# Songs/albums that needed better production **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 3, 2012, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591 "2012-09-03T23:10:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/1 "2012-09-03T23:10:16Z")
I recently found out about near a capella mixes of Carpenters songs [like this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttGJa7qH4XY) on YouTube. When you compare them [to the released versions](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVKAPL9idD8), the simpler versions sound almost always much better. It got me to wondering: are there any songs or albums that would be much improved with different production? Have you heard any alternate versions that make you say “this should have been the released product?” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/2 "2012-09-03T23:33:21Z")
An oldie: **At The Drop of a Hat** by Flanders and Swann. It was a live recording of their stage act, but there was someone with a very hearty laugh that sounds almost like he’s on stage with them, and is easier to hear than the act. The producer, George Martin\*, was working on a tight budget and probably couldn’t rerecord, but he should have. \*Yes, _that_ George Martin. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/3 "2012-09-04T00:52:35Z")
If by “production” you include sound engineering, I’d say Jefferson Airplane. Their music is almost unlistenable – muddy, awful recording. Can’t tell if they can sing or play their instruments, or if the melodies or arrangements are any good, because it sounds like crud. Early Grateful Dead was the same. Also, the Mamas and the Papas (but they might have also just been downright bad). Commonality? San Francisco. Same recording studio? Same sound engineer? I dunno – maybe. If so, that person should have laid off the acid, just for recording, mixing, and mastering. Once an acetate’s in the bag, hey, drop all you want. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2012, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/4 "2012-09-04T00:58:07Z")
I’m not sure whether this will get me pilloried or not. I’m a fan of rough production. I tend to dislike overproduced records, but it does depend on the music. I feel like I could never quite get into Hüsker Dü because of their exceptionally muddy recordings. My ears are finally getting around to it, so I can start to appreciate their music. I just wish it was recorded _slightly_ cleaner. I’m not asking for an antiseptic recording experience–just more clarity and separation between parts. Better midrange. That sort of thing. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/5 "2012-09-04T00:59:51Z")
More in the spirit of the OP, I’d posit that Nirvana’s “Unplugged” video/CD shows that some of their material might have sounded better if originally recorded acoustically – e.g., “All Apologies” – rather than flogging that light/heavy verse/chorus thing to death. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/6 "2012-09-04T01:03:41Z")
The poster boy for this is “Let it Be.” Paul McCartney re-released it stripped down (naked) a few years back and it’s a lot better without the crap thrown in by Phil Spector. _The Long and Winding Road_ is a beautiful song without all the echo and horns and crap. Like wise _Across The Universe_ without the distorted vocals is wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/7 "2012-09-04T01:05:06Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’m not sure whether this will get me pilloried or not. I’m a fan of rough production. I tend to dislike overproduced records, but it does depend on the music. I feel like I could never quite get into Hüsker Dü because of their exceptionally muddy recordings. My ears are finally getting around to it, so I can start to appreciate their music. I just wish it was recorded _slightly_ cleaner. I’m not asking for an antiseptic recording experience–just more clarity and separation between parts. Better midrange. That sort of thing. Wow, I was going to say the exact same thing… I have a copy of _Warehouses_ that I bought on a whim after hearing “Friend, You’ve Got to Fall” over the PA at Sound Exchange. I figured they had a shitty in-store system… nope. I consider Hüsker Dü to be an amazing band, but hamstrung by thin, reedy recordings. If you EQ their tracks it gets better… but there’s a remastering waiting to happen! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/8 "2012-09-04T01:08:32Z")
**Cheap Thrills** , Big Brother and the Holding Company (Janis Joplin for you whippersnappers). It’s a great album, but the production values for the band just suck. In fact, the musicians just aren’t all that talented. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/9 "2012-09-04T01:16:41Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > **Cheap Thrills** , Big Brother and the Holding Company (Janis Joplin for you whippersnappers). It’s a great album, but the production values for the band just suck. In fact, the musicians just aren’t all that talented. More San Francisco! (Janis was from Texas originally, yeah, I know). What’s up? Only 8 or 9 years later, Fleetwood Mac were creating some of the best-produced and best-engineered pop/rock recordings in history, right there in Sausalito. Quite an impressive learning curve (or equipment upgrade?) for Bay Area studios. