(Toby Gibson asks after our favorite filler.)
It’s fairly easy to guess that pretty much everyone who comes through this site is some pedigree of audiophile — many have already confirmed themselves as walking archives of music history and have shared some fantastic personal details and trivia.
It’s also fairly easy to imagine that I’m not the only person who keys in on tiny personal fragments (or funny quirks, or just neat bits) of songs that I wait for every time I hear them — someone talking in the background, either by design or unintentionally, funny melodic idiosyncrasies that stick in the mind to become that moment that you wait for.
So this isn’t so much an article about any one thing as it is the throwing of an idea out there and seeing what turns up. I’m going to post up the first three that came into my mind when this topic came up in conversation a week ago, and I’m guessing that a few people who frequent this site will be able to expound on this idea and post up some new, interesting stuff some of us haven’t heard of before. (And maybe someone here can come up with a name for whatever you would call these odd, seemingly candid “outtakes” that were never taken out. I am thus far at a loss for either a musical or linguistic term for this.)
The first one that jumps immediately to mind is a pretty well-known personal bit at the end of the Who’s 1966 release “Happy Jack,” when Pete Townshend catches Keith Moon trying to lean in and add his own voice to a vocal track and Pete yells, “I saw you!” as the last notes of the song are diminishing.
I first read about this in Gary Herman’s 1971 Who Biography titled simply, “The Who” and immediately had to go back and revisit the song with new understanding. Since then, that candid ending has always been a neat bit for me as it seems to lend a personal atmosphere to an already whimsical recording off of their most light-hearted album.
(Who purists may correct me on this, but I don’t recall a more whimsical Who release than “Happy Jack” — otherwise known as the album Titled “A Quick One” in the U.K. — aside from the fun and morbid Tommy track “Cousin Kevin.”) That impromptu ending also helps the band retain its down-to-earth, “everyman” image that I found contrasted well against the bloated, glitzy, corporate “glam-rock” industry that soon became the norm.
Another is in the song “One Drop” off of Bob Marley’s 1979 release titled “Survival.” About two-thirds of the way through the song he sings the line, “Give us the teachings of His Majesty” and then seems to improvise, “with a stick-up!” (I just learned that detail upon looking up several pages of lyrics.
I have actually always heard this as, “This is a stick up!”) I used to work with a South African guy who — whenever this song would come on the radio — he’d wait for that part and make two pistols with his fingers and point them at us.
Crass was and still is a favorite of mine, not only because they were guaranteed to offend but also because they were pranksters, anarchists and culture jammers as well as being artists, musicians and a great punk band with a unique sound. Joel Cherry and I used to ride around San Diego in his Mustang blasting crass with the windows down, just because we knew nothing could offend the status quo quite like Crass — and either one of us could nail the cowbells on “Big A — little a” dead on every time.
Not limited to these types of examples, what are your favorite quirky bits in songs that you wait for again and again?
— Toby Gibson
The little studio noises at the beginning of “Revolver” are to me the Sgt. Pepper’s of atmospheric lead-ins.
And when Dylan starts laughing, “Start again!” at the beginning of “115th Dream,” I always smile and wanna know what happened just then.
Syd Barrett: “It’s just the fact of going through it … ”
The sawing noise leading up to the denoument of VU’s “The Gift.”
Off to Disney … Your turn!
David Bowie, the false start on “Andy Warhol” always cracks me up.
(Hunky Dory)
NPR uses Mick Ronsons guitar solo from “Moonage Daydream” as a segue…love that!
Don’t know if todays audio equipment can do this, but if you listen to “Space Oddity” left channel and right channel separately, neither is the actual melody! The melody is perceived from the blend of the two tracks I guess…but neither is the actual melody…very cool!
