# Mistakes (Sour Notes, Flubbed Lines, Expletives, etc.) on Studio Albums **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636 "2013-04-13T21:49:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/141 "2013-04-30T16:17:50Z")
The abrupt guiter notes in Radiohead’s _[Creep_ were an attempt to screw up the song because the guitarist didn’t like how tame it sounded. > [@](#): > > When the song shifts from the verse to the chorus, Jonny Greenwood plays three blasts of guitar noise (“dead notes” played by releasing fret-hand pressure and picking the strings). Greenwood said he did this because he did not like how quiet the song was; he explained, “So I hit the guitar hard—really hard”. Ed O’Brien said, “That’s the sound of Jonny trying to fuck the song up. He really didn’t like it the first time we played it, so he tried spoiling it. And it made the song.” [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creep_(Radiohead_song)) ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/142 "2013-05-01T09:04:06Z")
> [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](#): > > i.e. “Runnin’ With The Devil” [Mutant Version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3T8Mpf_qtY) > > The Van Halen I version goes: first verse, chorus, second verse, chorus, first guitar solo, third verse (same words as second verse, but sung slightly different), chorus, second guitar solo, chorus with staccato bass, end. > > The mutant version goes: first verse, chorus, first guitar solo, third verse, chorus, second guitar solo, chorus with staccato bass, second verse, chorus, end. Oh, ok, a radio edit. That explains why I’ve heard it that way on the radio for years. Kinda makes me irritated that I never noticed it, but I would rewind that tape back to Eruption and You Really Got Me over and over again, and would only listen to the last few seconds of that song.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![\_3Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b9e5f3/32.png) [@\_3Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_3Bill)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/143 "2013-05-01T09:53:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Except an “intrusive r” wouldn’t happen in the phrase “I never saw them at all.” No British speaker, AFAIK, would pronounce that “saw” as “sawr” with a rhotic. Intrustive rs in English happen when a word ending with a vowel sound is followed by a vowel sound. So it might occur in a phrase like “I never saw(r) a giraffe” but not “I never saw the giraffe.” Note all the examples in the Wikipedia article follow this pattern. I’m pretty sure it’s a hyper-correction. On the American recording, “saw” probably sounds like Paul’s “sore,” and so he adds the r to make it rhotic and Murkin. You see that a lot in American eye dialect by, say, Agatha Christie. On a recording it makes even less sense, but to Paul’s credit, it doesn’t sound Liverpuddlin. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/144 "2013-05-01T09:57:15Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Oh, ok, a radio edit. That explains why I’ve heard it that way on the radio for years. Kinda makes me irritated that I never noticed it, but I would rewind that tape back to Eruption and You Really Got Me over and over again, and would only listen to the last few seconds of that song.🙂 It’s not a radio edit. In fact, the mutant version is the same length as the correct one. Someone effed up remixing it for the Best Of CD in 1996. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/145 "2013-05-01T13:14:01Z")
> [@\_3Bill](#): > > I’m pretty sure it’s a hyper-correction. On the American recording, “saw” probably sounds like Paul’s “sore,” and so he adds the r to make it rhotic and Murkin. Yes, that’s the prevailing assumption (see my earlier cites) and exactly what I think it is: Paul trying to sound American and pronouncing an extra “r” where there isn’t one. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/146 "2013-05-01T13:31:50Z")
Zep’s Black Country Woman and Lennon’s Hide Your Love Away were the two I came in to mention. However, I’ve always been bugged by one from Queen too, I think it’s on We Will Rock You. It’s the part where Brian May really starts jamming and there’s a note or two that’s just missed / off a bit. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/147 "2013-05-01T14:03:54Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Zep’s Black Country Woman and Lennon’s Hide Your Love Away were the two I came in to mention. > > However, I’ve always been bugged by one from Queen too, I think it’s on We Will Rock You. It’s the part where Brian May really starts jamming and there’s a note or two that’s just missed / off a bit. I’ve always assume that “two foot small” in Hide Your Love Away was a Britishism - never bugged me. As for the Queen/We Will Rock You bit - here is a link to a mobile-YouTube clip of it: > **[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/?app=desktop)** > > Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. At about 1:35 is when May gets rocking. Is that what you are talking about? I hear you that it could be thought of as sounding a bit mistakey, but it just sounds like he is just rockin’ - hitting a low chord, running his fingers up and down the strings (you hear a bit of the string squeak) and then moving up the neck to play the more melodic lead stuff. To me, there is a HUGE difference between a mistake left in and good old-fashioned “slop” - just issues on the edges of a person’s playing that isn’t technically perfect and where you can here the person at work. I love the slop I hear in this bit of the song, just like I love the slop in Jimmy Page’s, Jimi Hendrix’ and other folks’ playing. Why do I think there is a huge difference? Heck, I dunno - maybe a “mistake” is something clearly defined as unintentional but left in; “slop” is when you play it correctly, but you can hear the hamsters at work behind the scenes a bit and choose not to try to clean up the execution… ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/148 "2013-05-01T14:04:34Z")
