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‘If you're gonna have a hit’: intratextual mixes and edits ofpop recordings

Walter Everett

Popular Music / Volume 29 / Issue 02 / May 2010, pp 229 - 250DOI: 10.1017/S026114301000005X, Published online: 16 June 2010

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S026114301000005X

How to cite this article:Walter Everett (2010). ‘If you're gonna have a hit’: intratextual mixes and edits of pop recordings.Popular Music, 29, pp 229-250 doi:10.1017/S026114301000005X

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‘If you’re gonna have a hit’:intratextual mixes and edits ofpop recordings

WALT E R E V E R E T TDepartment of Music Theory, University of MichiganE-mail: [email protected]

AbstractThis essay reviews alternate mixes and edited versions produced for numerous purposes over the pasthalf-century for stock singles, promotional singles, albums and reissues of all sorts, all evidencing aform of literary intertextuality of uniquely central importance to the record industry that has not pre-viously been covered systematically. These multiple texts resulting from different manipulations of asingle tape source exhibit what is termed intratextuality, leading to variations in composition, arran-ging and engineering. In addition, much of the essay’s discussion will document for scholars as wellas for fans a number of recordings whose continuing availability has been jeopardized by never hav-ing been reissued in CD format.

I am the Entertainer, I come to do my show.Heard my latest record spin on the radio?Aw, it took me years to write it; they were the best years of my life!

It was a beautiful song but it ran too long;If you’re gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit,

So they cut it down to 3:05.

Thus proclaims the fifth stanza of Billy Joel’s ‘The Entertainer’, a song from hissecond Columbia album, Streetlife Serenade (1974). Verse by verse, the song presentsa litany of the commercial pressures faced by an artist struggling to make his mark inthe record industry, as his work is commodified and otherwise compromised. ‘TheEntertainer’ was a first-person follow-up to the ostensibly autobiographical ‘PianoMan’, the title track of his previous album that had enjoyed US national airplay.Therefore, Columbia hoped to use this new tune in the promotion of Streetlife, andreleased ‘The Entertainer’ as a single for the widest possible exposure and to buildupon the narrative of Joel’s self-portrayal. There was one problem: its third stanzaincluded the rock star’s boasts, ‘I played all kinds of palaces, I laid all kinds ofgirls’, not appropriate for airplay in the necessary markets. So, as if in fulfilment ofthe composition’s prophecy, the offending verse was removed, thereby abridgingthe recording’s duration from its album length of 3′39ʺ to . . . if you followed the lyricsabove, you may not believe it: for the single, they cut it down to 3′05ʺ (see timings asindicated on the record labels shown in Figure 1).1

Many pop-rock recordings have had similar fates, if never so ironically, formany reasons. Others have enjoyed the benefits that come with alternative mixes,whether produced concurrently for different markets, or as the result of the

Popular Music (2010) Volume 29/2. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010, pp. 229–250

doi:10.1017/S026114301000005X

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revisitation of a classic track decades after its initial appearance. Both competinginterests and reflective insights are at work in the sometimes-friendly, sometimes-forced collaborations among composing and performing artists, record producers,artists, company management and radio programmers that may bring a pop record-ing from the recording studio to the marketplace in numerous simultaneous versions.

This article will review alternate mixes and edited versions produced for var-ious purposes over the past half century for stock singles, promotional singles,albums and reissues. These all evidence a negotiated form of intertextuality ofuniquely central importance to the record industry, a form that has not previouslybeen systematically reported upon by music scholars, while they also support amore informed perspective on the questions of ‘definitive versions’ and ‘authoritativetext’ that have interested researchers of popular music over recent decades.Intertextuality as a scholarly endeavour is ‘Julia Kristeva’s attempt to combineSausseurean and Bakhtinian theories of language and literature[, which] producedthe first articulation of intertextual theory, in the late 1960s’ (Allen 2000, p. 3). ForKristeva and her followers, every text is a largely unintended composite of referencesto prior discourses. Whereas the types of intertextuality to be explored in this essay

Figure 1. Selected vinyl pressings of ‘The Entertainer’. (a) LP label; (b) Mono promo; (c) Stereo stock copy.The matrix number for stereo single pressings is ZSS 159589; the mono mix appeared only on the promo(thus the ‘P’ in the matrix prefix).

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involve forms of authorial intention not presupposed in the classic sense of intertex-tual relations, my dependence upon this body of work is supported by – and to adegree suggested by – an interesting and highly relevant essay by Serge Lacasse.2

Whereas references will be made to the entire history of rock, most examples inthis examination will be taken from vinyl sources. In an age of viral music-making bywhich a recording artist can have any number of unknown freelance mash-up collab-orators (often by design), at a time when a consumer’s search for a simple songdownload results in point-of-sale offers of numerous quasi-documented and undif-ferentiated versions of a targeted recording (easily resulting in the inadvertent pur-chase of an unintended item), and with opportunities growing as unauthorisedreleases are available to scholars as never before, it is a propitious time to reviewthe practices of past decades (generally, but not exclusively, those given to vinylpressings) to see how we arrived at this point. This article takes steps towardssuch a review.

