Obvious mistakes on recordings

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he was certainly on the LA session A-list.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Sunday, 5 June 2005 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Sometimes bass players play the 5th as opposed to the 3rd and freaks people out because they think it sounds "wrong" but it's not wrong, it's just not usual. I used to do this sometimes, once I sparked a great fight in the recording studio when a less experienced player said I was "off" by playing the 5th and a more experienced guy jumped down his throat with a lecture about keys and scales. Aw, nevermind, it was just funny, very Spinal Tap "She's playing the 5th man" "No Dude, it's out of tune" etc.

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

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 5 June 2005 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

prince makes a mistake on a drum fill in the intro of the cross from sOTT.

― titchyschneider (titchyschneider), Sunday, 5 June 2005 21:42 (twenty-one years ago)

(x-post)
orbit makes many many good points and i in agreeance with all of them. but if the mamas and papas actually wanted that particular bass note in that particular place, then the acid at monterey must've been way better than previously reported.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Sunday, 5 June 2005 21:43 (twenty-one years ago)

The Who "Happy Jack"

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.

― Michael Costello (MichaelCostello1), Sunday, 5 June 2005 21:58 (twenty-one years ago)

In an amazing coincidence, I watched the Mamas and the Papas doing Monday Monday at Monterey tonight too.

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

― KeefW (kmw), Sunday, 5 June 2005 22:00 (twenty-one years ago)

The Pogues' "Dark Streets of London": Bass somewhat wobbly throughout, and really misses in the line "and the drugged up psychos with death in their eyes".

― OleM (OleM), Sunday, 5 June 2005 22:23 (twenty-one years ago)

The very beginning of Bowie's "Never Let Me Down" album sounds like it was edited together by lazy chimps wearing boxing gloves. (Granted, the critical concensus seems to be that the entire album was a mistake, but I mean the beginning was just a messy amatuerish edit. And its on the tape and cd versions like that.)

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Sunday, 5 June 2005 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

The Special AKA - Gangsters

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...

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 June 2005 09:38 (twenty-one years ago)

this has bugged me for years and years - i'm pretty sure it's a mistake but it's so OBVIOUS that sometimes i convince myself otherwise and it sounds perfectly normal. only Ned Raggett can set my mind at rest (probably)!

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.

― g-kit (g-kit), Monday, 6 June 2005 09:39 (twenty-one years ago)

the classic contemporary example is during the opening track on
antony and the johnsons' 'i am a bird now' where he or someone hits the wrong piano note and audibly goes 'uhh..' very briefly.
ace it is too.

― piscesboy, Monday, 6 June 2005 09:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, and someone mentioned Van...

The "When God shines his light", the humming bit at the end, where Van forgets to keep his gob shut and goes "mmmm mmmmm mmmm obmmm mm "

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 June 2005 09:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Get Behind Me Satan, the "new" album by the White Stripes.

Their mistake: recording it.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 6 June 2005 09:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh and when the keyboard player drops something on the keys on the intro to "Lazy line painter jane"..

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 June 2005 09:47 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost so it seems, marcello.. Shall wait for the LP I guess...

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 June 2005 09:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Xpost myself.. that's the Belle and Sebastian song, not Van's cover version obv.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 June 2005 09:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd quite like Van Morrison to do a Belle and Sebastian covers album.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 6 June 2005 10:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Pink Floyd - "Let There Be More Light"; second verse (I think) the whispered vocals get the lyric wrong

Miles Davis - "Right Off" on Jack Johnson; Early on in the piece, John McLaughlin transitions to a new key, while the bassist is still playing in the old key...it seems to take him a while to catch on to the chord change.

― Joe (Joe), Monday, 6 June 2005 10:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm impressed you guys can spot 'mistakes' on those records. I thought it was "oops I went wrong" "Don't worry, it's jazz" ...

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 June 2005 10:42 (twenty-one years ago)

On the Allman Brothers' "One Way Out," after the drum solo and the guitar-dueling part, it appears they come back in on the wrong chord (they should be coming back in on bar 1 of a 12-bar blues, but they come back in on bar 9--it may have been deliberate, but it always sounded wrong to me).

― Keith C (kcraw916), Monday, 6 June 2005 12:10 (twenty-one years ago)

There are two crude, dead obvious edits on the Count Five's "They're Gonna Get You" (the B-side of their hit, "Psychotic Reaction").

