The "Second Verse Curse"

[buster2]

Still going off the rails with Beatles mistakes (which I think are great, actually. It shows genius prevails over perfection). If you listen to "Eleanor Rigby" on earbuds, you can hear Paul's vocal in the first verse go from two channels to one. It's only for one syllable, but it's there. Apparently someone had to physically "pot" down from the multi-track mix of the "Ah, look at all the lonely people..." intro into the solo vocal and whoever it was missed it by a tiny bit.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Wow, Buster. That's an observation only an engineer could have caught. And how refreshing it was to read the term "pot", short for potentiometer. Only a 50's/60's/70's era radio jock/engineer would still use that term. I enjoyed your post!

 

[firepoint525]

Getting off track just a little-- Beatles engineer George Martin was notorious for allowing recordings to slip through with miscues unedited. Remember the album versions of "Please Please Me", with John on lead vocal, & Paul harmonizing, bellowing simultaneously on 2-different verses, and "A Day in the Life"; Paul jumping prematurely with "Woke... Woke up, fell out of bed..."? 45-RPM cuts of these numbers were cleaned up of course, as AM stations would have objected to playing warts-and-all recordings. Just try finding these imperfectly edited songs today.

I wonder about your second example, given that "A Day in the Life" didn't even become a single until 1978, and only a British 45 at that, probably prompted by the cheesy Sgt. Pepper movie that also came out that year, the one with Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees. But I have that 45 in my collection, so I will check it out sometime soon. (The radio station in the town where I grew up used to play a custom edit of "Sgt. Pepper's..." and "Sgt. Pepper's Reprise." I would estimate the playing time on that one to be just over three minutes. Wish that that was commercially available somewhere!)

I do, however, recall such a false start on "I Am the Walrus" in which John jumps in prematurely with "Yellow matt-oops!" and then starts again with "Yellow matter custard..." The version with the false start there can be heard on Anthology 2. It was later edited out for Magical Mystery Tour and the single, in which it was the B-side of "Hello Goodbye."

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Firepoint-- Good catch. Since it's release in '67, I HAD assumed that A DAY IN THE LIFE must have been available on 45 RPM as well. Paul's slip-up could be heard on the origional 33 RPM vinyl; I believe the U.S. vinyl release was on Capitol. NY area FM channels, i.e WNEW FM & WABC-FM were having fun playing it back then, but I have heard only the edited version since, even on the BREAKFAST WITH THE BEATLES syndication. Will be interesting to hear if your 45 RPM is the origional miscue version.

I have an 8-disc CD collection of ANTHOLOGY 2 my son-in-law burned for me. Have moved since then, but I'll listen for Lennon's WALRUS jumpstart as soon as I find them. That Sgt Pepper movie was a flop. I believe George Burns, whom I loved, did a cameo apparance, but it didn't help box office receipts.

 

[firepoint525]

"A Day in the Life"; Paul jumping prematurely with "Woke... Woke up, fell out of bed..."? 45-RPM cuts of these numbers were cleaned up of course, as AM stations would have objected to playing warts-and-all recordings. Just try finding these imperfectly edited songs today.

Finally got a chance to pull my old Parlophone 45 out the other day and give it a listen. It seems to me that there is a premature spoken (not sung) "woke" in that spot! Haven't had a chance to pull the album out and give it a listen yet. (I should probably clarify what I said earlier. It is possible that "A Day in the Life" may have also been issued as a U.S. 45, by Capitol, again around 1978, but I believe it may have been only a jukebox 45. I will try to find out.)

On "I'll Get You" (b-side of "She Loves You"), John and Paul sing together, as they did on many early Beatles songs. On the bridge to this one, one of them seems to sing "make you mine," while the other sings "change your mind" at the same time. But this was a b-side only, and never originally put on an album, so it may have been decided not to correct this apparent mistake.

 

[firepoint525]

I have an 8-disc CD collection of ANTHOLOGY 2 my son-in-law burned for me. Have moved since then, but I'll listen for Lennon's WALRUS jumpstart as soon as I find them. That Sgt Pepper movie was a flop. I believe George Burns, whom I loved, did a cameo apparance, but it didn't help box office receipts.

Interesting story about that movie. I rented it back in the early '80s, shortly after we got our first VCR. I asked if it was the "original" Sgt. Pepper movie (thinking that the Beatles had also made a Sgt. Pepper movie). I was told that it was. Imagine my surprise when I got home and found out that it was the Frampton/Gibb version! Still, I wasn't disappointed, because I wanted to see "both" versions anyway. (It wasn't until later that I learned that the Beatles had never made a Sgt. Pepper movie!)

While you're listening to "I Am the Walrus," pull out the American Rarities version and give it a listen, too. The extra few seconds in the middle are still there, but John's false start is gone!