shut up and listen

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.