Obvious mistakes on recordings

Favorite vocal blunder: R.E.M.'s "Shaking Through" -- Stipe starts out horribly flat, adjusts the pitch as he goes along.

I love this thread.

I like that version too.

Lots of interesting things, some "mistakes," some just weird bits that you can hear.

And don't forget Ween. Besides bursting out laughing in a bunch of their songs, you can clearly here the amp mic picking up one of their voices right after the guitar solo in "I Saw Gener Crying in His Sleep." The voice yells "You fucked it up!" and they just keep playing.

C/D mistakes in posts about mistakes in songs

2. U2 - Love Rescue Me, uber bass-donkey Adam Clayton could have a book (okay, well maybe a small pamphlet) written about his incompetence, esp concerning the live side of things. But the poor lad can't even handle a basic 12-bar change, cuh, it's GLARING too!

3. Low - Mimi's timing is all over the place on some tracks, beautiful voice though.

Archie Bell & the Drells, "Tighten Up": the handclaps wander back & forth between the beats and the offbeats, and Archie has to ask his band twice to "make it mellow" the second time through.

But it's probably incorrect to have included a live performance in this thread, though.

But I'd still like to know why everything else is louder than Ray Davies vocal on Ape Man.

I was wondering the same about Hotlegs' "Neanderthal Man" !

Good call.

Also, to me, "Move Your Body" sounds like none of the keyboard tracks were quantized (timing-corrected) - they were likely just played live to the drum machine, as the opening piano solo is VERY bumpy and even has a couple of sour notes. Jefferson himself has admitted that he basically could not play the piano in his Trax Records days and would resort to building up chord changes by overdubbing a note at a time. He would also rope his work buddies into singing backup, which is why the choruses on "Move Your Body" are so loose.

Funny you should bring this record up - I've been listening to a LOT of late 80s house these days, and those tunes are FULL of mistakes that would not make the cut today. To me, that's part of the charm.

Now listening to Otis Redding's Dock of the Bay album and on his "Tramp" duet with Carla Thomas, his vocals are almost inaudible, which bugs me, cuz it's an awesome song.

Also, it sounds like General Johnson was starting to say "fight" instead of "part" in a line of the Chairman of the Board's "Give Me Just a Little More Time," rendering the line, "If we fart / Our hearts won't forget it." Probably the Top 40's only Dutch Oven experience.

xpost: Perhaps they liked the erie sound, or maybe it was just a mistake.

I think it's Happy Jack.

Where at the end, you here Pete Townshend saying "I Saw You"

From what I hear, He said that because Keith Moon was making weird faces at Pete as he was recording his part.

Can't say I noticed anything odd though! I'll have to watch again!

The drummer briefly goes into the 'rattattat' by mistake before the second verse, then quickly drops back into line. It sounds now totally intentional, and the only reason I know this is one time my old band did a cover, and our drummer did the same mistake. I looked round to nod, but he was shaking his head and never did it again...

Placebo - Brick Shithouse, after the wee pause following the "don't you wish you'd never met her" part at about 2:17, when the music comes back in again, it sounds like someone misses the beat slightly, it doesn't exactly hit the timing of the vocal - it confuses the hell out of me. not sure if it's the drums being a tad late or brian a little early, or just me going FUCKING LA-LA. confirm/deny this, and i will sleep a lot easier at night. k thx.

Hmmm. My ears are unconvinced! But maybe the beat is creating a ghost syllable or something.

Jesus Christ Superstar - On the film version of 'Heaven On Their Minds' at 2'19" there is a really noticeable sour note on the piano.

The vocal flub in the Who's "Eminence Front." No idea why they left that in. They didn't replicate it when I saw that tour.

REM The Wrong Child where Stipe comes in early *twice* with "Hey (very faint).. Hey those.. Hey those kids are looking at me"

This is interesting... I've heard that song a zillion times and never really processed that as a "mistake," but I guess it was!

Ween's first 3 albums have a lot of stuff like this but I guess it fit their M.O. to leave it in. It's really prominent on Pure Guava, sometimes you can even hear bits of the tapes they were recording over

On 'She Sings Hymns Out Of Tune', Nilsson comes in too soon on the last chorus and also slows down the harmonium part.