shut up and listen

Begins with a long fade up of ambient noise, sounds like a big echoing underground car park – but is probably created with artificial reverbs, slight clicking beat gives a hint to the song about to arrive.

Bass guitar riff is the first to emerge from the noise, fading up. Nice woody tone gives it bite and cut. This bass riff is almost the song’s hook (or one of them at least) so it is important that it stands out, almost becoming a lead instrument. Rhythm electric guitar chugging joins the bass. Then the lead guitar. The electric guitar plays soloing lead lines but is distant in the mix, soaked in reverb.

The hi hats join in, then the kick as the drums are played quietly then get progressively louder.

The full band sound kicks in at about 1 minute 30, which is a very long intro for a ‘pop’ song. The snare has a big reverb on it and the whole band sounds like it too is in an underground carpark even though the ambience now is lost in the instrumental sound. The lead guitar plays the main riff but it still sounds back in the mix.

The lead vocal arrives and it too is reverb soaked, adding atmosphere to the half whispered, half sung style. It sounds like it may be doubled or ADT (automatic double tracked) or there’s a short slap echo.

The cymbal crashes that are part of the short instrumental break in between verses sparkle and tinkle as they decay, almost like breaking glass scattered over concrete… it must be the remnants of the ambient sound heard at the start of the track – all the squeaks and squeals (like car tyres in an underground carpark) with big reverb.

There is an amazing difference between the distant, reverbed crash cymbals and the up close dry hi hats, when the drummer alternates between the two it feels like the drum kit is huge with a big physical distance between where the hi hats are (close to the listener) and where the crash cymbals are (away in the background).

At the end of the middle instrumental section, just at the end of the first vocal ‘Adored’, there is big beautiful steel string acoustic strum. Here the track gets sparse enough to allow the ambient noise to reveal that it is still there. The track goes from this break down to build up to the final climax. It does so by relying heavily on the rhythm guitar chugging and the drums getting more intense. The lead guitar is really warbling in the low register and is EQed and reverbed to get really muddy and swallowed in the track, before it bursts back into life for the final riff.

The final measure is played at a slower tempo, emphasising the beat. The ambience is maintained during the following fade out with guitar feedback, and a howling subway tunnel sound.

Overall a very unique atmosphere sound on this track, mostly provided by the background ambience heard at the start and end of the track. This would seem to be very clearly the producer’s doing as the rest of the track is fairly simple guitar/bass/drums rock. But the reverbs on the drums, guitars and vocal work with the background ambience to emphasise a certain sense of the epic.

Simple plucked acoustic guitar intro on two guitars, one left and one right, for four bars. Vocal comes in right in the centre, closed mic intimate. After the first four lines of the verse a piano chord joins in on the 2 count.

First chorus features heavy low piano chords on the changes. A sustained (organ?) fills in the latter part of the chorus. The guitar playing becomes more strident.

Second verse intro goes back to acoustic guitars, slightly more piano than the first verse, this time on the 1 counts. Latter half of verse features a flute sound (harmonium?).

Second chorus is backed by sustained woodwind/strings, second half features a big bass sound underpinning the chords. At this point the track starts to really push the limits, getting more and more distorted as it progresses, especially the vocal.

The music stops for the delivery of the final vocal line, which is no longer distorted.

Overall a simple but powerful production. There is nothing that sounds processed or treated, no overt reverbs or effects, keeping it sounding raw and natural. Therefore the distortion is quite a bold move, because if you are producing with a view to creating a totally natural sound you wouldn’t dream of going near distortion, especially on the vocal. But it makes perfect sense in the context of the song – the lyric being about self-harm and Cash singing it at a time when he was so old and frail. Plus it being originally a Nine Inch Nails song, famed for processed, heavy distortion, makes this production move all the more inspired.

Rubin shows that production doesn’t have to be about bells and whistles but it does have to be appropriate to the song and the artist.

OK, to do this track as a listening diary entry properly we need to ignore where all the samples are from, and just focus on what we can hear. After all, many others have already made comprehensive lists of the samples and references in Beastie Boys tracks, like this one…

The song is essentially structured as three verses of Beastie Boys rap, each followed with choruses that consist predominantly of sampled vocals. The rapping is a mix of the three vocalists, switching line by line, doubling and tripling each other at times. It is treated pretty dry and neatly centred and compressed to sit on top of everything.

Quite a bizarre beginning – the initial funk groove of drums, percussion, bass and guitar trundles along for four bars before suddenly switching to a wide stereo image at the start of the 5th bar, revealing it to consist of 3 looping elements; bongo dominant loop on the left, funky guitar riff on the right and a sharp snare in the centre. Then the rap vocals featuring the three different voices starts the verse. An extra snare doubles the back beat at this point. The backing goes back to mono centre for a few bars then switches to wide stereo again. The instruments drop out for the final line of the verse.

The first chorus consists of various vocal samples stitched together, a cow bell rhythm, new percussion and drum loops, a new funky guitar line and synth warbling.

The new drums continue with the second verse before the funky groove of the first verse returns to join the new handclap percussion. A quick vinyl scratch and then it does that widescreen switch again. Then back to mono, then back to stereo again. Another drop for the final verse line.

Second chorus features the cow bell again with some more stitched together vocal samples. And then a new bass guitar riff and drums enter, with the Beasties shouting ‘Hey, hey, hey, hey ladies!’ finished with a new vocal sample then chorus shout is repeated  then another vocal sample and a third chorus shout. Final part of this chorus is a sample ‘Ain’t it funky now’ with each word edited so that it cuts to silence suddenly, emphasising that last line of the chorus.

