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"Wrong" notes in basslines on record..

N

nipperooney

Jul 5, 2007
59
2
#1
One of my favourite basslines is the Ronnie Wood classic from Maggie May. However it is littered with wrong notes (IMHO), where Ronnie misses the tonic of the chord and lands (briefly) on a variety of notes before hitting the right one.

One of the more noticeable 'bummers' comes at 2'44" just after the first guitar solo when Rod sings "I suppose". The chord is an A and Ronnie hits a G, cuts it very short and then quickly changes to an A for the rest of the bar. There are loads more like this, some very subtle, but they all add to the charm.

Are there any other stonking "wrong" notes in any commercial recordings that you know of, and I'm talking about bass notes that sound like actual mistakes, rather than an attempt at being "edgy" by just playing a dodgy note?
 
#2
On the final chord of "Rock And Roll All Nite" ("Alive!" version), Gene Simmons hits a D instead of an A which should be the last note (He picked the wrong string, most likely), but the mistake isn't that noticeable because he slides down the note. Anyway, just check the first attack of that chord and you'll clearly hear the guitars playing an Ab power chord and the bass hitting a Db (Half-step downtuned guitars and bass), which is definitely wrong in that context.
 
#3
There's a rather noticeable wrong note played in Unchained Melody. I was in a wedding band years back and actually used to play the mistake (mainly to be a wise asss).

Sting also made a noticeable mistake in Driven to Tears on the Life Earth broadcast (but hell that's live and not even on a CD / Recording).
 
#4
We cover some Hendrix stuff.
Since listening to it 8 zillion times and each time trying to hear anything I'm either not playing or could play....I've heard a couple of similar millisecond wrong note-jump to right note things. I'll try to note the songs and timestamps this week and re-post.

IMO, you will only find such human moments on older, one-take things or super-low budget things. 99.9999% of any "grace notes" today get digitally repaired. Even on live stuff.
 
#6
Wind Cries Mary about 1:18...seems to slide to the "correct" note...unless it's a very unique way of using a hammer-on to start at a lower note.

Little Wing 1:16~1:17 oops/stop note/play "corrected" note

First thing out the chute in Red House(studio version) about 0:15~0:16.

There may be more but I gotta practice since The House Ain't A Rockin(home alone, gig tomorrow, children at marching band practice).:bassist:
 
#10
nipperooney said:
One of my favourite basslines is the Ronnie Wood classic from Maggie May. However it is littered with wrong notes (IMHO), where Ronnie misses the tonic of the chord and lands (briefly) on a variety of notes before hitting the right one.

One of the more noticeable 'bummers' comes at 2'44" just after the first guitar solo when Rod sings "I suppose". The chord is an A and Ronnie hits a G, cuts it very short and then quickly changes to an A for the rest of the bar. There are loads more like this, some very subtle, but they all add to the charm.

Are there any other stonking "wrong" notes in any commercial recordings that you know of, and I'm talking about bass notes that sound like actual mistakes, rather than an attempt at being "edgy" by just playing a dodgy note?
Click to expand...

Isn't that Ronnie Laine?
 
#11
browner said:
Isn't that Ronnie Laine?
Click to expand...

Well, I'll be honest, I didn't know who played it until I researched before I started this thread and I found this on Wiki..

Of Course, Wiki isn't the most reliable, but who am I to argue.

"Maggie May" is a song written by Rod Stewart and musician Martin Quittenton and recorded by Stewart in 1971 -- a solo work under the Mercury Record label, not involving his group The Faces, who were contracted with Warner Brothers (though several members of The Faces appear on the album that this song comes from, Every Picture Tells a Story; and Ronnie Wood plays all the guitar and bass parts). The song expresses the ambivalence and contradictory emotions of a young man involved in a relationship with an older woman, and is thought to have been written from Stewart's own experience.
 
#12
Alvaro Martín Gómez A.;4604153 said:
Unfortunately I can't remember in which magazine it appeared, but I have somewhere an interview with Noel Redding saying that he started playing a different section in the outro for "Fire" and quickly realized his mistake, but the track was left that way.
Click to expand...

I just picked up on that for the first time the other day. You can hear him going back to the opening riff right at the end the fade.
 
#13
In "The House of the Rising Sun", the well known cover version by The Animals, there is a very obvious clinker toward the end of the solo. The bass lands squarely on the wrong note right on the one (I think he hits an 'E' instead of 'C') but then corrects it.
 
#16
theres two songs i for looong has.. oh, english is hard.. dont manage to write..

lazy sunday with the small faces.
man.. now i dont here it.. but i think its somewhere in that brake 1:20.. anyone else that has heard it? he like.. dosnt let his tone ring out..


born to be wild
oh.. im to tired.. cant hear it here either.. well, its like the same as in lazy sunday. somwhere in the riff. anyone?
haa NO!! NOW. after three times.. in like 0:40 he misses a note..

maybe this is irellevant in this thread.. haha piss..

ooh: theres a small one in hocus pocus to.. where he does a little crazy thing.. 5.15.

wrongdetective for life
 

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