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Among BBs fans, it is a general consensus, that if there is an official BBs bass player, it's Brian. So how has Brian's bass playing been?
62-65: Brian's bass playing started off amateur, but he became really good by '64. If you don't believe me- check out the TAMI show gig.
66-69: Brian wasn't touring, and he was playing bass on the records very rarely. But when he did play, it sounded good.
70-75: Brian wasn't playing bass very often, although I believe he contributed bass to Sunflower.
76-79: Brian's back period (And the next few years), his bass playing is rough, but by 77/78 he's back to his old self, playing bass really well.
80-2015: Brian plays bass rarely now. He mostly sings and plays his keyboard. In the early 2000's-2012 he would always rock out on bass, playing the chord changes, not the actual bass lines, on the encore songs. But he hasn't done so since 2013.

So, the NPP tour and his European Pet Sounds tour, may be his last tours(?) and he hasn't been playing bass. Will "The Beach Boys Official Bass Player" ever play bass again?

80-2015: Mostly sings and SITS at his keyboard.

He has been playing keyboard pretty regularly since 2009.

Exactly. I never think of Brian as a bass player. Obviously in the early days, the band needed a bass player, so Brian was it. But he is a piano man. Wish he would play in concert, but I suppose he's been convinced he's not that good, others are better, therefore no need to play. I don't care about that. Elvis Presley was not a virtuoso guitarist, but I always love when I see/hear footage of him playing rhythm in the band. He had a great 'feel" that added a lot to the music.

I've always marveled at his bass playing, although I'm not talented enough on bass to know how good he was, but here's what always got me:

Brian's biggest 'gift' in my opinion was always his mind for harmony.  He claimed he heard all the songs in 5 part harmony in his head, and then taught all the other guys their parts.  He still has that ability, Mike talks about it on the Hawthorne Album I think.  You still see him doing it when studio footage comes out, although some of that is probably re shot...

When he's on stage (in the early years)... not only is he singing the HIGHEST part of the harmony, he's playing the LOWEST part of the music, actually lower than the bass vocal line Mike would be singing.  So he's basically covering that whole spectrum in his live performances. 

It's kind of mind blowing.

A similar thing happened with Karen Carpenter, she sang like an angel, had one of the most beautiful, soft, delicate voices ever recorded, just perfectly beautiful... and played the DRUMS live, at the same time!  So she was singing the softest, most beautiful part of the vocal, and playing the hardest, roughest snap of the music, at the same time.  Showed a complete mastery of the music, IMHO. 

(not saying Karen's drums were particularly good, or that she's on par with Brian, just saying the similarity is interesting)

Well hes on the early records in 63 and here&there 64/5, hardly on pet sounds, off&on in the late 60s, not so sure bout surfs up and holland but he did most of the instrumentation on love you, and probably here&there on MIU and KTSA, probably not so much from the 80s to now.

Given his back problems, it's unlikely he'll play bass again while standing onstage.

When Al rejoined in '63, he became the main in-house bassist, not Brian. Carl also played occasional bass.

Both Brian and Bruce had a weird picking technique.

OT, Karen was a very good drummer.

Bruce picked.

Brian thumbed.

Brian used his thumb at bottom of fret board,

Yeah that 'thumbing' technique, I've seen Bruce use it too.

Brian was a pretty talented bassist.  He also looked super cool playing it.  Check out The Lost Concert and TAMI concert.  I would love to see him pick up the bass and play with that swagger and energy again one last time (an encore would do, back pain permitting). ;D

I'm seeing Brian tomorrow, and I know it's extremely unlikely, but I'd love him to do Barbara Ann playing bass!

There's a "pocket" on those earlier records.  If nothing else, Brian understood the importance of the bass and groove, and created or co-created some great baselines.

Now that you mention it, yeah, it is! Good observation.

I like this topic, too. I like being able to say that not only did the boys have amazing voices/harmonies, but that they were in fact talented and capable of playing instruments ;D

According to the guy who gave her some tuition, she was pretty good. Name of Belsky.  :)

Bruce told me that Brian sometimes used a picking technique, but with his thumbnail rather than a pick. Best of both worlds!