Paul Butterfield's harmonica solo on "East West" almost sounds like it's in the wrong key, but redeems itself at some point. It sounds like he was "cross-harping," which is sorta like picking up, say, a D harmonica to play an A song. Butterfield just makes it, but at first his solo sounds really incorrect.

That is one BOGUS sax solo on Dionne Warwick's "Anyone Who Had A Heart." I expect offkey saxophones on low-budget productions like Ron Holden's "Love You So," or "Angel Baby" by Rosie & the Originals, but not in the middle of some lavish Bacharach production.

And Michael Jackson's "just look over your shoulders, honey!" in the Jackson Five's "I'll Be There" was NOT a mistake, just a goofy ad-lib.

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Monday, 6 June 2005 12:23 (twenty-one years ago)

The first tune on the Arcade Fire album speeds up immensely between the beginning and the end.

In the beginning of "Brown Sugar," the tempo drags when the drums first come in.

― Keith C (kcraw916), Monday, 6 June 2005 13:01 (twenty-one years ago)

i just sat down with my ipod and had a listen to some of the mistakes mentioned on this thread. The Jimmy Page one on Black Dog is spectacular!

Here's another - The Small Faces - 'Get Yourself Together'. There's *something* wrong with the second phrase of the electric piano solo. I used to think that the piano was flat for the whole section, but I wonder if at around 1.26 Ronnie Lane fails to change note on the bass? Or both?

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:53 (twenty-one years ago)

That song on the first half of Spoon's "Girls Can Tell", where the keys and guitar play an arpeggio in the intro, but don't quite nail it. It's really sloppy, but sort of endearing in a homemade recording fashion.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:58 (twenty-one years ago)

There's also the track on Miles Davis "Workin'" where he's trading fours with Philly Joe Jones. Philly extends it into eights, and in the fifth bar Miles comes in with the first couple notes of a phrase and then stops.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

There's another trading-fours mishap on Sonny Rollins' Volume 2, I think it's on either "You Stepped Out of a Dream" or "Why Don't I." He comes in too early but then totally makes up for it by repeating it and making it into a riff.

― Keith C (kcraw916), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

There's an obvious recording error at the end of "Impossible" by Wu-Tang Clan. It's the part where Raekwon is talking about how "when you play with guns, son, that creates the problem of you going against your own..." There's an editing problem there where it sounds like the CD skips. It always stuck out like a sore thumb to me.

― Vestigial Appendages, Esq. (King Kobra), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I know Dylan's been mentioned before, but on "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream", there's a really obvious screw-up that occurs when the producer (Tom Wilson?) starts laughing loudly 20 seconds into the song. It cracks me up every time. Dylan starts the songs again after that.

― Vestigial Appendages, Esq. (King Kobra), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I've always wondered if it was intentional or just a mistake when Malkmus sang "Nature kids / I - they don't have no function" on "Range Life".

― Garrett Martin (Garrett Martin), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Check out the fade-out to "Fire" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience -- Noel Redding goes back to the main riff for a second, nobody joins, so he abashedly returns to the verse riff.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Nick Drake forgetting that he hasn't written an ending for a song and fumbling around for a few beats

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 6 June 2005 16:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Joy Division's "The Eternal" had more beats to it but something went awry in the recording of it.

Julian Cope's "Las Vegas Basement" features him half-mumbling lyrics he can't remember -- it was recorded on the first take, as he wrote in the liner notes.

― Ian Riese-Moraine. Sweeter than a lorry load of white Toblerones. (Eastern Mantr, Monday, 6 June 2005 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

On Nirvana Unplugged, on "Pennyroyal Tea", after the solo, I think Kurt started offkey and just "slides" his way back to the right key. Everyone slows down and pretty much waits for him.

He did say the song was in a different key, though.

― Viz (Viz), Monday, 6 June 2005 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Silver Jews "Have You Ever Rented a Room" has the most obvious edit I can think of. The part in the first verse where he sings "Who married one but loved another" is so obviously recorded in a different time and place. I think it even pans to the other speaker.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 6 June 2005 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Keith Richards misses one of the notes at the end of the Rolling Stones' "Sitting on a Fence". It's too bad, because it's otherwise a perfect track. But it has its value in contributing rawness.

― Vestigial Appendages, Esq. (King Kobra), Monday, 6 June 2005 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

The Fall's Winter 1 & 2 PWNS THIS THREAD.