Kenny Loggins comes in early in _I’m Alright_ on the start of the repeated chorus and steps on the bass vocalist doing the “Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom”. The end result is: \ (dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip) \ I’m alri- \ (Boom, boom, boom, boom) \ I’m alright ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/149 "2013-05-01T14:36:57Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I’ve always assume that “two foot small” in Hide Your Love Away was a Britishism - never bugged me. I wasn’t clear about this, my mistake. There’s a version played quite frequently on Pandora that isn’t the original album release. I’ll have to look to see where it comes from next time but it’s much more of a casual take and Lennon actually stops everyone at first, then “One two three one two three…” and begins again. I love the version but it’s a flub at the start. > [@](#): > > As for the Queen/We Will Rock You bit - here is a link to a mobile-YouTube clip of it: > > [YouTube](http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=XMLiqEqMQyQ&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DXMLiqEqMQyQ) > At about 1:35 is when May gets rocking. Is that what you are talking about? Yes! Almost, about 1:38? I’ve mentioned it to others and they had no problem either but that’s always bugged me for as long as I’ve heard the song, especially when he did it during the Olympics opening ceremony. It just seems to me that it could sound better but he can’t quite get there, something’s _off_. I’d call it slop too though, not necessarily a mistake, so maybe we’re close on that. This version you link to though, I’ll be darned if it doesn’t sound better there than anything I’d heard before. Thanks for the effort to address that. I didn’t get a very good description but hoped someone would know what I was talking about. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/150 "2013-05-01T14:54:07Z")
Yep - that’s slop/intentional noisiness, not a mistake; May just wants a bit of mayhem on his way up to the melodic lead. And May is a technically excellent player and a precise player in the studio - you couldn’t do all of the layering Queen did without extreme precision. I have always noticed and it has always made me smile as a great example of slop. But I can see where a person might hear it differently. I haven’t heard the other version of Hide Your Love Away - I will look for it… **Death of Rats** - I can see why you would think of Loggins’ start-stop as a mistake; I think they were just selling that last, climactic transition to the chorus coming out of the quieter bridge… ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/151 "2013-05-01T16:10:18Z")
> [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](#): > > It’s not a radio edit. In fact, the mutant version is the same length as the correct one. Someone effed up remixing it for the Best Of CD in 1996. Wow, you are right, same length. A remix sounds like an odd (almost impossible) excuse for a re-edit. I wonder what the real reason that happened was? ---
**Author:** ![Karen\_X2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90db22/32.png) [@Karen\_X2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_X2)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/152 "2013-05-01T16:24:43Z")
> [@WreckingCrew](#): > > Oh, there is so much more to that story. This was recorded live during a review show, where everyone just did a few songs. At the pause you can here the stage announcer say 'Let’s hear it for Little Stevie Wonder" because that was supposed to be the end of his set. During that time, his band was hustling off stage, and the band for the next act, The Marvelettes was coming on. > > Stevie, being a great performer, feeds off the audience and kicks back into the song. Of course, Stevie being blind perhaps didn’t know that some new musicians were now on stage. The bass player (either Joe Swift of Larry Moses depending on the source) frantically called out “What key, what key?” The piano player plays a quick run to get people into the right key. The amazing part is that the band - a mix of the core show band and the Marvelettes guys - nail the hell out of the ending of the song. Wow. I never knew this. Great story. Thank You! ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/153 "2013-05-01T18:21:21Z")
Didn’t ELO’s cover of _Roll Over Beethoven_ have the lead singer coming in too early with a “roll over …” then stopping, then singing the whole line a bit later at the right place? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/154 "2013-05-01T19:49:57Z")
