Originally Posted by ribbons

It's a really good book which I think is well worth reading, blastingas [Paul McCartney - Bass Master by Gareth Morgan & Tony Bacon].

A bit from the introduction:

". . . There was a real sense of adventure and exuberance in many of McCartney's lines from Rubber Soul onwards, and this helped to clear away forever the stagnant atmosphere around many pop-group rhythm sections. . . . By the time McCartney was really blossoming on Revolver he had already displayed another of the qualities that marks out the great bassman: a musical instinct that led him to make the right choices. He was never afraid of hard work. Beatle folklore has him as usually the last one to leave the session, the one who did the most work on any of the songs, and the one who was the most interested in a high level of excellence in writing, performing, and recording. . . . He spent many, many hours playing and thinking about bass guitar. Go back and try to calculate the proportion of their working life that the group spent in the studio simply developing songs, working out parts, doing takes, overdubbing, re-working pieces, and generally honing their material before it was released -- and all among a punishing touring schedule that continued to late 1966. . . . Nobody ever worked harder on their music prior to the Beatles and precious few have ever worked so hard since."