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Motown bass

Ok, so recently, I've been listening to a great deal of Motown, and I'm always amazed by the sound of the bass, specifically in songs like Papa Was A Rolling Stone. I doubt I'll be able to emulate that, and I also understand the bass players were simply great musicians, but just out of curiosity does anyone have any knowledge of the recording process used to capture the bass?

recording live/motown/3 track

I am curious of the typical mic setup in a 60's motown 3 or 4 track recording session, which to my knowledge were recorded live(ie the whole band played at once). I have heard that it was the bleed between mic's that helped to create the pleasest sound of these and other recordings(I have heard this applied to zep aswell).