The creation of different mixes or edits of a recording for simultaneousexposure in different markets, exemplified by ‘The Entertainer’, is but one type ofa condition that might be called intratextuality, whereby a network of differingsonic products is traceable to a single source recording. Table 1 outlines the 10major types of intratextuality that can lead to this condition; the Joel track fallsunder Type 5 which, along with Type 4, forms the basis of the present article. To con-textualise these intratextual techniques, one might consider them alongside broaderforms of pop-music intertextuality. These latter would include very closely relatedtypes such as complete remakes required by lost master tapes or various contractualissues (as with Little Richard’s Vee Jay remakes of Specialty originals), hits remadeafter an artist joins a new band (The Great Society’s ‘White Rabbit’ redone byJefferson Airplane), live-vs.-concert and acoustic-vs.-electric versions of performances(Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out’ and Bob Dylan’s ‘George Jackson’,respectively), songs enjoying completely new conceptions years after their initialreception (Ani DeFranco’s Canon), medleys (Spyder Turner’s ‘Stand By Me’), andoverdubs added to tracks originally created by deceased ‘ghost’ superstars (NatalieCole’s overdubs onto Nat King Cole’s ‘Unforgettable’). Also related are more dis-tantly derivative categories such as radical recompositions under new titles, coverversions, musical quotations and plagiarism, stylistic borrowing and (attributed orsuspected) model composition, sampling from one recording into another, andhomage forms such as the break-in, parody, follow-up, sequel and answer songs.3(Of course, more ephemeral forms of multi-song reference exist, as in a listener’s link-ing one song with another that had once appeared adjacent to it in an obsolete albumsequence, or in that listener’s holding even more personal associations extrinsic toothers’ experiences.)

Type 4. Differing mixes of the same edit

Stock, promo, rush, reissue and 12ʺ pressings

Before continuing with particulars about the simultaneous appearances of variedmixes, I should define each of the different sorts of single 45-rpm pressings onwhich they would appear. ‘Stock’ singles are those copies manufactured for bothjukebox play and home consumption. They are warehoused and retailed, either

‘If you’re gonna have a hit’ 231



through mass shipments to dedicated record stores, or distributed by rack-jobbers togeneral outlets such as department stores.4 In some cases, stock copies would berush-released with a provisional label (see an example in Figure 2), but not to my

Table 1. Ten types of intratextuality in recorded popular music, classified as to original sources and thealterations they undergo.

(1) Discarded preliminary mixes (such as those test pressings found on production acetatesnow commanding a premium on the collector’s market) as compared to final, officiallyreleased, mixes. Examples would include rejected mixes such as that of ‘Revolution 9’appearing on the bootleg CD, Revolution, The Beatles (Yellow Dog).

(2) Advance singles rushed into the market sometimes months before an album has beenfully prepared and thus often missing overdubs found on the later releases or containingparts later mixed out of standard releases. A representative example would be thediffering guitar solos in stereo mixes for single (charting 21 March 1970) and album (30May 1970) releases of the Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’.

(3) Long album tracks divided into two parts (one for each side of a single). There is a longhistory of ‘Part I’/‘Part II’ singles from Ray Charles’s ‘I Got a Woman’ (1955) throughmany of James Brown’s hits in the 1960s and 1970s to a number of top-five disco singles inthe 1970s. At 8′47ʺ (it’s marked 8:40), Guns ’n’ Roses’ ‘November Rain’ (1992) is probablythe 7-inch single of longest uninterrupted duration to enter Billboard’s charts.

(4) Contrasting stereo-vs.-mono, demo-vs.-stock copy, and other concurrent releases ofdiffering mixes of the same edit.

(5) Differing edits (sometimes clever and useful, at other times unfortunate) of the samerecording, including expurgated versions, aimed at contrasting markets.

(6) Ultra-‘transparent’ mixes as in quadraphonic and 5.1 surround-sound formats, andunauthorised releases of individual tracks from pre-master multi-track tapes. Quadmixessometimes end up as bonus tracks on CD reissues, as with ‘Wind Up’ appearing on JethroTull’s Aqualung. Queen’s ‘You’re My Best Friend’ is given in 5.1 sound in the ‘30thAnniversary Collector’s Edition’ of A Night at the Opera. The four individual multi-tracksfor each of four songs from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band appearseparately in the 2007 Phony Chick bootleg, Magical Mystery Year, Vol. 2.

(7) Contemporaneous remakes for release (such as instrumental backing tracks receivingnew sets of lyrics) and multiple-format dance mixes and dubs of various structures.Examples of the first sub-type include the many regional lyrics given to TommyFacenda’s 1959 hit, ‘High School USA’, additions of foreign-language vocals to the samebacking tracks in hits by the Beatles (‘Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand’) and Mary Hopkin(‘Le Temps des Fleurs’, ‘Quelli Erano Giorni’), and Cream’s re-use of the instrumentaltracks recorded for ‘Lawdy Mama’ with new lyrics in ‘Strange Brew’. Dance dubs of the1980s would be marketed in many simultaneous versions as remixed by Phil Kelsey,Jellybean Benitez, Arthur Baker, Ben Grosse, Shep Pettibone and others.

(8) After-the-fact remakes by original artists. These would include such approaches as FrankZappa’s re-cut bass lines for many CD releases of early Mothers albums and MarkRonson’s 2007 ‘Re-Version’ of ‘Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)’, whichputs a completely new instrumental accompaniment to Bob Dylan’s original vocalrecording.

