Takin It Easy weird timing?

[LITTLEWING]

Another toon I needed to run through for this new band. Is it my ears getting old or does this timing do an extra skip as the drums come in? I’m counting the ‘one’ on the very first chord and where I expect the next eight to start as the drums come in it skips an extra beat or two. 

I’ve played it over and over doing ONE 234 TWO 234 etc and the band comes in on EIGHT 23456.....

 

Is it me??

 

FWIW I can’t get Sex On Fire either unless the guitarist counts it. My head counts ONE as soon the first note starts. I can’t hear beat ONE as the second note. Bizarre I know. 

 

[I_like_jazz]

Take It Easy, I presume? I had to learn this for a gig once. I think people tend to feel the timing of the intro differently and so the one can end up being in different places. You can hear the count in on this version which makes the timing of the intro more obvious. Although the drums come in earlier here, I think it's the same timing/form as the original.
 

 

[casapete]

13 minutes ago, LITTLEWING said:

Another toon I needed to run through for this new band. Is it my ears getting old or does this timing do an extra skip as the drums come in? I’m counting the ‘one’ on the very first chord and where I expect the next eight to start as the drums come in it skips an extra beat or two. 

I’ve played it over and over doing ONE 234 TWO 234 etc and the band comes in on EIGHT 23456.....

 

Is it me??

 

FWIW I can’t get Sex On Fire either unless the guitarist counts it. My head counts ONE as soon the first note starts. I can’t hear beat ONE as the second note. Bizarre I know. 

 

Both common issues. We do ‘Take it easy’ in my country band and never as per the Eagles original recording, 

and nobody has ever picked us up on it. I’d be inclined to think the original isn’t ‘wrong’, just depends on the

count in I think.

[LITTLEWING]

We just come in on the NINE which makes sense. The above Don Felder still comes in on the EIGHT 23456! 

I can’t get my head round it.....

 

I’m sitting here tapping it out and loudly accenting the ONE etc and NINE comes and the band haven’t started yet. 

 

So bizarre...

Edited May 19, 2023 by LITTLEWING

[Crusoe]

22 minutes ago, LITTLEWING said:

Another toon I needed to run through for this new band. Is it my ears getting old or does this timing do an extra skip as the drums come in? I’m counting the ‘one’ on the very first chord and where I expect the next eight to start as the drums come in it skips an extra beat or two. 

I’ve played it over and over doing ONE 234 TWO 234 etc and the band comes in on EIGHT 23456.....

 

Is it me??

 

FWIW I can’t get Sex On Fire either unless the guitarist counts it. My head counts ONE as soon the first note starts. I can’t hear beat ONE as the second note. Bizarre I know. 

 

Sex on Fire starts on the 4 of 1,2,3,4. I've been learning it on guitar for months and still struggle with the count.

[LITTLEWING]

I can do SOF on guitar bang on time because in my head I hear the opening and I’m starting it off.

 

If I’m on bass, for some reason I hear BA-dumdumdum, BA-dumdumdum and not ba-DUMdumdumdum etc.

 

I know we all hear things differently, I had a drummer once who if his life depended on it could never come in correctly on T Rex’s Get It On. Hilarious.

[Dan Dare]

59 minutes ago, LITTLEWING said:

We just come in on the NINE which makes sense. The above Don Felder still comes in on the EIGHT 23456! 

I can’t get my head round it.....

 

I’m sitting here tapping it out and loudly accenting the ONE etc and NINE comes and the band haven’t started yet. 

 

So bizarre...

 

It's confusing because the drummer adds half a beat (an extra quaver) to the fill in the 8th bar of the intro before the final two when the guitar lick leads into the verse. If you add half a beat to the 8th bar of the intro (count it as nine quaver beats) and then go back to straight fours for the next two (the guitar lick), it makes sense.

 

The "I'm" of  "I'm running" is sung on the last beat of the final intro bar and the "run" of "running" is on the first beat of the bar of the verse.

[chris_b]

I don't get why this is a problem. It's a straight 4 count. The chords in the intro are just anticipated.

[pineweasel]

Just now, chris_b said:

I don't get why this is a problem. It's a straight 4 count. The chords in the intro are just anticipated.

 

Yep, this makes it very clear: 

 

[Dan Dare]

1 hour ago, chris_b said:

I don't get why this is a problem. It's a straight 4 count. The chords in the intro are just anticipated.

 

1 hour ago, pineweasel said:

Yep, this makes it very clear: 

 

Incorrect. There is an extra half beat in the drum fill in bar 8 of the intro on the live Don Felder version. It isn't he same as the recorded version posted above. Listen again.

