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Vocal mess-ups on What Light and Airline to Heaven?


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In the words of my favorite ex wilco member LB

 

I don't think clean drums with more presence, etc. etc.

 

We are all, anyone of us capable of making a musical moment, blah, blah etc.

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Guest Jules

More importantly, I think Jeff screwed up the colors of Belleville's band members in 'Sky Blue Sky'!

 

Album version...

Maroon, yellow, blue, gold and gray

Shake It Off rehearsal version...

Maroon, yellow, blue, silver and gray

 

:P

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I like "mistakes" on songs.

 

I read that the Mama & Papas song, "I Saw Her Again Last Night", had a recording mess-up that was left on because Paul McCartney offered up the advice that it sounded better with the 'mistake'. It's at the part near the end where the singer says, "I saw her.....I saw her again last night...."

 

He wasn't supposed to sing "I saw her" twice....but somehow that weird break makes the song.

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I like "mistakes" on songs.

 

I read that the Mama & Papas song, "I Saw Her Again Last Night", had a recording mess-up that was left on because Paul McCartney offered up the advice that it sounded better with the 'mistake'. It's at the part near the end where the singer says, "I saw her.....I saw her again last night...."

 

He wasn't supposed to sing "I saw her" twice....but somehow that weird break makes the song.

 

Good example. Another famous one is "Louie Louie", with the false start on "See Jamaica moon above".

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You can call it a mess-up in that he does not nail the note but that doesn't mean it's not conscious, stylistic choice. Obviously he could have rerecorded the vocal, punched in that one word or fixed it after the fact in Pro-tools.

 

You Americans probably never would have seen this but right around when the Brits did "Do They Know It's Christmas" and the Americans did "We Are the World" the Canadians did a song called "Tears are Not Enough."

 

There's a wonderful scene in the documentary they filmed where Neil Young is recording his bit and the producer (David Foster) tells him he's singing flat. Neil looks at him and half-joking-half-annoyed says, "Hey man, that's my style."

 

The point? Those "vocal mess-ups" are what mark the difference between real artists and polished pop crap. You'll never hear a "mess-up" on one of Celine Dion's albums, that's for sure.

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i'm not sure that i hear it as a mistake in one light - but i do Love little errors in songs keeping them real and human. There's that tiny little piano flub in the agib version of theologians that makes me burst out smiling with happiness every time i hear it because it just makes it sound so real.

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