(9) Recordings as adapted for promotional video and as appropriated by others forexploitative quotation in television commercials, political campaigns, etc. These wouldnot include the ‘soundalike’ recordings made in attempts to circumvent licensingrestrictions, but rather such adaptations as often-spasmodic truncations of originalrecordings.

(10) Collaborativemash-ups, authorised or not. DangerMouse’s ‘Grey’Album (which adds thevocals of Jay-Z’s The Black Album to instrumental samples from the Beatles’ ‘White’Album)opened the floodgates in 2004, leading to the current practice of some artists releasingindividual tracks for consumers’ recombinations with other sources throughaudio-editing software such as Cubase or Logic Pro.

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knowledge carrying any recording other than the one on the eventual hitboundpressing. The label and dead wax would often carry the matrix number, which ident-ified the master take documented as such on the studio log and tape box and given tothe lathe operator so the proper recording would be mass-produced.5

Sometimes the stock single would be distributed to radio station programmedirectors for airplay but, more often, broadcasters would be given specially markedpromotional discs, known as promos, demos (‘demonstration’ discs) or DJ copies.Promos are sometimes referred to as ‘white label’ copies, misleading in that theirlabels were only sometimes white, and leading also to confusion with the plainappearance of many rush copies. Some variation of ‘not for sale’ would be printedor stamped on these DJ copies to make it clear that no gifts of value were exchangedfor programming promises. This was a response to the late-1950s ‘payola’ scandal inwhich certain US record companies were found to have made undisclosed paymentsto radio programme directors and on-air personalities for plugging their product.These promotional discs frequently contained mixes and edits varying significantlyfrom those on stock releases which would often, in turn, differ from album mixesof the same recording. One major reason for the difference was the fact that singlesalmost always contained mono mixes as against the stereo mixes heard on most LPs,until early 1968 when the Rascals’ ‘A Beautiful Morning’ and the Doors’ ‘Hello, ILove You’ blazed the trail of stereo 45s. (AM radio, the primary outlet for top-40 pro-motion, could only broadcast monophonically.) At times, stereo and mono mixeswould differ only in terms of relatively minor qualities such as compression and bal-ance, whereas in other cases the mix would be substantially different. Also of interestto collectors and researchers is the fact that poor-selling singles are sometimes veryhard to find in their stock format, even though DJ copies (normally with far fewercopies having been pressed) are not always hard to come by. This is the situationwith such recordings as the Paul Winter Consort’s ‘Icarus’, an instrumental numberplayed unannounced by many radio stations as a bumper between programme seg-ments, but a record that failed to break Billboard’s weekly ‘Hot 100’ chart (seeFigure 3). Another such instance is Ringo Starr’s ‘Drowning in the Sea of Love’, anon-hit released by Atlantic in 1978. In this case, the company tried valiantly to

Figure 2. Vinyl single releases of ‘Dark Horse’. (a) Rush copy; (b) Stock copy. (The photo of the stock copy,printed in very light blue, has been enhanced for both contrast and brightness.)




promote the record so DJ copies are fairly abundant, but consumers were uninter-ested so the few stock copies that made it to the marketplace were returned andmelted down, thereby becoming one of the scarcest pieces of Beatle vinyl offeredfor general release. Similarly, one can find DJ copies of the Mothers of Invention’s1966 single ‘Who Are the Brain Police’ for a price, but the stock copy eludes eventhe most persistent collector. Usually, DJ discs would pair the same A- and B-sidesas on the stock copies (occasionally allowing the radio industry to overturn a recordcompany’s decision as to which side would be intended for broadcast, as was donewith Steam’s inadvertent 1969 hit, ‘Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye’) but, as thesame hits came to be played on both AM and FM stations by the late 1960s, promodiscs would tend to pair mono and stereo mixes, or short and long versions of thesame song.

Aside from stock, rush and DJ copies, one must also be aware of the reissue for-mat. Once a hit dropped off the charts, it would become a candidate for re-release,often in a back-to-back-hit arrangement that would pair two reissues (almost alwaysby the same artist) for the price of one. These reissues were usually re-pressings of thehit single mixes, but alternatively they could establish the album version as the sub-sequently uniformly marketed mix. Once a hit faded into memory, the dedicated pro-motional mix was almost never heard again. Oldies were also heavily sold throughthe 1970s as stock cutouts, signified by 0.4-cm diameter holes drilled through thelabel identifying those discs as ones marked down as bargains and non-returnableto the manufacturer. It might also be mentioned here that masters would beowned by the original record company until sold, but that these recordings wouldoften be leased by indies and majors alike to outside parties, an arrangement particu-larly prevalent with the scaling back of vinyl pressing in the 1990s. Third-partyreissues would usually be based on hit single masters until late into the 1980s,when mono recordings all but disappeared from even the 7ʺ format (except incases where the mono master was the only one available). In at least one case, anew edit was created for a reissue: the Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’ (1967) was a hugehit on both FM and AM radio, the AM outlets playing the mono version (2:52)that eliminated the organ and guitar solos heard on the FM-broadcast album

Figure 3. Demo disc of ‘Icarus’.

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(6:50). When the track was reissued as an ‘oldies’ single in Elektra’s ‘Spun Gold’series in 1971, two new stereo edits (one at 3:02 for the American reissue, the otherat 3:04 for Canadian release) were pressed into service, both deleting most of thesolo break and thus simulating a stereo version of the original hit. Additionally, lar-gely with the emergence of disco, the mid-1970s brought the arrival of the 12ʺ single,which would allow for extended mixes and even multiple versions on the same disc.