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/10 "2012-09-04T01:20:51Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > Wow, I was going to say the exact same thing… I have a copy of _Warehouses_ that I bought on a whim after hearing “Friend, You’ve Got to Fall” over the PA at Sound Exchange. I figured they had a shitty in-store system… nope. I consider Hüsker Dü to be an amazing band, but hamstrung by thin, reedy recordings. If you EQ their tracks it gets better… but there’s a remastering waiting to happen! That’s the thing with them. I found a [thread from 2005](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=343803) here where I brought them up in the same context, so my opinion hasn’t really moved that much since them. I’ve definitely softened to them in the last, shit, seven years (has it really been _that_ long?), but I feel they might be one of my favorite bands if they didn’t sound like they were recorded by some guy with a Walkman in the lawn seats of an outdoor concert. ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/11 "2012-09-04T01:47:31Z")
All those old SST albums produced by Spot suffered or benefitted from his “rough” production. Only if “New Day Rising” was produced and mixed to sound like “Copper Blue”… I don’t think music is over produced, mixed and processed nowadays though. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/12 "2012-09-04T06:50:19Z")
_Zen Arcade_ is the album that popped into my head when I saw the thread title. If I were in a band, I’d want to record a cover of “Chartered Trips” because I think it’s a great song that could be even greater if it didn’t sound so muffled. If I had a second pick, it’d probably be _Warehouse_. I have been a big Hüsker Dü fan for a long time, but not because I thought they did such a fantastic job behind the boards. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/13 "2012-09-04T07:44:10Z")
kind of along these lines, every police album ever recorded (maybe I am not going to dig them up and test) seems to have been recorded at really low levels, I mean way out of line with most albums so you have to turn up their songs all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/14 "2012-09-04T08:49:18Z")
[Raw Power](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_Power) by the Stooges is, for me, the pinnacle of albums that needed better production. I love those songs, but I can’t stand listening to the album because it sounds so terrible. The sad thing is it can’t be fixed by any amount of remixing or remastering because the terrible sound is on the original tape. My theory is that they were so coked out of their minds that they just kept upping the volume and the treble till the multitrack tape itself was completely saturated. Which means it can’t be cleaned up. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/15 "2012-09-04T10:21:14Z")
_First Last And Always_, by the Sisters of Mercy. Great album which sounds like it was recorded in somebody’s bathroom with the taps running. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/16 "2012-09-04T15:05:02Z")
I absolutely love the songs on _ **The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society** _… but the recording quality was awful. MAYBE that was deliberate, but if so, it was a bad choice on Ray Davies’ part. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/17 "2012-09-04T15:20:46Z")
I’ve always thought the biggest problem with the Moody Blues was the muddy and flat recordings. Sheesh, brighten it up a bit. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/18 "2012-09-04T15:23:25Z")
As I have stated here in the past, \*\*Cheap Trick’s \*\*first couple of albums were pop-ified and didn’t have the power they can show as a live band - so when Budokan came out it was considered a big deal. Regarding the OP and the acapella Carpenters, I remember when \*\*Michael Jackson \*\*was interviewed by Oprah; at one point, for a few seconds, he was sharing a song and he did some beat-boxing and then sang on top if it. I remember thinking Jeez! I wish he’d just do the album that way… As for Husker Du - agreed; a lot of indie stuff from the 80’s is awful, with terrible sounding guitars played through solid-state amps that gave a screechy distorted tone. And as for SF bands from the 60’s - ugh. And I say that as someone from there - lots of bad production and limited musical talent… ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/19 "2012-09-04T15:41:19Z")
_Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde_ is kind of notorious for its muddy production. There is apparently some debate about whether the 1997 release was remixed to address this problem. I think some of the tracks on the Beach Boys’ _Wild Honey_ suffer from bad production. On a related note – I recently discovered that different _pressings_ apparently can cause LPs to sound different. I happened to have two copies of Jack Bruce’s _Songs for a Tailor,_ and one just sounded a hell of a lot better than the other… and both were in excellent condition. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/20 "2012-09-04T15:52:27Z")
Last summer I saw a fireworks show at the Cleveland baseball stadium that was set to the music of the 60s. The Motown stuff sounded just awful over the big speakers. It was like listening to a low-quality GIF that had been stretched to 10x its original size. The production quality was just not there. Actually most of the music was bad in that regard but the Motown stuff was the worst. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591.md?page=2)