CLAMS, FLUBS, & SQUEAKY DRUM PEDALS Vol. 1 - Like the 16 year old father, they left it in!

CLAMS, FLUBS, & SQUEAKY DRUM PEDALS Vol. 1

Here’s another idea for a compilation that fell in my lap when I was combing the internet to verify some information about songs where the singer flubs a line.  I ran across a thread about the prevalence of SQUEAKY DRUM PEDALS in popular music.  It expanded to include CLAMS (mistakes & wrong notes played by a musician), and FLUBS (usually singing the wrong words, or singing the right words at the wrong time).  Of course a FLUB can be any number of mistakes; hitting the microphone with your instrument, knocking something over, or getting tongue-tied.

So here’s Volume 1 fresh from JOKONKY LABORATORIES, with a tip of the fedora to Jon who offered encouragement, and wise counsel. 

Here’s what you’re listening for:

THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS’ male half, Denny & John, accidentally came in early on the chorus of I Saw Her Again & it sounded great, so they left it in.  They went over to England & played the dub for Paul McCartney & he said; “Wait!  Play that again.  That’s a mistake.  No one’s that clever.”

Two things were true of Keith Moon; he couldn’t sing, & he loved to sing.  If you listen at the fade out of Happy Jack Pete Townshend says: “I Saw Ya!” to Moon The Loon who was sneaking into the studio to try to lend his vocals to the track.

I remember listening to THE BEATLES What You’re Doing with headphones on as a teenager and catching flubbed lyrics, but when you’re 16 and music is IMPORTANT to you, you figure you must be hearing things because no one would leave a mistake in, and certainly NOT THE BEATLES. (Another I caught in my teens pops up on Volume 2.  In Slow Down John Lennon sings wrong line).  That was the starting point of this compilation.

DO NOT listen to this compilation if you don’t want to have THE SEARCHERS’  Needles & Pins ruined for you!  Once you hear the squeaky bass drum pedal, you can’t NOT hear it!  “But still they begin, ah, Needles &Pins SQUEAKY-SQUEAKY-SQUEEK-SQUEEK.”

In THE BEACH BOYS Wendy, as the organ break gets underway there’s a clear cough.  And in BOB DYLAN’s Idiot Wind there’s a sneeze at the 7:21 second mark.  There’s a different type of distraction in the fade out of BUDDY HOLLY & THE CRICKETS I’m Gonna Love You Too.  An actual cricket had crept into the studio, & gives a couple of chirps.

On DAVE EDMUNDS’ I Hear You Knocking (which is a first take!) guitar whiz MICKY GEE came in early.  There’s another flub on CCR’s Lookin' Out My Back Door.  Songwriter John C. Fogerty sings; “All our troubles Illinois, lock the front door, oh boy”.  And another metallic squeaky noise is present in LEE MORGAN’s Candy.

Around the 1:46 minute mark, I’m told Tommy Bolin breaks his E-String (while bending it) during Billy Cobham’s Taurian Matador.  And providing the “clam” necessary for this series’ title, there are repeated “clams” (or bum notes) played on the organ during HARRY NILSSON’s Early In The Morning.

It’s always a good idea to have NEIL YOUNG make an appearance on a compilation, & although it isn’t too obvious, he hits the mike with his harmonica stand 2 mins into Out On The Weekend.  A squeaky drum pedal at the end of ERIC BURDON & THE ANIMALS’ When I Was Young is enough to earn it inclusion here.  Another lyrical flub gets Ain't No Sunshine included.  BILL WITHERS sings: “She's house just ain't no home” (at 1:30).

In MEGADEATH’s version of Paranoid, Dave Mustaine calls to drummer Nick Menza: “Nick!  NICK!” to get him to stop playing and he responds: “Fuck me running.”

As Chris Axe wrote in his egghead music blog about James Jamerson’s bass playing on Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing by MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL: “Notice how throughout this song, Jamerson uses many 'wrong' notes. In particular, he uses the open E and A strings as part of a semiquaver chromatic run up to the next chord. The speed of these passing notes means that rather than the note sticking out as being 'wrong', it forms part of a larger passage that often links the chords together. This is a very common technique that Jamerson uses and you can spot it in many of his lines.”  I couldn’t have said it better, myself.  Paul McCartney cites Jamerson as his biggest influence, btw.

Two minutes into the DINAH WASHINGTON & BROOK BENTON hit; Baby You've Got What It Takes Brook starts to sing her verse & she says he’s “in my spot”.  The chaotic break in THE B-52's Love Shack was unintentional!  It was pre-programmed & kept going, & the band simply stayed in the moment.  Jonder suggested the false start left in THE REPLACEMENTS’ I Hate Music.  The engineer says: “Tapes Rolling” & the reply is: “SO WHAT”. 

Keyboardist ROY BITTAN keeps playing during the break near the end of BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’s Born In The USA.  Despite his gaff, when SPRINGSTEEN split from the E Street Band, BITTAN was the only member he retained.