Mistakes in famous recordings

CharlesM · Post by **CharlesM** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:06 pm

I was wondering if anyone can think of some well-known recordings that have obvious mistakes, anomalies, or unintended artifacts in them that nevertheless got released on the master. By "well-known" I mean recordings that would be familiar to the general listening public, nothing even resembling obscure.

Five that I think of off the bat are:

"Feel Like Makin' Love" (Bad Company) - Right before the 2nd chorus, there's an odd drumstick click that sounds as if the drummer (Simon Kirke) got tangled up a bit. Interesting that they let this go. Great drummer and drum sounds, btw.

"Black Dog" (Zep) - The telephone ringing faintly in the background during the guitar solo.

"Ten Years Gone" (Zep) - Bass drum pedal is squeaking very audibly.

"Heat of the Moment" (Asia) - The song speeds up dramatically from the middle to the end. Obviously a live, no-click take.

"Last Dance with Mary Jane" (Tom Petty) - Right before the fade, there's a weird drum fill that kind of ends in a dead-end. Pretty sure this was a mistake. Great live take, though...print it!

I think it's cool that some little "human" moments like these sqeak by on big-money recordings. I'll have to think of some more...

Chuck

thethingwiththestuff · Post by **thethingwiththestuff** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:27 pm

at about 0:00 in one song, Asia starts playing back the music they wrote.

anyway, recording mistakes or performance mistakes? i always notice the drum faders going up and down during "Long Long Long" on the white album.

musical mistakes? i live for musical mistakes... i definitely remember that strange drum fill during the fade out of "last dance with mary jane."

;ivlunsdystf · Post by **;ivlunsdystf** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:28 pm

Snare sound of "Born in the USA" (listen carefully during each offbeat and you'll notice what I mean - maybe easier to pick out of the mix if you use headphones) -

Oops, sorry. Did I just type that?

Here's one I always think of, for real: In Uncle Tupelo's "Give Back the Key to My Heart" from the Anodyne album there is a blown chord in the banjo part. It's way off, but very brief. It's a good reminder that the band is actually PLAYING the music in a room (or it fools me into believing that, at least)

I think the kick drum pedal should always be mic'd and mixed in. Kind of like picking sounds off an electric guitar. Maybe the next decade will find us comparing different ways to accurately and artfully capture the kick drum pedal, with certain brands and vintages of pedal being highly sought-after in the quest for the stylin' sound.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:51 pm

There's a site that has a whole list of hundreds of bits on Beatles songs--some blown notes or chords, some wrong lyrics, some technical stuff like switch noises or late un-mutes...too many to list.

johnny7 · Post by **johnny7** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:55 pm

Another classic is the messed up vocals in The Zombies "Tell Her No".
I think it was the 2nd or 3rd verse (i don't have a copy to listen to) complete with non-words. I love it...J

dirty · Post by **dirty** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:10 pm

Barbara-Ann by the Beach Boys, last chorus

(is it the chorus? I just remember the laughter.)

xonlocust · Post by **xonlocust** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:14 pm

skynrd. sweet home alabama. whatshisface goes "my donuts goddamn!" on like the outro. apparantly there was a box of donuts on a stool and after finishing the take he turned around to go to the CR to listen and knocked them over and they kept it.

i didnt believe it when i first heard about this because we've all heard the song a million times, but sure enough, if you listen for it it's there clear as day.

BradG · Post by **BradG** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 5:52 pm

xonlocust wrote:skynrd. sweet home alabama. whatshisface goes "my donuts goddamn!" on like the outro. apparantly there was a box of donuts on a stool and after finishing the take he turned around to go to the CR to listen and knocked them over and they kept it.

Ha ha! I just listened to it. That is so funny. It sounds like they actually censored it, which makes me believe the story even more. I think he says, "My ___kin' donuts, goddamn!"

Good one.

BradG · Post by **BradG** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 6:13 pm

There was a PJ Harvey song on one of her very early records where there is a snare thru the whole track that is following a totally different tempo than the rest of the track (I mean, not even close).

I've never heard this confirmed but I always figured that they must have been recording over some tape that had another song on it and failed to wipe every track then just liked how completely fu?kedupp it sounded. I can't figure out how else you could ever get that result. Unless you just totally isolated somebody with a snare drum and no cues, and said "play" while you rolled tape...

evan · Post by **evan** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 6:35 pm

dirty wrote:Barbara-Ann by the Beach Boys, last chorus

(is it the chorus? I just remember the laughter.)

I think that track is off Beach Boys Party!, which is a "live" (in-studio, with overdubs) album. So, if it sounded like it mistake, it might've been...or it might've been deliberate.

I don't know if it was just a poor transfer, but the original CD version of the Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society always sounded pretty horrendous to me (the remaster sounds much better). "Johnny Thunder" had a pretty noticeable pumping effect on the bass drum hits.

digitaldrummer · Post by **digitaldrummer** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 9:40 pm

ok, what about Zep's whole lotta love? that early/double vocal thing in the middle (way down inside...) was supposedly because they had something patched wrong (??) and they got bleed from a "scratch" track. but it sounded cool, so they kept it.

jjbohn · Post by **jjbohn** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 9:57 pm

One that comes to mind, The Police "Everything little thing she does is magic". Sting hits one of the most flat bass notes I've ever heard. You can really hear it on the 5.1 mix. It's in one of the breaks right before the chorus. Not sure which but I think it's the second one.

phalex · Post by **phalex** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 4:29 am

jjbohn wrote:One that comes to mind, The Police "Everything little thing she does is magic". Sting hits one of the most flat bass notes I've ever heard. You can really hear it on the 5.1 mix. It's in one of the breaks right before the chorus. Not sure which but I think it's the second one.

Sting is the greatest musician who ever lived.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 5:26 am

jjbohn wrote:One that comes to mind, The Police "Everything little thing she does is magic". Sting hits one of the most flat bass notes I've ever heard. You can really hear it on the 5.1 mix. It's in one of the breaks right before the chorus. Not sure which but I think it's the second one.

You know, I was listening to Ghost In The Machine yesterday and heard some sort of stick click in "Spirits in the Material World" that I hadn't noticed before. It almost sounds like Stewart dropped a stick, but I don't see how that's feasible, given what's going on. I think it's right around 1:15-1:20 or so.

Man, I've got a bunch of these. When I used to work at a studio that did a lot of sound-alikes, I'd try to sneak them in.

Kenny Rogers clearing his throat right beofre the key change of "The Gambler."

Paul McCartney (I think) saying, "stop tape" in "Let It Be."

A bad edit/punch in Peter Gabriel's "The Washing Of The Water." ("Bring ME something...")

There's a ton. I'll try to add some later.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Rob Tavaglione · Post by **Rob Tavaglione** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 5:58 am

In the outro of "Fire" by Jimi Hendrix you can hear the bass player clearly change to the wrong section when he's not supposed not. I think the band is vamping out on the chorus and the bass player goes back to the intro lick. If my memory serves me correctly ...

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Mistakes in famous recordings

Mistakes in famous recordings

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