DM's Beatles forums
Beatles forums => Songs => Topic started by: KelMar on March 22, 2012, 05:08:04 AM
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I've been pondering this over the last few days. Was "Slow Down" ever released with the double tracking error corrected? I never even noticed it way back when I used to listen to a friend's "Rock and Roll Music" 8-track. I never heard the song again until I got "Live at the BCC" but of course that is a whole different thing. I noticed it right away when I got the mono box set. When searching the Internet to find out what the heck that was about I saw that the song was released on various compilations. I listened on YouTube but never did find one that had been fixed. It just seems odd to me that it kept being released that way. It's sort of neat in retrospect but still surprising.
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Do you mean the error at 1.15?
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Do you mean the error at 1.15?
Yes.
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It looks like only one stereo and one mono mix was ever done, so there was never any attempt to get rid of the error when it was released in later years.
This is from The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recordings ... (http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beatles/var-1964.html (http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beatles/var-1964.html))
SLOW DOWN
basic recording- 1 Jun 1964
additional recording- 1,4 Jun 1964
master tape- 4 track
a] mono 4 Jun 1964.
UK: Parlophone GEP 8920 (EP) Long Tall Sally 1964, Parlophone PSLP 261 and PCM 1001 Rarities 1978-79.
US: Capitol 5255 single 1964, Capitol T 2018 Something New 1964.
CD: EMI EP box set 1991.
b] stereo 22 Jun 1964.
US: Capitol ST 2018 Something New 1964, Capitol SKBO-11537 Rock and Roll Music 1976.
UK: Parlophone PCSP 719 Rock and Roll Music 1976.
CD: EMI CDP 7 90043 2 Past Masters 1 1988.
Stereo b] has the vocal and piano much louder (or one might say the rest is softer), and a cry "ow" is heard only in b] just before the guitar at the end.
The vocal has a doubletracking error at what should be "now you got a boyfriend down the street" in verse 2. This is heard less distinctly in mono [a], as if the bad track were mixed down at that point, but it is there, marking it as the same vocal and not different as reported elsewhere. The bad vocal track seems to have "girlfriend" for "boyfriend"-- however, on the BBC radio version (11 months earlier than this EMI recording) John sings "now you don't care a dime for me", which is possibly what is here too.
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To put this into perspective, this is the way we heard Slow Down when it was first released...
The Beatles Slow Down and Matchbox - very early 45 rpm (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvSSwGbrdOQ#)
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It looks like only one stereo and one mono mix was ever done, so there was never any attempt to get rid of the error when it was released in later years.
Thanks peterbell; that's great information.
John sings "now you don't care a dime for me", which is possibly what is here too.
That's exactly what I hear. That line stands out for me because I always figured it was something John just made up.
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Just a thought: John had a terrible time remembering lyrics to cover songs (sometimes his own). The story Paul tells about their first meeting with John singing "Down, down down to the penitentiary" in the Del Vikings's "Come Go With Me" is an example. I've heard various covers of the song, but not the original, and that line differs on several versions. One version says: "Now you got a fella with a diamond ring", so as crazy as it sounds, did John sing a second version on his second vocal track?
Does anybody know anything about the original version? I must confess: I don't.