Planned? Goof? Planned goof? The Mamas and the Papas "I Saw Her Again Last Night"

[spifflog]

(Just noticed that this is a Zombie)

I remember reading (I don’t have time right now to find a site) that it was a mistake that they liked and decided to go with. Subsequently, they stated that they had done it on purpose. Subsequent to that, Paul McCartney threw the BF flag on that. He said that it thought it as genius, but he didn’t believe for a second that they did it intentionally.

I think over time, the strong consensus is concurrence with McCartney - mistake that really worked.

[typoink]

@fishbicycle

You’re right. Every one of The Beatles’ records are based on the one take where they didn’t fuck it up. After they did the overdubs on the one good take, they never played it again (after the concert tours were over).

Not to derail, but I love this video walking through how many weird recording errors are audible in “I’m Looking Through You.”

[Doug_K]

At the end of “Let Me Roll It” by Wings from the Band On the Run album there’s an extra beat in the outro that kind of sounds like a hiccup - instead of baDUMP tick baDump it goes baDUMP baDUMP tick baDUMP. In his book recording engineer Geoff Emerick said it was an editing mistake (back in the razor blade and splicing tape days). He was mortified when they were listening to the playback for the first time and wanted to fix it immediately, but Paul liked it and not only left it in, they played it that way when performing it live after that.

[ouryL]

@KneadToKnow

Coming back from the bridge (?) before the 3rd chorus in “I Saw Her Again Last Night” by the Mamas and the Papas, the singer (I’m guessing it’s Denny, but what do I know) starts singing about 4 beats too soon then quits abruptly halfway through the word “her.”

Does anyone know if this is the “oops, lost count” goof it sounds like?

I really know next to nothing about the group (Michelle’s fine, the ham sandwich story … um, that’s about it), but I’m guessing that a devotee would be as familiar with this as I am with things like Prince’s acrimonious relationship with Andre Cymone, so I’m hoping this will be a simple question for the right person to answer.

Oooh, second question, same song: there’s about 8 notes of the melody that sound like their directly lifted from a Beatle’s song but I can’t ever keep in my head long enough to figure out which one. Any thoughts? It’s the notes that the words “but what can I do, I’m lonely too.”

On the anthology album, they made the mistake and decided to keep it.

Sent from my KFMAWI using Tapatalk

[bizerta]

@KneadToKnow

… I really know next to nothing about the group (Michelle’s fine, the ham sandwich story … um, that’s about it), …

Ham sandwich = urban legend. Mama Cass Elliot died of a heart attack.

[F.U.Shakespeare]

@KneadToKnow

Oooh, second question, same song: there’s about 8 notes of the melody that sound like their directly lifted from a Beatle’s song but I can’t ever keep in my head long enough to figure out which one. Any thoughts? It’s the notes that the words “but what can I do, I’m lonely too.”

@Spoke

I believe the Beatles song you’re thinking of may be (video link) I Should Have Known Better.

@NotSoTinyDancer

If you listen to the Beatles’ song “A Hard Day’s Night”, after the first four lines there are two lines with the lyrics “But when I get home to you, I find the things that you do”. The notes of these lines (which are repeated a few times throughout the song) sound to me very similar to the ones you’re referring to in “I Saw Her Again Last Night”. There are differing numbers of notes between the two songs, but the melodic progression sounds the same.

I’ve been trying to reconcile these comments, and I can’t. However…

3_4___3___4_5____3-2__1
I saw her a-gain last night

3____4____3_5____5______5
It’s been a hard day’s night

I haven’t listened to this in forever. Phillips was a great songwriter. K.D. Lang once declared that good songwriting comes from being constantly surprised, and the chord progression here does that beautifully.

[K364]

John Sebastian does exactly the same thing on “Darling Be Home Soon”
https://youtu.be/pAur4CWJIPw?t=129