The classic ’90s song featuring a bass borrowed from John Lennon
The Beatles had one of their most famous connections with Rickenbacker guitars. John Lennon purchased the band’s first instrument from the guitar manufacturer when he picked up a 1958 Rickenbacker 325 during the band’s first trip to Germany. At a time when more popular American instrument companies like Gibson and Fender were the victims of a European embargo, the relatively small-scale Rickenbacker company provided a cheaper and more readily-accessible alternative.
George Harrison would soon follow when he briefly picked up a 425 in 1963. When the band made their first trip to America, Rickenbacker president F. C. Hall presented with a 360-12 that soon became essential to the band’s sound. Hall tried to give Paul McCartney a 4001S bass, but since it was a right-handed model, McCartney would have to wait until 1965 before acquiring a lefty model.
While Lennon and Harrison largely stopped using their Rickenbacker guitars after 1966, McCartney embraced his 4001S and began using it frequently in the studio. The bass would be McCartney’s primary instrument throughout the rest of The Beatles’ career, and when McCartney began his solo career with Wings, the Rickenbacker was right by his side. Although he later switched back to his distinctive Hofner violin bass, the Rickenbacker 4001S would forever be tied to McCartney.
But is it possible that McCartney wasn’t the only Beatle who had that particular model? As it turns out, Lennon might have also been in possession of a 4001S bass, and that bass might have made an appearance on a classic 1990s hit single. If true, that would make a direct link between The Beatles and English alt-rockers Spacehog.
According to an interview with the band’s drummer Jonny Cragg, the band were recording their biggest hit, ‘In the Meantime’, when they met up with Sean Lennon. “Sean came down to the studio with his guitarist Timo Ellis,” says Cragg. “He invited us back to the Dakota Building to jam. I’d been in New York about a year, and there I was, wearing Yoko’s slippers, with one of John’s guitars slung over my shoulder. It was pretty surreal. I think Sean gave Roy [Langston, bassist and lead singer] one of his dad’s Rickenbacker 4001 basses that night, and he ended up using it to cut the single.”
In the band’s promotional videos and live performances, Langston is indeed seen wielding a Rickenbacker 4001. It’s most likely that the one Langston used day-to-day was his own, but according to Cragg, a little bit of Beatle magic was whipped up to record the studio version of ‘In the Meantime’. There don’t appear to be any other sources that link Lennon to owning a 4001 bass, but it’s not impossible that Lennon might have been wanting a 4001S after seeing how well McCartney used it.
Check out ‘In the Meantime’ down below.
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