Close Listening to Old Songs

A couple of weeks ago I was listening to some tunes on the way home from work. One of the songs I heard was my favorite Motown record, "This Old Heart of Mine” by the Isley Brothers.

I have loved the song ever since it came out forty-five years ago, but – other than the chorus when they pretty much echo the lead singer – I have never understood a single word the background singers were singing. That day I was not cranking it, nor did I have it playing softly in the background.

All of a sudden the words jumped right out and bit me in the eardrums. “Darling I’m weak for you. Darling I’m mad about you.”



I find it a treat to hear those hidden little things in old recordings that I have known for years. Probably a lot of people look at me and say, “You get excited about that?” Yes, I do.

Sometimes, when I hear a stereo recording of an old hit I hear an instrument that I never heard in the mono version.

Check out the really nice guitar work in the left channel of “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” by the Casinos. Oh, it is nice. Nothing fancy, but really good.



Another instrument I never noticed until I heard a song in stereo was in the Human Beinz “Nobody But Me.” This video is not stereo but you can hear it: there is an acoustic guitar starting at 27 seconds. This really never sounded like a record that would have an acoustic guitar, but there it is.



Sometimes subtle little things are lost because the recording was not of the best quality. In the Riviera’s “California Sun,” the drummer goes from using the snare to just using bass drums at the end of the song. Again, nothing earthshaking, but it does add to the record the way he changes things up.



Sometimes I have discovered that something was not there that I thought was there.

I love Paul McCartney’s bass playing on the early Beatle records. He was good. There is a thing in playing a guitar called “hammering.” To hammer, a player sounds a note on a string then puts a finger sharply down on the same string at a higher fret. It is somewhat like sliding, but has a much sharper sound. In “Do You Want to Know A Secret,” I used to think that Paul hammered every time Ringo did the kick drum after George sings “I’m in love with you.” Then I noticed that he only does it the third time, just before the end of the song. Again it is subtle, but just one of those things that adds to the enjoyment of the song for me.



Maybe nothing of great importance here, but any excuse to listen to some great old tunes is a good one.