Mono-vs.-stereo mixes

Sometimes a single’s mono mix would be balanced differently from the stereo album.In the Moody Blues’ ‘Another Morning’ (the 1968 B-side of ‘Tuesday Afternoon’), forinstance, the lead vocal is much louder in relation to the band for the 45 than it is forthe LP. As a similarly minor adjustment, promotional records would tend to featuremixes whose dynamic range was highly compressed and whose signal was boostedin midrange frequencies for more satisfactory AM broadcast, particularly in consider-ation of low-quality reproduction and listening environments such as found withhand-held and car radios. For this reason, the promo mix of Simon andGarfunkel’s ‘Mrs. Robinson’ (1968) has a louder and punchier bass drum than isheard in the stereo album mix, and the single pressing of Led Zeppelin’s‘Immigrant Song’ (1970) is far more compressed and fills a narrower EQ bandthan the version heard on the full-range album.

Somewhat more interesting are differences that distinguish mono from stereomixes of the same edit. Some producers, notably Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, pre-ferred a monophonic product because they could exercise no control over the balanceof two stereo channels when reproduced from disc. In addition, portions of a stereoprogram can be altered, sometimes to catastrophic effect, when a centered image ispartly or fully cancelled due to waveform phasing that results particularly in largespaces when a listener is much closer to one loudspeaker than to the other. But stereodid not become an industry standard until the late 1960s; George Martin often saidthat the Beatles would not even be present for stereo mixing sessions through most oftheir career. The group’s first album, Please Please Me, was recorded live on two tracksin order to enable balancing of vocals against most of the instruments for the monorelease, resulting in an unsatisfying ‘stereo mix’ for a limited pressing that totally sep-arated the two working tracks. The 1987 CD releases of Help! and Rubber Soul weregiven new digital mixes to replace sub-standard stereo mixes originally done in 1965.When their recordings were first prepared for American release, not only were Beatlealbums compiled with different songs from those found on their UK counterparts,and not only were they given a great deal of added reverb (so as to satisfy a differenttaste from that characteristic of British listeners), but Dave Dexter, EMI’s Hollywoodproducer, created ‘duophonic’ stereo mixes by artificially separating new channelsfrom monophonic sources by frequency band, making for a high channel and a lowchannel. This abysmal presentation was characteristic of most of the Beatles’ early‘stereo’ albums on Capitol (see Spizer 2000, 245–54).

Aside from earlier effects such as motorcycles crossing the soundstage, stereoexperimentation began in 1966 with Tom Dowd’s work for Atlantic with theYoung Rascals, notably in the ‘One! Two! Three!’ count-in to ‘Good Lovin’’, whichcriss-crossed the two-channel divide in rapid fire motion.6 This sort of stereo effectemerged just in time to encourage all sorts of trippy psychedelic effects (including




phasing, Leslie speakers, exotic filtering and tremolo) for headphone-inspiring artistssuch as Jimi Hendrix, the Moody Blues and Led Zeppelin. Panning quickly became ahallmark of drum-set mixing; by 1969 (see the Beatles’ ‘The End’ and Blood, Sweat &Tears’ ‘And When I Die’), multiple microphones were required to best capture adrummer’s work, and the resulting individual sonorities would be bussed7 to differ-ent placements in the stereo image. This approach to drums became an industry stan-dard, so that even tracks like Boney M’s ‘Ma Baker’ (1977) feature highly panneddrums on the ‘Remix I’ CD but not at all on the original stereo 45.

Digital remixes of older product often feature newly panned elements. This takesadvantage of the fact that automated mixing need not be done in real time; all elementsof the mix can be programmed in any order following lots of experimentation, whereasthe final mix made in analogue mastering would have to be performed live, all handsworking the pots, faders and switches as the tape spooled by – often requiring manyrehearsal takes to get a complex mix just right. Digital remastering thus features farmore varied approaches to the stereo image than did earlier mixes, whether the pro-gramme is as conservative as the Carpenters’ ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ (1970; notethe newly sparkling high-register piano work, the louder bass, the gradual fading-down of the piano, and the altered clarinet and piano staging in the 1991 revision)or as radical as Megadeth’s ‘Remixed and Remastered’ series (2002+, with wonderfulcritical notes by Dave Mustaine). All-new transparency is bestowed on old recordingsby 5.1 surround sound, as with the 1999 Yellow Submarine Songtrack mixes made for awide array of Beatle songs.

Muting and other remixing effects

Of still potentially greater interest are variants in muting. In the final composition ofa 4-, 8- or 16-track working tape that may have been built up with layer upon layer ofoverdubs by any number of performers, many components may be captured hereand there that are later chosen for exclusion from released mixes. This is not doneby erasing the passages in the working tape, but by preventing their transfer tothe final mix by zeroing the fader for that given track at the desired moment duringthe reduction of the working tape to the one- or two-channel master. It is this processthat allows two different guitar solos in the two different stereo mixes of the Beatles’‘Let It Be’: one for the 45 (currently part of Past Masters) and the other for the album(Let It Be). The 8-track working tape of ‘Let It Be’ contains alternate solos from bothGeorge Harrison (coloured by his Leslie cabinet) and John Lennon; only the formerwas mixed into the single, and only the latter appeared on the album.

