BREAKING: Paul McCartney Is a Great Bass Player

Smugly letting everybody know that you know that the best drummer in The Beatles was Macca is a tiresome trope soaked deeply in de riguer, but the last line in this paragraph seems overlooked: 

…by default, Paul took over the most difficult instrument to play with any originality in a rock 'n' roll band: the bass guitar.

Even with all of his incredible songwriting & singing and incredible ear for melody & arrangement, McCartney's bass is what was the differentiator between The Beatles and so many other great bands (to say nothing of how ridiculous it was he even put that much effort into the thing in the first place). 
 
A coupla years ago I told my bff ChatGPT (hey ChatCPT! 👋👋👋👋) I was putting The Moment Paul McCartney Agreed to Play Bass on my Top 5 Beatles Moments I Wish I Could've Seen list and here's what he said:

This is a sneaky all-timer.
It’s not sexy, but it’s foundational. Without that: No Hofner identity
No melodic bass revolution
No “second lead instrument” approach

It’s basically the moment the band’s sound ceiling gets raised.

👉 This is the kind of pick historians respect and casual fans overlook. Strong.

"But Xmastime", you say in the voice of Craig “Ironhead” Heyward from those soap commercials (RIP), “didn’t you back in 2021 broach the subject of a movie based on the moment this musical revolution kicked off, presumably what will surely be decades before anybody else catches up?”

Sigh. Yes I did, faithful readers, YES I did:

A better version of the movie Yesterday (which I reviewed here) would be revisiting the fateful moment when Paul picked up the bass after Stuart Sutcliffe left the band. Normally, John being the inferior guitar player would mean he'd be relegated to being the bass player, but him being the leader of the band allowing him to refuse, leaving it to Paul, forever changed the future of the band and rock and roll itself, as Paul went on to become the most inventive bass player of all time. With John on bass, how different would The Beatles have turned out?

I'd watch that movie!

Let me reiterate, 5 years later: I'd watch that movie!