Songs that were recorded in an unusual manner

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by HotelYorba101, Jul 3, 2011.

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  1. Roland Stone

    Roland Stone Offending Member

    I would suggest that any California session during the '70s/'80s that didn't feature cocaine during recording would qualify as some sort of anomaly.
     
  2. Mister Charlie

    Mister Charlie "Music Is The Doctor Of My Soul " - Doobie Bros.

    Location:
    Aromas, CA USA
    Then there is the (myth?) about Jim Morrison getting oral sex from Pamela while singing his vocal for a song which I do not recall the title of at the moment. Love Street? heh

    The Beatles certainly broke dozens, maybe hundreds of rules over the years to get the sounds they did.
     
  3. pool_of_tears

    pool_of_tears Searching For Simplicity

    Location:
    Midwest
    You're Lost Little Girl, as the story goes. But who knows if they used that vocal take.
     
  4. nodeerforamonth

    nodeerforamonth Consistently misunderstood

    Location:
    San Diego,CA USA
    Didn't Aerosmith record "Train Kept A Rollin'" in a stairwell?
     
  5. CoryS

    CoryS Forum Resident

    I, for one, am glad they beat Meatloaf to that idea :)
     
  6. christian42

    christian42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lund, Sweden
    For The Small Faces' "The Universal" Steve Marriott was recorded singing and playing guitar in his garden (which explains some of the background sounds). I think the rest of the instrumental backing was done in the studio however.
     
  7. aaronfirebrand

    aaronfirebrand Well-Known Member

    Dion DiMucci recorded Daddy Rollin' (In Your Arms) in some unique circumstances.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XxQfzyLTiA

    In early 1968, his career in the toilet and his personal life in tatters, Dion decided to kick his longtime heroin habit. He was clean, but he hadn't been clean for long, when he gathered some musicians he had met around his Florida home for a recording session in a small studio space near Dion's house.

    In the liner notes of King of the New York Streets, Dion says of the track:

    "This one's kind of multi-dimensional. It can be a love song or it can be about drugs. I recorded it in the back of a bowling alley with a bunch of Jamaicans. We were banging on cardboard boxes. I had my Gibson Birdland guitar and we just let it roll."

    What they laid down embodied the danger and intensity of the times. Daddy Rollin' is swampy, claustrophobic and raw; Dion's edgy, agitated vocal suggests he was still going through some withdrawal symptoms when the stepped up to the mic. Dion may say "it can be a love song" but listen closely to those lyrics and it's clear: This Dion-penned song is about his days as a smack junkie. (As if the bracketed part of the song title isn't a big enough clue.)


    :cool:
     
  8. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    The Dixie Cups' version of "Iko Iko" was reportedly recorded during a break, with one of the group members banging on either an ashtray or a soda bottle for percussion. One of the group later said they never knew Lieber and Stoller had the tape deck running.
     
  9. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

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    from wiki:
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  10. music4life

    music4life Senior Member

    Location:
    South Elgin, IL
    Eric Carmen recorded one of his vocals on "Boats Against The Current" while laying on his back.
     
  11. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion

    Location:
    Canada
    Jethro Tull Stand Up album.

    “In rehearsal and recording we all tried different approaches to the songs. Clive and Glen formed the basic backbone of the group leaving Martin and me to experiment a bit more with different sounds and, for the time, some radical techniques in sound recording. We often plugged instruments into the rotating Leslie speaker cabinet to treat the sound with the typical Hammond Organ-like tones. Martin’s guitar in A New Day Yesterday was recorded with me standing on the guitar speaker cabinet, swinging a microphone, Roger Daltry-fashion around the outside to get a phasing, swirling sound for the main riff.” - Ian Anderson
     
  12. nodeerforamonth

    nodeerforamonth Consistently misunderstood

    Location:
    San Diego,CA USA
    "Territorial Pissings" by Nirvana was recorded in a funny way with the guitar set up too. Can't remember exactly what/how... I think they plugged the guitar directly into the mixing board or something.
     
