All about the fun. Over the top, humorous production - examples

[Jules]

OK

Below is what inspired this thread. I want to hear about any totally over blown funny things you have heard on albums.

I've been listening to the Rolling Stones - "Exile On Main St" album since I was about 12 but it is only since I recently bought a copy just for my car that I realised how crazy the backing vocals for the song "All down the line" are..

It sounds like a few tracks were overdubbed of say, about at least 6 people each take.. Its a soulful semi gospel exuberant mostly female group backing vocal... but this time its supercharged.. They are all singing the same basic line but every one is doing their 'own thing' at the end of it.. its an all out, every girl for herself - hot dogging, virtuoso train wreck of a backing vocal - totally over the top performance... To say unstructured and ad libbed would be an understatement..Anyhow, it makes me laugh every time I hear it now! A fun touch to the production.

What are some other examples where a production is intentionally 'fun' or funny.

[max cooper]

The drum intro in Motley Crue's "On with the Show" from Too Fast For Love.

It literally sounds like someone kicked a drumkit down a flight of stairs.

it's like a great big "WTF was that?"

[warhead]

I always liked the end to Metallica's version of "Blitzkrieg" on the album "Kill 'em All". Sounds like somebody threw a drum stick at the floor tom, then there's a huge drunken burp and the guitar squeals out of tune...as it fades you hear somebody say "I fvcked up...one place".

Pretty funny how it just kind of falls apart rather than a proper ending.

War

[nobtwiddler]

Hey Jules;
My all time favorite album is Exile...
I think I have about ten copies, a few different versions on all formats!
Keep listening buddy, cause you're gonna hear more stuff like you described on "ALL DOWN the LINE" as you get deeper into it.

I too have been listening to it since the day it was released, and still to this day, I'm finding new stuff burried deep within the music.
It's actually quite amazing, but you would never get that upon a first listen.

Although not a sonic masterrpiece (in an audiophile way) it has to be one of the greatest "Vibe" records of all time....

Paul

[stellar]

any song ever by metallica?



..just messin'..........

[timtoonz]

I work primarily in the comedy world, so shameless overproduction is my LIFE!

But the minute I read the original post, the first example that came to mind - and brought a smile to my face - was Zappa's band on Joe's Garage Pt. 3, during the endless fade out of "Little Green Rosetta". As a drummer, my fave part is when Zappa refers to Vinnie Colliuta as "a Steve Gadd clone flown in at triple scale no less..." and Vinnie starts doing these Gadd-esque trains and tom runs all over the map. Then Zappa chides him because "it's pretty good even though what he's doing is totally irrelevant to the click". Then he calls out "Vinnie, where's 9?" and Vinnie instantly drops into the craziest 9 over 4 "reggae funk madness" beat ever heard, whereupon the loose Zappa chorus starts "They're pretty gooood musicians... yeah they're pretty good musicians... Even though the people who buy this record don't give a F$#K if there's good musicians on it... Coz this is a stupid song... And that's the way I like it!!!"

Ah! Man I used to love listening to that. And no matter how many times I hear it, I know two things - 1) it'll always make me grin, and 2) I'll NEVER be able to play that whacked out beat Vinnie tosses off...


Second best would be the Beatles "You Know My Name (look up the number)" John's strange drunken snarly grunts at the end usually make me giggle in an unsettling way.

THird, the crazy insanely stupid guitar solo by Neil Innes on The Bonzo Dog Band's "Canyons of Your Mind". A wonderful mix of wrong notes and off mic screaming. Now THAT's music. Kind of.

[Berolzheimer]

Hocus Pocus by Focus.

[gwailoh]

"You Know My Name, Look Up the Number" -- although I'm not totally sure that what you had in mind was anything as overt as that.

[chymer]

Jellyfish anyone???

[toolskid]

'I hear a new world' - Joe Meek!!!!!!!!

[max cooper]

Originally Posted by nobtwiddler

Hey Jules;
My all time favorite album is Exile...
Although not a sonic masterrpiece (in an audiophile way) it has to be one of the greatest "Vibe" records of all time....

Gad. I use Exile as my guide for how my own stuff should sound sonically

Hey, o/t but here's a great article on making Exile. Y'know, Keith gets high, Keith gets Andy Johns high, some music happens, more getting high...

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto...on_main_street

Yes, it's the best album. Ever.

[David R.]

One word - Esquevel.

[Zeitman]

i cant belive noone has mentioned mr. bungle - california
its so over the top and has so many huge layers of halarity but its well done and sounds real professional.
listen to "air conditioned nightmare"
or if you really want to hear an insane example of how over the top music can get listen to "goodbye sober day"
and then theres ween, and the melvins

[eligit]

Dr. Octagon.

"there's a horse in the hospital!!"

edit: oh, and yes on mr bungle, california....pure genius!

[chrisj]

I actually like XTC "Oranges and Lemons" for that. Listen to something like Mayor of Simpleton and wauuugh- everything is louder than everything else, compressed like crazy, and exploding out of the speakers and as soon as you get a handle on that, MORE OVERDUBS! MORE ARRANGEMENT! WHOOO! :D

I do find that humorous and certainly fun, and to me it's over the top

[MikeK]

andrew wk?