Vocal jump in I'm Waiting For The Man

[Mark]

Here's something that perplexes me.

It's well known (and verifiable from the zillions of live recordings of the song) that I'm Waiting For The Man contains the line "Everybody pins you, but nobody cares". However, have you noticed that on the banana album version of the song - and ONLY that version - this line sounds really odd?

It sounds like Lou is singing "Everybody-body pins you, but nobody cares" - like there's a little jump in the vocal track. The music doesn't jump along with this, and the result is very strange.

Anyone got any idea what's going on here? An (accidental?) vocal hiccup from Lou? Some kind of electronically created jump as a side-product of the recording process?

[simonm]

Anyone got any idea what's going on here? An (accidental?) vocal hiccup from Lou? Some kind of electronically created jump as a side-product of the recording process?

Well - I'm at home today, so I checked this out. I never listened to it that closely before, and would have said it was just a deliberate My Generation type stutter, but listening hard it does sound like an edit! the first 'body' sounds very odd and kind of rises on the 2nd syllable in a way that doesn't match the repeat.

The sound on the mono vinyl is very raw, the vocal really stands out from the backing, so it was probably recorded separately, rather than all live a la Sister Ray. It would have been possible to combine two vocal takes into one if necessary, although recording a whole new vocal track would be less complicated, and it's not exactly a demanding song to sing...

It could be the power of suggestion, and maybe I should get back to my work, but I think there's an edit. In Run Run Run something similar happens a lot more obviously/audibly, although it may be the whole mixed track that is edited there rather than just the vocals. It's one of the refrains towards the end of the song, where presumably the backing vocals are a bit crap, a 'run run run run-run' from earlier in the song is slapped in quite crudely. On the original mono (sorry to hark on ...) it really jumps out, but was 'smoothed out' for the stereo. I always interpreted this as a kind of Warholian deliberate mistake thing, to leave in the rough edges, maybe the IWFTM edit fits that too...

[MJG196]

Regardless of how the "stutter" was recorded, it is still perfectly on beat. Word Up?

[simonm]

Word Up?

What do you mean by that? That's it's obviously deliberate? I don't understand.

[dsulpy]

More likely a punch-in, rather than an edit, to cover a bad vocal line. Not unusual. I never noticed that before, either.

As someone else pointed out, if you want to hear a bad edit, listen to "Run Run Run" - that one is jarring!

[Mark]

But why punch-in halfway through a line - indeed, halfway through a word? Wouldn't it make more sense just to replace the entire verse?

[Elvis Plebsley]

I noticed the everybody-body pins you thing a long while back, because I tend to singalong in as new york a manner as someone born and raised in Slough can manage. I'd always thought it was a natural spur of the moment thing, but I really like the way it works in the line, so I''m not particularly bothered about whether it's deliberate or an accident. The Run Run Run Run Run (or should I write Un Run Run Run Run) edit used to really jar but I've got so used to it now that I don't notice it.

[MJG196]

I have just listened to it about 10 times in a row. I gotta be honest, it simply sounds like Lou is adding an extra syllable to keep in rhythm with the beat. I guess the hyper-neurotic way to check this out, would be to upload that segment (prob from a mono record) into Peak4 or some other sound editor and see just how different the second "body" is from the first.

Ok, i gotta gotta get back to work work!

[Cameo Role]

The same thing happens at some point in All Tomorrow's Parties.

[arjan]

Here's something that perplexes me.

I always assumed it was a scatty, stuttery way of singing appropriate to the druggy subject matter (cf. Lou's singing on the later verses in Sister Ray; also his b-b-byebyes in There She Goes Again). It doesn't bother me at all. Now, as for the bad edits in Run Run Run...