Seeing some stuff from the early 60s, it's impossible not to think he got blisters in his thumb.

You're right!!! i've tried to play bass like Brian and I always get blisters! Playing the Dance Dance Dance rifff with your thumb, is very hard! Brian was a very underrated bassist. I have heard many times that he played bass on Sloop John B in addition to WC members playing bass. Is this accurate?

When I play bass, which I guess I really don't since my bass was stolen 10 years ago, I use(d) that classic "hand pointed down over the edge, use the first two fingers" style. Never liked a pick or thumb for bass. For thumb-picking, see the late Tommy Caldwell of the Marshall Tucker Band. Like his guitarist brother Toy, it's all in the thumb. I never saw anyone play that way with as much speed and dexterity as those two boys on either instrument - jazz, rock, blues, country, whatever they happened to be playing at the time.

Paul McCartney plays bass with a pick.  That's about all I need to know :)

Love the Caldwell brothers, though.  I'm about 45 minutes from their stomping grounds though, so I think it's in the water...

It must be, Ron. That whole original MTB line-up from Spartanburg was incredible. Toy's solo album, Son of the South, recorded not long before he passed away 20-some years ago has some of his best guitar work - Why Am I Cryin', instrumental Night Life, Texas On My Mind, live Can't You See . . . . . George McCorkle was no slouch as second guitar, either.

You will develop a very thick callus on your thumb playing bass like that, so not really.

Personally, I will play bass in the classic two fingers pointed down style, using a pick, or with my thumb. It all depends on the song. If I'm playing a soft jazz ballad, I'll use my thumb for a larger, warmer sound. If it's something rocking that need a hard, driving sound, I use a pick...etc etc...
Guitar too. I go back and forth between fingerpicking (fingers plucking kinda like Mark Knopfler but without the skill/elegance/speed) and using a pick. I just do whatever I think suits the song I'm playing.

You're speaking my language, now.  Very sad that this band doesn't get more respect, they made so much quality music and were so original.   If you get time and are up to it, if you search for Toy Caldwell enough on youtube, you'll eventually find some videos of him in the early 90's playing in a little tiny bar in Myrtle Beach to a handful of people.  it's pretty stunning to see him late in his too-short life virtually forgotten in a beach bar. 

Didn't Toy play EVERYTHING with his thumb?  As in, every note?

Ron, yes and yes. Toy also played at a place - in Greenville or environs? - somebody's Pump House? in the (very) early 90's shortly before he passed, that was on youtube. He had a quartet and did lots of MTB and solo stuff. Or is that the one you're speaking of? The youtube videos disappeared a year or so ago, unfortunately. There are some great ones of him solo and the original line-up, plus a short interview with Tom Snyder in 1980 when they appeared on his TV show.  Some classic humorous southern-type lines from Toy, Paul and George. I loved how he could slip from rock to blues to jazz and back so seamlessly you never really noticed it at first. His solo on "I Should Have Never Started Loving You" is immortal.

To understand why this band - the original line-up, specifically - is not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame requires far more imagination than I possess.

(Sorry guys, we didn't mean to hijack the thread.)

To this day, Toy's "This Ol' Cowboy" is still one my favorite songs. I play it quite often. I love that fusion of Country, Jazz and that tint of Rock. The song is a real Tour de Force. :)

Those are probably the same videos I'm talking about, I must have the location wrong... yes, I can't find them on youtube anymore either... There's not really much video of him ON youtube so I'd imagine we've all seen the same videos.  What a great talent.  Sad story, really.

Sorry to bring up this old thread but I don't think this would need no new one:

Currently I'm very interested in playing bass and therefor wondered about Brian's playing. One question that comes up is if Brian was the only bass player on the songs he played during the late 70s live shows. I watched a couple of videos but couldn't see anyone else on bass for those songs. I understand that I - as others probably do as well - underestimate late 70s Brian becaus of his condition. Still, I wonder if he had that much practice and rehearsal for carrying the bass duties during that time.