The edited mono 45 mix (3:13) of the Grateful Dead’s ‘Truckin’’ (1970) hascompletely different lead guitar work by Jerry Garcia from that heard in thesame take’s appearance (at 5:09) a year later on American Beauty; this is more likelythe result of the muting of different tracks in a mix than of a later recording repla-cing an earlier one. In the Beatles’ ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ (1966), the mono and stereomixes feature different portions of the working tape track devoted to backwardsguitar, because different passages were muted out for each mix. Also note howthe mono mix of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Time Is On My Side’ (1964) features a bent-string guitar intro by Brian Jones that is muted out of the stereo intro.Alternative guitar solos can be heard in Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’(1973), as elements of the 16-track working tape are laid bare in Roger Glover’s

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1998 remastering of Machine Head.8 One astounding pair of mixes is that for theMoody Blues’ ‘Question’ (1970), whose single version opens with solo diminished-seventh chords on an acoustic 12-string, all obscured by Mellotron and other bandparts which spell the chords differently on the album mix. Muting allows for a mas-sive edit in the case of the 45 ‘Total Mass Retain’, the advance single (chartingAugust 1972, with a timing of 3:16) for Yes’s Close to the Edge LP (October 1972,taken from a sidelong suite at 18:50). The single mix jumps from the album’s open-ing ‘rainforest’ effects to the line ‘I get up’ through a transitional use of the phrase‘Seasons will pass you by’, which phrase lacks the vocals heard on the album. Thealbum’s vocal parts are muted out of the transition, allowing the single somethingof a fresh start.

Muting can cover a multitude of sins. The original mono mix of theBuckinghams’ ‘Kind of a Drag’ (1966) was not marred by the rhythmically flabbyand intonationally sharp trumpet solo that engineers neglected to mute out ofthe stereo mix. Early expurgated censorings would simply mute out offendingwords, such as the ‘Goddamn’ that does not appear in the stock single of theGrateful Dead’s ‘Uncle John’s Band’ (1970). Radio stations had to take it uponthemselves to bleep out the hook-carrying ‘Christ!’ expletive in the Beatles’ ‘TheBallad of John and Yoko’ (1969). The Steve Miller Band’s ‘Jet Airliner’ (1977) wasan early and quaintly mild example of a band producing tacit ‘clean’ and ‘explicit’versions of the same take; where the album version sang of ‘funky shit goin’ downin the city’, the hit single was a bit more incongruous (and laughable) in celebrating‘funky kicks goin’ down in the city’. Sometimes muting produces other sorts ofminor variants, as when Janis Joplin’s vocal is heard double-tracked on the 45but sole-voiced in stereo in Big Brother and the Holding Co.’s ‘Down On Me’(1968). Those familiar with the stereo stock-single version of the Doors’ ‘TouchMe’ (1969), or its mono promo as played on the radio, were surprised to hearAjax cleanser’s advertising catchphrase ‘Stronger Than Dirt’ intoned at the end ofthe stereo mix for The Soft Parade, as these words had been muted from the well-known hit mixes.

In some cases, wholesale remixes produced muting variations among a host ofother differences. The Grateful Dead’s albums Anthem of the Sun (1968) andAoxomoxoa (1969) were highly experimental blends of unconventional studio andlive concert recordings; the simultaneous use of two full drum sets was small pota-toes among the challenges faced. Only years after the records’ initial release didband members and engineers have a strong sense of a desired texture, so bothalbums were remixed in 1971, reducing the status of the previous stereo mixes tothat of archival artefacts. Nilsson’s 1971 album, Aerial Pandemonium Ballet,reworked the mixes of selections from his first two albums, Pandemonium ShadowShow and Aerial Ballet. It became fashionable in the 1980s to mark singles as contain-ing mixes not heard elsewhere; borrowing from the dance-mix tradition, main-stream artists such as Billy Joel (‘Keeping the Faith [Special Mix]’, 1985 and ‘AllAbout Soul [Remix]’, 1993) would frequently release singles with instrumentalparts not heard in the better known album versions. And later mixes could alsosatisfy a scholarly curiosity, as when the vocal parts of the Beach Boys’‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ (on a 1996 three-selection EP from Sub Pop) or the Beatles’‘Because’ (Anthology 3, 1996) would appear without the distractions of the mutedinstrumental backing, a technique predictive of such future made-for-remixing acappella productions as Jay-Z’s Black Album (2003).




Type 5. Differing edits of the same recording

Whereas varying mixes of the same recording can lead to strong intratextual con-trasts, greater variations are provided by differing edits, particularly those pressedon tightly constrained singles as opposed to more forgiving albums. Passages ran-ging in length from isolated sonorities to multiple formal sections could be excised.Many cuts were made to tame an album-length song for the radio-friendly confinesof three minutes or less, or to mark improvisatory instrumental passages asextraneous; the scalpel might reduce excess effectively or inflict real damage.9 Andthe need to adapt programmes to physical limitations was one that vexed earlyrecord producers, beginning with attempts to capture symphonic works on multiplesides of 78s (the binding together of multiple discs in a unified package leading to thedesignation ‘album’). Both of these issues – limitations of both physical and market-ing formats – came together in at least one 1954 release, the Listener’s Digest of con-densed classical recordings in a 10-EP set which presented edited versions ofBeethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky for the listener who did not need developmentsections.10

