shut up and listen

Stereo is used in this production to separate the instruments. Only three positions are used (left, right and centre) and nothing moves from its fixed position.

The track begins with a piano glissando from high to low, panned left and ending with a bass note centred and a cymbals splash panned right. These will actually be the pan settings for the piano, bass and drums for the whole track. But the effect created here at the beginning is of movement from left to right.

Straight away the four bar intro begins with a funky electric guitar jangling away on the right, bass line and hand clap in the centre and piano doubling the bass line on the left. For the second four bars of the intro strings and bongos are added panned left which shifts the balance of the track off to the left.

Another piano glissando and the balance is restored with all the instruments arriving in their stereo positions. Drums and backing vocals join on the right and the lead vocal is centred for another four bars of introduction.

LEFT = bongos and tambourine, strings, piano
CENTRE = bass, hand claps, lead vocal
RIGHT = drums, electric guitar, backing vocals

The first verse actually sees the drums drop out, leaving only the funk guitar and occasional backing vocals on the right, tilting the balance to the left again, as the piano, bongos, tambourine and strings continue on the left and the lead vocal, hand claps and bass fill the centre.

The chorus sees all the instruments return again.

The bridge still features all the instruments – except the strings drop out. The different parts create a different sense of space. The lead vocal does a call and response with the backing vocals. The backing vocals on the right – a rapid monotone ‘I want you back’ – are doubled by the strings on the left. The drum part breaks down to just kick and snare, the piano vamps on high notes while the hand clap pattern changes.

The second verse and chorus return to the instrumental parts of the first verse and chorus but with a bit more activity in the strings on the left and the backing vocals on the right.

The middle section actually breaks the rule I claimed was in place for the whole song – the funk guitar appears in the left suddenly. This middle section comprises of a breakdown with the drums, strings, bass, piano and percussion dropping out. This leaves just the funk guitar on the left and the backing vocals on the right. The bass returns in the centre, and the bongos return on the left. A second vocal (one of the four backing vocalists I presume) sings a new part on the right which then gets doubled by the lead vocal in the centre before they switch into a call and response pattern. With the return of the lead vocal the tambourine returns on the left. The drums return as a climax for the middle section.

And into the chorus with everything returning to their previous pan positions. A little bridge with backing vocalists doing some solo parts on the right. Then another chorus, then another little bridge, another chorus and so on as the track fades…

The fade is the classic 15 second long fade that has become standard.

Overall a full sounding production is given space and clarity through stereo placement, with 3 elements in each of the three positions at the height of the track. There are no other real production ‘tricks’. Except for the whole track fading out, there are no fade ins or fades outs, no edits, no overt use of effects. You can see that this was a well polished, well worked, well rehearsed live band that didn’t need to be enhanced in the studio except for finding space in the mix for all the elements. It is quite representative of the mixing style of the time – each element is given a place in the mix, both in terms of width (stereo placement) and depth (volume) and it stays there for the whole song. The switch in funk guitar from right to left for the middle section and back again is the only exception to this rule.