The beginning riff off Heartbreaker by Led Zeppelin is different from the other existences of the riff in the song. It would sound much better if the fourth note were just taken out. Was this perhaps a mistake on Page’s part when they were recording and it was never taken out (or it was a mistake and they actually thought it was an improvement?)
(Yes, yes, you really can hear mistakes in recordings of that era. For another example, listen to “Matilda Mother” by Pink Floyd, off of Piper at the Gates of Dawn. When the last verse begins you can clearly hear the tracks being switched over.)
I can’t answer your question, but I will say that I am interested in and fascinated by “mistakes” like that in songs, particularly songs from 1965 - 1985. Do you know of any websites that address this?
I don’t know about the OP, but arjee, while I don’t know if you’re a Beatles fan, you may find this website interesting. It has a pretty extensive list of mistakes and oddities in Beatles songs:
arjee, my specialty is restoring records. I do it partly for a living, and also as a hobby. Having listened to thousands of records under the audio microscope, as it were, you would be amazed at how many performance and production errors I’ve found on records that you’d never know were there. It kinda makes me wish I had documented them. Bad edits, punch-ins, punch-outs that reveal part of the thing they wanted to erase, really crappy solos not-quite buried in the background, alternate vocal tracks that you can hear quite plainly but which couldn’t be entirely mixed out… Nowadays, with digital recording, you can have a perfect record. But with tape, you had some pretty strict limitations as to what you could and could not do. Rather than start again from the beginning, an awful lot of producers made a silk purse out of a sow’s ear with overdubs.
Thanks, Cabbage! I am a Beatles fan, and I will check it out!
Ohhhhh… fishbicycle…! What an absolutely fascinating specialty! I’ll bet you’re a very interesting person to sit down and chat with!
Ludovic, I do hope you get an answer to your OP. I have that album (record), but not CD, and my records and turntable are buried in the storage room , so I’m not able to check it out right now (not that checking it out would enable me to answer your question, but I am curious to hear it now!).
Another thought… has there ever been a thread where people post “mistakes” they’ve noticed in songs, in general? I’m mean, this thread is specifically about “Heartbreaker,” but I’d like to read a thread about lots of different songs…
I was pondering making this be about mistakes in songs, in general, so if there isn’t another thread feel free to hijack this one.
But in the meantime, is no one else in here at least annoyed that there is this seemingly extraneous note in the opening riff? If I had Led Zep II on CD and listened to it more often (which I don’t), I’d seriously consider digitally altering it to take it out, but that’s just me.
In the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy In The U.K.,” there is an unusual doubled snare drum that repeats a few times about halfway through. This came about because the track was stitched together from two performances of the song that didn’t totally sync up.
Not impossible. I’ll give it a listen when I get home. Page’s non-solo parts are usually pretty tight, it’s the solos that get a bit ::ahem:: loose.
Isn’t the “flash” solo just a whole load of mistakes strung together and played very quickly
As I pointed out in another thread the unaccompanied solo is out of tune with the rest of the track, another one of those little booboos like fishbike has heard I guess.
I’m not sure I’m hearing what the OP is talking about either. But as long as we are on the subject of things missing from the CD version of LZ II, has anyone else noticed that the very subtle cough at the beginning of “Whole Lotta Love” is gone?
And if the thread is open to other “mistakes”, I always thought the edit at the end of Clapton’s guitar solo on “Crossroads” was rather abrupt, but nobody else I’ve talked to has ever seemed to notice it.
I’ve read a recent interview with Eric where he admits that the solo is on the wrong beat. Maybe not the whole thing but definitely the end, and he finds it un-listenable
BTW My CD of Zep II does have the cough thingy at the start of Whole Lotta Love.
I have an ancient LP of Zep II, I’ll have a listen for the Heartbreaker ‘mistake’ on that later and report in.
My listening experience comes from the the original LPs:
On Whole Lotta Love I can’t hear a cough. Sorry.
On Heartbreaker it’s not a mistake, IMHO. To explain it better, listen to the beginning of the song and count the notes. 1-2-3-4 then the triplets. On every other time after that it’s 1-2-3 and then the triplets. My first guess is the song starts on an off-beat so the extra note gets the riff in time with the beat. I don’t have my music book handy to confirm this though.
For another genuine mistake, listen to Pink Floyd’s Echoes. During one of the verses where they are singing “And no one called us to the land, And no one crosses there alive.” 2 of the singers, Gilmour & Wright probably, get the words “no one” and “something” mixed up so it come out like “someone”.
I’m not sure of the album but there are a few songs where you can clearly hear the bass pedal of John Bonham creaking right along with the beat. The album may be Physical Graffiti. It drives me crazy when I hear it, didn’t they have WD-40?
Music theory don’t matter, the only thing that matters to me is it sounds off. It will bug me to no end. So I guess what they did is, if it’s not a mistake, they were writing their song and thougt “hmm, this is a novel way to start this song, let’s try this.” And since the album was recorded in about a week they didnt have time to think better of it. Not that it mattered most times for them, but IMO they really dropped the ball on this.
Speaking of Whole Lotta Love, is it a mistake during the Plant vocals only part that goes: “Waaaaaay down inside…Woman…Youuuu need it…” that you can hear a really quiet Robert Plant singing all of those lines a second or so before he actualy does?
I think that’s called a ghost track, a version of the vocal laid down by the singer that he can follow and elaborate on later. I think I’ve heard them before on older albums, it’s probably easier to eliminate all trace of them these days.
The pre-echo thing I think I learned about from the SD books. Sometimes the tape magnetism could affect the tape it was wound next to. If the the new “recording” was made in a quiet passage, it could stand up enough to be heard.
I assume this is what happened here, but they didn’t know how to fix it without a complete re-record.
, so I’m not able to check it out right now (not that checking it out would enable me to answer your question, but I am curious to hear it now!).