Edits to the coda

I will classify and discuss recording edits as to what portions of a composition maybe excised or altered, beginning with more ‘exterior’ passages, the coda and the intro,moving then to more essential parts of songs. Many codas involve a refrain that maybe repeated nine times or more. Usually, if one mix fades earlier than the other, theshorter version belongs to the single, the longer one to the album. This is true of suchsongs as Bob Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ (1965; the single is marked 6:00 but isactually about 5:55), the Association’s ‘Never My Love’ (1967), the Who’s ‘I CanSee For Miles’ (1967) and the Small Faces’ ‘Itchycoo Park’ (1967). But theSupremes’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ (1966) and Glen Campbell’s ‘Wichita Lineman’(1968) reverse this norm, with longer single fades than heard on the albums. Atleast one such variation was produced many years after the fact: although theBeatles’ ‘Hey Jude’ (1968) appeared at 7:11 in both original mono single and stereoalbum mixes, this song’s mantra-like coda was shaved down by more than two min-utes to fit the Beatles’ biggest hit, now 5:05, onto the 1982 compilation, 20 GreatestHits. Santana’s ‘Evil Ways’ (1970) was faded out by Columbia’s engineers halfwaythrough the album’s song-ending guitar solo, paring 3:17 down to the single’s2:35. Some coda cuts were made for promo versions; the Moog conclusion toEmerson, Lake & Palmer’s ‘Lucky Man’ (1971) is cut completely from the DJ copy(marked ‘short version’; see Figure 4), appearing as 4:36 on the mono stock singleand 3:33 on the promo. The single version of ELP’s ‘Nutrocker’ (1972) could havebeen reduced in any number of ways from the album edit, which threads togetherthree blues choruses, a half-minute drum solo and other repeated passages; but itis intact except for the removal of 40 seconds of crowd roaring from the end.Oddly, the single mix (3:58) of Steely Dan’s ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’(1974) fades the outro just a few seconds prior to the LP’s cold ending (at 4:07).Was this to give the radio announcer a heads-up and the bed for a voice-over?

These very commonly differing versions are produced not with hard edits (buttsplices) but with differently timed manipulations of pan pots or sliding faders on themixing board. However, some singles did require edits for different endings: the

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Rolling Stones’ ‘Dandelion’ and the Rascals’ ‘It’s Wonderful’, both from 1967, areexamples. ‘Dandelion’ fades out only to be followed by a brief snippet of thesingle’s B-side, ‘We Love You’, which briefly fades in and out. When the recordis flipped, the conclusion of ‘We Love You’ is answered by a fading-in and -outof a moment of ‘Dandelion’. (These mixes are both responses to the Beatles’ fadingout-and-in-and-out a few months earlier at the end of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.)The Rascals single omits a 40-second free-for-all of sound effects, party horns andkazoos preserved on the album, Once Upon a Dream.11 Whereas Fleetwood Macsingle versions of ‘Over My Head’ (1975), ‘Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win)’ (1976)and ‘Say You Love Me’ (1976) all fade more quickly than do their album mixes,that of ‘Rhiannon’ excises only the beginning of the outro, so as to preserve StevieNicks’s vocal improv at the end. Similarly creative splicing reduces the ending ofBoston’s ‘Peace of Mind’ (1977), taking 4:55 down to 3:38. The single of Kansas’‘Carry On Wayward Son’ (1976) is however hurt by the removal of the coda’s guitarsolo (as well as parts of the intro, the interlude between the first chorus and secondverse, half of the distorted guitar/organ-solo break and half of the main riff), as thetrack is cut from 5:13 to 3:26. No lyrics were harmed during the making of thissingle.

Figure 4. Single releases of ‘Lucky Man’. (a) Mono side of promo (white); (b) Stereo side of promo (lightblue); (c) Longer stock copy (note relatively early matrix number as compared to promos).




The crossfade

More difficult for an engineer to adjust is the pair of tracks joined by an album’scrossfade, when one of the pair is chosen for a single. Thus, the acoustic-guitarintro to the Beatles’ ‘A Day In the Life’was trimmed for a 1978 single release, becausethe recording was taken from the stereo master for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts ClubBand (on which source the song enters via crossfade from the reprise of the titletrack), rather than having been remixed from the 4-track working tape, which pro-cedure was performed for the 2006 LOVE remix. Similarly, the crossfaded tracks inthe Moody Blues’ Days of Future Passed (1968) led to issues when ‘Nights In WhiteSatin’, ‘Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)’, and ‘Another Morning’ wereselected as singles from the album. Each new mix abruptly avoids orchestral tran-sitions that were mastered with crossfades for the album. ‘Tuesday’ fares particularlybadly, fading out prematurely on the chorus’s half cadence. Oddly, the single mix ofThe Who’s ‘Overture to Tommy’ (1969) fades out about 10 seconds into the album’sacoustic guitar preparation for ‘Captain Walker’, instead of ending cold, which couldhave been easily achieved by remastering from the original working tape. Yes’s‘Long Distance Runaround’ (1972) is edited for the single with a new cold ending,whereas the album, Fragile, has this song crossfade into ‘The Fish (SchindleriaPraematurus)’. In each of these cases, all appearing long before the dawn of digitalmixing, it was probably thought that the hard-won stereo album mix could not besatisfactorily simulated with a new attempt, so there was no desire to return to theworking tapes simply to avoid crossfades that could be trimmed away, even if thesingle edit was left with an awkward beginning or ending.

