Lee Hazelwood "Some Velvet Morning" reverb

[max cooper]

I'd like to know about the vocal reverb on this recording from "Nancy and Lee".

sounds like a room...

Anyone know where this was done? I'd guess Capitol, but you never know.

[thenoodle]

Ah yes, "Some Velvet Morning" ..with the most incredible 45 second string intro I'ver ever heard in my life. Been listening to that for decades.

I believe it's a chamber. Best thing to do is ask Billy Strange himself. He'll tell you every detail of that session.

[mig27]

I have no clue what reverb they used.
But let me second that this song is a masterpiece.

[max cooper]

Yes, I agree it's quite a piece of work.

I've always been of the school of "less is more" as far as reverb is concerned, but now I think I'm swinging the other way.

So I'm pulling out "drenched" tracks for inspiration.

What else sounds good swimming in 'verb?

Also, it may be the all time greatest song title. Brings up a lot of pictures even without hearing the song.

BTW, I've been looking for a while, but I can't find out definitively if Billy Strange did "Some Velvet Morning".

Anyone know for sure?

"Billy Strange"

What a cool a** S.O.B.!

[ScoolED]

Just have to say it is so nice to see LEE getting some love here on GS! I think the production/engineering on those records are hard to beat. I find them especially rewarding on vinyl.
Very interested in knowing more about these records.

[thenoodle]

Billy arranged Velvet ...wrote the intro, wrote the arrangement for the whole thing...strings, guitars, bass, drums. He even conducted the orchestra for the recording. I asked him about that intro ...one of the most impressive short things I've ever heard...and he said it just came to him out of the blue. As far as I can tell, the guy never had formal arrangement training....I have no idea how he became such a genius at it.

Since he's originally a guitar player and one of the wrecking crew session gang with Carol Kane (Kane played bass on Velvet), Billy's pretty good about detailing various sessions...particularly that one. He'll tell you every single instrument that was on the record and what he had each of them playing.

I always figured Velvet was done with the orchestra overdubbed against the bass/drums/guitars. But when I asked Billy a couple of years ago, he said they recorded that entire record live with the band...full orchestra...AND Lee and Nancy singing... all at the same time. What a recording concept!

They did it at Capitol in the fall of 67. I know there were chambers over there, but you could probably ask Billy and he'd give you the definitive answer.

After considering the massiveness of Velvet, it's also interesting that the core band ..minus orchestra...then recorded the sparse "Sugar Town"..with Billy himself playing the main muted-palm guitar lick. Even on that record, he arranged the whole thing.

Considering Billy has worked with all the heavyweights of early pop history (Frank Sinatra, Nancy, Dean Martin etc etc), the guy is just one of the most down to earth, pleasant people I've ever talked with.

Go on over to his forum and see what I mean.

[EveAnna Manley]

Wonderful post, thenoodle. Thank you!

May I add the website for those who don't know how to use search engines?


Billy Strange Website including forum

[themaidsroom]

i just bought a nice clean copy of
"love and other crimes" on vinyl......
amazing sounds
amazing room

most importantly:

the vibe

the needle hits,
there is an instant of
noise and then it's
0 to ultra-vibrational
in milleseconds
deep players
deep people
beautiful


be well


- jack

[Jetblack]

Hats off to Lee Hazlewood. The man was a producing genius, especially on his solo albums (most of them masterpieces!). Huge fan of his work!

[jiver2]

This is so cool! I happened upon this thread just now after being a 'closet' admirer of this track since it came out in '68 (?). The intro is my favorite of all times!

[vincentvangogo]

Agree on the fantastic intro, the ending gets me too. I always wondered if it was razorblade edits of separate takes.

[richgilb]

I love this guy so much I took his song, Your Sweet Love, stripped out the string arrangement, changed the vocal completely, ignored the preferable use of real instruments using Kurzweil piano and glock samples (in mono), added flange to my voice, mumbled my way through it, put a rock drummer in the studio to spice it up and stuck an indulgent trumpet solo in there...

Hazlewood lovers will hate it. Others might too

[007]

Originally Posted by richgilb

I love this guy so much I took his song, Your Sweet Love, stripped out the string arrangement, changed the vocal completely, ignored the preferable use of real instruments using Kurzweil piano and glock samples (in mono), added flange to my voice, mumbled my way through it, put a rock drummer in the studio to spice it up and stuck an indulgent trumpet solo in there...

Hazlewood lovers will hate it. Others might too

Lol, I think it sounds great!
Your voice is a hybrid of Leonard Cohen and 3D of Massive Attack!
Nicely done!