great recording: Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress

[ec]

So I've got an old "Best Of The Hollies" LP. It's a little scratched, etc., but every time I put it on, I'm just shocked at how good "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress" sounds. (I don't have it on CD, so I can't comment on that.) A few things about it:

1. The guitar sound alone was probably sufficient for when Leo Fender was called to his final reckoning.

2. The dynamics aren't "natural" sounding in the least. The backing tracks are pretty compressed. When the bass kicks in (and the drums two beats later) you can pretty much hear the compressor pumping on the beat. But it sounds great. The kick drum, along with that loping bass line, just punch you right in the chest. That said, it never obscures that really percussive guitar part. (This is one of my favorite examples of "fat" sounding compression. When someone asks me what I mean by that, I reach for this record.)

3. The vocal sound is great. Like the bass and kick, it absolutely jumps out of the mix at you, but (magically!) never obscures anything else.

4. It sounds like it's a sweet old tape delay, and the engineer was just riding the return fader to bring it in at the end of a vocal phrase---the delay isn't constant, it kind of just "chases" the main vocal, and often overpowers the dry signal on the way out.

All in all, I'm impressed every time I hear it at the depth and punch it has, even with all of that compression. (Discuss?)

Cheers,
-Erik

[RefD]

the intro really gives nothing away about the song that's coming, i like that.

[JGriffin]

Love the song, love the recording. The tape delay bursts at the end of phrases is a gimmick I shamelessly steal to this day.

[RefD]

Love the song, love the recording. The tape delay bursts at the end of phrases is a gimmick I shamelessly steal to this day.

ducking existed back then, right?

tho maybe it would've made more sense to do it manually anyway.

then again, maybe the vocal was tracked with the tape delay mixed at a lower level (perhaps 80% dry and 20% echo) and then the compression pulled the trailing echoes up?

speck you lay shun

[AstroDan]

I remember years ago buying a Creedence Clearwater greatest hits tape and wondering why this song was missing.

[ec]

Huh. The way the echo fades in sounds very thought-through, and slower than a compressor kicking in, or at least that's what my ears tell me. (Like I said, I imagine the engineer just jacking the fader on the delay return, all like, y'know... artistically or something.)

It's also just a fantastic vocal performance. (It's Allan Clarke singing that one, yeah? Anyone?)

Love the song, love the recording. The tape delay bursts at the end of phrases is a gimmick I shamelessly steal to this day.

ducking existed back then, right?

tho maybe it would've made more sense to do it manually anyway.

then again, maybe the vocal was tracked with the tape delay mixed at a lower level (perhaps 80% dry and 20% echo) and then the compression pulled the trailing echoes up?

speck you lay shun

[JGriffin]

Love the song, love the recording. The tape delay bursts at the end of phrases is a gimmick I shamelessly steal to this day.

ducking existed back then, right?

tho maybe it would've made more sense to do it manually anyway.

then again, maybe the vocal was tracked with the tape delay mixed at a lower level (perhaps 80% dry and 20% echo) and then the compression pulled the trailing echoes up?

speck you lay shun

I'm thinking it was done manually.

[bluesman]

I remember years ago buying a Creedence Clearwater greatest hits tape and wondering why this song was missing.

The reason it was missing is because the song is by the Hollies...not CCR.

[ec]

Oh, and those snare hits in the intro sound like the end of the world. (Anyone else notice how much low end there is in those hits, even in the reverb? Much more so than I'm used to hearing on a snare.)

Ok, I think I'm done.

[JGriffin]

I remember years ago buying a Creedence Clearwater greatest hits tape and wondering why this song was missing.

The reason it was missing is because the song is by the Hollies...not CCR.

I think he knows that now.

[AstroDan]

It's a compliment for both parties.

On a Hollies' side note, I would bet Thom Yorke was listening to a little "Air That I Breathe" at the time he wrote "Creep" (this has got to have been discussed before)...

[Electricide]

Oh, and those snare hits in the intro sound like the end of the world. (Anyone else notice how much low end there is in those hits, even in the reverb? Much more so than I'm used to hearing on a snare.)

Ok, I think I'm done.

nothing can compete with the snare hit right before the flute solo in Nights in White Satin.

[RefD]

Love the song, love the recording. The tape delay bursts at the end of phrases is a gimmick I shamelessly steal to this day.

ducking existed back then, right?

tho maybe it would've made more sense to do it manually anyway.

then again, maybe the vocal was tracked with the tape delay mixed at a lower level (perhaps 80% dry and 20% echo) and then the compression pulled the trailing echoes up?

speck you lay shun

I'm thinking it was done manually.

i was just blathering about other possible approaches, but i think you're right about it being done manually.

[JGriffin]

It's a compliment for both parties.

On a Hollies' side note, I would bet Thom Yorke was listening to a little "Air That I Breathe" at the time he wrote "Creep" (this has got to have been discussed before)...

I've said that for years. The vocal ad lib at the end is a direct lift, not to mention it's the same chords.

[vvv]

I've always kind of wondered, is the singer an FBI agent or an informant?