Cuts to the intro and interior passages

The beginning of an album’s mix often had to be trimmed for the single; the oppositewas much more rare. Table 2 indicates the wide variety of approaches taken in suchcases. As for excisions of interior material, this could happen in the case of removalsof words and phrases, or whole sections such as verses, choruses, bridges or instru-mental solos, as evidenced in Billy Joel’s ‘The Entertainer’. A most bizarre instance ofthe removal of two words exists in a 1970s Brazilian reissue of the Beatles’ ‘PennyLane’. Only this pressing excises the phrase ‘in summer’ by splicing directly from‘four of fish and finger pies’ to ‘meanwhile back . . .’. Conceivably the result of atape defect, the blip might rather have been caused by local EMI executives havinggotten wind of an offending vulgarism at this point in the song, and their tape oper-ator then mistakenly removing ‘in summer’ instead of ‘finger pies’12 (see Figure 5).Other anomalous Beatle edits are of interest, such as ‘She’s Leaving Home’ (1967).All releases of this song omit a single bar of solo cello originally performed justbefore each returning verse, a recurring edit revealed by the bootleg release of therecording’s working tracks in Magical Mystery Year Vol. 2.13 In ‘I’ll Cry Instead’(1964), two different mono edits (with durations of 1:43 on the American monorelease of Something New and 2:04 on the British mono version of A Hard Day’sNight) were released, each cobbled together from the beginnings and endings ofdifferent takes. The two versions’ splices occur at different structural points in thesong, the fourth verse (a repeat of the first) variously present or absent. Laterexamples of excised song sections include Chic’s ‘Le Freak’ (1978, a 5:28 versionincluding choruses not heard in the 3:30 edit), David Bowie’s ‘China Girl’ (1983,

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the 5:32 album version containing a last verse/chorus combination and a second gui-tar solo cut from the 4:14 hit) and the Rolling Stones’ ‘Saint of Me’ (1998, the 4:08single edit bypassing a second bridge included in the 5:14 album cut as well as fadinga full minute earlier). When different edits of simultaneously released versions omitone section or another, the first verse seems to be sacrosanct, later parts expendable.

Excised instrumental passages

When different edits are marketed to different audiences, instrumental-only passagesare the interior sections that drop most often by far to the cutting room floor. Perhapsout of fear of boredom, perhaps simply as a time-conscious expedient or perhaps inrecognition of the fantasia quality that parenthesises the sometimes lofty achieve-ments of an improvisatory soloist, this apparently ‘optional’ passage is frequentlythe major difference between commercial radio and consumer album edits. Just assome fans prefer the risky spontaneity of a live performance over the safe and clinicalsheen of a studio production, fans and critics alike will typically deride the excisionof any instrumental improvisation, whether exquisite or vapid, particularly becausefor many in the album buying market, the song itself (lyrics, verses, choruses) is oftenlittle more than a vehicle for a transfigurative solo. Table 3 lists a representativesampling of recordings in which instrumental sections may or may not appear inintratextual edits.

Recordings featuring multiple edits

A substantial proportion of records were released with versions containing or omit-ting combinations of the approaches discussed above. Table 4 presents a sampling of

Table 2. Various approaches taken to the trimming of a recording’s introduction.

Bobby Lewis, ‘Tossin’ and Turnin’’ (1961) [stereo edit has a slow, unmeasured intro, ‘Baby,baby, you did something to me’, excised from the mono single mix]

Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, ‘The Lonely Bull (El Solo Torro)’ (1962) [album’s openingbullring effects are trimmed away for the single]

The Rolling Stones, ‘She’s a Rainbow’ (1967) [album mix opens with 1′08ʺ of ‘We Wish You aMerry Christmas’ played on two oscillators, and then a spoken szena, all cut from the single]

The Amboy Dukes, ‘Journey to the Center of Your Mind’ (1968) [introductory rhythm guitarfiguration is cut from 13 seconds to 4, then the lead guitar’s repeated gesture is cut to a singleiteration, for an economical edit]

Big Brother & The Holding Company, ‘Piece of My Heart’ (1968) [single splices out bars 4–5 ofthe intro, rewriting the introductory gesture]

The Guess Who, ‘American Woman’ (1970) [single omits the album’s opening acoustic-guitarboogie on ‘AmericanWoman, gonna mess your mind’; album version sounds like an artificialjoining of an early acoustic demo to the final master]

Emerson, Lake & Palmer, ‘From the Beginning’ (1972) [single cuts the album’s opening acousticguitar’s tastar de corde, even though it retains the later expansive electric-guitar and Moogsolos]

B.T. Express, ‘Express’ (1975) [single cuts an entire early section from the album version,reducing 5′00ʺ to 3′25ʺ]

Dire Straits, ‘Money for Nothing’ (1985) [single cuts 1′01ʺ from the intro by fading into the last ofthe album edit’s four hearings of ‘I want my MTV’]




these; a few will be discussed here but others are listed without comment, leaving itto the reader to discover the nature of the edits. Note that Jimi Hendrix’s name doesnot appear here. This is no oversight; Hendrix’s singles (including ‘Purple Haze’,‘Foxey Lady’, ‘Up From the Skies’, ‘All Along the Watchtower’, ‘CrosstownTraffic’, ‘Freedom’ and ‘Dolly Dagger’) were produced with the hit market inmind and added unchanged to albums that would also include more expansivetracks. Led Zeppelin singles (‘Living Loving Maid’, ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Rock andRoll’ among them) were also typically identical to album edits. David Bowie, onthe other hand (as in ‘Young Americans’, ‘TVC-15’, ‘Let’s Dance’ and ‘ModernLove’), would often appear on singles lacking multiple sections that were retainedon albums.

