From: brennan@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Joseph Brennan)
Subject: Beatles Anomalies
Reply-To: brennan@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Joseph Brennan)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 06:27:55 GMT

This article is mainly a followup to -some- of the items in the
lengthy list of anomalies posted by Michael Brown back on November 7,
which is based on work by Michael Weiss.

By way of introduction, let me comment on Mr Harvey's question of a
few days ago, as to how one listens for these things anyway.  The only
way I know is to have listened to a record a hundred times and have it
so memorized that when one hears a version with something different,
it just startles you.  It's not that you always know for sure, though.
I still find myself noticing small things that were always there.
However, that's a start.  Something seemed wrong to your memory.

Not more than a few articles after Mr Harvey's, I read Ms Koziol's
account of listening to "Rubber Soul" on CD, in which she asks whether
there wasn't more guitar at the start of "I'm looking through you"?
Good call-- you got one of those differences.  The scholar will now go
listen to the same bit on the old record-- of course we keep all old
records for these purposes (don't YOU still have every Beatles record
you've ever owned?  No?).  In this case, yes the Capitol stereo album
has two false starts on that song, and no other version does.  This
one has been called bogus, the false starts being Capitol's engineer
screwing up by starting to play the master tape of the song twice and
then stopping, but that has yet to be settled definitively.  The
English Mr Lewsohn evidently did not think to check for it on the
original tape and no one else with access has commented either.

Anyway, to the items... which I'll take chronologically rather than
the inexplicable order of Mr Brown.  I was listening to the UK LP
releases unless specified-- Mr Brown, you need to specify what your
source is since some of these things may vary.

PLEASE PLEASE ME

"Why do I never even try girl"-- John, in the stereo version on the
LP.  I again emphasize, not just a single line different, although
that's most obvious, but the whole vocal is different.  Listen to the
first line, about as far from the messed-up line as you can get: "Last
night I said these words to my girl".  On both "night" and "my" you
hear John's voice cracking on the mono, not on the stereo, and the
mono as a whole has John more prominent in the vocals and sounding
more raw.

It is a great puzzle that Lewisohn has no comment on this.  He does
report that the harmonica was added by edit pieces.  There are no less
than 5 harmonica bits in this song, and I cannot imagine that they did
the edit pieces on two takes!  In the stereo, when the harmonica
plays, you hear the band more loudly on the harmonica side, possibly
leakage from headphones.  It does seem to be this take that got the
edit pieces.

Hypothesis.  The best take has the mistake in it.  They play the
instrumental track into a second tape machine while singing the vocals
again live, creating the vocal track we hear in mono.  Then they make
the harmonica edit pieces.  The mono mix is made by editing the 5
harmonica bits into a copy of the tape with the corrected vocal.  When
the stereo mix is made, on a later occasion, they use the tape with
the vocal mistake, but the edit pieces fit fine since the instrumental
track is the same.  Why use the tape with the mistake?-- possibly just
an error, caused by lack of documentation.  We don't know.

SHE LOVES YOU

The edit is at about 1:23, middle of third verse, after "I think it's
only fair".  The sound of the cymbals especially is different.  I hear
the new take continuing to the end, not cutting back at 1:30, which is
just the end of the verse and a place where the cymbals are supposed
to change.  This is easiest to hear in a clean mono version like the
45rpm or the Past Masters LP/CD; somewhat disguised by echo on the
various fake stereo mixes.

FROM ME TO YOU

I don't hear the drum pedal squeaking in the clear stereo version on
the German "The Beatles Beat" LP (1964).  There may be other mixes.

I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER

The harmonica sound drops out at 0:06 for just a second in the stereo
mix, but not the mono.  The single track starting 2:01 sounds
deliberate, occurring at the start of a bridge, and ending when it
goes back to the verse at 2:20.  The little syncopation on the
drumming at 2:17 is not an edit, or else you have to explain why it
occurs identically in mono and stereo (LP versions)-- that is, if it's
such a bad edit, why did they do it that way twice?

TELL ME WHY

No sign of an edit at 1:42, the little drum solo.  The stereo LP mix
has a noise at the very end, guitar possibly, which is cut off on the
mono mix.  This song is not loud enough, in relation to the other
songs, on the stereo LP, making it sound a little muffled.  

I FEEL FINE

Mr Brown reports what is known as the "whispering version", a variant
stereo mix that starts with, of course, whispering.  This is not heard
on Past Masters or most other versions.

NO REPLY

At 0:13, after "your window", some noise (coughing?) in center
channel, not right.  Loss of reverb at 0:33-34 not confirmed, I think
I do hear it, and especially on the word "home".  No documentation has
this song made up of two takes either.

BABY'S IN BLACK

At 1:30 I agree the guitar comes in suddenly, right, but I don't think
it's an edit.  Tambourine starts there too.  This appears to be an
overdub track and the same guitar appears earlier in the intro and
solo.  Maybe the volume for that track had been turned down and here
it gets turned up awkwardly, I can't quite hear it.  This would be a
good one to check against the mono mix, found on the CD-- anyone?

