A song from another time

16 Responses to “A song from another time”

1. Josh
   July 24th, 2008 at 6:04 pm

   

   Ha! It did sound a little flat at 1:21. This is a nice rendition of Patience. I’m actually a little surprised that Scott Weiland would do a cover of a GnR song. Nice!

2. Dr. J
   July 24th, 2008 at 6:43 pm

   

   It sounds like they’re all tuned a half-step flat. I think it’s one guitar player’s E natural against the other’s F. (F vs. the F# in a D maj. chord, if you’re watching their hands). There’s a lot of hats being worn and smoking going on, too.

3. Ovidiu
   July 24th, 2008 at 7:32 pm

   

   And the one that sounds flat, I think is Slash himself, at that exact moment the camera is on his guitar neck and he seems to move forward half a step

   If this record would have become famous, would have been next to Nirvana’s guitar theme in The man who sold the world

4. Pat Darnell and Friends
   July 24th, 2008 at 11:43 pm

   

   But, but but…. wait a minnit in New York!! or versa vica:

   I just came from Sans’ page on the tuning issues… and some other intonation issues… it must be that time of the month. 1-3-5, and concert C, b flat on the B flat clarinet.. …and the subject page at Pribek’s, well forget about it in my universe.

   Now, reproduction tech has a flaw: replicate fade — more copies will result in loss of integrity.

   I have a had a rough ride through my personal experiences with recorded music history.

   Let me explain — Inheriting from my mother… I was born with perfect pitch, but cannot sing perfect pitch.. you know the type, I got half my Mother’s skills and twice as much as you. As I listened to vinyl and then tape then eight track, then cassette in my car, at home… … then I try to tune my guitar to what I am supposing is actual!! Not so. I tuned to exactly the frequencies of the turntable Hifi, etc. It was not to my or my mom’s pleasure. I remained stubbornly self oppressed about it, for a long time.

   Wow, I decided some where in time that I am a loser, and will never be able to tune a guitar. I went around grimacing every time I heard Sinatra records, “Man he sings flat!” A lot of people wanted me dead for that.

   You see those tapes had a flaw… they were a half step flat. So when I showed up at fellowship with a flat tuned ax, all the people looked at me like I was the last puppy at the pound; respectful but piteous.

   When did I discover this? When I heard my first CD. Guess what, Suite Judy Blue Eyes was for the first time ever on pitch to my bloody brain, and I weeped.

   How old was I at that time.. about thirty something. I am supposing that digital maintains integrity of tone better than all the other reproduction types.

   Now, in the YT subject, everything in the whole presentation is a hodge podge of flatness. Even the drums sound like they’re pushed through the community pool.

   I suspect something is amiss with the reproduction. Otherwise I would say the group here has provided a rendition that is worse than its original by GnR. I give this rendition a 1.5 or so… no grievances, just a little sad.

   My scale of music appreciation low to high:
   1 Grimace
   2 Nervous
   3 Eyes shut, nasal cavity resonating
   4 BTU at normal respiration of 3.14 btu per hour
   5 Sporadic Yawning
   6 Tingling Sensations from head to foot on one side
   7 Tingling “Ditto” on both sides
   8 Full frontal body resonating
   9 Entire body experiencing to point of dancing in the aisles
   10 Converging arts in cranium resulting in visions and edifications

5. Dr. J
   July 25th, 2008 at 7:21 am

   

   ” Full frontal body resonating”? That sounds a bit disturbing…

   

6. axlfuckinrose
   July 25th, 2008 at 7:31 am

   

   SW is brave, very brave. actually I dont like it, never will.

7. Ovidiu
   July 25th, 2008 at 8:53 am

   

   A lot of folks play half a step down, if you think about it. Actually while in GnR, Slash did the same and here I guess he had no reason to change it. Plus that is easier for the singer and has a lower tension in strings, which gives a nice sound to the guitar, if you listen to his guitar sound, I think the low tension in the string due to that half step down tune is also responsible for this.

   @Dr J: looking closely, indeed, Slash takes a F instead of a F# in D, you would have said that after all those years such mistakes are not easy to make, buy hey, we are all human, I guess nobody could say never played a flat note, right? I know it happened to me

   The interesting part is that he didn’t seem bothered by this and let this recording when I guess he could have taken another one.

   @axlfuckinrose: You need a bit of open attitude, at first I was very intrigued by his singing, now I appreciate the band as a whole and his voice works fine there and even if Patience is a song very dear to me, this version sounds interesting and I kind of like it.

