Inspired by my recent reading of a book on Gerry Rafferty, are there any other early versions of songs missing the part that made them so memorable?
Missing a vital ingredient
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Does Layla count? It was originally a ballad without the intro riff and the piano outro was added later. It developed but not sure if the early versions were just demos.
Hasn’t Costello said that Oliver’s Army was destined to be a B-side until Steve Nieve came up with the Dancing Queen influenced piano part?
Here’s an early version of the Mac’s Go Your Own Way without the strummed acoustic guitar motif or full band sound, and substituting ‘you can roll like thunder’ for ‘you can call it another lonely day’, which to my mind weakens the bitterness of the lyric.
The The Uncertain Smile. The orginal 12″ version I have has plenty of flute and ends with an excellent sax solo. The album version has the sax replaced by Jools Hollands piano. I love both versions but the piano solo is incredible and elevates and already fabulous song.
You’re right – they are both great. He sings them slightly differently too, adding and removing lyrics.
Yeah it’s brilliant. I was slightly to disappointed to read a few years back that it wasn’t a single complete take though (for 40 years I thought it was!)
An obvious contender is the famous guitar sol on Peg by the Dan which 6 or 7 session players tried before Jay Graydon nailed it.
There’s a theory that the lousy solos on this clip were all done by Becker for a laugh before the scene was shot. That would be a very Becker thing to do.
Incidentally that Graydon solo was very much his trademark – here with the Manhattan Transfer around the same time (at 2.41). Fantastic player.
Interesting @twang. Like to think the Becker story was true too.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers recorded about 30 versions of “Refugee” and finally thought they’d nailed it. See below. They triumphantly left the studio to find Jim Keltner, drummer supremo, in the corridor. “What do you think” said Tom. “Needs a shaker” said Keltner. Faced with the God of percussion, Petty couldn’t let this go so marched him into the studio to “play the ****ing shaker” Result – massive enduring hit.
Needs more cowbell.
I’ll throw in this one….
I remember Mick a few years ago, in one of the many documentaries on the group, saying that Brian Jones ‘just added a bit of colour’ or some such.
I’d argue it’s that adding of ‘just’ bit of colour that made the group, so my answer to this question would be ‘Brian Jones’.
It’s one of those things where you wonder if it would have sounded as good if Verve had just got someone to play the bit they needed rather than sample it. They wouldn’t have had the problems with Klein necessarily but would it have sounded as good, or would the magic and spark have been lost totally
We’ll never know but I’d like to know at what point Richard Ashcroft made the decision. Youth produced it and I’m sure the conversation was had before it was recorded. I wonder if they tried to ‘re-create’ the sound? The royalty issue would still have been an issue as he uses the melody too. It would make a great documetary if they could get all those involved to speak up. Which means it’s unlikely to happen. Does anyone on here know the story in any detail?
I don’t know about that example but I read an interview with a few big producers who said they’d tried to persuade heavy sample users to haul in some session guys to come up with something in keeping based on the sample and so bag a lot more money. They just weren’t interested in doing it.
If you use a sample from someone else’s recording, you’re liable for both writer’s and performer’s royalties. If you “borrow” the tune and/or words but play/sing it yourself, you’re only liable for the writer’s royalty.
And if you play something which sounds a bit like something else you don’t pay anything as long as you’re careful.
Can also depend on how successful the resulting track is and how lawyered-up (i.e. rich) either party is.
Here’s some fun for you
https://voice.ai/tools/stem-splitter
Upload audio to here and you can split out any song to its component parts. If you have a DAW you can actually do your own remixes. It works best with sparser arrangements.
I am not sure if posting any results here has any legal ramifications so probably best not to.
Makes me think of the Andy Summers anecdote about Every Breath You Take. He is played the demo by Sting and Summers strums along and comes up with the guitar line that turns the song into a hit. Is he co-credited? Hell no.
I’m sure there are hundreds of stories like that. Apparently James Brown did this a lot, nicking riffs off his session musicians and would say “I’m glad I thought of it…”.
He came to an arrangement with Sting a few years later.
Would it be a hit without it? Probably. The song is good. I think what pissed him off is his guitar was sampled and he got no money
He’s not stopped bleating about it ever since. It’s not that clever a part.
Yes, thinking about it, it probably would have been a hit anyway. Still hard to imagine it without the guitar part, though.
I doubt it would have been such an endearing hit. The guitar really does lift the song to another level. Similar to Oliver’s Army’s ABBA piano.
Oops, this is meant for the Verve geezer. Never mind…
I saw the Verve guy in Richmond, a far cry from… erm… ‘Wigan’, where, correct me if I’m wrong, he now lives.
I reckon he’s delighted by the association, and it’s definitely earnt him more (albeit significantly lesser than the Rolling Stones) fame than he would have accrued otherwise.
I’ve been to Wigan and I’ve been to Richmond on Thames (assuming it were that one lad). I am not going to criticise his lifestyle choices one bit.
Mr Brown, Mr Bowie would like a word…
Yeah, but I wouldn’t fancy his chances against James Brown.
1st Round, 45 seconds max., and only on the presumption that Sainted Dave had had his half-pint of milk alongside his cocaine supply that day. Triffic.
Before bring sprinkled with Floydian fairy dust