> [@Spiff](#): > > Didn’t ELO’s cover of _Roll Over Beethoven_ have the lead singer coming in too early with a “roll over …” then stopping, then singing the whole line a bit later at the right place? Mick Jagger does this in the 1981 live album recording of “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction,” of all things. (Now we’re straying from the OP’s request for “studio album” examples, but we already went there with Stevie Wonder’s “Fingertips, Pt. 2”, and anyway, I think officially-released live albums are fair game, since the artists have a chance to fix mistakes by overdubbing – see, for example, the Stones’ _Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out_, or the Dead’s _Europe '72_). Speaking of songs my grandmother knows the lyrics to, yet the guy who wrote them screwed it up onstage – okay, now we’re beyond live albums, but I have to mention this – Led Zeppelin re-grouped twice in the 1980s for special occasion (at Live Aid, and later at an anniversary celebration for Atlantic Records), and both times Robert Plant messed up the words to “Stairway to Heaven” !! ---
**Author:** ![DxZero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DxZero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DxZero)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/155 "2013-05-02T18:31:40Z")
Ok. So this is one of those 'might have been intentional and weird things that were always intended to be on the album" , but here’s the breakdown. Band/Album: **Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights** (Which was incidentally just rereleased as a remastered double-disc with some good B-sides and demos for its 10th anniversary) Song:\*\* \* Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down \* \*\*- As titled on the album at any rate [Youtube of the album version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s5lzcKpu0Q) Possible flub or intentional deviation: \*\* The intro in which lead singer Paul Banks does:\*\* [ol] [li]Introduces the song as if he was playing it live at a concert. Something that from what I can tell he’s never done on any other song since. [/li][li]Slightly messes up the title “This one’s called Stella was a diver and she’s always down.” Probably an actual error, but obviously a slight one. Combined she and was into she’s.[/li][li] Sounds like he’s talking with a bag of rocks in his mouth. I later read somewhere that he was smoking a cigarette and was basically talking out of the side of mouth as he exhaled. Pretty believable in retrospect, but odd sounding without that knowledge.[/li][/ol] So Interpol fans (I know you’re out there somewhere), what’s the straight dope? Was this intended to be included from the start or was it just something that sounded cool while in the studio and they decided to leave it in there? For me, personally, it’s a quirk that defines the song. I can’t imagine hearing the song without the intro by a mumbling Paul Banks and have it be as powerful. Weird, right? I’ve actually avoided listening to live recordings of the song because I don’t wanna lose the mystique of how it sounded on the album. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/156 "2013-05-02T19:59:23Z")
It sounds like he says “Stellar” despite being American. ---
**Author:** ![DxZero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DxZero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DxZero)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/157 "2013-05-02T20:31:42Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > It sounds like he says “Stellar” despite being American. I think he was born in England. (Wikipedia: Born in Essex, moved to Michigan when he was 3, moved to Spain later on and then finished his schooling in Mexico). So, there’s all that. He does sing certain songs with noticeable affectations, which may be intentional or not. ---
**Author:** ![jcr52](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b38774/32.png) [@jcr52](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jcr52)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/158 "2013-10-28T10:13:54Z")
The “ping” at the end of the guitar solo in the Beatles’ song “Nowhere Man” is supposed to be there and is a harmonic, and is done by touching a string lightly at certain points with a fret hand finger instead of pushing it onto the fingerboard as usual, while you play the string with a pick or pluck it with your finger. It’s commonly used in guitar playing in all styles of music and Mr. Harrison put it at the end of his solo as a little ending flourish. ---
**Author:** ![UntouchedTakeaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d78d45/32.png) [@UntouchedTakeaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UntouchedTakeaway)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/159 "2013-10-29T11:24:57Z")
The intro to the Reverend Horton Heat’s “[Big Little Baby](http://youtu.be/XfkZgvJGgU4)” And there’s a distinctive “pop” on Nick Lowe/Rockpile’s “[Cruel To Be Kind](http://youtu.be/FAJWQao4-gg)” - at :23 and 1:08 UT~ ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636/160 "2013-10-31T14:31:05Z")
> [@jcr52](#): > > The “ping” at the end of the guitar solo in the Beatles’ song “Nowhere Man” is supposed to be there and is a harmonic, and is done by touching a string lightly at certain points with a fret hand finger instead of pushing it onto the fingerboard as usual, while you play the string with a pick or pluck it with your finger. It’s commonly used in guitar playing in all styles of music and Mr. Harrison put it at the end of his solo as a little ending flourish. Already pointed out 6 1/2 months ago: > [@Stratocaster](#): > > It’s George hitting a harmonic. I know how to play that solo, and that wouldn’t happen by accident. He’s jumping several frets to gently touch a string so that the harmonic rings out when he hits it. It’s supposed to be there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-sour-notes-flubbed-lines-expletives-etc-on-studio-albums/655636.md?page=9)