[chris_b]

...

Edited May 19, 2023 by chris_b

[chris_b]

25 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

 

 

Incorrect. There is an extra half beat in the drum fill in bar 8 of the intro on the live Don Felder version. It isn't he same as the recorded version posted above. Listen again.

 

Which live version are you talking about?

 

[Beedster]

1 hour ago, Dan Dare said:

 

 

Incorrect. There is an extra half beat in the drum fill in bar 8 of the intro on the live Don Felder version. It isn't he same as the recorded version posted above. Listen again.

Why rehearse or refer to an idiosyncratic live version which could be s mistake anyway, studio version is straight forward

[Dan Dare]

53 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Which live version are you talking about?

 

The one in the second post above, which appears to be the one everyone is talking about.

 

17 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Why rehearse or refer to an idiosyncratic live version which could be s mistake anyway, studio version is straight forward

 

I agree and that's what I'd do, but people were asking what is odd about it. I don't think it's a mistake, as the band plays it in a very relaxed manner (no "Eh?" looks), so they were obviously expecting it. I guess they probably thought it would be fun to do something a little different/odd with it.

[pineweasel]

The Don Felden version is the same as the original, I reckon. 8 bars until the proper drums come in, then 2 bars before the vocal. 

[Beedster]

Either way I’m not seeing the problem, it’s not a song to become over focussed on counting?

[dclaassen]

Yup….just come on the downbeat….

[lowdown]

20 hours ago, pineweasel said:

The Don Felden version is the same as the original, I reckon. 8 bars until the proper drums come in, then 2 bars before the vocal. 

 

Yes , it is the same and I can't hear any 9/8 bars.

Maybe some are getting confused with the 8th note (quaver) anticipations going on during the eight bar intro (before the two bars).

Edited May 20, 2023 by lowdown

[Downunderwonder]

If you're going to carry on in this industry you better learn where the 1 is because 99/100 everyone in the band and audience is expecting you to hit it. There's a clue there in how to know where it is 99/100.

 

Take it Easy is not the 100th time btw.

[Beedster]

13 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

If you're going to carry on in this industry you better learn where the 1 is.

That is what I wanted to say but thought better of it. But yes, stop counting and get a feel for it, and the one will come more naturally 👍

[Dan Dare]

1 hour ago, lowdown said:

 

Yes , it is the same and I can't hear any 9/8 bars.

Maybe some are getting confussed with the 8th note (quaver) anticipations going on during the eight intro bars (before the two bars).

 

Nope, but it isn't worth arguing over. 

[gjones]

it's 1.2.3.4 and the bass comes in on the 1 of the next bar.

[oldslapper]

4 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

 

Nope, but it isn't worth arguing over. 

But…I’ve just bought some popcorn 😢

[Beedster]

3 minutes ago, oldslapper said:

But…I’ve just bought some popcorn 😢

No you haven’t 

[Downunderwonder]

3 minutes ago, Beedster said:

That is what I wanted to say but thought better of it. But yes, stop counting and get a feel for it, and the one will come more naturally 👍

Yeah, maybe a little harsh.

 

OP. Someone always is telling you where 1 is in your band however you are doing the tune and how ever badly the band  or even that individual who was on point might mess it up a little or a lot. At that instant your 1 becomes THE one that everyone else either goes "praise that bass player" or "wtaf is going on here". Big shoes.

 

Different tunes different scenarios it's the same rule for everyone. Don't play anything if you aren't sure it's going to mesh.

 

An old pro told me he was once left playing solo in front of his 5 piece band because nobody knew what had just happened and where to kick back in at that moment in time.

 

In the case of your Eagles tune it's going to be the drummer leading the intro and the presumed singer rhythm guitar doing the pickup into 1 that hopefully confirms the flow of the drums...and "Running" is on the 1 as someone already said.

 

1 failing on 8 as you describe is very odd. I am not sure if that's your band or some odd recording.

 

Someone could be doing something hinky, which is impossible to predict from the other end of the internet, so I have to guess that the singer isn't picking up what the drummer is laying down as well as you are and so it becomes a three way conflict over where 1 falls, aka trainwreck intro, and the drummer catches up to the singer before you do.

 

Or drummer is sloppy so guitar man wings it in to rescue the drummer, which is where you join on his 1.

 

Or maybe it's all you.

 

They key point is you need to know if it's someone else "improvising" and what to do about it in the moment.