Not all songs are created equal. Some songs seem to be made for headphones with the volume cranked up. Some feature sounds seamlessly shifting from one ear to the other. Others, one part of the band in your left ear the remaining band members in your right, with vocals right in the middle! And there are even more songs that just sound better with headphones, period.
It surprises me when artist/producers don’t pay attention to this. Or maybe they’re not looking to play to the headphone crowd.
What are your favorite Headphone Songs?
Some from my playlist:
Reflections- Supremes
Time Has Come Today- Chambers Brothers
Digital Love- Daft Punk
White Lines- Grandmaster Flash
Once In A Lifetime- Talking Heads
Try A Little Tenderness- Commitments
Keep Talking- Pink Floyd
Cowboy Song- Thin Lizzy (much air guitar and crap singing ensues)
Countless songs from U2 & Tool
Deep Purple- Smoke on the Water comes to mind. Additionally, most things by the Beatles. If you’ve ever had a speaker go out and a Beatle song come on, you’ll see the the music or lyrics will be missing. IIRC, they were known for their experimenting with seperate tracks, electronic and classical instruments and recording media (ie: high quality magnetic tape) and that is why much of their stuff “remasters” so well to digital today.
Roger Glover - Elements (now THERE’s an obscure pick…)
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Emerson Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery
Jean-Michele Jarre - Oxygene
Then again, I went to both high school and college in the 70’s… :rolleyes:
Dreams Less Sweet by Psychic TV. It was recorded using holophonic methods, so there’s an amazing spatial sense to it. For one of the tracks, they put the microphone in a box and buried it, so when you’re lying on the floor with your eyes shut and your headphones on, you get the very freaky sensation that you’re in a grave that’s being filled in.
I also acquired a number of binaural CDs at one point. I was listening to some “Sounds of the Amazon” selection (birds chirping, frogs croaking, that sort of thing) a couple of summers ago when I heard thunder off over Lake Washington. I got up to go out and close my car windows, but didn’t see any thunderheads too close, and the sound of thunder had stopped; it was far enough away not to be too much of a concern yet. So I put my headphones back on to listen to the birds and frogs some more, and the thunder over Lake Washington came back. So I got up again, and the thunder stopped again–it was still far away, so it was only coming through in bits and pieces. I sat down again, put the headphones on, and damn if the thunder over the lake wasn’t coming closer. So I got up again, and the thunder stopped–and only then did I realize that the thunder was actually on the CD.
One of my favourite songs of all time is the Beatles “Day in the Life”. But by the Great Googly Moogly do I hate it when it comes on my headphones when I’m listening to the radio. It sounds unbalanced, with the majority of sound in the right 'phone, and it makes me feel slightly dizzy and I always have a bit of a freak-out, thinking my left 'phone is on the fritz because the music/lyrics don’t start in that ear until after the right one.
I prefer songs that have aspects in each ear, but that blend somewhere nicely in the middle. For some reason, if the sound in one ear is more forceful than the other, it knocks my balance off and makes me feel unsteady. Not good when you’re on a bike, which is primarily when I listen to my headphones.
Anything Pink Floyd, but specifically “On the Run” from Dark Side of the Moon… Love that guy just running through my head. Oh, and Roger Waters’ “Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking”. Excellent on the headphones.
When “Whole Lotta Love” came out, I had a one of those AM/FM Stereo portable radios with detachable speakers. After listening to that song a couple of times with the speakers held up to my ears, I decided that it was time to get some headphones…I got a pair of Koss 'phones for the (then) outrageous price of $50. Considering the music that was coming out at the time, they were worth every penny!
:rolleyes: