Musical mistakes that weren't

[Ludovic]

What songs include parts that you thought were musical mistakes that they kept because the take's so good or it fits (like "t-----tonight you better start" in The Immigrant Song, from what I've been told), but found out that it wasn't?

-- In In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth 3 off the same-titled Coheed and Cambria album, there is an example of what seems like the Immigrant Song phenomenon:

will........do the children really understand, the things you did to them?

Only when I learned more about the expanded universe this album was created about did I learn that "Will" probably references someone called Wilhelm.

-- At the end of "Ruby" (Dont take your love to town) by Kenny Rogers, he says in an undervoice without music "God sakes turn around." When I was a young'un I thought he was talking to someone in the audience that had his back to him

[fishbicycle]

Are you speaking of things like the egregious mistake by the bass player in the last refrain before the coda of JJ Cale's "Cocaine"? He goes down one fret too many (twice) on "...she don't lie..." and they kept it in. Surely there must have been punch-in recording then, so I don't understand why they didn't have him redo it. (I had to edit my own version of it without the mistake, so I can listen to that song without cringing.)

If you mean this kind of thing, I can think of lots of them!

[Ludovic]

Stuff like that, but in retrospect was done on purpose. So my Led Zeppelin example would not count. Nor would the slightly more egregious example of "Matilda Mother" by Pink Floyd where two separate takes are welded together with very audible tape artifacts, but probably kept in because Syd wanted to give the finger to everyone who wanted a "normal" album.

Then again, while we're at it we might as well talk about boners that were left in on purpose, even if they weren't on purpose originally.

[Yorikke]

Originally Posted by Ludovic

What songs include parts that you thought were musical mistakes that they kept because the take's so good or it fits (like "t-----tonight you better start" in The Immigrant Song, from what I've been told), but found out that it wasn't?

[nitpick]The Zeppelin lyric is "Sss....So now you better stop..."[/nitpick]

Joe

[Mike Fun]

Led Zep's All my Love has two mistakes in the keyboard solo where JPJ hits two adjacent keys. The first isn't too noticeable, but the second one that comes near the end always makes me cringe a little.

It's a Yamaha GX-1!

[dropzone]

Early in Big Brother's "Ball and Chain" there's a silent stretch broken by a ping by the lead guitarist. I thought it was a mistake until I counted it out and saw it was, IIRC, one measure before the whole band cuts in. Not a mistake, but a signal.

[Ichbin Dubist]

I've always wondered about Joni Mitchell's giggle at the end of "Big Yellow Taxi." A spontaneous moment, or rehearsed? I like Joni, but I have a hard time believing that was a first take.

I can't think of any examples of false "mistakes" on records at the moment that aren't played for comedy. (Gee, thanks for joining the discussion.)

But mistake mistakes: I listened to a bunch of early Beatles through headphones this week, and it's surprising how many times the lead singer sings one thing and the harmony singer sings another.

Then there's the Kingsmen's classic "Louie Louie," where after the guitar solo, the singer blurps out one syllable of the next verse and stops, causing the drummer to throw in a fill while thinking "Singer, look, I'm covering for your sorry ass with my awesomeness." And, come to think of it, there is that point in the guitar solo where the dude just sticks on a single note 13 or 14 times -- the tonic, no less -- essentially saying in musical form,"I've just run out of ideas!"

[Duke of Rat]

The intro bass line on "Cannonball" by The Breeders sounds like a mistake, it was probably done on purpose but I can't say for sure.

[fishbicycle]

I guess the most famous mistake that wasn't is the crashing chord that introduces "Her Majesty" on The Beatles' "Abbey Road."

"Her Majesty" used to be part of the Side Two medley, edited between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam." They tried it that way for awhile, but Paul eventually said he didn't like it there, and he instructed the tape operator to cut it out of the reel. Well, the EMI tech was taught never to throw anything away, so after he cut the song out, he placed 23 seconds of leader tape after the last note, and stuck "Her Majesty" on the end. The opening chord is from the last note of "Mean Mr. Mustard," which was lopped off for a seamless transition to "Polythene Pam," and the missing D chord at the end was lopped off the end for the same reason in the previous edit.

When the group heard the first playback, they weren't expecting to hear anything else, then it came crashing through the monitors, and they liked it so much they kept it. It deflated the grandiosity of the orchestral close of "The End" and mocked it a bit, too.

[Princhester]

There's a video of a Clapton concert (might be about '95? Not sure) where he does what he never does and totally stuffs a phrase in his solo. He shakes his head ruefully, and a little cartoon bubble appears over his head saying "Sorry!".

[Askance]

Originally Posted by Ichbin Dubist

I've always wondered about Joni Mitchell's giggle at the end of "Big Yellow Taxi." A spontaneous moment, or rehearsed? I like Joni, but I have a hard time believing that was a first take.

Agreed, it sounds patently false to me.

The mistake I hear ever time I play it is in the title track of Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells a Story (shut up, it's a great album, he only went to easy listening hell after that). There's one point where he starts to come in one bar early on the line "Look how wrong you can be" so you get "l.l...look how wrong you can be" ... kinda ironic given the lyric.

[Spoons]

Not sure if this counts, but I do recall a dialogue between Davy Jones and the recording engineer just before "Daydream Believer" on the Monkees' Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones Ltd. LP. IIRC, the dialogue went something like this (not exact quotes):

Davy: What number is this?
Engineer: Seven A.
Davy: Okay, thanks. (Laughs.)

Why that dialogue, which was probably not unusual at recording sessions, was left in the final edit, I have no idea. I can only imagine the editor made some sort of mistake and it was left in the master. I'm guessing it would have cost a lot to remove it at that point, so it was just left in. Anybody know for sure?