# "cleanin' up the muddy breaks"?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 18, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanin-up-the-muddy-breaks/804801 "2017-12-18T21:08:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanin-up-the-muddy-breaks/804801/1 "2017-12-18T21:08:06Z")
Jimmy Buffet: Saxophones: \* If I had saxophones Big baritone, cleanin’ up the muddy breaks\* Muddy breaks? Is this a musical term? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanin-up-the-muddy-breaks/804801/2 "2017-12-20T20:24:04Z")
No one, Not even Bueller? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanin-up-the-muddy-breaks/804801/3 "2017-12-20T21:08:45Z")
I found two references to “muddy breaks” which were musical in nature and not quoting the lyrics of the Buffett song: > **[Fearings Smokin’ at Ritz - Fearings Restaurant](https://fearingsrestaurant.com/fearings-smokin-at-ritz/)** > > By Alan Peppard So what exactly has Dean Fearing been doing in the year and a half since he life The Mansion on Turtle Creek and opened his new restaurant, Fearing’s in the Ritz-Carlton? He’s been practicing the guitar. At Saturday night’s black-tie... “Robert also provided slid [sic] guitar work on his hollow-body Gretsch while local sax man Johnny Reno was onstage cleaning up any muddy breaks.” > **[Gone To A Rave #4: total xstacy - Ransom Note](https://www.theransomnote.com/music/playlists/ian-mcquaids-gone-to-a-rave-4-pill-rave/)** > > It’s crazy seeing the outrage American pop stars are managing to hustle up – in an age when it’s so hard to generate any outrage at all – by banging on about Molly in pop songs. Anyone growing up in the 90s lived through a time when it was almost... “… while so many hardcore tunes have dodgy levels, muddy breaks, discordant riffs, and muffled bass, all the elements of ‘Total Xstacy’ sit tighter than a prison rollie, without energy levels being lost in the quest for fidelity.” According to Wikipedia a [break](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_(music)#Break) “may be described as when the song takes a breather, drops down to some exciting percussion, and then comes storming back again”. Perhaps “cleaning up a muddy break” is when a musician who isn’t playing the break comes in because the musician who is playing the break is doing a poor job or losing the energy of the song. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanin-up-the-muddy-breaks/804801/4 "2017-12-20T21:13:38Z")
> [@Gus\_Gusterson](#): > > I found two references to “muddy breaks” which were musical in nature and not quoting the lyrics of the Buffett song: > > [Fearings Smokin’ at Ritz - Fearings Restaurant](http://fearingsrestaurant.com/fearings-smokin-at-ritz/) > > “Robert also provided slid [sic] guitar work on his hollow-body Gretsch while local sax man Johnny Reno was onstage cleaning up any muddy breaks.” > > [Gone To A Rave #4: total xstacy - Ransom Note](https://www.theransomnote.com/music/gone-rave/ian-mcquaids-gone-to-a-rave-4-pill-rave/) > > “… while so many hardcore tunes have dodgy levels, muddy breaks, discordant riffs, and muffled bass, all the elements of ‘Total Xstacy’ sit tighter than a prison rollie, without energy levels being lost in the quest for fidelity.” > > According to Wikipedia a [break](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_(music)#Break) “may be described as when the song takes a breather, drops down to some exciting percussion, and then comes storming back again”. Perhaps “cleaning up a muddy break” is when a musician who isn’t playing the break comes in because the musician who is playing the break is doing a poor job or losing the energy of the song. This is helpful, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanin-up-the-muddy-breaks/804801/5 "2017-12-21T03:33:02Z")
I think of a break as a instrumental phrase that’s less than a solo (which should be a full run through the chord progression). Muddy is a lack of clarity or distinction in the lower tones, Google muddy mix, or muddy home recording for more than you want to know about that. AIUI, fixing such things is the bread and butter of session musicians and recording engineers.