Another general question I have is if we know if Brian had an understanding of how the bass works so that he could actually "play" the instrument or did he just have Carl show him the lines for each song and kept it to that?

Not sure about the second point but Ed Carter was almost certainly covering bass for Brian, whose playing and behaviour could be described as quite erratic during this period.

I could be wrong, but I thought that Ed Carter switched to guitar for those 1977-78 shows and only played bass for songs like Lady Lynda, Country Pie, Everyone’s In Love With You, etc.

Rocker, I thought the general consensus was that, at the very beginning, Carl showed Brian the lines for each song, but that eventually, Brian knew how to “play” bass on his own (maybe with a little help from Carl for more difficult parts?). I do wonder about any songs he hadn’t played bass on in the ‘60’s that he may have played in 1977-78. I wonder if he “translated” them himself, or if Carl or Ed Carter helped him because he hadn’t played bass regularly for a while.

That's a great question. In Australia Brian played bass on "Heroes & Villains" (https://youtu.be/ESibAqUJkgg?t=1484) and "Wouldn't it be nice" (https://youtu.be/ESibAqUJkgg?t=2227) a.o., and I can't figure out if Ed Carter or somebody else is there covering for Brian just in case. You can see though that Brian's playing seemingly doesn't fit the bass line in the chorus of H&V. And also after the acapella break and "toce la guitara" I wonder if that is really him, the camera angle doesn't give a good look on his hands. On the other hand, him sitting on or standing by the bass amp instead of in front of the stage could actually mean that he was concentrating on his playing.

His playing on "Rock and Roll Music" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgFKN1sOuas) - to be sure a much simpler job than "H&V" - on the Midnight Special sounds pretty solid and that is while he's singing at the same time.


From "Catch a Wave" by Peter Ames-Carlin we know that Carl was hesitant to let Brian play bass on stage, while the latter had already gotten out his old equipement and started to practice. I don't kow how much energy Carl would put into him showing Brian completely new (for Brian) lines instead of just focusing on the things that Brian had played in the 60s and refreshing his mind.

That thumbing technique that Brian uses actually was 'the' technique at one time. When bass made its transition from the stand-up bass used by people like Elvis's Bill Black to the electric basses made by Fender, the thumb technique from the stand-up remained until people figured out more efficient ways of playing - including using fingers, pick, or indeed slapping with both thumb and fingers.

This can be seen in older basses (or reissues thereof), where instead of a thumb rest allowing the fingers to play, there's a finger rest/grab handle allowing the thumb to play while still being anchored.

(https://www.12fret.com/wp-content/gallery/fender-tele-bass-blonde-1970-cons/fender-tele-bass-blonde-1970-cons-full-front.jpg)

One of the problems with giving an intent listen to Brian's bass playing on those 1977/78 shows is that few great-sounding sources for those shows exist. A few radio broadcasts and pro-shot videos; that's about it. And I can't say the mix on any of those shows is particularly great.

The videos at least give you a look at what Brian is playing (however much it's mixed up in the live mix).

I've never felt Brian really needed to focus a ton on bass playing. He was/is so musical that he could do it.

I've long felt that learning the most rudimentary bass is probably easier than learning guitar (see: Stu Sutcliffe), but being a very good bass player might be harder than being a very good guitarist.

That's true. Check out Jerry Lee Lewis' bass player J. W. Brown's handling of the bass on what is credited to be the first time an electric bass was played on TV (it's what I've read, haven't checked it myself):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs_bkhqJmRI









Which reminds me of Willie Nelson's answer when getting asked by Ray Price if he (Willie) could play bass. "Can't everybody?" Willie had never played bass before but became the bass player for Ray's Cherokee Cowboys after that.  :-D

Like a lot of players with (presumably) no money, Willie would've spent years playing 'fake bass' on the low strings of his guitar. When it's time to move over, you already know what you're doing and all the notes are in the same place. Just bigger :)

McCartney did something similar in the old Beatles days, the bass he had to play was an electric guitar with piano strings fitted.