The “nothing song” Carol Kaye transformed into smash hit
When we think of great bass players, it’s usually associated with a handful of the same reiterated names: Geddy Lee, Paul McCartney, Flea…but what about the ultimate legend, the most recorded bass player in history, Carol Kaye?
A powerhouse once regarded by the one and only Brian Wilson as “the greatest damn bass player in the world”, Kaye has the kind of discography that makes you blink twice, having worked with the likes of The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Sam Cooke, Barbra Streisand, Simon and Garfunkel and many others.
At first, though, playing bass was a sort of stand-in opportunity that drew her away from playing the guitar and headfirst into territory that would not only define her talent but make her a well-sought-after name.
“I played guitar for about five years and started playing bass almost accidentally,” she said, adding, “I never wanted to play bass, but the bass player didn’t show up at Capitol Records until 1963. They hired me and I thought, ‘You know, it’s more fun to play rock and roll bass than it was guitar.’ Every style of music can be played on bass, and so that’s what I started doing.”
She also explained how being an innovator came from playing jazz, because “you’re inventing every note that you play at all times”.
There are undeniably countless touchpoints throughout Kaye’s career that pinpoint not only her immense talent but her unmatched humility (she turned down a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction because she felt it discredited the Wrecking Crew). There are countless moments that still permeate the airwaves on heavy rotation today, but one that stands out as a career-defining move that proved her extraordinary knack for unexpected innovation was her work with The Beach Boys.
On Pet Sounds, she not only contributed to a sound that rivalled and challenged the British Invasion but did so with a sort of confident familiarity, all while knowing that what they were doing wasn’t really conventional but understanding that that’s what set them apart in the first place. “A lot of people don’t think this fits with Pet Sounds. But really, what does fit with Pet Sounds?” she told Music Radar, recalling how she worked with Wilson to keep the bass moving, giving it a different kind of flavour you wouldn’t find elsewhere.
This was a mindset Kaye carried everywhere, that quiet confidence she carried that knew she could change the entire feel and appeal of a song with the right bass line. This is precisely what she did with Sonny and Cher’s ‘The Beat Goes On’. When asked by Songfacts which she felt she made into a hit, she said: “‘The Beat Goes On’ is a biggie. I mean, it was a nothing song, and then the bass line kind of made that. But you’d have to say all of them.”
In fact, the only song she mentioned that already had the inner workings of a hit song was The Righteous Brothers’ ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin”, though she admits that most of the projects they worked on “would not have been a hit without us.”
This level of certainty was never so much to do with egotistical matters as a genuine, unrelenting dedication to the cause. For Kaye and the rest of the musicians, it was often go, go, go – the reason why she often called it “inventing” music rather than creating it.
It wasn’t just something they did to get by, or even something they did because it was just hobbyist escapism. For Kaye, it was a lifeblood, something that always “helps to remove a lot of the bad feelings that you have inside”.
