So what was the fuss all about anyway?
I’ve done a fair amount of studio work to know that studio time is when you get everything right. If you have a project to complete, you want to make sure that all of your performances are as good as they can be because, as the saying goes, film is forever (or vinyl, or cds, or mp3s or whatever). If it wasn’t right you redo it. This goes double if you know millions of people are going to listen to your end product. I just finished a project that might have upwards of a million listeners throughout its lifespan, so you can bet that I did my very best to make sure that every aspect of it- the performances, the sounds, the mixes, the vocalists- were as high quality as the budget allowed, and I wrote some of the largest checks of my professional life to make sure that the vocalists were as good as possible. Film is forever and my audience was worth the work.
So I’m listening to a track from the Beatles’ mid-period right now and thinking about how so many Baby Boomers worship at the altar of John, Paul, George, and what’s-his-name. One thing I’ve noticed is that the drum track- the drum track, for crying out loud, the track that acts as the foundationally foundational foundation of the rest of the song- drifts in and out of time as if it’s being played by someone with a pair of rubber sticks attached to their elbows with sodden bungee cords. As if I’m playing it.
I’ve read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers where he talks about the Beatles and how they gigged for years and years in obscurity to perfect their sound. How they labored in the salt mines of Hamburg to bring us the Holy Grail That Is Rock and how they were greatly responsible for modern music and we’d all still be hopeless squares without them so bow down, bow down.
But I don’t see it.
The song I’m listening to starts at 114bpm and within two measures drops to 108bpm. stays there for a while without commitment and then meanders around 112 like it’s early for a train and needs to wander around the platform looking for a bathroom. It’s horrible. I know anyone can have a bad day, and obviously these guys could play (Sgt. Pepper, blah-blah-blah), but even with the clunky 1960′s studio technology, if you lay down a drum track and it varies by 6bpm you lay down another track. Film is forever.
Or maybe they should have just kicked old Groucho out of the band.
hahaaaaa! And every single time “Piano Man” plays, Billy Joel comes in about a half-tone flat: “It’s nïïïïïïne o’clock….” Every single time.
As for the Beatles, there’s a couple of things to point out: first, that they did all that gigging and then replaced the drummer with Ringo. Somewhere out there there’s an ex-Beatle with crack timing!!
(And I seem to remember that every *single* *song* by the Beach Boys winds up *significantly* slower than it started. All those folks that thought rock’n'roll was too sexual in its energy were …. um, eventually right?)
But there’s also the change in ideas about what’s good. Man, go back and listen to Miles Davis or Bill Evans. Unlike Duke and Basie, they had a more fluid idea of tempo, and created stuff with *way* more than 6bpm variation. There’s a great recording of Brubeck at Carnegie Hall where he starts “Blue Rondo a la Turk” faster than normal, and Joe Morello, who usually lets him relax into a better tempo, holds him to it for the entire head (mainly because he had a 103-degree temperature and was angry he had to play the gig — Carnegie Hall, after all). He does eventually relax the tempo by at least 15bpm when the solos start. To the listener it might not matter at all.
In groups where there are 3 or 4 soloists all taking complete turns (say, the Lee Morgan stuff of the early 60s), it’s not at all uncommon for the bassist and drummer to adjust to each soloist by slowing down or speeding up a bit. Actually gives the tunes some sense of breathing.
Of course, you and I play to a metronome for a living. We do it every day, and it seems natural for us to keep a steady beat. (Darren sometimes gets exasperated when he and I don’t match tempo… but Greg and I often exchange a look because it ain’t me…!) (Don’t tell.) Anyway, playing to a click is a very artificial thing, but people in our line of work do it quite easily.
I’d lay good money that even in the Motown era there was significant variation.
That said, I really enjoy the Beatles’ early stuff, the catchy pop miracles — but the later “artistic” stuff leaves me absolutely cold. I just don’t get it. (cf the Suit Theory.)
So, do tell: what’s the tune?
Comment by barrybrake — September 19, 2012 @ 2:47 am