The whole ending to “All the Young Dudes” Mott the Hoople. Ian Hunter asking for someone in the audiences glasses etc………
Actually more of an annoying thing that has grown on me (har!): at the end of some live classic rock song I can never remember the title of, one of the band members says, “Rock and roll….rock and roll.” I’ve always kind of chuckled at that- like he just couldn’t think of anything to say.
when miles says
“ill play it and tell you what
it is later”
to rudy van gelder
before he starts
the tune
if i were a bell
eric burden yells
keep on f%*king up
at end of
the song
cheating
Steve Ignorant seems to be holding back laughter a lot throughout early Crass records, he sounds like he’s about to crack up through parts of ‘Crutch of Society’ and especially track 20 of ‘Stations of the Crass’ while he’s insulting monarchy over ‘Heart and Soul’. There is a lot of glee there amid the nastiness.
2:57 into the song “Hey Jude” Paul says “f**king hell” offmic…never knew exactly what he said before Geoff Emerick’s great book ‘Here There and Everywhere’ explained that they intentionally left that blooper in the final mix.
“Zilch” off of the Monkees ‘Headquarters’ album….they are artistes…pushing boundaries…and filling tracks..
It’s one of those ‘I’ll have what they’re having’ kind of moments.
Eddie Cochran sounds like he can barely contain himself in the middle-8 break of “Sitting in the Balcony” after singing these rather dorky (but accurate) lyrics:
“We may stop loving
just to watch Bugs Bunny
but he can’t take the place
of my honey….
just (smirk) sitting in the balcony….”
One of my alltime favorite rock ‘n roll moments occurs at the beginning of the lyrics to Screaming Lord Sutch’s first single “Till the Following Night”. After some wonderfully intense screaming over a windy funereal march and a 12-bar instro intro Sutch starts the actual song with the most intense utterance of “WHEN….” and all the air leaves the room until he starts singing again. In that one moment I believe he instantly created (and stamped his signature on) the goth rock genre.
When ever anybody is pouring milk for my coffee, etc, and they say “say when”……I just say “when…” just like Sutch does with that profound anticipation and unfortunately I’m the only one laughing about it but it is still satisfying.
“When….”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQInIrlNAeo
“Let’s get rolling you Queebs.”
I remember dave anderson playing the demo for the Gravediggers recordings with all the jokes and quips before each song. I was surprised to hear that they made it to the LP. But it did add to the charm…
>>I remember dave anderson playing the demo for the Gravediggers recordings with all the jokes and quips before each song.
Tony: I think we should start a petition to have “poopsnack” added to the dictionary!
the thread running connecting the songs throughout the entirety
of the captain’s
THE UNIVERSE OF GEOFFREY BROWN.
“of course i’m a bastard but that’s what you pay me for…..but you know…so what?@!?!?!”
“….they weren’t like us….they WERE us.”
I think someone should post the story of the Gravedigger 5.
>>I think someone should post the story of the Gravedigger 5.
Kristen: I would LOVE that story … I put out the call long ago — the question remains, who’d write it?
Does anyone want to take on the GDV Story?
PS: Whose idea was it to put all those Leighton riles on the GDV album, anyway? Never thought to ask, but it was a brilliant move.
Ah thank you guys! I was afraid this was going to be a wash.
This is some great stuff! Aloha- T
(Kristen- I know- I’m a dork- but I’m lost- who said the Queebs remark and on what?)
That idea was surely Ron Rimsite’s. He was present for the whole recording session, egging them on, acting as den mother, instigator and inspiration.
Well the Beatles albums are full of interesting little sounds and pieces of dialogue. Let it Be was, of course, never meant to be released as an album, so most of it is pieced together from practice sessions. One of my favorite Beatles’ bits occurs at the end of “A Day in the Life,” long after the last piano chord is struck. I remember listening with headphones for the chair squeak and subsequent “shhhh” as the track fades out. Also, on the original album, they left a few seconds of gibberish in the runoff groove, so if you didn’t have an automatic turntable, it would play endlessly.
I also like the beginning of the Kinks’ “David Watts”: “This is the master!”
