Recorded Guitar Mistakes / Gaffs

SimonC

I was listening to Rush's 2112 last night for the first time in years- excellent album, and all the better for not having heard it for a while.

Anyway, on "Twilight Zone", there seems to be a definate gaff by Alex Lifeson, where he almost comes in on the lead line too early (about 1:08 below):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D3YydqWFmI

So I got to wondering how many more howlers guitarists have left on recordings over the years. I'm sure there's a few on live albums, but I can't think of too many on studio recordings??

digitalscream

I can't think of any offhand. Well, except in all of our recordings...

EDIT: Actually, it's not strictly a guitar gaffe, but remember the knocking right before EVH's solo in Beat It? That was a junior studio bod who didn't check the red light above the studio door and walked in while EVH was about to start.

Deadman

Non-guitar gaff posted!

dindude

Ha, I was thinking the very same thing the other day. Can't actually think of any off hand, although (not strictly a gaff) I do wish the producer had made Peter Buck tune his guitar before recording It's The End of The World.

lustycourtier

All of Creeds Back Catalogue?

RocknRollDave

There's a bum bass note in U2's Love Rescue Me off Rattle and Hum, but, as quite rightly mentioned by someone last week on this forum, it's a pretty unlistenable track anyway

jaygtr

"Jean genie" at the end of the first verse is a bit of a howler.

Grunfeld

jaygtr said:

"Jean genie" at the end of the first verse is a bit of a howler.

I was just gonna post that one!  The bass goes to the chorus early.

Another bass gaff is in "Sailing By" which gets played every night on Radio 4 before the shipping forecast.  The bass is plodding along so rhythmically and he gets caught out by the change and just stops playing, no doubt having a blind terror "where the f*ck in the song am I?" moment, and on the next beat he's back as if nothing has happened.

And Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" at the end of the guitar solo always sounds like a right mess to me as if Jimmy Page has been surprised to hear the chorus come back and has resorted to the time-honoured tradition of flapping his fingers as fast as he can in the hope that we'll all think he meant to play it like that.

jaygtr

George Harrison's solo on " all you need is love" isn't great . He fluffs it and them gives up!

SimonC

jaygtr said:

George Harrison's solo on " all you need is love" isn't great . He fluffs it and them gives up!

Yeah, he seems to come in a beat behind, and goes backwards from there,

And Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" at the end of the guitar solo always sounds like a right mess to me as if Jimmy Page has been surprised to hear the chorus come back and has resorted to the time-honoured tradition of flapping his fingers as fast as he can in the hope that we'll all think he meant to play it like that.

I often get that impression when listening to Jimmy Page.

richardhomer

The Dobro part on 'Water of Love' on the first Dire Straits album has a few gaffs in it.

HAL9000

Clapton has always claimed that his solo on Crossroads (from the Wheels of Fire album) is out by a beat or two due to not being able to hear Jack Bruce's bass in the mix. Hasn't stopped plenty of people trying to imitate it though.

Reverend

Metallica missed a whole verse out at the big Moscow monsters of rock gig back in 1991 but still released the recordings.

xSkarloey

Not really a guitar mistake per se, but I always think of the instrumental break in the Stones' Jumping Jack Flash where the tape clearly slowed down momentarily when they were cutting the master. 

Zeppelin's "The Wanton Song"- the guitar on that always sounds out of tune (check out the bridge). 

Black Sabbath "Snowblind"- I reckon that's a bit out of tune too where he plays the arpeggio part of the main riff. 

There's loads of non-guitar ones too, like at the end of "I Started Something" by The Smiths- you can hear someone on the studio monitor saying something like "Is that alright Stephen?". Maybe they were going for the spontaneous 'deliberate mistake' vibe like you get on some Beatles/ Zep tracks.  

zenzeypher

loads of fluffed stuff in Zep stuff.. But I like it when fucks ups and bum notes are left in. I went through a stage of just listening to isolated guitar tracks out of the mix.. surprising how different it all sounds and what gets hidden,

mudslide73

Stairway to Heaven has the "picked note but no sound comes out" halfway through it. Pageys stuff is littered with gaffs... Then there's that telephone ringing in The Ocean.

Lixarto

The entire discography of Pete Doherty.

mike_l

Reverend said:

Metallica missed a whole verse out at the big Moscow monsters of rock gig back in 1991 but still released the recordings.

Were they not allowed to sing certain parts or did they actually forget to play a verse?

StageStruck

I'm fairly sure Hank Marvin has been quoted that he botched the solo during their 1961 hit The Savage. Also sounds like the outro of Man Of Mystery is a little out of time as well.

Although it's live, on the Allman Brothers LP, Eat A Peach about a couple of minutes into Mountain Jam, Duane Allman goes way of key. He realises the mistake, plays the same mistake again before bringing it back to normal.

Reverend

mike_l;170807" said:

Reverend said:

Metallica missed a whole verse out at the big Moscow monsters of rock gig back in 1991 but still released the recordings.







Were they not allowed to sing certain parts or did they actually forget to play a verse?

From what they said at the time of release, lars just went to the wrong bit and the band followed.

chrisj1602

I read there are a load of wrong bass notes on The Long and Winding Road (played by John Lennon) but I've not bothered listening to it since so I don't know!