  13. Toby Latimer

    Toby Latimer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mansfield. UK
    In December '71 Deep Purple Mk II went to Montreux , on the Lake Geneva shoreline. To make records with a mobile, they didn't have much time. Some stupid **** with a flare gun burned the place to the ground. They ended up at the Grand Hotel, It was empty, cold and bare. But with the Rolling Stones Truck Thing just outside they made their music there.
     
  14. stephen@hennefer

    stephen@hennefer New Member

    Location:
    UK Horwich
    John Martyn’s Small Hours from One World, which was recorded at a medieval house in Teale, which had it’s own lake. Equipment was set up on each side of the lake so that it picked up the sound of water lapping, and the distant sound of John’s guitar as he played on the far side. Most of the recording was carried out between 3am and 6am and these quiet hours before dawn created the most magical atmosphere with the lapping of water and geese on the lake.
     
  15. Matt Ellers

    Matt Ellers Senior Member

    Location:
    Australia
    A couple of Ronnie Lane's albums were recorded outdoors on his property I believe.
     
  16. rockclassics

    rockclassics Senior Member

    Location:
    Mainline Florida
    That story sure sounds familiar for some reason. :laugh: :agree:
     
  17. Colocally

    Colocally One Of The New Wave Boys

    Location:
    Surrey BC.
    On Boys Keep Swinging, Bowie and Eno got the rhythm section (Carlos Alomar, Dennis Davis and George Murray) to swap instruments, to give the track a looser garage band feel.
    On other tracks on Lodger, Eno would point to chords to tell the band when to change. Move on was made by taking part of All the young dudes and playing it backwards. Fantastic Voyage and Boys Keep Swinging are the same chord structure. Loads of unusual recording practises on this album.
    On Low Bowie and Eno would each record pieces of Warsawa separately with each other's pieces faded down so that neither knew what the other was doing.
     
  18. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    David Byrne recorded the vocals for Drugs on the Fear of Music album while walking briskly on a treadmill.
     
  19. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

    I believe at least some of the vocals on the Beach Boys' "Smiley Smile" were recorded inside the drained swimming pool at Brian Wilson's house.
     
  20. RBtl

    RBtl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    How did we get this far into the thread without mentioning John and Yoko's Give Peace a Chance, recorded in a crowded hotel room at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, with John and Yoko in bed?
     
  21. puffyrock2

    puffyrock2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisiana
    Malefic, a black metal musician better knows as Xasthur, recorded a song titled "Báthory Erzsébet" with the doom metal group SUNN O))). Malefic suffers from claustrophobia and recorded his vocals while locked in a casket. His screams on the track are out of real terror.
     
  22. Gerbaby

    Gerbaby Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    BAND ON THE RUN !

    In my opinion "Band on the Run" tops them all. If you ever read the back-story to how this record was recorded,it has both drama,tragedy and a certain romantic element.
    Paul and Linda getting held up by some local thugs in Lagos and they took the tape he was carrying,not knowing what it was of course and apparently it was some tracks from BOTR.
    Paul thought he was having a heart attack while in Lagos,which apparently was an anxiety attack.
    They recorded most of the album using antiquated EMI machines and mics. How in the world this in my opinion is the best sounding of any album ever recorded. Of course they sweetened it and mixed at Abbey Road,but still ...
    The story of living in a tent while Dustin Hoffman was filming Papillon. Dustin stops by Paul's tent one night and has a Time magazine or something like that and shows Paul an article relating to Picasso's death and asks Paul if he could write a song about it.
    The intrigue and romance surrounding this album would make a great film in itself.
     
  23. Madrigal of the Night by Norwegian black metal act Ulver was supposedly recorded outdoors in a forest, to better get that troo kult vibe. It sounds like it was recorded using tin cans.
     
  24. gordolindsay

    gordolindsay Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grand Rapids, MI
    Another one for the Gorillaz, their latest album 'The Fall' is being promoted as the first album recorded on the iPad.

    Also, Frank Zappa did the whole Joe's Garage set through a mega phone.
     
  25. Schoolmaster Bones

    Schoolmaster Bones Poe's Lawyer

    Location:
    ‎The Midwest
    Rock 'n' Roll With The Modern Lovers (1977) was recorded entirely live in the "rest room" at CBS studios, San Francisco.
     
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