First recording mistake you noticed

Probably not the first, but the one that comes to mind at the moment is a bad punch in on Billy Joel's "A Matter Of Trust". On the line "a question of why", you can hear half of the word "why" repeated a second time, as though a different vocal take were being spliced in. Makes the following line sound like "...eeeSome love is just..."

 

"What Goes On" The Beatles Anomalies List is the bible when it comes to little mistakes or recording errors on Beatles tracks.

http://www.pootle.demon.co.uk/beatles/wgoalbu.htm

 

I don't think this is so much an "accidental erase" but because these machines "punched in/out" very inaccurately (more like going into/out of record at that certain spot on the tape) it was more a question of putting different instruments on the same track because of space reasons and you couldn't punch out in time to save the previously record instrument. The same thing is heard on Rare Earth's "Get Ready" where the sax solo ends and the tambourine comes in late clipped off.

 

Ah... the old days of tape editing. Talk about a bitch. Fishing around in the waste basket for an inch of tape to find the "downbeat" of the kick drum that disappeared... It was exciting though.

 

These were intentional.
For me it was on I Saw Her Again by The Mamas & The Papas, where he accidentally says "I saw her" early, after the break (at least I THINK it was a mistake).
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This mistake in ISHA is very similar to the mistake done in the Kingsmens' Louie Louie. I was told that was a mistake (breaking in with vocals at the wrong place), but that the Mama's & Papa's song was not an accident, but done on purpose.

As for Day Tripper, I have heard the full 3 takes of recording sessions, where take 1 is an instrumental, take 2 is a false start and take 3 is the one and only full take of the song with overdubs. At the point of the dop off, you can hear that little shhhrft sound, I thought it was a guitar scratch, because you hear more of them past the fade out when the song ends cold. I always thought they bleeped that bit on the tape out to get rid of that little shhhrfft sound because they appear in exactly the same spot. I find it hard to believe it was an accident.
BTW, is that JL playing rhythm guitar on the bridge in Day Tripper? Take 1 has no lead guitar overdub, so you hear mainly the rhythm. Man, did he just pound out on that guitar!

 

I think you are right!!!

 

I agree. Whatever does cause THAT SOUND, when listening to un-edited takes, it is surely NOT an accidental erase. There is no "drop out" of any instrument during the anamoly, but there IS some un-wanted "tape noise" at that point, and it was simply edited out for commercial release. The fact that one of the "doubled guitar tracks is silenced at that very point make it stand out much more in the stereo mix.

It's just more evidence that not much though was given to stereo mixes in those days. As this was primarily a single release, the "dead channel" wasn't thought of as major problem for a stereo release that didn't see the light of day for almost another year.

 

A few things to keep in mind:

- the mono mix actually has the *longest* dropout - it's just that it's less noticeable since it is in mono and the overdub track isn't quite as loud in the mono mix. The mute is so long the tambourine hit present in both stereo mixes is missing.
- a stereo mix done in 1965 (and released on Yesterday And Today) has the same issue, just slightly different. The mute itself is very loud (either they cut it a bit too late, or the console made a lot of noise), and the tambourine comes back in halfway through a hit - you hear the jangle, but not the hit itself.
- the "standard" stereo mix (done in 1966) has the "mute glitch" the 1965 stereo mix did, and comes back just ahead of the tambourine hit, instead of just after it, as in the 1965 stereo mix. This mix seems to have the most echo on the vocals of any of them. Interesting how you can hear the echo from the vocals in the dropout section.

After listening to all three mixes a few times, I tend to think the "mute glitch" is simply the front end of the "problem" on the multitrack, and they didn't mute that track in time. It is on the mono mix as well, just not quite as loud as the stereo mixes.

But, at any rate, I wouldn't call this an example of the stereo "afterthought" mixes - in some regards, the "fix" is actually better in stereo (in that it isn't as long), although due to the overall balance it is less noticeable in mono.

Also interesting that even though Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out were given new stereo mixes in 1966 (which is what we hear on CD), they kept the same hard left-right separation of the Rubber Soul mixes. Heck, the 1965 mix of WCWIO was actually *more* spread out than the 1966 mix.

 

Well, the drop-out "fix" wasn't accidental, but I'd bet the stray noise was. It *does* sound like something got erased, though, as if you listen closely, the tambourine sound drops out for the duration of the glitch (well, the guitar does too, but it is most noticeable on the tambourine).

 

These were definitely not "intentional." As meticulous as Brian was in the tracking process, he could be very sloppy in the mixing/editing process and these were just some of the many, many examples of tracks that should have been cleaned up or muted during mixdown. The Beach Boys were notorious for talking, coughing, laughing, etc. right up to the second that they were supposed to come in singing.

 

Speaking of "Was it a mistake", how about the end of Isn't it a Pity, where at the end of the fade you hear a part from elsewhere in the song playing very softly ("...cause each other pain. How w'.")

 

Just discovered this thread and am pleased that so many of the fun glitches I was thinking about are already on here. I also love the accidental "extraneous" studio chatter that makes it onto the master mixes. One of my favorites is on "Good Day Sunshine" right after Paul sings "...and she's loving me.....she feels good (blurb that sounds like Lennon saying something like "sie leib dicht")--
...in a special way, I'm in love and it's a sunny day"

I listen for it every time and when Revolver is eventually remastered, I hope it's still there!
Mike

 

No they're not the same mix. We Can Work It Out has ,I believe, at least the organ track in the center (I forget what the story is to Day Tripper, but I don't have access to the tracks right now, as I am at work). The original Rubber Soul mix had absolutely NOTHING in the center-everything was either hard left or hard right. The CD remix moved some tracks to to the 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 10 o'clock and 11 o'clock positions in the mix but STILL has zero in the center.

 

I'm not sure what you're getting at as far as "same mix" goes. Neither of those songs were remixed for CD. The 1966 stereo mixes were used for those two songs on CD.

The 1966 stereo mixes are hard left-right, just like the original RS album mixes. On the other hand, the 1965 stereo mix of WCWIO has one of the organ parts centered (or at least more to the center). Without checking, I believe the 1965 stereo mix of Day Tripper was hard left-right, though.

This is all what I said above. Where's the confusion?

 

I didn't realize that there is a hard left-right mix of WCWIO, I just recalled the other one, and I was nit-picking your point, that's where the confusion was!

 

Which reminds me, there's also that one horribly bad note during the keyboard solo itself that either makes me cringe or laugh every time I hear it.