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... POORLY RECORDED SONGS THAT ...

Hello to all...

Was thinking about the songs I luv, that are so poorly recorded that it hurts my ears to listen to them - but because they are so great I just can't help myself 'cause they really moves me:

MEATLOAF: BAT OUTTA HELL

SPRINGSTEIN: ROSELITTA

NICKELBACK: BURN IT DOWN

Can you give me a couple or more, that you think are really great songs and such a disappointment in how they come across recorded (on vinyl, CD, Cassette or whatever...)



justvintagestuff
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,510 posts
 
@whart, I don’t own the Blind Faith album, and haven’t heard it in many years. Are the really bad sounding cymbals on only the one song? I ask because Ginger Baker’s cymbals, starting on the Graham Bond Organization albums, and continuing in Cream, always sounded bad. He doesn’t have very good taste in cymbals, and/or doesn’t know how to pick them out. The Zildjian cymbals he plays are infamous for being extremely variable in sound quality amongst examples of the same model; they need to be hand-picked. Ginger’s Zildjians are amongst the worst I have ever heard, both on recordings and live (I saw Cream twice, at the original Fillmore and Winterland).
whart's avatar
whart
2,981 posts
 
Whole album is pretty bad sounding but i rarely listen to the whole album. That song, Can't Find My Way, is, to me, the best thing on the record and occasionally i'll play the entire side one. Side two is a disaster:  Sea of Joy is ok, but Do What you Like-- kinda like Ron Bushy's 48 year long drum solo. :)
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
I love all the Hendrix albums from a compositional and performance standpoint but I never understood why Mitch Mitchell's drums always seem so poorly recorded.  
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,510 posts
 

@three_easy_payments---It may partly be the recording of Mitch’s drums (1960’s Ludwigs), but also how he tuned and (didn’t) damp them. His drums sounded about the same live (I saw him twice) as on the Hendrix albums, high and ringy, with lots of sustain and resonance. That’s how Jazz drummers tend to like their drums to sound, the heads tensioned tight (which results in the drums being high pitched) so as to get maximum stick rebound off the drumhead with every stroke, and undamped, leaving them free to ring, which plastic drumheads do. Ginger Baker tuned his Ludwigs the same as Mitch.

Ringo liked his drums to sound more dead, common amongst Rockers, myself included. Many apply some form of damping to their drumheads, to kill the high ring. Ringo used pieces of towel, others use less drastic damping like folded up tissue taped to the heads. I use sanitary napkins ;-) .

Compare Levon Helm’s Gretsch drums on The Band albums to Mitch and Ginger’s. Levon’s sound very low pitched and "thumpy", with shorter sustain and far less high ring. By the way, after his Hendrix days, Mitch switched from Ludwig to Gretsch.

cd318
2,636 posts
 
@bdp24 some good inside information there. With the Beatles it's easy to forget that most instruments were regularly recorded in unique ways with speed variations and reverb used freely, eg the piano on Sexy Sadie. 



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