It’s hard to imagine a Beatles line-up without picturing Paul McCartney’s violin-shaped Hofner bass guitar upfront, but the truth is things weren’t always that way. In the band’s early days, McCartney was one of three guitarists alongside George Harrison and John Lennon, with Pete Best behind them all on drums.
It was only when the bass guitar was going spare in July 1961 that McCartney was assigned the bass guitar on the foundation of being the band’s most talented multi-instrumentalist. He’d go on to redefine the instrument for all rock music to come, with his ear for counter-melodies and tendency to wander up and down the neck of the bass guitar, making it far more than the time-keeping device it had been for most early rock and roll groups.
McCartney becoming the Beatles bassist changed the dynamics of the band’s sound, making them tighter and allowing space for more interesting harmonic elements to develop. He was also taking the group’s proficiency up a level, since the bass player who came before him hadn’t been much of a musician.
The original bassist was a friend of Lennon’s from his time at Liverpool College of Art, and was far more serious about his painting than his place in The Beatles. Lennon introduced him to the other Beatles in early 1960, while the two were living together. Before long, he was part of the band.
Who was he, then?
Stuart Sutcliffe was the same age as Lennon and his best friend at the time, a situation that made his successor on the bass jealous. Nevertheless, things soon worked out better for everyone, as Sutcliffe met fellow artist Astrid Kirchherr during The Beatles’ first tour of Hamburg in 1960. They fell in love and became engaged, with Sutcliffe applying for an art scholarship that would allow him to stay in the city.
On successfully obtaining the place he wanted at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg, he quit The Beatles the following summer to pursue art full-time. There’s a tragic end to his story, though, as he died suddenly of an aneurysm less than a year later. His death devastated Kirchner and all of The Beatles, but his closest friend Lennon more than anyone.
Years before Sutcliffe met Lennon, however, we could argue that there was another Beatles bassist who preceded him. While still at school, Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen, which would eventually turn into The Beatles after McCartney and Harrison joined. The group’s first bass player was Lennon’s school friend Bill Smith, who played a homemade tea-chest version of the instrument in the traditions of British skiffle music.
Although Smith was never part of the actual Beatles and never played a proper bass guitar in Lennon’s group, he was the first player to provide the bass instrument in a group associated with the band. Still, whether we consider Sutcliffe or Smith the first Beatles bassist doesn’t change the fact that Paul McCartney took the role to a different stratosphere from the moment he took over.