Bum notes in songs
Discussion
Mamas and Papas. I Saw Her Again Last Night
"Lou Adler produced this song, and Bones Howe was the engineer for the session. According to Bones, the part around the 2:45 mark where "I saw her" is repeated twice was a happy accident. Said Bones: "We were punching vocals in, and when we came to that part where the rhythm stops and the group goes, 'I saw her again last night,' I just punched in early. They came in early, and so we stopped. And then we went back and started again, and I punched in at the beginning of the vocal, they started two bars later or whatever it was. And when I played it back, the vocal went, 'I saw her - I saw her again.' It was a mistaken punch. And Lou said, 'I love it! Leave it in.' It was an error, it was a mistake. But Lou was wise enough, it caught his ear and he left it. And I learned something from that. You go with your gut. If something catches - they could be - there are wonderful mistakes that happen in the studio and you have to learn to catch those when they happen and use them."
"Lou Adler produced this song, and Bones Howe was the engineer for the session. According to Bones, the part around the 2:45 mark where "I saw her" is repeated twice was a happy accident. Said Bones: "We were punching vocals in, and when we came to that part where the rhythm stops and the group goes, 'I saw her again last night,' I just punched in early. They came in early, and so we stopped. And then we went back and started again, and I punched in at the beginning of the vocal, they started two bars later or whatever it was. And when I played it back, the vocal went, 'I saw her - I saw her again.' It was a mistaken punch. And Lou said, 'I love it! Leave it in.' It was an error, it was a mistake. But Lou was wise enough, it caught his ear and he left it. And I learned something from that. You go with your gut. If something catches - they could be - there are wonderful mistakes that happen in the studio and you have to learn to catch those when they happen and use them."
The one that sticks in my mind is Rasputin by Boney M. At about the 50 second mark when the main part of the song starts, you can hear that the balalaika tracks that started the song were slightly sharp and slightly slow.
(The other thing I can remember was hearing it for the first time and thinking, "That is going to be a massive hit." I can't usually do that.)
(The other thing I can remember was hearing it for the first time and thinking, "That is going to be a massive hit." I can't usually do that.)
Mexman said:
Tubeway Army's Are 'Friends' Electric? from 1979 has a famous bum synthesiser note in it, but Numan left it in there deliberately as he thought it sounded better with it.
One thing on that song, there's a missed or very lightly hit snare that stands out a mile to me. It's at 1:49 on the video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0WNbm1jz6A
Before Chinese Democracy came out one of the popular live bootlegs of "The Blues", that became Street of Dreams has a couple of bum notes at the end of one of the solos that really make the song work well, as they're just about close enough to sound deliberate but because they're not what you'd expect they're enough to grab your attention and pull you in.
I was really disappointed when I heard the "correct" version on the album.
I was really disappointed when I heard the "correct" version on the album.
Eddie Strohacker said:
No, the straight piano played in groups of eight notes. On the word me, so: Don't you know/that it's true/and for ME.
There.
Sounds like the rest of the slightly challenging bits of arrangement in that whole song. That sort of thing becomes more evident in the second half of the song but it's really just the style of music. But anyway, does that piano seem very slightly flat or something? There.
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