Incredible songs that are recorded poorly

What songs do thing are just amazing works of music, but you wish you could go back in time and have them re-record the song, because it was just recorded so poorly that no amount of remixing or remastering can fix it.

 

i think there are some really good songs on fleetwood mac's 'say you will' and on springsteen's 'magic' that suffer form just wretched mastering and production'

and CSNY's "looking forward' is the most muddied HDCD CD that i have ever heard.

 

The great majority of the Byrds' first four albums, IMO.

 

Shel Talmy era Kinks.

 

The Allman Bros. SUNY Stonybrook concert. The performances are fantastic, on a par with At The Fillmore, IMO, but the SQ is terrible.

 

Any song off of "Surrealistic Pillow." Sounds like it was recorded under water.

 

Amazing music, muffled and muzzled sound.

 

Ron Wood's "Gimme Some Neck". It's a shame, because I think this album is better than many Stones albums.

 

Worst drum sound ever

There are cases where a murky sound brings the song to a new level (Flamingos I Only Have Eyes For You, Moments Love On a Two Way Street, Delfonics Hey! Love, Billy Stewart Sitting In the Park but I can't think of a single instance where I heard a song with Fairlights and gated drums and thought, "hey, this sounds really good!"

 

In The Year 2525

 

(ducks)

 

John Fogerty - Comin' Down The Road (From 7 Single 1973)



Way too harsh, but coulda shoulda woulda been yet another Fogerty classic. This was recorded when all the issues began with Fogerty's band and Saul Zaentz, thus got zero promotion, etc.

On second thought it IS a Fogerty classic. Listen to the lyrics, expresses his true love of R n R and pays tribute to HIS rock inspirations.

 

GO NOW by the Moody Blues. Oy.



Dan

 

Kinks "20th Century Man."

 

On second thought, maybe this doesn't fit this thread, because although it's recorded poorly, it doesn't need any fixing.

 

Hmmm...love this song. Any specific "beefs" you have?

Kinks have a few poorly recorded songs. Money Talks is one, it sounds like a low quality rehearsal to me.

 

'Jet' from 'Band on the run'

 

Anything from Oasis' Be Here Now. I always felt it was some of Noel's best and most interesting songwriting buried beneath layers of guitars and compressed all to hell. Particularly All Around the World. Short of rerecording it to tighten up the sound (and cutting off 4 minutes of an intermitable chorus) , I'm not sure that song can be reclaimed. Too bad- could've been his masterpiece.

 

The Smiths - S/T

'Hatful of Hollow' or the 'Demos and Outtakes' bootleg had better produced versions of the songs.

 

Any early Guided By Voices redone in higher fidelity would be cool as long as the original lo-fi versions are still there. They'd sound more like this.

 

I've always found the 'steep fade' at the end hilarious: like the whole group is falling off a cliff.

 

I never liked the sound of this great song - vocals buried, muddy mix.

 

I posted GBV too then deleted it because the lo-fi is intentional

 

13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds Of + Easter Everywhere. I generally love lo-fi/no-fi stuff (the early Daniel Johnston track above is a good example), but there's just a tad too much magic buried in the production of those two absolute masterpieces.