Albums ruined with fake applause.

Worst case I know of - the exanded CD issue of Thelonious Monk Big Band and Quartet In Concert, recorded live at Lincoln Center in NYC.

The second set opened with a piano solo that is one of my very favorite Monk recordings, the obscure standard "When It's Darkness on the Delta". The CD has dubbed applause that covers opening of the solo. It's just the first couple of seconds, but it's really annoying to me that they did this for no good reason. And with the way that track is indexed on the CD, with little "lead-in" time, the effect is doubly irritating.



IIRC, I've been told they didn't do this on the original LP or on one of the Sony CD compilations (maybe "Standards" ?), so I'll have to spring for one of these someday - it's one of Monk's most endearing performances.

 

I have that album also but it beats me when I bought it.

I'd like to add 2 albums where the audience isn't faked - Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl and Blues Project at the Cafe au GoGo.

Anyone who has ever seen a DVD or VHS of a Beatles concert knows the noise the crowd made and a cousin of mine who saw them at Shea Stadium told me it was just as noisy there as at the Hollywood Bowl show.

 

Although some raw footage of The Beatles performing "Kansas City" from Shindig has surfaced, showing that the studio audience was quiet during their performance. Jack Good added a bunch of canned audience cheers and screams for the actual broadcast version.

 

Great Point, I would love to hear a version without it...

 

Totally agree. For some reason back in the 50's and 60's they thought they could improve upon a live performance by re-recording some tracks (apparently to correct a lot of the goofs, missed notes, etc.) in the studio and then adding in the audience later.

I have Tony Bennett/Count Basie on MFSL and this CD sounds terrible with the fake background noise/talking, etc.

 

Get the 5.1 version. Turn off the rear channels. Presto!

 

1971.

 

Yes, that's it. Given that it was withdrawn so quickly, it's not surprising that it rarely turns up in the used bins.

I can't recall where I got mine, but I know I had it in 1972, as I played it on a radio show I was doing at the time. As a big Yardbirds fan, I actually thought "I'm Confused" was kind of a neat, alternate universe thing -- though when I played it a listener called whose enthusiasm didn't exactly match mine...he was horrified!!

By the way, I just saw The Yardbirds at the Pittsburgh Blues Festival a week ago. Of course, it's only McCarty and Dreja, with John Idian on bass (who's been with them for quite a while) and singing lead, a really excellent harp player, and a hotshot kid who's called upon to be Clapton, Beck and Page at one time or another and acquits himself pretty well.

I bring it up because their final song before the encore was indeed "I'm Confused." McCarty introduced their last three songs (can't recall the first one, the second was a nice surprise, "Still I'm Sad," and the third was "Confused") by saying "...and one that most people don't realize we did first."

I knew right away what we'd be in for!

 

The problem with the official Hollywood Bowl album is that George Martin mixed the crowd too loud. The boot versions of those shows are more complete and the crowd is at much more listenable level.

Derek

 

for 'Rhymin' Simon'. Nope; my bad - I was thinking of one thing, and typing another. I actually meant Paul Simon's Live Rhymin'

Cheers...

 

1. James Brown's Sex Machine-Sides 1 and 2 (3 and 4 were genuine), and Super Bad albums. The sound is degraded, more distant, with echo added to the studio performances.
2. Gene Pitney said applause was added to one of his albums, except the applause was for a boxing match, and the bell could be heard.
3. Shangri-Las first album-don't know for sure, but the audience sounds considerably muddier than the performances.
4. A Montreal group called the Beau-Marks, of Clap Your Hands fame. Don't know for sure if applause is fake, but it has the same issues as #3.

 

IIRC, Endless Highway featured on the The Band's Cahoots reissue was minus the fake applause. It was on the comp To Kingdom Come and Live at Watkins Glenn

 

Yeah, Superbad is ruined by that.

 

GOT to mention the original LP of "Plastic Ono Band - Live Peace in Toronto 1969". The LP (and even the cuts on the "Lennon" CD box) have terrible canned applause dubbed over the actual crowd to give the LP some more "oomph". It can be easily picked up by the sound of the same "whistle" appearing over and over and over.

Odd, as the remixed tracks on the 1995 CD use the "natural" crowd sounds and they certainly seems to be enjoying themselves!

I knew the crowd sounds were faked on that LP the first time I heard the "whitsle" track come around multiple times on Side One...but the real giveaway was the fact that the crowd seemed a little TOO enthusiastic about being subjected to 20 minutes of "John, John (Let's Hope For Peace)"!

 

"Rare Earth In Concert" has some atrocious loops of applause mixed under it...it doesn't really 'ruin' it for me, but it sure ruins the effect.

 

Agreed. The early cd is actually great because it's remixed with no applause.

 

The Billy Joel applause was not fake, but as is noted in the liner notes (at least on the LP), the album is actually a compilation of "forgotten" songs that simply sounded better as live tracks. Each individual song was recorded at a different venue, then all the songs were put together on the album (thus the reason for sounding "different"). It was sort-of a "best of" non-hits from his concerts and shows. ....The same is true for Harry Chapin's "Greatest Stories Live" (songs were recorded in different venues and put together on the final album ...of course the last 3 songs were new studio songs and thankfully weren't dubbed with any applause).

 

A little insight into the process, taken from Jimmy Bowen's autobiography. Here Bowen is discussing taking three different Merle Haggard live shows and making them sound as one......

......one was an album of live tracks recorded at three venues -- a sports stadium, a small hall and a Texas club. He wanted all the tracks to sound live and as if they were done at the same place. That was interesting. I took about twelve seconds of "ambience" from Anaheim Stadium-- whooshing, murmuring crowd sounds -- and looped it so that I could splice it in behind the crowds at the other places to equalize the aural dimensions of the three venues between songs.

Then I sampled light and medium applause and wild crowd roars and put them all on "triggers" to make them happen where they fit the sequence and flow of the show. If Hag kicked into, say, "Okie From Muskogee," or some other famous song of his, and his fans erupted with recognition, I triggered wild applause.

Incredibly, he got a top 5 hit, "Rainbow Stew," from all that trickery....

 

Both sides of this unreleased Barbara Lynn single are marred with the fakest-sounding applause I've ever heard. Even worse is the canned laughter around 1:45. Cringe-worthy.

 

99% of Ray Stevens' classics used not only canned laughter, but canned applause as well

 

An addendum to my Ray Stevens post but in that case that adds to the fun, IMO.

 

This is from my least favorite Sinatra album. He sounds throughout as if he's double parked and has to get out of the studio as soon as possible. Anyway, one of the low points of the album comes towards the end of this sparkling gem where the apparently MSG-sized bus erupts in applause. He and Don Costa should have done time themselves for this one.

 

Didn't they also do this with Ray Charles and Basie as well?