There are some brilliant recordings of studio banter that have been released over the years, including an argument between the Troggs, David Crosby antagonizing Michael Clarke during the recording of the Notorious Byrd Brothers, and Arthur Lee goading Johnny Echols while recording Forever Changes.
Hello Ray- we love you! that’s the stuff we’re looking for.
Ron Rimsite is singing background vocals and slamming chains on the song “Searchin”.
Toby, you are a dork. But that is what we love about you.
The term “Queeb” is a durogatory phrase less endearing than “dork”, that Leighton Koizumi uses on the Gravedigger Five album “All Black & Hairy”.
Who could tell their story? Maybe Tom Ward? or Jerry -- present in most band affairs.
Especially the beatles….. Give brian’s untimely demise. 😉
At the beginning of “Strawberry Fields Forever,” just after John Lennon sings “Let me take you down ’cause I’m going to…”, there is a series of beeps which, in Morse Code, form the letters “J” and “L”.
At the end of the Doors “Touch Me, ” they sing “STRONGER THAN DIRT!” which was from a laundry detergent commercial at the time.
I always like the “turn it up” at the beginning of “Sweet Home Alabama,” but at about fifty seconds in you can also hear producer Al Kooper sing a bit of Neil Young’s “Southern Man” after the lyrics: ‘Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her.”
it’s funny but a friend and I were just talking about this, The Pretty Things “Don’t bring me down”, Phil May sings the line- “I need a lover, somebody new, and to him I will be true” and you can hear him slightly laugh…. I love that.
would love to read the story of the GDV.
Dylan,
Yeah--he actually sings “and then to him I won’t be true”--an early hint about his orientation . . .
There was a bootleg made of a Cramp’s show at Adams Ave back in ’84. I believe there was a 7″ and a 12″ EP (each covered diff songs). It’s a live recording so of course you can hear many things in the background. And I know that not many people would have these and I don’t even know if the people (local crowd) that you can hear on the recording even know that they are on there. But, thought it might be interesting since it was a local show some of you may know of the folks captured on the recording.
I’m still trying to recall what you can hear in the EP (I think it’s this EP that has Lux getting into it with one Joe Coochman regarding Ivy getting shoved on stage). What I remember is that it wasn’t intentional but somehow she got shoved during people stage diving (and I don’t even know if it was Joe who did it since there were a bunch of people on stage). Lux gets pissed and directs his comments towards Joe and you can hear the exchange on the recording. Even though I was standing right next to them when this happened, I don’t remember much more since I haven’t heard that record in a while.
On the 7″, right before he goes into the song …Gorehound, you can hear Lux say, “Ah, now you talkin’….give it back to me though…..pass it around a little bit…..down here to the young man right here, etc……”.
Then, he announces, “This is dedicated to this young man right here with enough affirmative action and intuition in his cranial bone to get himself some wine.” Then he goes into Gorehound.
Of course throughout Lux’s banter, you can hear Tom Johnston screaming for the wine bottle, which earned him Lux’s attention….and some cheap wine.
I have no idea if Tom even knows this exists. I was shocked a few years after the show when I heard it. I remembered the incident from being at the show.
Michael Bolton’s entire discography is actually an accident. His real stuff is powerful, raw, discordant at times … “A Love Supreme” meets “Metal Machine Music.”
But he and the engineers thought this other stuff was funny, so they left it in.
Ted Freidman would be a good one to write the GDV story….
Jazz albums are good to hear things going wrong, because they obviously never overdub or fix anything… it’s usually just a live performance in the studio. There’s one album I have (can’t remember who or what album) where you can hear a phone ringing right in the middle of the song.
There’s also a song on the first Flying Burrito Brothers album (again, I can’t remember which) where the two singers are sustaining a note sung in harmony, only Gram Parsons coughs and messes it up. I’ve been listening to this album for years, but only recently noticed that.
