Rock Flashback: James Jamerson, Bassist Extraordinaire

Motown's Detroit HQ was known as "Hitsville USA." (Getty Images/Jim Watson/AFP)

In the middle third of the 20th century, African Americans left the South by the hundreds of thousands, seeking greater opportunity in northern cities. This diaspora brought talented individuals onto scenes they might never have joined otherwise. Think Muddy Waters in Chicago . . . and James Jamerson in Detroit.

Jamerson was born in South Carolina. When he was 18, he joined his mother in Detroit. While in high school, Jamerson was seen frequently on the streets of his neighborhood driving his car with his upright bass sticking out of the window.

Jamerson had developed an interest in jazz while still in South Carolina, and he learned to play the blues in the splendidly named-Washboard Willie and the Supersuds of Rhythm. Around 1958, he was discovered by a local producer and began playing on recording sessions. Along with several of the session players he got to know, Jamerson would become a member of the Funk Brothers, the house band at Motown Records. He had switched to electric bass by this time, and he would revolutionize the way the instrument was played.

Motown didn’t credit the musicians who played behind their famous singers, but the music world knew who they were. As a result, Jamerson and his fellow players were heavily in demand for record dates, commercials, TV themes, and live appearances. By the late ’70s, however, Jamerson was falling out of favor due to chronic alcoholism and health problems. He spent many of his final years in and out of hospitals and institutions.

The sad coda to Jamerson’s life is this: at the splashy, televised Motown 25th anniversary celebration in 1983, no mention was made of the Funk Brothers’ contributions to the history of the label. In fact, Jamerson had to buy a ticket from a scalper in order to attend. Four months later, he was dead at age 47.

Here’s Jamerson’s bass track from the Four Tops‘ classic “I Can’t Help Myself,” along with some pictures of him.

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