Who Plays Bass?: Sounds Of Silence

For years I assumed Joe Osborn played bass to Hal Blaines' drums, overdubbing on the original acoustic track.

Then, I found several references online to Carol Kaye, who seems to have played on everything Osborn didn't in the 60s.

Then, I found a site where the following lineup of musicians is listed: Al Gorgoni - guitar; Bob Bushnell - bass; Bobby Gregg - drums.

I thought Glen Campbell played guitar as well. I must say the record really rocks and the bass is a huge part of the sound, whoever played it.

Anyone know for sure?

 

Bob Bushnell (bass), Bobby Gregg (drums), Al Gorgoni (el gtr)

 

...15th June 1965, overdubs supervised by Tom Wilson, produced by Bob Johnston

 

The bass is the best part of the record, IMO, especially the way it "swoops" at the end of each line.

 

Yeah, it was overdubbed in NYC, not LA. Just like "Bringing It All Back Home." Same drummer, too. But Bob Johnston had nothing to do with that track. Tom Wilson all the way.

 

Swoops

That's the best reason to seek out the mono electric version---the bass dominates the mix.

 

Wasn't there a acoustic bass on the original? I think the player was Spike Lee's father,Bill Lee,who'd played on the Peter,Paul & Mary sessions,too. Michael Boyce

 

On the song Sound of Silence, where did the mix that is on the last cut of the soundtrack to The Graduate come from? This version starts with them singing right away, where the versions on Wednesday Morning and Sounds of Silence album starts with a guitar playing.

 

I learn something new every day. My best version, after the Japanese mono single I have, is the Canadian S&G Greatest Hits.

Thanks for clearing this up.

 

That's an entirely new recording, done specifically for the soundtrack. Ironically enough, I believe that version itself was overdubbed with more instrumentation for the movie. (The overdubbed soundtrack version has never appeared on CD, as far as I know.)

 

By the way, in regards to different musicians being credited with the overdubs, I'll relate a story about a discussion I (and several others) had with Carol Kaye on one of the old Beach Boys mailing lists.

There was a discussion about Carol's extensive sessionography, and she presented a list of all the songs she'd performed on in her career. Among them was "Mr. Tambourine Man." Now, of course, most of us know that the bass on that song was actually Larry Knechtel. However, she was adamant that she'd played on that song (even insisting that the tonality and style of the bass playing was hers).

At any rate, after awhile, she finally dug through her union paperwork and discovered that, in fact, she had played on a later cover version of the song, for one of those cheap "hits of today"-type records (where they basically re-recorded popular tunes of the day, as close to the originals as possible, using session musicians and singers in order to package them all onto an album, without having to pay for the original versions).

Carol 'fessed up that she played on so many dates back then, and that at the time the players sometimes didn't even know what artists would later sing over their backing tracks, that she simply became confused. She played on a "Mr. Tambourine Man," so she just assumed she played on the "Mr. Tambourine Man." So that might be the case here - there might be musicians (or union contracts/logs) out there that say that so-and-so played bass on "The Sound of Silence." But it might not actually be the version we all know and love.

 

Wasn't Harvey Brooks (Electric Flag, Dylan, Miles Davis) suggested as the bass player on Sounds of Silence as well?

From Brooks' allmusic bio:

 

Osborn and Blaine (and Larry Knectal) played on "Bridge Over Troubled Water," which was recorded in L.A. "Sounds of Silence" -- original and electric overdubs -- was cut in NYC.

 

Nah. Harvey Brooks didn't start recording with Dylan until Al Kooper suggested him for the "Highway 61 Revisited" sessions that were produced by Bob Johnston after he replaced Tom Wilson as Dylan's producer. Harvey wasn't a session player, he was a friend of Kooper.
Tom Wilson was responsible for overdubbing onto "Sounds Of Silence" and he chose established New York City session men.

 

Canadian greatest hits LP

Kevin, is that Canadian pressing on the Columbia "360 Sound" label? Is there anything unusual about the mixes on that LP?

 

There's this story about Vinnie Bell and Paul Simon on Hullabaloo that was mentionned in a recent thread. Is Vinnie Bell actually credited for the sessions?

 

What story are you referring to when you say "There's this story"?

 

The Canadian version is a CD made by CINRAM. Sorry, if I implied it was vinyl. The CD is dry but has no apparent digital compression or artificial reverb added.

 

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=3376599&postcount=175

Of course, it could be apocryphal.

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me and the added information about the overdubbing for the movie.