WORDS OF LOVE

Damn, that drum squeaks!  This is one of those things I never "heard"
before that seems really obvious now.  Ringo is supposed to be playing
a packing case according to the liner notes.  What is squeaking then?
I disagree about the alleged edit at 0:59-1:04, where the guitar plays
solo; I hear no evidence that they did not just play that way.

YOU LIKE ME TOO MUCH

I hear the click at 0:08, but the Leslie noise is effectively masked
by surface noise on the LP.  This is an interesting case for the
argument about recording for LP, since knowing the sound wouldn't
reproduce meant they didn't have to bother about it.

EVERY LITTLE THING and
I'M LOOKING THROUGH YOU

Mr Brown reports hearing Paul warm up before the vocal starts.  This
is on the CD is it?  I don't hear it on the LP.  These are the two
that GM remixed for CD, so I wonder whether that was hidden on the LP
mix.  I also wonder whether the master tapes have changed over time,
and you are just hearing the real vocal bleeding through to the
previous wind of the tape, which would be bad news if true.

DAY TRIPPER

The dropouts in the instrumental side of the stereo mix are indeed at
1:50 (start of last verse, after "tried to please her") and then at
1:55.  Another mix is heard on Unsurpassed Masters Volume 2, where
those points occur at 5:07 and 5:12.  At the first point I hear a
squeak that sounds almost like a tape problem, while I hear nothing
wrong 5 seconds later.  One has to wonder whether a drop to silence is
less noticeable than a small squeak!

WHAT GOES ON

I hear John saying only "Tell me why" and only once.  Ringo's da-da-da
during the instrumental adds a lot of charm and makes you wonder how
much he always hummed along on every song, as he usually had no vocal
mike to pick it up.  (Maybe that's the part he wrote :-)

PAPERBACK WRITER

Yes to one of the "Frere Jacque" singers missing the cue, or
something, at 1:20, starting the second half of verse 2.  I cannot
make out anything else around 1:45, listening to the Past Masters LP.

GOOD DAY SUNSHINE

At 1:21 after "She feels good" I hear only one syllable of John's
voice, not any words I can make out.  LP.

STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER

The edits are at 0:55 and 1:00.  The first is at silence at the end of
the first verse; at that point take 7 goes into the second verse, with
no "let take you down" refrain, so a refrain from the same take has
been inserted starting 0:55.  The other edit is in "going".  The mix
Mr Brown describes is the 1971 stereo mix used on the German MMT LP
and now on the CD worldwide; the 1967 stereo mix (Capitol MMT LP) was
better.  I have a whole article on this.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

I can't buy the alarm clock story, if it means they set it to time the
gap.  Who can set an alarm clock that precisely, to measure out
musical bars?  I'll follow along if it means someone turned the knob
to make it go off, when the count got full.

Perhaps someone can beat me to checking whether the countdown was
really done twice, or is the same repeated?  I think the orchestral
overdub itself is a repeat.  The thing is, why count it off twice when
there's nothing else to do after the second one?

HEY BULLDOG

It's not real clear, but rather than "Don't look at me man I already
have grandchildren" always heard "Hey man you hit me in the eye and
I'll punch you".

OB-LA-DI, OB-LA-DA

Lots of quiet vocals as described, mostly John, and if I may:

...diamond ring.     RING!
...begins to sing.   SING!
...lend a hand.      ARM!  LEG!
...home sweet home.  HOME!
...lend a hand.      FOOT!
...home sweet home.  HOME! H, O, M, E.

DON'T PASS ME BY

It's definitely Ringo counting out the bars.

YER BLUES

We have some mystery vocal material here, that seems like leakage in
the basic instrumental track, left channel, which incidentally has
feedback in more than the two places Mr Brown lists.  Lennon must have
been screaming this one live!  At the end of the song, you can hear
how much vocal sound gets picked up by the instrumental mikes, and
that's probably how the mystery stuff got into the recording.

Starting at the second full verse, "the eagle picks my eye", the vocal
leakage in the left channel doesn't correspond to the main vocal.
It's not audible enough to my ears to say it's "blacks out!  blacks
down!" although the first line under "the eagle picks my eye" does
seem to end with "sout" or "shout".  I can't hear any more clearly.
I also can't tell whether the leakage is this stuff -and- the main
vocal, or just this stuff.  As far as I know the main vocal is all
live, so this strange stuff would be someone else shouting while John
was singing.  But what is it?

GET BACK

The Sweet Loretta spoken intro, the song, and the comments at the end
are from different takes.  The end in particular is known to be from
the rooftop performance as seen in the movie.  The beginning might be
from the same take as the song, but I doubt it.  Everything in "Let It
Be" is edited.

---

Is anyone else listening?  What do YOU hear?

--Joe Brennan