Lousiest, obvious edits ever in a pop song?

[rasputin1963]

I was listening today to an online broadcast, and they played that 1974 hit by 10cc called "I'm Not In Love".

 

Every time I hear that record, I marvel at how hamfisted and "tacked on" is that sudden reprise of the background "Aaahs" near the end.

 

I think this is a shortened "radio edit" of a longer version of the recording, no? But the abrupt scissor-snip they make in that abbreviated version is very inelegant and obvious. One might argue that this was a deliberate artistic choice... but...gee...

 

 

Can you think of some others like these in your knowledge of pop music?

[Lee Knight]

The single version of Edgar Winter Group's Frankenstein.

 

\Clunk///

 

There are some obvious one's in Good Vibrations.

[Mudcat007]

There's a real good one on "Roxanne." It's right at the end of one of the breaks (right after he sings "...if it's wrong or if it's right"). There's a reverb tail from the previous passage that gets chopped right off before Sting comes back in on the vocal. This is either a bad edit or a really bad punch.

[Ernest Buckley]

The studio version of Nessun Dorma sung by Pavarotti. The song was a huge hit after he sang it for the opening ceremony of the Olympics (I believe). If you listen with headphones, you can hear the poorly executed edits, especially in the dynamics of the strings. Other than that, the song still gives me goosebumps of the good variety.

[Jeff da Weasel]

 

I was listening today to an online broadcast, and they played that 1974 hit by 10cc called "I'm Not In Love".

 

 

There's actually an interesting story behind that record. Check it out...

 

A collaborative effort built around a title by Eric Stewart, "I'm Not in Love", is notable for its innovative production, especially its choral backing. An ethereal sound was created by laboriously building up multiple overdubs of the voices of Stewart, Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme singing a single note in unison. This multi-track was then mixed down and dubbed down onto 16-track tape. This process was repeated across all sixteen tracks to create a lush 256-voice "virtual" choir that could "sing" chromatic chords. A number of these prepared multi-tracks were then cut into several endless loops, each of which contained the basic notes of the main chords used in the song. The chorus loops could then be played by using the mixing desk rather like a keyboard -- each chord could be sounded by bringing up the fader for that loop.

[Ed A.]

Not really a pop song (more like prog rock), but the short version of "Fanfare for the Common Man" as done by ELP. The edit is really obvious.

[kurdy]

"Heroes and Villians" by the Beach Boys had a very obvious one, somewhere in the middle. I'm not familiar enough with the record to say exactly where.

 

The Band's "Rag Mama Rag" had one right before the bridge that really stuck out--right before the words "hail stones beatin' on the roof".

[blue2blue]

There's a somewhat minor tempo shift and stereo-image reverse (the latter which probably saves the day) in one of the Magical Mysery Tour tracks, "Helter Skelter," if memory serves.

 

 

Of course the mother of all clumsy edits -- covered somewhat drolly by a toilet flushing -- is in between the main song and the junkie-rave-up-freak-out ending of the Velvet Underground's "European Son (to Delmore Schwartz)." (On the banana album.)

 

 

The myriatd edits on Nevermind are really obvious but I think it all kind of works, somehow.

 

 

Now that Kurdy mentions "Heroes and Villains," I'm thinking I've personally glitched a bunch of times hearing that. It's awkward, for sure. I'm not sure I've ever noticed an obvious issue on the radio cut of "I'm Not in Love" -- no doubt I heard it to death in the day on the radio, but I had the LP. I've recently listened to the LP version a handful of times. It's a glorious song but it's a little overlong for this go-go-endtimes-are-coming century.

[matthewmilner]

 

Of course the mother of all clumsy edits -- covered somewhat drolly by a toilet flushing -- is in between the main song and the junkie-rave-up-freak-out ending of the Velvet Underground's "European Son (to Delmore Schwartz)." (On the banana album.)

 

 

there's also the awful edited versions of sweet jane & rock and roll from the original release of loaded.

 

i believe atlantic records had the 'wine & roses' bridge edited out of sweet jane and an amazing sterling morrison 2 bar guitar break cut out of rock and roll.

[lsits]

The worst edit of all time (imo) is the one in the shortened version of "Light My Fire" by The Doors. I first heard the song on AM radio and thought it was clunky even before I heard the extended version.

[wwwjd]

Steve Winwood's song, I forget which

 

".... roll away / EEEEEh!" On the album it's more "roll aways" sung. not sure why the chop

[Super 8]

I think songs should have sloppy edits. It gives them character. Makes them more human.

[blue2blue]

It's been a long, long time since I've heard either the LP or the single versions of "If You Believe in Miracles (Like I Believe in Miracles)" -- but if I recall correctly, there are an insane number of cloned refrains in the single version, despite the fact that the much longer LP version didn't have a single chorus where music and words repeated. IIRC.

