F Parella
6/28/2010 10:40:00 PM
On Jun 28, 12:50 am, brilton <notl...@yacht.net> wrote:
> On 28/06/10 11:54 AM, Beatle Ed wrote:
>
> > Lately this has become my favorite album.
>
> > I remember buying it when it first came out. Looking at the album cover
> > front and back while listening to it.
> > Having my mind open up to all these "old" rock and roll songs.
>
> > It came out after Harry Nilsson's Pussy Cats which I loved. It was a
> > good time for albums back then...
>
> > I know a lot of people don't like this album, but I've been diggin' it
> > the last few days after not hearing it for years.
>
> > Beatle Bob
>
> One thing I noticed after not hearing it for several years was the state
> of Lennon's singing voice - very thin and scratchy, which is quite
> distressing, considering what a magnificent rock'n'roll voice he had in
> the sixties.
>
> Another thing is the incongruous mixture of the Spector-produced tracks
> which mostly had arrangements that were unlike the original versions,
> and the rest of the songs recorded a year later, which mainly stay
> faithful to the originals.
>
> The Spector tracks are produced in a manner that I think is
> wrong-headed; generally slow and ponderous. Takes "Sweet Little Sixteen"
> for example. It churns along like a massive freight train out of
> control, rolling down a track. It even fades out during a verse. "You
> Can't Catch Me" is all right, but the edit to make it artificially
> longer irritates me immensely.
>
> I sort of wish he's scrapped all the tracks from the Spector sessions
> and re-done the whole album. The 1974 tracks all sound a lot happier and
> fresher. He should've done "Johnny B Goode" too.
I completely agree with you with regard to the superiority of the
songs done without Spector; they are better in every way. Spector's
influence - and his obsession with "total control" over everything to
do with the sessions - were poisonous. IIRC, Spector also made a lot
of amateur-caliber mistakes in his recording. Also Lennon himself was
without question in much better shape, physically and psychologically
speaking, during the later sessions. IIRC, he also kept himself and
his musicians sober - at least until after their work was done.
Spector, in contrast, encouraged an atmosphere of drugged craziness -
in part, not doubt, because he was he was that way (both drugged and
literally crazy) himself. May Pang's book provides a ton of
information for both the Spector sessions and the later, better ones.