• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Mistakes heard

#121
My favorite recorded bass mistake is made by the Byrds' Chris Hillman on "Spanish Harlem Incident" on the "Mr. Tambourine Man" LP. On the third verse, Chris hits a wrote that is so far flat that it sounds like his string lost tension and is flopping against the pickup. Apparently this has been pointed out to Chris, who laughed and said it's proof that he actually played bass on the track because studio bass players never would have made that mistake. I imagine that the bass and drums were on one track and that they didn't feel like re-recording because the rest of the track is OK and since it was an album track, it wasn't likely to be played on radio in those days. It may have been fixed since, but it wasn't fixed on the non-remastered CD I have.
 
#122
Green River's This Town:

I was listening to this song to learn it for my band, and I noticed quite a few blaring off-time notes, and the tone is quite thin and gets lost under the guitars as well.. other than that it's a good song and I like the way the bass plays its own sequence of notes during the verses (3 descending notes rather than the guitar's ascending notes).
 
#123
I just want to point something out. Usually, remastering does not (or should not) involve changing any notes, the timing of the music, tuning, etc. It has to do with enhancing the clarity--- bringing out detail, maybe rebalancing some things that were out of whack on earlier versions. Not even remixing, though.
When the remastered Beatles catalog was issued a couple of months ago, I was amused by all the people (not on Talk Bass, necessarily) who were wondering why this bum note wasn't re-recorded, why that late cymbal hit wasn't fixed, and so on. Remastering doesn't involve any of that (and I, personally, am glad that performances are left the way they are).
(Here's an exception: my vinyl copy of "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" had a lone bass note after the official end of "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad"; on the CD versions it's been snipped out.)
 
#125
And speaking of the rhythmic dissonance of regular notes vs. triplets, the song "Rotten Apple" by Alice in Chains is a good example of this. The bass and guitar follow a 16th note pattern in the intro, then the drums come in with a slight swing. That's clearly not a mistake (in fact I like it), but towards the end, there are some off-sounding notes from the guitar as the song fades out...
 
#127
Toronto Bassist said:
There's a slight flub in "So Lonely" by The Police. It's either shortly before or after the modulation to D, he misses the 'one', but recovers in the next bar.
Click to expand...

Ah, I just listened again and I hear that, it's right before the chorus that leads in to the modulation to D. Instead of playing "and 1", he plays "1 and".

And I never noticed how much Sting actually uses double stops, especially on the debut album. Right in this song there's a glaring octaved note around 3:28, and obviously Masoko Tanga, and one or two 5ths in Peanuts and some more subtle octaves around the other songs too.
 
#128
#130
b4nny said:
And speaking of the rhythmic dissonance of regular notes vs. triplets, the song "Rotten Apple" by Alice in Chains is a good example of this. The bass and guitar follow a 16th note pattern in the intro, then the drums come in with a slight swing. That's clearly not a mistake (in fact I like it), but towards the end, there are some off-sounding notes from the guitar as the song fades out...
Click to expand...

I don`t think those were accidental notes since he repeats the same line a few times in a row. Plus it`s in the total spirit of what AIC is.
 
#132
Jon Lord hits a bum note on the keyboard intro to Speed King, but vamps out of it. Also on the keyboard tip, the whole solo on "Lucky Man" by ELP was supposedly just Keith Emerson warming up & checking out a new synth. They were rolling & the band said "That's the keeper!" Apparently he cringes to this day when he hears that solo....
 
#134
There's a slight flub in "So Lonely" by The Police. It's either shortly before or after the modulation to D, he misses the 'one', but recovers in the next bar.
Click to expand...

The Police are good for some good biffs.

IIRC Sting drops a bum note on the ride-out of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" as well. He plays the wrong note, cuts it off, and then comes back in with the right note but in an odd spot, timing wise. Clearly a mistake, but like so biffs on so many other classic recordings, I can't imagine the song without it.

Some of their early live stuff gets pretty dicey too.
 
#136
Threads like these and how we can find these 'flubs' endearing are the reason I fought so much with my band on our current album in the works.

Sure, there were some obvious bad or really wrong notes, and some performances niggles were fixed digitally. But aside from punching in a few transitions, and doing a few takes of an intro I kept flubbing, I did the whole album in one take track after track and did the 45 minutes worth of audio in one hour.

I love all the silly mistakes and odd noises. Theres even a track I hit the absolute wrong note then slide up to the right one.

Some of the guitar tracks had the same issue, and I fought for them to leave it. Hell even the vocals do. We're also leaving in plenty of intentional things like little guitar squeeks or breaths before a track begins. I love that kind of thing. Sure it sounds 'produced' overall, but there is a huge human element with what we're leaving in. And I think it's going to be all the better for it.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back