By The Yard

The best-dressed bass player of all time? We salute the sometime Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith

- Joe Shooman

Paul Samwell-Smith’s career has largely been spent behind the mixing desk as a hugely successful engineer and producer, but he is also acclaimed as a founding member of the Yardbirds.

Back in 1963, it wasn’t the done thing to both play in the band and also have responsibility for the recordings; indeed, there were still recording studio staff wearing lab coats. But Samwell-Smith was always one to buck the trend, not least in his dapper, well-groomed appearance— which contrasted hugely with the longerhaired, scruffier look of his contemporaries.

Because of his production work with a host of enormous stars from Carly Simon to Chris de Burgh, Samwell-Smith’s bass-playing can be something of an afterthought. However, there are some absolutely stunning moments to be found during that truncated performing career. Wielding a short-scale Epiphone Rivoli, he influenced the styles of Dennis Dunaway and others, including our Guest Editor.

An excellent starting point if we want to unpack some of his bass work is the 1964 live album,