Tuesday, November 8, 2011

We had a love like paradise...


This cut was released twice on the Neb's label, each with different flip-sides, and then again a couple of years later on Capcity. Oddly enough it's listed as the b-side on the first pressing. The a-side, "I Can't Do It", is nothing short of terrific, but ya still gotta wonder what Never Duncan [the label owner] was thinking.

Anyway, he must have reconsidered 'cause the tune shows up as the a-side on both later releases.

And apparently that's not all Duncan reconsidered.

To my ears there's a quick bit of fade added to the end of the second issue, and even more to the Capcity pressing. Not a big deal in the scheme of things, but ya see, the original version is fairly shocking in that it comes to a full-on dead stop. No fade at all.

Funny how small changes can make such a difference. Listening to the faded versions, I don't recall ever thinking the ending was particularly outrageous. But it is. Hit the button and hear for yourself.

Hope ya'll enjoy.....


10 comments:

  1. You're a walking encyclopaedia, girl! Top-notch song!!

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  2. Glad you like it Marie...

    A walking encyclopaedia? I'd say, more like the Twitter version.

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  3. Wow, that ending!
    Lovely song.

    Thank you so much for sharing it.

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  4. Just wanted to say thanks for all of the beautiful little gifts you post on this blog. I don't get to New Orleans as much as I'd like, but this music helps fill my heart until I do.

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  5. Sounds like the MD gave the signal for an ending, thinking the fade would be long gone by then, but Ruby didn't see it! They should have faded it on the cut. Probably the reason for the second pressing was to rectify this?

    Anyway, never mind all that - great track, which I would never (no pun intended) have heard were it not for your excellent blog!

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  6. Pete W...nice theory, but vocalists have nothing to do with fades, or as in this case, how a song ends in general. That's a post production call, in this case, specifically Dicky William's call. No singer or band ever stops that cold. It just doesn't happen.

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  7. Beg to differ, Ana - as a musician, I've had it happen in the studio any number of times! Everybody just stops roughly together on any old downbeat so that the track doesn't dribble on forever, assuming that a fade will be made on the cut before that point. In this case, the sudden end wouldn't ever have been heard if the cutting engineer had remembered to do the fade.
    Sorry to be pedantic over something so inconsequential!

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  8. Pete...the point of the post was the importance of inconsequentials. No need to apologize. Shoot I wouldn't answer comments if I didn't like the back and forth.

    I do understand what you're saying, but as you yourself put it, "everyone just stops roughly" ie, not cleanly.

    My point, probably badly made, is that even when a band does it's best to stop cleanly, there are still sounds which hang in the air....and for that matter instruments still vibrating. Thus a hard edit is involved to make the stop sound clean. Plenty of songs fade out on the clatter of a band coming to a stop.

    For that matter, even if Ruby did keep singing beyond when the band track stopped it would have been possible to hard edit the band track, and then apply the fade to the last bit of Ruby's vocal track. I can't remember which song it is, but I posted a tune in the fairly recent past where this was done to great effect.

    Chances are you're correct, The only reason I have doubts is because the recording is so very short. It just seems unlikely to me that a fade was meant to be applied to song clocking in at under 2 minutes. Thus I think the master tapes would show that there was more to the tune and a conscious decision was made to use a hard edit.

    Obviously, thats just my opinion.

    If you have more to say on the subject, I'd actually love to hear it.

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  9. Ana, thanks for the back; here (since you request it) is the forth!
    Not sure I go along with your putative 'hard edit' scenario, as it would be odd to edit out the portion which would contain a regular quick fade in order to graft on what is an unnaturally abrupt ending.
    However your point about length is a good one. Maybe the MD (Williams or Duncan) just felt it would save time to knock that take on the head, in the hope of immediately going for a better one - which for whatever reason never happened.
    Of course if Ruby's vocal was an overdub rather than sung live as the track went down, it's even more likely the ending took her by surprise, as with the musos long gone there would have been no visual cue.
    Are any of the protagonists still around to tell the tale?

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  10. Erm... I just think this is a kick *ss song, & wish it were longer ! :-) Thank you, Ana!

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