# 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:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/41 "2012-09-05T15:28:41Z")
I would go back and change the masters to early Van Halen recordings. That Ted Templeman style of “vocals and drums in your left ear, guitars and bass in your right” was always kinda…_off_ to me. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/42 "2012-09-05T16:51:22Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I would go back and change the masters to early Van Halen recordings. That Ted Templeman style of “vocals and drums in your left ear, guitars and bass in your right” was always kinda…_off_ to me. I agree with this. VH’s recordings are pure and pristine in tone, but the separation is static and simplistic. IMO it sounds great on a loud room-filling speaker system, but is noticeably distracting to me when listened to on headphones. Another album that occurred to me…Primus, _Frizzle Fry_ is also poorly done with respect to the drums. They sound like Folgers coffee cans rather than an actual drum set. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/43 "2012-09-05T18:21:18Z")
They sure did some strange things in the 60s. On the album _Good Times_ by Sonny & Cher, some tracks have all the vocals in the left channel and all the instrumentation in the right. What were they thinking!? ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/44 "2012-09-05T18:25:27Z")
Conversely it would have been nice if almost every ZZ top album hadn’t been destroyed by horrid reverb and drum machines when they produced the CD. I can say that there are many albums that could have used better recordings but it is rare for a production to “improve” the great albums. I would love to go back to pre-loudness days. I would disagree on the drums on Frizzle Fry too, they sit well in the mix in the original and really sound bad in the re-mastered release. Hi-Fi is not always ideal. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/45 "2012-09-05T18:29:09Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > I agree with this. VH’s recordings are pure and pristine in tone, but the separation is static and simplistic. IMO it sounds great on a loud room-filling speaker system, but is noticeably distracting to me when listened to on headphones. > > Another album that occurred to me…Primus, _Frizzle Fry_ is also poorly done with respect to the drums. They sound like Folgers coffee cans rather than an actual drum set. That’s better said than I. Van Halen’s _sound_ is great. Their _separation_ sucks. I prefer most everything to come from the center, as it were, particularly for a mostly sonically straightforward rock band like VH (not so much for a band like Pink Floyd). And its funny you mention _Frizzle Fry_…I just listened to “John The Fisherman” not too long ago and thought the same thing…“damn, that drummer can really play but his drums sound like shit!”. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/46 "2012-09-05T18:31:33Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Metallicas “And Justice For All” never seemed like it was mixed properly. Yes. Also, the **Foo Fighters** first, eponymous album. Great music, but the mix is so flat, it sounds like I have a copy of a copy that was ran over by a dump truck. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/47 "2012-09-05T18:36:19Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > They sure did some strange things in the 60s. On the album _Good Times_ by Sonny & Cher, some tracks have all the vocals in the left channel and all the instrumentation in the right. What were they thinking!? I \*think \*stereo was new, and they wanted to make sure you could hear that it was stereo. ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/48 "2012-09-05T18:38:54Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > That’s better said than I. Van Halen’s _sound_ is great. Their _separation_ sucks. I prefer most everything to come from the center, as it were, particularly for a mostly sonically straightforward rock band like VH (not so much for a band like Pink Floyd). > > And its funny you mention _Frizzle Fry_…I just listened to “John The Fisherman” not too long ago and thought the same thing…“damn, that drummer can really play but his drums sound like shit!”. Go listen to Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver and note how the drums are stomping all over the bass though. Same reason you end up using the bridge pickup in guitars with “harder” music, it tends to have a less pleasing sound but it sits in the mix. I doubt Frizzle Fry would have been a success with hi-fi drums, the hook on most of the popular songs would have been lost in the mix. Not that it was a perfect recording job but their later material with “better” recordings were less accessible. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/49 "2012-09-05T20:29:44Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I \*think \*stereo was new, and they wanted to make sure you could hear that it was stereo. No, that wasn’t it. The first stereophonic records were released in 1957, and there was a rash of “stereo demonstration” records in the late 50s and maybe into the early 60s to sell the concept. But by the time of _Good Times_ (1967), stereo was so well established that the record companies were about to stop pressing mono LPs altogether. ---
**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 5, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/50 "2012-09-05T21:10:39Z")
> [@Stormcrow](#): > > I was thinking this about Leonard Cohen’s “I’m your Man.” Leonard of course was great, and the songs are great, but the backing music uses a lot of synth, which really doesn’t fit the music, and then the background singers is a bunch of very pretty sounding female voices, which again don’t really mesh well with Leonard’s extremely unique, deep delivery. The production is piss-poor, but I think the cheesy 80s arrangements on that album, are what almost ruin it, with tinny synths and cardboard box drum machines. The whole of _I’m Your Man_ is a tribute to how good Cohen’s songs are that they aren’t actually ruined by their awful execution, but the whole album really needs to be redone with a sparse, bare, stripped-back sound like early Cowboy Junkies or the Civil Wars. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/51 "2012-09-06T00:17:54Z")
Joni Mitchell’s first album, _Song to a Seagull_ sounds like it was recorded over the phone. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/52 "2012-09-06T03:05:17Z")
> [@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! Hüsker Dü was the first band I thought of, as well. And _Warehouse_ and _Candy Apple Grey_ had _better_ production than the SST stuff. They really need to get their shit sorted out and remaster that catalog. ---
**Author:** ![Gatekeeper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@Gatekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatekeeper)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591/53 "2012-09-06T03:55:08Z")
> [@Greekfreak](#): > > Strangely enough, I like the compressed, overproduced original mix much better–the album itself is one of their weakest, but I don’t think the …“Naked” version improves the material one iota. > > Back to the original topic, I detested the production of every John Lennon solo album; it all sounded so limp wristed and fey when you knew deep down inside the guy was screaming to make a punk album somewhere down the line (and might have, had he lived). By his own admission, he stated there wasn’t a single Beatles track he wouldn’t have re-made if he had the chance. > > Very few KISS fans out there, but the hardcore ones would say “Unmasked” and “Dynasty” would both have benefited from better production. I’m a Kiss fan, and I think the album “Music From The Elder” would have benefitted by never having been produced at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-albums-that-needed-better-production/633591.md?page=2)