[rasputin1963]

 

It's been a long, long time since I've heard either the LP or the single versions of "If You Believe in Miracles (Like I Believe in Miracles)" -- but if I recall correctly, there are an insane number of cloned refrains in the single version, despite the fact that the much longer LP version didn't have a single chorus where music and words repeated. IIRC.

 

 

Cloned refrains... So THAT'S the word. I've been meaning to start an entire thread on this particular subject.

 

I had been wondering if it's ever deemed acceptable to take a recorded section-- like a backup singers' refrain (ie., not the most focal part of your mix)-- and repeat it several times over the course of the record... Can most laypeople hear that the sections are clones... and not newly-sung?

[Ernest Buckley]

I`ve cloned before and I`ll do it again! As long as its got a beat, no one cares.

[blue2blue]

What's acceptable? People do it. Ernest does it. I do it. Cloning elements of a section can make things sound tighter (or they can make things sound samey -- but Joe Sixpack has something of a tolerance for repetition, far as we can tell).

 

Today we have a lot better options. Back in tape days, we had to use a blade and block on two tracks (slicing and dicing multitrack masters not only risked the master but was difficult to do well [and all but impossible on cheaper decks that used dbx noise reduction because of tracking error 'magnification']). And that meant that most editing was done on mix tapes, limiting what could normally be done.

 

Or we had to bounce the signal around from tape machine to tape machine (which could allow you to clone, say, a vocal chorus). People did what it took. Even flying a part in without sync, if that's what they had to do.

[Ernest Buckley]

You listen to most popular music today and theres ALOT of repetition and not just in the vocals. We`re getting OT...

[Jeff da Weasel]

 

I had been wondering if it's ever deemed acceptable to take a recorded section-- like a backup singers' refrain (ie., not the most focal part of your mix)-- and repeat it several times over the course of the record...

 

 

Acceptable? It's done on 90% of the pop songs you hear on the radio today.

[kurfu]

"Strawberry Fields" changes tempo and pitch in the middle of the song.

 

They had two different versions of the song but couldn't decide which one to use, so they just spliced them together.

[kurdy]

 

Acceptable? It's done on 90% of the pop songs you hear on the radio today.

 

 

Yeah--it's pretty much standard practice nowadays. The only thing I find limiting about that approach is that songs in the old days used to be able to speed up or slow down to create tension and release. Nowadays, everything has to be "locked to the grid", for editing purposes. If the tempo speeds up, and you want to fly in a chorus from an earlier section, getting it to line up opens a whole other can of worms. I suppose there are ways of doing it--it just seems more complicated.

[rasputin1963]

 

Acceptable? It's done on 90% of the pop songs you hear on the radio today.

 

 

On a very hip, rhythmic club/dance record, yes, I can see that with no problem.

 

 

But what about on a recording that's designed to sound more "naturalistic" and intimate?

[Mudcat007]

There's a somewhat minor tempo shift and stereo-image reverse (the latter which probably saves the day) in one of the Magical Mysery Tour tracks, "Helter Skelter," if memory serves...

 

"Helter Skelter" is on the White Album. You may be thinking of "I Am the Walrus." On the stereo version of the song there is an edit where it goes to the mono version right when John sings "Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun...."

 

It's a pretty cool effect when listening on headphones.

 

While this edit is somewhat obvious, I don't consider it lousy. It's kind of like the previously mentioned edit in "Strawberry Fields." While the edits were done by neccesity, the end result was an artistic improvement. The re-pitched vocals and instruments on "Strawberry Fields" result in a more dreamlike sounding recording. Way cool in my book.

[blue2blue]

 

"Strawberry Fields" changes tempo and pitch in the middle of the song. They had two different versions of the song but couldn't decide which one to use, so they just spliced them together.

 

 

Maybe that's the one I'm thinking of. Is there a line like "yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye" in that one?

 

 

[J/K]

 

 

Yeah... I suspect Mudcat has got it. I'm probably thinking of "I Am the Walrus" -- I think I own MMT -- and I do own the White Album but I don't think I've ever sat down and listened all the way through -- though, of course, I've heard all the bits and pieces to death -- I picked it up not because I like it as an album because it seemed important to own it and 'complete' my collection.

 

I'm pretty sure, now, that it was "Walrus," after all. My bad. For me, it all peaked with Rubber Soul.

 

[kurfu]

 

 

 

No, that line is from "I am the Walrus."

[Kendrix]

Thunderclap Newmans's "Something in the air" has a horrible spliced/transition into the modulated section.

 

Its about the worst edit I can think of in a song that got such extensive airplay.