― ddb (ddb), Monday, 6 June 2005 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Olivia Tremor Control - "NYC-25"

― sleep (sleep), Monday, 6 June 2005 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

i was told (in junior high) that if you listen carefully during the climactic guitar solo at the end of "Freebird", you can faintly hear someone say "hey don't touch that doughnut" or something like that, which was picked up by a room mic. and they kept it in because the take was so super sweet. does this ring a bell w/ anyone? it'd be great to have this settled.

― joey b, Monday, 6 June 2005 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

On "Zoot Suit" from The Who's Quadrophenia you can clearly here someone say "Go on" just before a verse. The vinly and original CD's have it but it was mixed out for the 96 cd

― Marcus Daley, Sunday, 12 June 2005 21:42 (twenty-one years ago)

On Nirvana Unplugged, on "Pennyroyal Tea", after the solo, I think Kurt started offkey and just "slides" his way back to the right key. Everyone slows down and pretty much waits for him.

Wait: either I'm insane, or Kurt sings "Pennyroyal Tea" solo. He actually asks the band to sit that one out, no?

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Sunday, 12 June 2005 21:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been frequently noticing what sounds like tape deterioration on older albums, even those by really big artists: there's instability on the left channel throughout Neil Young's "The Needle and the Damage Done,"

I'm glad it's not just my copy, then. Yes, that annoys the hell out of me. Also happens on my copy of "Like a Rolling Stone".

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Monday, 13 June 2005 12:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I know it's live (which doesn't really count), but halfway through Jimi Hendrix's performance of "Like a Rollign Stone" at Monterey he yells out to the band "yeah, I know I missed a verse" and keeps going.

― simon french, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 01:48 (twenty years ago)

Jewel, Sheryl Crow, Gillian Welch, and her from Evanescance "Lady Marmalade".
-- nickalicious (nickaliciou...), July 30th, 2004.
where is this version ? is it in video ?

― jeweller, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 06:12 (twenty years ago)

There's a massive bleep/scronch on one of the bridges in "Independent Women" that bugs the shit out of me every time I hear it. From memory, it's the first one after the breakdown.

this is actually my favourite bit in 'Independent Women'! I don't think it was a mistake.

― The Lex (The Lex), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 06:45 (twenty years ago)

On "Get Up Offa That Thing," someone (I believe it's one of the backup singers, not JB) continues the chant one time too many and stops in the middle. "Get up off -" JB and some other folks try to cover it up with some Good Gods and some Yeahs, but it's still pretty obvious. Not worth stopping a good take, though.

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:13 (twenty years ago)

the most famous example being the beginning of "I'm Looking Through You."

I miss this! I wish they'd hurry up and put out the rest of the Capitol versions on CD.

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 16:43 (twenty years ago)

Bass player fucks up quite a few times in "Maggie May." One part where I'm sure there's a mistake in the bass is after "But I feel I'm being used."

Several flawed punch-ins/edits in the guitar of "Dream On," one of the most notable being after the line "Half my life's in books written pages."

A lot of the drum fills in "Time Of The Season" sound like he's trying to do some crazy or creative drumming, but instead it winds up sounding messy and awesome.

I don't have an especially great ear for picking up mistakes - I'm pretty sure my dad informed me of all of these at some point or another.

Oh wait, one that I did pick up myself which is pretty obvious, and possible on purpose and not a mistake, is the beginning of "Roxanne" when the tape is definitely being sped up slowly.

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

The phone rings during a silent 2-beat pause in Ben Folds Five's "Steven's Last Night In Town."

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 17:09 (twenty years ago)

The Who-Whiskey Man (Entwistle couldn't sing the word "Friend" well, so when he double-tracked his vocal, he sang "Fwend" and "Flend" hoping to get "Friend" when mixed)
Dusty Springfield-I think Just a Little Lovin' (after one of the verses, you can barely hear Dusty ask somebody in the studio something)
Led Zep-Tangerine and Black Country Woman (false starts)

― Marxism Goes Better With Coke (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

i read somewhere that in radiohead's "creep", the guitar chugs before the chorus were originally just jonny making sure his guitar sound was right. the producer pulled the age-old trick of telling the band to run through the song as a warm up and that they weren't being recorded.

― Fetchboy (Felcher), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 17:31 (twenty years ago)

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