The first time Paul McCartney played the Beach Boys’ 1966 album “Pet Sounds,” he was struck by the grand ambition of the music as well the intricacies of tracks like “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.”
“And as I was a bass player,” McCartney noted in a recent interview, “I listened closely to the bass parts.”
Like most people, McCartney assumed the song’s melodically affecting rhythms were the work of Brian Wilson. “Then later I looked at the credits,” he said, “and I saw it wasn’t Brian on bass, it was this girl, Carol — Carol Kaye. That was quite a shock to me. I started looking into what else Carol played on, and she was on everything.”
A linchpin of the Los Angeles recording scene from the late 1950s through the ’70s, Kaye began her career as a jazz guitarist, before moving into the pop world and eventually onto the electric bass, appearing on thousands of songs, including hits for Simon and Garfunkel, Sonny and Cher, Barbra Streisand and Joe Cocker. Later, Kaye became a favorite in Hollywood, playing on classic film and TV themes — “Mission Impossible,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “The Brady Bunch” and “Kojak” — before going on to write the first serious instructional books on electric bass.
Kaye was finally recognized by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year, and will be included in its 2025 class via its “musical excellence” category. She promptly announced she was rejecting the honor and would boycott the induction ceremony in November. Her decision flummoxed friends and fans who see her as a vital pioneer.
“Well, I don’t do things because other people want me to do them,” Kaye said pointedly. “I have to do things the way I see fit.”
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The post Carol Kaye Is Being Honored by the Rock Hall. She Doesn’t Care. appeared first on New York Times.
