Off Hours: Studio Imperfect

For most of my life, I’ve been passionate about music. Not my own — I barely qualify as a wannabe musician. But I love other people’s music, recorded tunes.
I’m amazed and enthralled at the incredible variety of ways an incredible variety of artists can create captivating music: songs that grab my attention, make me start tapping my toe or moving in sync with the rhythm, make me smile or remember something or someone. From basic blues tunes recorded 60 or 70 years ago to full-on high-dollar studio recordings and hip-hop sample mixes, certain songs just have magic in them. They cannot be denied.
Mostly as a “night” job, and with just a few brief interruptions between a handful of commercial and pirate stations, I’ve been doing the radio disc jockey deal for close to three decades. Nothing is more satisfying than playing something that makes listeners say, “Wow.”
I listen to a lot of music and have done so for a long time. I get excited when someone tells me they hate country or blues or trance music, because I know I’m going to find something in that genre that will knock their socks off.
It’s the DJ syndrome — the desire to play a variety of music that others will actively listen to, that will hold their attention. And good DJs don’t just play the hits or their listeners’ requests or even their own favorites. Those will all be aired, of course, but in the context of a coherent “set” of songs.
So, let’s go with that: It’s years of listening to songs in the context of how they might complement or fit with or contrast with some other song before or after it that makes DJs so aware of arcane things like an actual mistake in a track. Most often, when a mistake makes it onto a finished song, listeners never even know it, and sometimes a mistake actually works in the song. But once you notice it and realize it’s a mistake, it just blares out, and you wonder how it got missed.
In fact, miscues and production flubs are usually pretty minor. For DJs, though, finding them is a sport. Anybody can play, and it is pretty cool when you identify one. It’s a great conversation item. I’ll give you a few examples and hints to get you started.
Lots of mistakes are made way before the song is recorded. Those are mostly grammatical and syntax errors in the lyrics, and they’re extremely common. It’s a good way to begin — you won’t need to look far for one of those. But only the most egregious are worth noting.
Other mistakes are made after the artists have finished recording. A notable example is the old Little Richard hit, “Keep A Knockin’.” Twice during the saxophone solo, the music suddenly slows dramatically in the middle of a note. It turns out that the original recording was less than a minute long, and either the engineer or the producer looped (that is, repeated) portions to make it longer. The splice connected a segment that started slowly to a portion of the solo that was at a faster tempo, so a finger on the tape reel slowed it to match.
U2 make a pretty notable factual error in “Pride (In The Name Of Love).” In lyrics addressing the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Bono sings, “Early morning, April 4, a shot rings out in the Memphis sky.” Right date, right place, but King was shot at 6 p.m., not a.m.!
Contrary to popular opinion — well, my opinion, anyway — even the Beatles weren’t perfect. After the third verse in “Please Please Me,” you can hear John Lennon laugh while singing “Come on, come on,” in the chorus. He’s laughing because he made a mistake in the verse. If you listen, you’ll hear Paul McCartney sing the correct third verse, but John sings the words from the first verse. Actually, he was probably laughing at the little inside joke of his doing it on purpose, because Paul had made a similar slip in the first verse.
Almost everyone knows the song “Louie Louie,” by the Kingsmen. Most have sung along with it since they were knee-high to a grasshopper. That part in the third verse where it goes, “Me see (pause) / Me see Jamaica, the moon above….” — that’s not a hip-hop stutter, it’s a mistake. Lead singer Jack Ely started to come in on the wrong count. The owner of the studio where it was recorded had been leaning on the group, influencing the sound to his standard rather than theirs. The band recorded the song in one take while the owner stepped out to answer the phone, and the producer decided to go with it.
Listen again to “Every Picture Tells a Story,” by Rod Stewart. He makes a false start in the middle that’s almost painful. And at one point in “Bang a Gong,” by T-Rex, one of Marc Bolan’s backup singers continues to sing when everyone else has stopped.
All right, now go find some of your own. Listen to music — and amaze your friends.
Steve Bailey of Boulder Creek has spent plenty of time in recreational activities. Contact him at

sb*****@cr****.com











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