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My favorite anecdote about the Wall of Sound technique is the paralyzing effect "Be My Baby" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSPpbOGnFgk https://www.youtube.co

by lqet 5y ago

My favorite anecdote about the Wall of Sound technique is the paralyzing effect "Be My Baby" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSPpbOGnFgk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSPpbOGnFgk) had on Brian Wilson, founder of the Beach Boys: > "Be My Baby" had a profound lifelong impact on the Beach Boys' founder Brian Wilson. > When he heard "Be My Baby" for the first time through his car radio, he immediately pulled over to the side of the road and deemed it the greatest record he had ever heard. Carlin describes the song as having become "a spiritual touchstone" for Wilson, while music historian Luis Sanchez states that it formed an enduring part of Wilson's mythology, being the Spector record that "etched itself the deepest into Brian's mind ... it comes up again and again in interviews and biographies, variably calling up themes of deep admiration, a source of consolation, and a baleful haunting of the spirit." > Music journalist David Dalton, who visited Wilson's home in 1967, said that Wilson had analyzed "Be My Baby" "like an adept memorizing the Koran." Dalton later wrote about a box of tapes he had discovered in Wilson's bedroom: "I assumed they were studio demos or reference tracks and threw one on the tape machine. It was the strangest thing ... All the tapes were of Brian talking into a tape recorder. Hour after hour of stoned ramblings on the meaning of life, color vibrations, fate, death, vegetarianism and Phil Spector." > In the early 1970s, Wilson instructed his engineer Stephen Desper to create a tape loop consisting only of the chorus of "Be My Baby". Wilson listened to the loop for several hours in what Desper saw as "some kind of a trance." Wilson's daughter Carnie stated that during her childhood: "I woke up every morning to boom boom-boom pow! Boom boom-boom pow! Every day." Wilson told The New York Times in 2013 that he had listened to the song at least 1,000 times. In his 2016 memoir, Wilson recalled playing the song's drum intro "ten times until everyone in the room told me to stop, and then I played it ten more times." Bandmate Mike Love remembered Wilson comparing the song to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. [0][1] A personal anecdote: Hearing "Be my Baby" in my parents' kitchen radio, recognizing it as this wonderful piece of music I had heard somewhere before, and listening to it very happily, is one of my earliest childhood memories. My daughter, who is 2, saw the single's cover pop up in the YouTube suggestions on my laptop screen a few weeks ago and specifically demanded this song to be played multiple times (she had seen the cover a few months earlier when we played it to her, and remembered it). So maybe Brian Wilson was onto something. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_My_Baby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_My_Baby [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Wilson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Wilson

matchagaucho 5y ago
It's fascinating to learn how Gold Star's echo chamber would change from day-to-day. Spector was clearly optimizing sessions, mic placements, and possibly even song tempos for the echo chamber. https://rulefortytwo.com/secret-rock-knowledge/chapter-12/ronettes-be-my-baby/ https://rulefortytwo.com/secret-rock-knowledge/chapter-12/ro...
jl6 5y ago
Wow, after reading that legendary endorsement, I listened to it for the first time. I don’t normally think of myself as a philistine, but I’m afraid it didn’t speak to me at all. Maybe you had to be there.
- HFguy 5y ago
  Exactly what you said. The issue is that it influenced everything that came after. So it doesn't sound novel now.
- dekhn 5y ago
  I've heard the song before but when back and listened to it. Sounds like many other terrible recordings from early 60s- terrible mix, terrible background noise, instruments can't be heard distinctly. Contrast Take Five, recorded live several years before. It's got some background noise but it's still so clear you can hear the creaking of the bass during the drum solo. Any track on Pet Sounds. Recorded only a few years later, and under heavy influence by Spector, it sounds so much dramatically better. Can anybody point out a better recorded example of Spector's wall of sound?
  - hubbardd 5y ago
    > Can anybody point out a better recorded example of Spector's wall of sound? "River Deep - Mountain High" is probably the pinnacle of the wall of sound that Spector did. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Lehkou2Do https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Lehkou2Do) That said, you aren't going to get the clarity you're accustomed to because of the layers and layers of sound required and the fact that up until the mid 60s you were dealing with only 2-3 track recording. The Beatles didn't get access to 8 tracks until late 1968 (Sgt. Peppers was done with two 4 track machines), and 16 tracks weren't common until the early 70s. Wilson did Pet Sounds by initially recording the backing tracks on a 4 track, piping that mono mix into track one of the new 8 track console Columbia had installed, and then using the remaining channels for vocals (one channel for each member) and sweetening. I'd say the best quality recording of Spector's wall of sound is "Let it Down". (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gyk_gvuIoI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gyk_gvuIoI) That said, if you've listened to Pet Sounds and "Wouldn't it be nice" then you've heard the wall of sound.

by lqet 5y ago

matchagaucho 5y ago

It's fascinating to learn how Gold Star's echo chamber would change from day-to-day. Spector was clearly optimizing sessions, mic placements, and possibly even song tempos for the echo chamber. https://rulefortytwo.com/secret-rock-knowledge/chapter-12/ronettes-be-my-baby/ https://rulefortytwo.com/secret-rock-knowledge/chapter-12/ro...

jl6 5y ago

Wow, after reading that legendary endorsement, I listened to it for the first time. I don’t normally think of myself as a philistine, but I’m afraid it didn’t speak to me at all. Maybe you had to be there.

HFguy 5y ago
Exactly what you said. The issue is that it influenced everything that came after. So it doesn't sound novel now.
dekhn 5y ago
I've heard the song before but when back and listened to it. Sounds like many other terrible recordings from early 60s- terrible mix, terrible background noise, instruments can't be heard distinctly. Contrast Take Five, recorded live several years before. It's got some background noise but it's still so clear you can hear the creaking of the bass during the drum solo. Any track on Pet Sounds. Recorded only a few years later, and under heavy influence by Spector, it sounds so much dramatically better. Can anybody point out a better recorded example of Spector's wall of sound?
- hubbardd 5y ago
  > Can anybody point out a better recorded example of Spector's wall of sound? "River Deep - Mountain High" is probably the pinnacle of the wall of sound that Spector did. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Lehkou2Do https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Lehkou2Do) That said, you aren't going to get the clarity you're accustomed to because of the layers and layers of sound required and the fact that up until the mid 60s you were dealing with only 2-3 track recording. The Beatles didn't get access to 8 tracks until late 1968 (Sgt. Peppers was done with two 4 track machines), and 16 tracks weren't common until the early 70s. Wilson did Pet Sounds by initially recording the backing tracks on a 4 track, piping that mono mix into track one of the new 8 track console Columbia had installed, and then using the remaining channels for vocals (one channel for each member) and sweetening. I'd say the best quality recording of Spector's wall of sound is "Let it Down". (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gyk_gvuIoI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gyk_gvuIoI) That said, if you've listened to Pet Sounds and "Wouldn't it be nice" then you've heard the wall of sound.