But the question is: did McCartney REALLY decide to take over on bass in late 1960 if...
1) he had at his dispossal Stu's 500/5?? (=Alan Clayson - Pauline Sutcliffe:
"...the Beatles restructured their act [at Indra] with left-handed Paul playing the absent member's bass upside down...")
2) he could use his Solid 7 as a bass?? (=Harrison's letter to Stu dated 16 December 1960:
"...It's no good with Paul playing bass, we'd decided, that is if he had some kind of bass and amp to play on!...")
3) they could use Chas Newby + a borrowed Höfner bass to play at gigs?? (=McCartney:
"...The way I'd been brought up, my dad had always hammered into us to never get in debt, because we weren't that rich...")
4) playing bass wasn't cool?? (=McCartney:
"...None of us wanted to be the bass player. It wasn't the number one job: we wanted to be up front. In our minds, it was the fat guy in the group who nearly always played the bass, and be stood at the back. None of us wanted that; we wanted to be up front singing, looking good, to pull the birds...")
IMHO, McCartney was 'forced' to take the bass in April 1961 because he was the only one who hadn't got a guitar by then (=the Soild 7 was not longer there). After that, he led bass playing "...to be up front singing, looking good, to pull the birds...", as we can listen at Polydor recordings...
But he played bass from time to time while in Hamburg (=Stu's 500/5 and maybe his 'Solid_7_converted_to_a bass'). Why?? Because George was the lead guitarist, John was the band leader -and owned a new Rickenbacker- and Stu wasn't there sometimes. So, Paul was THE one to play that role (=same he did in Liverpool with drums and at Top Ten in April 1961 with the piano...)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, another picture surfaces:
Peter Stone, "An interview with The Beatles' Chas Newby",
Beatlology Magazine (September/October 2007), pp. 8-13:
"...CN:...And funny enough, that's exactly the same as Red Sails In The Sunset. I can remember, even Paul must have, I guess, been listening for the bass line that he wanted in a particular song. And, I can remember him playing it, because bear in mind we were both left-handed and so we had a certain affinity. But I can remember him playing it on his guitar and then showing me the notes that he wanted me to play for Red Sails In The Sunset and Hallelujah, I Love Her So. But with all the others, there wasn't that sort of problem, because they were basically... 12-bar blues and just play the bass line like a boogie-woogie, like a left-hand on a piano.
P.S.: It's intriguing that Paul was interested, even back then, in the bass lines.
CN: All I'm saying is that he was the one who told me what he wanted to hear. Whether it was just the bass line or whether he told the others what he wanted to hear, I don't know. I'm not aware of that. But, he was the one in those two particular songs. He made sure that I knew what it was he wanted..."The interview is very interesting and full of very good info about those historical days at the end of December 1960. But what we can conclude from Chas Newby words is that Paul McCartney was playing bass lines with his Solid 7 at those days, and he was VERY sure of the bass lines he wanted for -at least some- group songs...
Thoughts??
Xosé