The third verse returns us to the backing of the first, stereo switching and all. Some additional vocal samples under the rapping.

Final chorus is preceeded by an ‘instrumental’ break featuring ‘Good God!’ samples amongst others, a new funky guitar riff, a vocoder sample ‘Baby, baby, baby, baby’, two bars of very thin EQed drums, and a final ‘Hey, hey, hey ladies!’ which this time is a sample.

The final gesture is a scratch before a sudden halt (sounds like it will segue into the next track on the album).

Overall a dense track full of samples whilst still holding a steady pattern centred around a funky groove. The switching to stereo and back again under the verse is a great way to maintain interest and variation without distracting from the rapping in the verses. Odd way to end the track, perhaps it is meant to be a change up before the next album track rather than a bona fide part of this track – but it reminds me of the instrumental ending to Get Ur Freak On.

Almost all elements start together and continue until the end (which is a fade out – suggesting the song goes on forever). As well as all the usual rock anthem ingredients (drums, bass, guitars, piano, vocals) there are some special, unique sounds – chugging synthesiser ‘train’ sound effect, wailing ‘train whistle’ guitar feedback, big room reverb on the latter part of the lead vocal.

The lead vocal moves from the low first verse with an intimate close mic sound to the shouted final chorus an octave higher (over group backing vocals) being pushed back in the mix by the room reverb. It’s this change in lead vocal over the course of the song that gives it dramatic movement. The build up in the mix is much more subtle and only really noticeable by doing A/B comparative listening between the start and end of the track.

Here are the elements that change: The intro features a swell of guitar fuzz just before the first vocal enters. In the bridges there’s a synth/guitar/horn line sitting under the vocal. There’s a sweet lead guitar line that appears between the chorus and the next verse. Extra metallic percussion enters after the second chorus. Then a tambourine joins in for the third verse. The group backing vocals only appear in this final verse, doing an echo of the last few words of each lead vocal line. The final vocals repeat ‘We can be heroes’ with group backing vocals thickening it before one more bridge that leads into the fade out. It’s a quick fade out and features the only wordless vocal as Bowie sings ‘oh oh oh’.

Overall the production is very reminiscent of Spector’s ‘Wall of Sound’ – see Be My Baby post. It has a dense multi-layered sound and while there is still a verse/bridge/chorus structure there are no real dramatic entrances or exits of parts or switches in mix settings.

Notes: Producer Tony Visconti set up a vocal recording session for this track with two microphones. One mic was used in the traditional close miking technique, thus cancelling out the sound of the room Bowie was in. The second was positioned several metres from the singer thus capturing the natural reverb of the room. Visconti set up a gate on the distant mic, thus giving Bowie control over when the microphone ‘opened’ by increasing the level of his singing. Initially the verse begins with low level singing being captured by the close mic. In the second verse his voice increases in volume and the gate on the distant mic opens and the sound of the room is revealed.

BIG production for a three piece band. The band is guitar, bass, drums and a single vocalist, but this track sounds an awful lot bigger than that. It features a thick layered guitar riff supported by a horn section and layers of vocal harmonies that all sound like they were overdubbed by the one singer.

The song starts immediately with the signature riff that sounds like a distorted guitar fused with horns but has a droning distorted guitar underneath that suggest layers of guitars.

The verse features a cleaner more jangly (12 string?) electric guitar and a drum pattern played predominantly on toms, giving room for the lead vocal. The vocal is often supported by harmonised backing and or doubling. For example, the first lines of the song ‘You’re the analyst, The fungus in my milk‘ are sung solo but then the next lines ‘When you want no one, And you’ve got someone’ are supported by a falsetto harmony.

The chorus also features what sounds predominantly like a solo voice but there is a subtle harmony on the final ‘the greatest view from here’ line. The chorus vocal sounds a bit further back in the mix than the verses (reverb maybe) or maybe it is just sung a bit more off mic. The chorus continues with a cleaner guitar sound so that the return of the intro riff, with full distortion makes greatest impact.

The chorus is the only obvious use of stereo with a jangly guitar off to the left and the harmony vocals off to the right. It creates a sense of the chorus opening up to ‘widescreen’ in contrast to the centred verses.

The instrumental section is a return to the opening riff but with no noticeable difference in sound to the intro.

The ending is the chorus chord sequence but with ‘na na na na’ vocals.

Overall a very dense sounding production with very little use of hard panning stereo to spread things out. The guitars and the horns are melded together to operate a one big riff machine. The bass guitar also plays the riff in the intro and middle section but during the verses and choruses it becomes indistinct as a bass guitar. There are very few noticeable plucks. Instead it sounds continuous and smooth, often getting swallowed by the dense upper layers, perhaps one of those occasions when the bass plays a supporting role that would only be noticeable if it wasn’t there. Similarly the kick drum and low floor tom don’t seem particularly full of low end and seem to struggle to punch through the dense guitar/horn riffing. They seem to have been EQed so that the attack of the drums punches through but the body of the drum resonance is either swallowed by the mix or has been EQed out. The kick and toms therefore really thud rather than boom. The playing of the drums therefore seems to focus a lot on cymbals, tambourine and snare – the absence of hats in the verses, the addition of tambourine in the choruses and the splashing cymbals during the riff.