Mistakes in songs.

Is that when Paul sings "She's No Pheasant"?

 

I don't think we can ever know whether the missing strum on "She's a Woman" was intentional on John's part or not. I think it's very safe to say that the bum chord that follows shortly thereafter was not!

I'm not saying it (that is, the missing strum) doesn't have its charm or that it negatively impacts the song in any way. It's just interesting, and I'm not sure that the case can be made that it was a calculated move to do it just once, at that particular moment.

 

If it's a correct/archaic use of the word then I stand corrected. Would it have been intentional, like their use of aeolian cadences in "Not a Second Time"?!

As for the various comments on Live and Let Die's "in which we live in", I like McCartney's cheerful admission that it's "wronger, but sounds better". He's a genius, beyond compare...

 

No, I agree, we cannot know whether it was intentional or not. But let me say this: Are you a guitarist? How many times have you unintentionally missed the strings on your guitar. I'm guessing never.

And I can't believe that it was a mistake he made because the part was difficult to play. It's so simple. And Lennon was particularly adept as a rhythm player. Playing it would have been like falling off a log for him.

And yes, for sure, the bum chord was a mistake!

 

When we saw them do it on the Sullivan Show, we thought he forgot the words, because they looked at him.

Later on in years I thought it was intentional, as in when he was retelling the story (thus recalling her image in the process), he got all choked up and had to stop until he got his composure back.
Mistake or not, I’d like to think the former was the way it happened.

 

Yes, I'm a guitarist, yes John was a very good rhythm guitarist, and yes, the "She's a Woman" part is not technically difficult.

But it is quite repetitive. A total of seven takes of "She's a Woman" were attempted, but Take 6 was considered superior to Take 7, so that one was chosen. And one of those takes (not sure which one) turned into an eight-minute jam.

It's possible that John had got a bit bored with playing the same unvarying rhythmic pattern, and simply missed a stroke on what still turned out to be, overall, the best take. As a guitarist, I can attest that it can actually be more difficult to play a simple but unvarying part perfectly, because you can tend to lose concentration and go on automatic pilot. Next thing you know, you've screwed it up!

Your "intentional" theory might have more weight if John had made the same decision at the same point of the song on all of the takes. I don't have access to the session recordings, so I can't say one way or the other whether this is so.

 

I can't agree with the points you make in your last two paragraphs.

Maybe we can agree to disagree?

 

My favorite.

 

There are a couple of things I think we can agree on.

Most importantly, I'm ready to agree that we will never know with absolute certainty the impetus behind the events that are recorded on the released version of "She's a Woman." The issue of whether John's missed chord in the earlier part of the third verse was intentional or not can never be definitively settled, because we can't ask the person who played the part.

Given that this is so, all we can do is speculate based on available evidence and general experience.

Available evidence. I believe we've both already agreed that the botched chord (A rather the D) in the second half of the third verse that follows the missing one is a definite, non-intentional mistake.

So, let's speculate on how this came about. I think it's reasonable to assume that it came from a lack of concentration on John's part. As I stated in my previous post, "As a guitarist, I can attest that it can actually be more difficult to play a simple but unvarying part perfectly, because you can tend to lose concentration and go on automatic pilot. Next thing you know, you've screwed it up!"

I would posit that wandering concentration levels in the course of repeatedly playing a simple, repetitive part could result in both errors of commission (the A for D) and errors of omission (the missing chord). In both cases, you're just not fully concentrating on what you're doing. And increasing numbers of takes can sometimes exacerbate this lack of concentration.

One more bit of evidence: I assume that this omitted chord is not present in previous takes of "She's a Woman," though again, I've not heard them. But one thing I do know is that, when The Beatles performed this song live, John did not omit this chord. If he felt it was integral to the song's arrangement, you'd think he would have omitted the chord in live performance as well.

General experience. My own, garnered in the course of many years of recording — and this applies both to my own playing and my bandmates' — is that you tend to concentrate and apply yourself more when you're playing a difficult, challenging part than you do when playing a simple, repetitive one. I have found over the years that a significant number of breakdowns and retakes are caused when people just aren't paying attention, even though the part being played is relatively simple.

But again, I emphasize that all is ultimately speculation in the case of "She's a Woman."

 

“Hi, everybody, I’m Archie Bell and the Drells!”

From “Tighten Up” by Archie Bell and Drells

 

Well, it's often said as a figure of speech that so-and-so IS the band, as in "Ian Anderson IS Jethro Tull", "Jon Anderson WAS Yes", etc. Maybe they are that sort of band. Or maybe Archie just had an inflated sense of his own importance.

 

Actually, if you listen closely, Archie says "Hi everybody…I'm Archie Bell with the Drells from Houston, Texas."

 

Now I'm sorely tempted to ask who the hell Archie Bell and the Drells are, but I guess I'll look them up. I suppose they're some sort of jazz outfit, by the sound of the name.

 

According to Wikipedia he sings "of the Drells". I managed to locate a clip, and to my ears it definitely sound more like "of" than "with", and it's definitely not "and".

 

Was she a pheasant? No. So no mistake.

 

"Here (we) go again...."

 

Looks like I’m going to have to move this over to the “Misheard Lyrics” thread. Sorry Archie!

 

Could go either way. A lot depends on what you expect to hear beforehand. But we're in agreement that it's definitely not "and."

 

Ditto. And does he ever explain exactly what makes it a sociopolitical statement?

 

I don't think voice cracks are considered as mistakes but they're surprising in studio recordings. There's a nice one in The Clash's "London's Burning".

"The wind howls through the emp-TY- blocks looking for a home"

 

Sounds like most of the "mistakes" in this thread is just humanity showing through.

 

Just noticed this one the other day. the intro vocal on Harry Chapin’s “Taxi” starts on the wrong guitar strum. In other words he starts singing too early. “It was raining hard” (pause) “in Frisco...”

 

The rhythm section in “Whole Lotta Shaking Going On” loses it at the most important point, plays too fast right before the piano solo, and then scrambles to get back to the rhythm

 

Along similar lines in La Bamba when Richie Valens comes back after the guitar solo he loses the rhythm momentarily

 

I'm always baffled when I hear "Black Betty" on the radio. The edit 0:50 into the song is really rough (Ram Jam, not Leadbelly).