Annoying instrumentation

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 5 Mar 2015 3:11 pm

The guy in the Elevators was playing the electrified bass jug.

The Wild Thing solo was pitchy... altho I'm learning it mattered not a whit....

Wayne Carver · Post by **Wayne Carver** » 5 Mar 2015 5:49 pm

I've always found the guitar produced wolf whistle on Steve Miller's "The Joker" annoying.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 5 Mar 2015 6:34 pm

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 5 Mar 2015 8:07 pm

I too am bugged by the muted guitar chopping in "Someday Soon". Nice to know I'm not alone.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 6 Mar 2015 1:35 am

tiny tim's voice on anything.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 6 Mar 2015 9:12 am

Yoko Ono's voice on anything.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 6 Mar 2015 9:31 am

I think the guitar on "Someday Soon" is perfect. Never liked the solo on "You're So Vain".

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 6 Mar 2015 10:16 am

Really, I don't know about this chopping thing on Someday Soon. It's great.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 6 Mar 2015 10:18 am

doug....funny!

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 6 Mar 2015 10:35 am

Charlie McDonald wrote:Really, I don't know about this chopping thing on Someday Soon. It's great.

The chopping thing, Charlie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDTOtE2w8sM

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 6 Mar 2015 10:53 am

The chopping I am referring to (prob. Frank too) is the "chucks" on beats two and four (during Buddy's solo, for example), not any actual guitar licks or phrases. Nothing wrong with those!

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 6 Mar 2015 11:53 am

chris ivey wrote:doug....funny!

Yoko Ono is not funny.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 6 Mar 2015 1:28 pm

What I hear on "Someday Soon" is a loud "click" on beats 2 & 4. It sounds like band-in-a-box! Sounds like brushes on a snare and maybe a guitar. Very distracting and annoying. I wonder if that is a later remix because I never noticed that back in the day.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 6 Mar 2015 2:18 pm

I never noticed any of that stuff because Judy and Buddy were so beautiful together.

Frank Freniere · Post by **Frank Freniere** » 6 Mar 2015 3:07 pm

Brint Hannay wrote:The chopping I am referring to (prob. Frank too) is the "chucks" on beats two and four (during Buddy's solo, for example), not any actual guitar licks or phrases. Nothing wrong with those!

Right.

Frank Freniere · Post by **Frank Freniere** » 6 Mar 2015 3:11 pm

I'm tempted to add that incessant typewriter bell (dating myself here) in Jimmy Cliff's "Sitting In Limbo" but it really belongs in the song.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 6 Mar 2015 5:26 pm

Frank, I'm still thinking about that lightweight Plastic Fantastic Psychedelic steel guitar and how awesome that would sound.

Wayne Carver · Post by **Wayne Carver** » 6 Mar 2015 7:35 pm

I've never noticed the chucks or clicks before on Someday Soon but now that it's been brought to my attention, I'll probably always hear it.
I just listened to it and it was a little distracting.
I wonder if it's suppose to simulate truck tires as he is driving in tonight from California?
Some songs about cars and trains have a chuck, click, or something to be the rhythm of the road.

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 6 Mar 2015 7:49 pm

Doug Beaumier wrote:What I hear on "Someday Soon" is a loud "click" on beats 2 & 4. It sounds like band-in-a-box! Sounds like brushes on a snare and maybe a guitar. Very distracting and annoying. I wonder if that is a later remix because I never noticed that back in the day.

Anyone have an old vinyl copy? Is it on there? I never noticed it back in the day either.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 6 Mar 2015 8:34 pm

All of the classics were remixed for CD back in the 1980s/90s, and some strange things happened. For example, on the remixed Beatles CDs I heard things that I had never heard or noticed on the original LPs. They probably sound fine to young ears, but I grew up hearing the old LP's and those mixes are forever burned in my brain.

Gary Spaeth · Post by **Gary Spaeth** » 7 Mar 2015 11:36 am

the chopping guitar is james burton. james can do no wrong. we must bow before his greatness.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 7 Mar 2015 12:17 pm

More than bad instrumentation, the thing that bugs me most is the horrific production on 80s pop recordings. The reverb (and I love reverb) is just disgusting to me.

Bill Sinclair · Post by **Bill Sinclair** » 7 Mar 2015 1:12 pm

Mike Neer wrote:the thing that bugs me most is the horrific production on 80s pop recordings.

We can't forget the ubiquitous DX7 keyboard from that era.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 7 Mar 2015 2:16 pm

The 80s were also the first digital recordings, and there is a certain harshness in some of the songs. I think some engineers overused the reverbs, especially the shallow, harsh reverbs and pitch modulation effects. It could all be heard so clearly on digital... sometimes too clearly.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 7 Mar 2015 2:39 pm

The new keyboards were a big part of the sound, maybe too clear, unless you were newly in love and
everything sounds so clear. There was something in the words at the time that wanted the potential of lush and dreamy.
I have no complaints with Madonna. Yes, they were pushing reverb then. I was in love. I loved it.
That much space in a song, the depth into which to listen.... Is that too much TMI?
It was the silence before pedal steel.
Live to Tell
Imagine pedal steel in place of the synths here
Human Nature
Was it John Quincy Adams produced that?
It was a long time ago....