Sara Lee

Sara Lee is an English-American bassist and singer-songwriter, who came to prominence replacing Dave Allen on bass guitar in post-punk band Gang of Four, which she was a member of from 1982 to 1984. She was also a member of Robert Fripp's short-lived band The League of Gentlemen and is also notable for work with B-52s, Ani DiFranco and Indigo Girls. As of October 2021, Lee rejoined Gang of Four with founding members Hugo Burnham and Jon King as well as David Pajo, to tour in 2022. The picture is of Sara Lee playing a black G&L L-2000 bass with a maple fingerboard (date unknown).

Used for the bass guitar on The B-52’s “Love Shack”, “Junebug” and “Bushfire”, as stated by mix engineer Dave Cook in this July 2012 Mix Online interview.

All of the Was-produced tracks were recorded analog, to a Studer A80 machine, using the studio’s early ’70s vintage API console. “I used Neumann U 87s on all of the vocals,” Cook recalls. “All the preamps were on board, in the console. I used a couple of Pultecs on drums, and probably dbx 160s on their vocals; [Shure SM] 57s on guitar amps and a Neumann U 47 fet on the bass amp, as well as a DI. The biggest challenge was to get the vocals isolated so we could get all the punches we needed. Later we would do doubles and fixes, and add the horns. I remember we listened very quietly on Auratones while doing vocals. Don was very focused on the vocals, and he heard pitch best when he listened quietly on small speakers. It is a method I’ve used myself ever since.”