>>”Michael Bolton’s entire discography is actually an accident” yeah!
>>”Jazz albums are good to hear things going wrong”
Classical too. Glenn Gould, Bachs Goldberg Variations, famous for singing, humming, grunting, etc………
>>Ted Freidman would be a good one to write the GDV story….
Matt: Ted would be phenomenal.
Who is the culture-jammer that coughs at every live classical performance ever played on NPR?
>Does anyone else remember that absolute mania in the eighties in which people claimed Satanic messages were being being broadcast in heavy metal songs using backwards masking?
Yeah, when Megadeth was at the L.A. Coliseum, I yelled out to one of them, “I don’t bother you in your church, please don’t bother me in mine.” They were so pesky.
thanks Ray, I thought it was “will” but “won’t” is cooler. I think it’s pretty cool he snuck that hint in there.
Toby: The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief album has 2 simultaneous grooves on one side, playing whichever one the needle lands on, making it 3-sided.
Beautiful. Thanks!
Didn’t Boyd Rice/NON have a single which played in an unorthodox way? Anyone else know what I’m talking about?
I never owned that NON single but if I think Boyd had it produced with extra holes in it so that it could be played in several lopsided ways….the speed of the playback would go wwoowwwoowww and the pitch would shift up and down as the record spun around an axis that wasn’t centered. Don’t know if the oscillations would then speed up as the record played and the needle moves towards the center or not..?
yes…..we are in dire need of gimmicks.
the early english pyscho-billy band King Kurt had a record that played from the inside(lable) out, it took me awhile to figure this out, I almost returned the record, the needle kept flying of the record, pretty funny.
Yes, there was the single with two holes for the spindle…right next to each other. Brilliant.
do i hear 3 holes?
c’mon folks….
I have spent a bit of time reading the notes scratched into the vinyl in that smooth stuff between the label and the end of the grooves. Some bands did it, some didn’t- another item lost in the switch to disk (Though embedded info in disks is pretty fun too! But it ain’t vinyl.)
Thanks, Flem--yeah, that’s the one.
I guess the digital equivalent would be “hidden tracks” on CDs. I had some CDs whose last tracks were nearly an hour long--forty-five minutes of silence following by another song. I’m thinking Urge Overkill did this, maybe a few others . . .
>>I have spent a bit of time reading the notes scratched into the vinyl in that smooth stuff between the label and the end of the grooves.
What are some of the more interesting things you found?
Coincidentally, I just found that multi-hole NON 7″ single while chasing down Robert Turman’s site to address a mystery on another thread!
“Porky” wrote a lot of stuff at the end of the grooves…
A Porky Prime Cut
A Porky “Oh Yes” Prime Cut
A Porky P. Prime Cut
Another Porky Prime Cut
Porky was Here
An Udder Porky Prime Cut
An Unusual Porky Prime Cut
A Porky Happening Cut
A Porkable
Porky Strikes Again
Here’s the Pork
Porky Primed
A Real Hum Dinger and Rocking Dingle Berries
Where’s the 14th Floor
Wish I Could Be Like DangerMan
Taking No Prisoners
The Prisoner is You
The Cutting Room Floor Claims Another Intro
No Brains Left / Lot’s of Hope Though
In Space / No one / Can / Hear / You / Clash
And vinyl used to have the occasional locked track… can’t do that anymore
I need to go to my daughter’s house and revisit the vinyl collection- I don’t recall exactly what was written on most of the vinyl as it was 20+ years ago when I last read those. I think GBH makes fun of Wilfs oddly shaped head on one. I also think the Adicts wrote something- I think it was mostly British bands, but honestly I don’t recall for sure.
my favorite is “Hey Matthew, That’s my calculator!”
Has anyone mentioned the most famous of them all?…
Ohio Players allegedly stabbing the cover model for their Honey album during the guitar break from Love Rollercoaster.
They neither confirm nor deny this murder.