Echo and the Bunnymen: "The Killing Moon" intro in

roygbiv · Post by **roygbiv** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 12:31 am

Coincidentally, I have been learning "Killing Moon" for an ironic '80's band I've recently started playing keyboards in - good times for 40-50 year old guys. I expect to the youngsters, we will be the equivalent of 50's cover bands were to me when I was 20.

But I digress.

I think the reason "Killing Moon" (and all of "Joshua Tree", etc., for that matter) sounds so "big" is arrangement.

There is a LOT of negative space on that song. No picky plink thwacky thwach guitar and bass parts going on all the time. because they can. Instead, there is a thoughtful sound, then a deliberate space, then another sound. Etc.

As the saying goes, for something to seem big, it needs to be next to something small.

And nothing is smaller than not playing anything.

You put a sound next to an empty space, and give it some reverb (which was new in the 80's, and way fun to play with back in the day), it both brings listener into into the soundscape, and sounds "big" as well.

Anyway, that's my viewpoint on that.

biasvoltage · Post by **biasvoltage** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 6:40 pm

Not a Whammy pedal.

Those didn't exist until what, 89? 90?

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 9:40 am

I forgot about this thread, even as I rec'd the re-mastered Ocean rain a cuppla weeks ago.

Many of the descriptions of the sound quality as compared to other recordings are rendered obsolete.

What a beautiful sounding work of its time, and now of now.

Of course, I must obtain all of their re-masters, immediately!

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:13 am

bTW, there's a cool bonus "unplugged" live version of "Killing Moon" on the re-master; the intro is on acoustic guitar, and there's a cello ...

goose42 · Post by **goose42** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 11:12 am

Hey, all,
Thanks for the courteous replies and words of encouragement! Glad I had a second to revisit this conversation. Hoping for a few spare minutes soon to do some soundstage diagrams and investigate the arrangements of these tunes.

I never had the original master of Ocean Rain, but the remaster is great! Clean but not clinical.

From what I could find, the Digitech Whammy was not available until 1989.

wmt · Post by **wmt** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 2:59 pm

In case you are still interested,
I asked Will Sergeant about this very same thing once.
He said he recorded it with a Vox 12 String unplugged and mic'd.

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Wed Dec 04, 2013 5:37 pm

Message Board

Echo and the Bunnymen: "The Killing Moon" intro in

Who is online