Mysterious 'whining noise' on S & G's 'Scarborough Fair/Canticle'

Does anyone know what that strange whining noise is on Simon and Garfunkel's recording of 'Scarborough Fair/Canticle?' Has anyone else noticed it?

It appears at 1:57 into the song right after Paul sings the word 'Scarlet' on the phrase 'Scarlet Batallions.'

I first noticed this in 1987 when I was listening to Simon and Garfunkel's 'Greatest Hits' on my early Sony Discman. I discovered this sound by accident. I was a Senior in High School at the time and was listening to this CD with my eyes closed. My mother is kind of wacky and sometimes she used to call me by yelling my name in a high falsetto voice and dragging it out. She'd yell, 'Chriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!'

I was, of course, at this particular point in 'Scarborough Fair' and thought my Mom was calling me. I paused the CD and went into the living room where my Mom was and said, 'You called me?' Of course, she laughed and said, 'No. I didn't call you.'
Well, I went back into my bedroom, recued 'Scarborough Fair' from the beginning, got to the same point in the song and thought my Mom was calling me again. Well, after confronting my Mom again I used the search feature and was able to isolate that moment in the song with that high pitched noise.

Needless to say, to this day that sound jumps out at me every time I hear the song.

 

Don't know what the noise is in "Scarborough Fair" but I had the same exact thing happen to me with Zeppelin's "The Battle Of Evermore" at 1:34 or so. My name is "Steve" and on more than 1 occasion I thought my mom was calling me during that part of the song. Weird!

 

I just played THAT PART of the song, and you're RIGHT!

Christopher...Your MOM "is" calling you!

 

Christopher,

I listened to it on headphones and the only thing that approximates your description of a "whine" at 1:57 is a splash of the celeste (I *think* that's the instrument) on the left channel - and it's more apparent in mono. Otherwise, that "whine" is probably the sound of Martin Carthy wondering why Paul didn't credit the English folkie with introducing this arrangement of the traditional ballad to Simon.

Jim W.

 

This is weird. At the very end of STAND by R.E.M., there's a voice that says something unintelligible, but it sounds like my mom calling me. Anybody else?

 

Something about being called by your mom that just snaps you out of whatever you're doing, I guess. This is kind of weird, though. Maybe it deserves its own thread.

 

That's exactly what it sounds like to me, same channel, too. I, too, just listened to it on headphones. It's very faint sounding on the stereo, haven't heard the mono.

 

quentincolllins,

Thanks for confirming; I wasn't quite sure myself what it was that I was hearing. Also, by way of clarification, it wasn't the mono Scab Fair that I was listening to; I just hit the "mono" speaker switch.

Jim W.