8. axlfuckinrose
   July 25th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

   

   actually I cant never be “opened” when I hear this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbQvYgpRnd4

9. MG
   July 27th, 2008 at 6:19 am

   

   I like this version, Ovidiu. I thought that flat note might be just that acsending “harmony/root-third thing” he was getting into at that point.? Oh well.
   Uhhmm…I don’t get that Pat Darnell thing-wtf!?

10. Pat Darnell and Friends
    July 27th, 2008 at 6:36 pm

    

    It’s like this MG, I’m making a statement about quality :
    :this is and example of Ax’s only mentioned musical influence: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1c196_new-gospel-family_music

    :notice any similarities in the soloists and Axl?? Just screw down GnR stuff and there it is.

    The performers today, who have no musical talent like GnR, play a half step flat because they grew up copying tapes that are always technically inferior repro’s. Dupes, Duds, and 2% is the game now. I am only judging the performances and the growling going on now is like an amphibian drowning in a vat of alcohol.

    And I fully understand that most patrons are tone deaf… but

    Screaming and caterwauling is now a trend. My youngsters play the most awful sounding stuff and I ask them is that nice?

    That wtf means? why the flats?

    Ovidiu is right, the song Patience is absolutely beautiful, and I love its possibility but the out take here and with the original GNr is akin to a Buck Owens performance, the flattest in the West, God forgive them.

    Please look at the flatness factor as a high priority. The rhythm guitar seems off on two strings, tambourine is off on some tempo…

    This argument of mine comes from a long time love/hate relationship with Rock, and these guys are eat up bad. Usually a flat or sharp in a band situation is a “look at me” tactic, “I’m the solo act all the others are just clowns.”

    I am suggesting the flat fault theory is a de-evolutionary quirk, that most quality experts in other industries would stop the production lines.. no?

    Do you drive a Honda with flat tires?

11. MG
    July 28th, 2008 at 6:15 am

    

    Pat -no offense man-I was just a little confused about what you were trying to describe. I get it now! I think.

12. Ovidiu
    July 28th, 2008 at 9:25 am

    

    @MG: I don’t think it is an ascending note, this one sounds just plain flat

    @PD: PD isn’t it a bit too far away to say that he did this on purpose? I think the man just missed a note, look at the discussion here, I don’t know if he would have wanted to be the subject of this kind of discussions just to be the main act.

13. Pat Darnell and Friends
    July 28th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

    

    Yes, I am too far away, and do not like to get so wound up. I have a nephew, just 21, who just told me a bunch of stuff about his life so far. It is weighing heavily upon my mind, as his news follows the “anti” theme just like the anti-music, anti-harmony, anti-band… and I have too preteens left in the fold who of course look up to their cousin. It is complicated for me as father/uncle.

    So I see these performers in anti-performer mode… and I say lets git it on!! I understand that few, if any, will ever realize the destructive nature of a flat world; Not you guys, you brought up the point for discussion, and I respect you for that very much.

    I cannot watch another brainwashing in my lifetime. My heart and spirit has been broken too many times by so many friends and relations attempting the rock and roll lifestyle. The truth is who am I to tell someone who is successful monetarily that they are wrong?

    Sorry to anyone who is offended. Just call me the Lewis Black of flat noted recordings. My first songs were by Beethoven, Cole Porter, Dinah Shore, Joan Baez and Tijuana Brass; I bid farewell to concert C.

    Sincerely yours, a more humble Pat this AM, “lets move on… shall we?”
    “Ovidiu… what’s next?”

14. Ovidiu
    July 28th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    

    This “anti” thing is very interesting, the fact is that every new thing in art, philosophy, etc, usually comes by being against the ideas that previously existed. I guess it is also related to the age of people involved in, who in most of the cases are young and against everything their parents told them. The rebel kind. Well…they will have their own “anti” thing in just a few years, I guess.

15. wookie
    August 15th, 2008 at 1:40 am

    

    My band used to cover this song in the exact same fashion. We’d usually start our third of forth set with this song, just me and my guitar on stage doing the first chunk of the song. We’d skip the solo, and during the chords leading up to the final verse section (patience… yeahhhhh yeahh) the guys would walk on stage and we would exploding into the outro (I’ve been walking the streets at night…).

    However, as huge a Gunners fan I am, and as huge an STP fan I am (I have an STP tattoo), I really don’t like Weiland singing this. He seems to be over doing it. One of the things I love about the original is it feels so laid back even when Axl is wailing.

16. Ovidiu
    August 15th, 2008 at 9:45 am

    

    Yeah, you are right, Axl seems to make no effort singing this and the band either, the song is very relaxed. However, I think I like GNR version more, without drums and bass at the end, seems clearer.