.” He told Beat Instrumental in a 1992 interview, “Here’s one example of a bit I pinched from someone: I used the bass riff from ‘I’m Talking About You’ by Chuck Berry in ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, I played exactly the same notes as he did, and it fitted our number perfectly. Even now, when I tell people, I find few of them believe me; therefore, I maintain that a bass riff hasn’t got to be original.” Well, the bassline was not written by Berry either, it was actually written by Berry’s bass player Reggie Boyd but since it was from Berry’s song, Paul credited it to Berry.
Furthermore, there are several other songs where Paul used a bassline that was written by others. And talking about Berry, it seems that The Beatles were huge fans of the father of rock and roll, Lennon once said when talking about Chuck, “If you had to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.” Moreover, The Beatles also performed Berry’s song I’m Talking About You when they appeared on BBC.
