Recording cockups that made the cut

[MrCrane]

Fairport Convention - Si tu dois partir

The percussion was basically Martin Lamble running drumsticks over a stack of chairs. At about the 1:57 mark, the percussion solo was supposed to feature an empty glass bottle on the top chair, but it fell off and smashed on the ground.

 

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by MrCrane

[Doctor J]

Bonzo's squeaking bass drum pedal features on a number of songs but is particularly clear on Since I've Been Loving You and The Ocean. Be warned, though, once you hear it, it gets louder every time 🙂

[NickD]

The most obvious to me is on the Mamas and Papas 'I saw her again'. The false start in the third chorus. Apparently they did try to kill it, but it was still there in other mics.

https://youtu.be/4vaIBZCLUQU

[Paul S]

12 hours ago, seashell said:

Also..(I'm on a roll now), the most famous bass related one is supposedly a bum note in Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf. But I've never been able to spot it 🙂

At 2:13 in this one.

 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Dr Feelgood - Down at the Doctors, where Lee says 'eight bars of piano' where no piano was overdubbed but the instruction stayed in.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[thebrig]

Here's one of the most obvious ones.

Maggie May where Ronnie Lane hits a bum note after the solo just as the vocals come back in.

Maggie May.mp3

[Fozza]

It's another Ronnie - Ronnie Wood - playing bass on Maggie May.

Ron claims he was smashed when he recorded it, hence the general sloppiness of the whole basline.

[thebrig]

9 minutes ago, Fozza said:

It's another Ronnie - Ronnie Wood - playing bass on Maggie May.

Ron claims he was smashed when he recorded it, hence the general sloppiness of the whole basline.

Yeah your right, I'd forgotten it was Ronnie Wood

[BassTractor]

 

You are not gonna believe me in this, but:
Gentle Giant's otherwise fantastic bass player Ray Shulman sings a wrong note 😱 in the fugue-like vocals of this beejooteeful track called "On Reflection":

 

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by BassTractor

[upside downer]

I can't unhear the jarring, unwanted chord at about 0:35 in this.

 

 

[lowdown]

12 hours ago, owen said:

The 4th "7th 8ve" of the "root, 7th, 8ve" pattern Verdine (1st name terms) plays in the intro stutters. Once heard, never missed. @ 16 seconds ish. Sorry Verdine. I wish my career was such that a bassist from sticksville could discuss my mistakes and lay them bare for everyone to see.

 

 

I always thought it was VW with a little displaced note shenanigans (I roughly transcribed the line below sometime back). 

But... since you mentioned it, I've just listened to the isolated track and can't make my mind up. Certainly isolated, it does seem a bit wobbly and maybe, you are right.

 

 

 

[WinterMute]

Not so much a mistake, but the lyrics to the break after the solo in Welcome to the Jungle weren't complete and Axl Rose ad libbed the ""where do we go now" lines, they liked it and it made the record.

Hope it's not an urban myth. 

It's still a cracking tune and his performance on that album as a whole is first class.

[stinson]

One of my all time favourites, but I’m sure Andy fluffs at 0.09 and 2.06. A beauty nonetheless.

[Stub Mandrel]

Allright Mama - From memory Elvis loses a bar in the last verse but the band copes 🙂

[Rich]

'Sailing By', the BBC R4 shipping forecast tune as played by the Alan Perry/William Gardner Orchestra. There is a howling bass còck-up at 1:55 or thereabouts... a very bum note followed by a bar of frantic chart-searching "where are we?" silence, and then he's back.

 

[casapete]

18 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Allright Mama - From memory Elvis loses a bar in the last verse but the band copes 🙂

Reminds me of Johnny Cash’s ‘A boy named Sue’. Apparently the band hadn’t been given warning of the song being in the set list when the live album ‘At San Quentin’ was recorded, and do sound like they are busking through a lot of the chord changes. Still sounds good though.

[dmccombe7]

Bowie Jean Genie on TOTP's where Trevor misses the change and repeats the verse or chorus notes again. (can't remember the exact details.

Same song near the intro where the change is too early onto the B. 

Dave

Edited May 22, 2021 by dmccombe7

[Delberthot]

Aerosmith's I don't Wanna Miss a Thing - there's a bit on the last chorus where it does the run down and I think that it's the fourth note that Tom Hamilton plays wrong,  realises, then moves up a semitone.

So good that I do it live as well when we play it

[wateroftyne]

Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues features a band which is second-guessing Bob, with mixed results…

Edited May 22, 2021 by wateroftyne

[Roger2611]

It's surprising just how many errors do make it to release, with a good quality amp and speakers there are an awful lot of minor mistakes to be heard that are buried in the general noise stage created by lower quality HiFi, earbuds and blue tooth speakers!

[casapete]

This is one (of many..) that every time I hear it on the radio, I wonder why it wasn't sorted? Very precise / sterile kind of jazz funk instrumental with a great trumpet player, and yet at around 1.03 there's a note that leaps out, to me anyway.

( If it's 'jazz' then of course I humbly apologise) 😎

 

[paul_5]

22 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

‘My life is brilliant…’ at the start of “you’re beautiful” by James blunt, came in a bit early, they left it in.

Yeah, then they left the vocal track in. Big mistake.

[Captain Bassman]

Mary J Bilge (no that’s not an autocorrect) singing ‘felt behind’ instead of ‘left behind’ at around 1.45.

One can only assume she was reading the lyrics and transposed a couple of letters in the moment.

She gets it right second time around though.

 

[bartelby]

I think it’s So. Central Rain by REM. Apparently the vocals fade weirdly out during the end of a chorus because Mike Stipe fell backwards down the stairs he was recording on. 
He was so self conscious about singing, at the time, that he’d do it where no one could see him.

[TrevorR]

Another “can’t unhear it” is Keef’s distortion pedal on “Satisfaction” - every time he switches it on for the riff there’s a huge, audible click on the track. You don’t notice it until you hear it but then it’s there forever.