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Favorite flubs on recordings?


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My buddy Steve LeBlanc had an excellent (IMO) idea he posted on my September 2005 editorial thread... here's his post from there:

 

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Here's an idea...let's list some of our favorite 'flubbs' from recordings the not so anal days

 

Cat Stevens - "Two Fine People"

 

that bass flubb after the modulation in the middle of the tune (where the chicks are singing by themselves) is totally classic

 

Beatles - "Let it Be"

 

when Paul plays the C triad a whole step up one time (third verse? can't remember for sure) it works so well it could have been written that way

 

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What are some of your favorite flubs? You know, things that are probably technically "wrong", but still make the song cool in their own special way?

 

One that I've always liked is Creedence Clearwater Revival "Up Around The Bend" where Fogerty screws up the phrasing / timing of the double tracked lead vocal on the line:

 

"Always time for a good conversation, there's an ear for what you say."

 

You can hear it on the word "what".

 

Paul tosses down a clunker on "If I Fell" on the line "was in vain" - you can hear his voice "break" (crack) on the word "vain".

 

Did they just leave those mistakes in because they thought they sounded good? Did they just not care? Didn't they hear them? Or were they just not as obsessed with "perfection" back then? What do you think is the reason behind some of your favorite "flubs" making it to the final released recordings?

 

I'm sure you folks can come up with a bunch of flubs off of your favorite records. Let's hear 'em! :)

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The Beatles recordings are full of stuff that would never make it to modern recordings. A google on 'beatle anomalies' gives plenty of hits to people who have documented them all. I don't think there is a single song that doesn't have something.

 

But are they 'mistakes'? They still sound fresh and original, and some of the most compelling, evocative music ever made. From some comments that George Martin has made, I suspect he knew what he was doing most of the time.

 

The Beatles had an art-school background, and I think they had a philosophy about art being a slice-of-life sort of thing. Lennon took this to extremes - practically assuming that anything he did was art. And lets face it - he wasn't wrong.

 

Perfect music is boring. We need some dirt, some mistakes, something out of tune, some sloppy timing, something human ... I just need to be brave enough to start letting some of these things through. I miss elements of my 4-track days, when 'happy accidents' often occurred. The quality was crap unfortunately, but I miss 'happy accidents'.

 

But I suspect many Beatles 'mistakes' were inspired artistic devices. If McCartney sings a word "missed" while hitting a 'wrong' note - was that accident or design? Their music is full of musical devices perfectly aligning with lyrical devices.

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Wow - Kiwi :cool:

I'm gonna have to read that again a few times tonight...happy 4-tracking "accidents" are sometimes as fun as jamming with the band and having the instant composition angel shoot an arrow into the middle of the room - hopefully the 2-track was rolling. But traveling down the river of 4-track composition & bouncing - karma certainly plays a huge roll as to which path you want to take and which path you can take during the lifetime of your "creation". With all this unlimited tracking I forgot about that...

 

Cool thread Phil - well, while I'm thinking of some more important mistakes maybe I'll just say I always liked that thing at the beginning of Black Dog by Zeppelin - whatever that noise is! :D

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I have one from a small recording I did a while ago. I was recording this song that a friend wrote. Sounds like an old cowboy song, a bit like an old drunken cowboy talking about how he's out of money and such...

Basically, while I was about to record the vocals, the pop shield moved from its position to one pointing to the floor but while doing so, it screeched. Terrible noise some might say but it fit perfectly with the song, kind of as if a saloon door that hasn't been hinged was being opened.

 

Strange but it sounded just perfect for the song since after it did, he started singing.

 

Weird but fun :D

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I recorded a guy singing while playing piano. During a piece, his week-old stuble drags across the cloth wind screen. Just for that syllable, it sounds like someone playing a washboard. I didn't catch it during the tracking. When I got home and heard it, I called him. He didn't think much of it. But, I tried to cut/paste from another part of the song. Nothing timed properly. He let me track a live performance the next year, though.

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On David Bowie's Red Sails from the album Lodger, Adrian Belew fail to hit a string properly. You can hear the *plunk* sound and the subsequent playing of that string again.

 

Brian Eno, off course, insisted that they keep the mistake, and that Belew should duplicate it when he played the same riff later in the song. How should that be viewed? Is it still a mistake or not?

 

On Boys Keep Swinging from the same album, the band exchanges instruments. The result is something that sound like it is played by some sort of garage band. Adrian Belew does the guitar solo himself, though.

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One of the oldest and most obvious flubs that made it onto radio was in Louie Louie by the Kingsmen. Right after the solo, Jack came in with the vocal a measure too early, realized he screwed up and quits singing, then comes in at the correct time. Since they thought the recording was only going to be used as a demo to get them a cruise ship gig, they didn't re-record it. The flub is now history, and part of the fabric of the song. :cool:

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One of the early Southern Culture on the Skids songs has a little jerk in the groove at one point, which I love because it proves they were recording live.

 

And some of the Tom Waits stuff where the mic gain is so migh you can hear him turn a page or shift his chair... though I wouldn't be surprised if those were intentional.

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Not sure if the regulars here listen to NOFX, but the Birthday Song has two failed attempts to start before getting through it.

 

I only know this because we're playing a birthday show for the guitarist in another band this weekend, we're going to do this song for him and actually planned on "covering" the f-ups. :D

 

How dorky right?? :cool:

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Originally posted by Kid Klash

One of the oldest and most obvious flubs that made it onto radio was in Louie Louie by the Kingsmen. Right after the solo, Jack came in with the vocal a measure too early, realized he screwed up and quits singing, then comes in at the correct time. Since they thought the recording was only going to be used as a demo to get them a cruise ship gig, they didn't re-record it. The flub is now history, and part of the fabric of the song.
:cool:

 

Along the same lines, Denny Doherty of the Mamas & Papas comes in too early before the last chorus of "I Saw Her Again".

 

Deef

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Mine would be BTO's "Taking Care Of Business". I don't know what happened, but after dude says 'Work out" on one of the verses, a "F**k it" comes out! At least I think that's what he said. I met these guys one night in a small club...a really nice bunch of dudes!!! Peace . . . Dogbreath

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Originally posted by Rumor

One I like is the beginning of Time of Your Life by Green Day. He messes up right away and if turned up loud enough you can hear him say F*** before playing it correctly. That about the only one I can think of.


Dustin

 

My wife asked me to add it to her running CD a couple years ago, so I said "sure". While I had the song open as a wav file, I edited off the flubbed intro, figuring the songs would flow better for running. She goes running, and when she got back, she said "there's something wrong with the song... the intro's missing, so would you re-do it?" :D

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