The role of a bassist has always been a bit tricky in the world of rock and roll. While many people have demoted most four-stringers to the title of ‘less talented guitarist’, everyone from James Jamerson to John Entwistle has proven what could happen if you treat the bottom end like a lead guitar and serve the song in just the right way. While Paul McCartney transformed himself into a masterful bassist in The Beatles, George Harrison thought he couldn’t compare to what Willy Weeks could do.
Then again, there’s a good chance that Harrison would have been happy to play with anyone else but McCartney once the group broke up. As much as the rift seemed to spark up between John Lennon and McCartney in the early 1970s, ‘The Quiet Beatle’ was equally stung by McCartney’s antics, getting more and more irritated when being treated like the little brother of the band.
Once he got a taste for life as a solo artist, though, Harrison could be even better than his old mates in some respects. Throughout All Things Must Pass, every one of his songs featured a new approach to his music no one had heard before, from the heaviness of ‘Let It Down’ to hearing him go full country on ‘Behind That Locked Door’.
So how the hell does a soulful bassist like Weeks factor into this? Well, for all of the genres that Harrison toyed around with, he did have a knack for writing R&B towards the mid-1970s. While Extra Texture wasn’t greeted with the warmest reception, many of the tunes involve him flexing his soulful chops with an all-star cast of session musicians like Weeks.
Given his track record working with legends like Donny Hathaway, Weeks was the ideal session man to work with Harrison, always knowing how to serve the song and keep things bouncy throughout any track he played on. Just listen to his performance on ‘Love Comes to Everyone’ on his self-titled 1979 record and you’ll hear someone who not only understands the pocket but also how to react when someone else is playing something interesting.
Despite having a symbiotic way of communication with his mates, Harrison remembered being astounded by what Weeks could pull off, saying, “Even then, to play with The Beatles, I’d rather have Willy Weeks on bass than Paul McCartney. That’s the truth, with all respect to Paul, the Beatles was like being in a box, it’s taken years after being out of The Beatles to get to play with other musicians ‘cause we were so isolated together.”
In fact, the reason why Weeks worked best with Harrison is because of how well they both know the inner workings of their instruments. In the solo of Hathaway’s live rendition of ‘Everything is Everything’, Weeks never overstays his welcome and makes the most out of the bare minimum just like Harrison had done on those early Fab releases.
For all of the iconic work that he’s played on, though, Weeks is a prime example of a silent genius hiding in the background of 1970s history. Then again, it is always the quiet ones that end up being the most interesting when you peel back the curtain.