Some of the listed edits are straightforward; that of ‘House of the Rising Sun’cuts one verse and the beginning and ending of the organ solo (exhibiting ratherpoor splicing); and, as if desperate to clock in under three minutes, the organfades out just seconds before the now more familiar cold ending on the ninthchord. ‘Just Like a Woman’ excises the verse referring to ‘her fog, her amphetamineand her pearls’, but ‘Truckin’’ keeps a verse that includes the line, ‘living on reds,

Figure 5. Single releases of ‘Penny Lane’. (a) Brazilian reissue (late 1970s?); (b) Original Peruvianstock copy; (c) US promo disc (note 3:00 timing); (d) US stock copy (truncated timing reflects lack oftrumpet tag).

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vitamin C and cocaine’, cutting instead two other verses, two choruses and a bridge. In‘White Room’, Clapton’s mercuric solo is cut by a half-minute, adding insult to the lossof the third verse (‘At the party . . .’), the following chorus (‘I’ll sleep in this place . . .’)and the ensuing 5/4 tattoo of violas, guitars and timpani.14 In ‘You Can’t Always GetWhat You Want’, the single omits the opening boys’ choir among other sections. JimGordon’s name as co-songwriter is retained on the original ‘Layla’ single, even thoughhis contribution, the instrumental coda, does not appear on that disc; it was reinstatedfor the 1972 single re-release. It’s interesting that the 1971 single, featuring onlyClapton’s portion of the composition, stalled at #51 on the Billboard charts, whereasthe full, epiphanal Clapton–Gordon edit rose to #10 14 months later. Dramatic vign-ettes based on wrongful street arrests are cut from both ‘Living for the City’ and‘The Message’, lending these singles the quality of pale reminiscences of the significantcorresponding album versions.

More problematic are records that feature structural recompositions of longsuite-like songs. On Days of Future Passed, ‘Tuesday Afternoon’ is essentially twosongs (the second of which might be called ‘Evening Time to Get Away’) bridged

Table 3. A selection of recordings released in forms both with and without instrumental passages.

Donovan, ‘Sunshine Superman’ (1966) [an early blues-rock guitar solo by Jimmy Page isreduced from 29 seconds to 11 in original album and single releases (3:15), but restored for a1968 reissue (4:31) that also retains a once-lost repeated verse]

The Doors, ‘Light My Fire’ (1967) [discussed above]The Buckinghams, ‘Susan’ (1967) [DJ copy removes appropriated snippets of Varèse heard onstock single and album]

Tommy James & the Shondells, ‘Crimson and Clover’ (1968) [single includes bass passage notheard on LP but omits the pedal steel solo and what one friend would refer to as the ‘goatgland’ guitar solo, so named for its heavy wah]

Led Zeppelin, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ (1969) [promo issued with ‘Short Version’ (3:12) and ‘LongVersion’ (5:33), the pick-scraping guitar solo being the main difference]

Chicago, ‘Does Anybody Really KnowWhat Time It Is’ (1970) [single omits album’s piano solo]Santana, ‘Oye Como Va’ (1971) [single (2:59) cuts three of the album’s (4:17) contiguous interiorinstrumental sections including a wild Hammond solo, but keeps Carlos Santana’s workintact]

Deodato, ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ (1973) [single (5:06) cuts all of Clarke’s bass solo andmost ofDeodato’s Wurlitzer and Tropea’s guitar solos heard on the album (9:01)]

The Grateful Dead, ‘Sugar Magnolia’ (1973) [single is an edited version of the May 1972Olympia Theatre performance, greatly shortening Jerry’s lead solo preserved in Europe ’72]

Pink Floyd, ‘Money’ (1973) [cuts first and third guitar solos as well as the album’s spokenconversational loops]

The Trammps, ‘That’s Where the Happy People Go’ (1976) [stock single features both short andlong versions at 3:14 and 4:56, omitting the first three electric piano breaks and the firstviolin-section break on the A-side]

Steely Dan, ‘Deacon Blues’ (1978) [both stock and promo discs run 6:40, cutting the first 10 barsof the tenor sax solo and the first 16 bars of the instrumental coda as heard on the LP (7:33)]

Donna Summer, ‘Last Dance’ (1978) [single cuts two different instrumental breaks]The Knack, ‘My Sharona’ (1979) [Collectables reissue 45 pairs original single edit (3:58) with thealbum mix (4:52); short version keeps entire 23-second long minor-pentatonic guitar solo butcuts 53 seconds from the later 1′34ʺ major-mode guitar solo]

Herbie Hancock, ‘Rockit’ (1983) [‘Instant Classics’ reissue 45 pairs 3:54 single mix with 5:22album version, the latter containing two successive instrumental choruses of the main tunenot heard on the single]




by an orchestral transition. The single fades out before the first section is completed.The single edit of ‘Make Me Smile’ bypasses five of the album’s seven continuoussuite parts, one of which, ‘Colour My World’, is extracted for the hit’s B-side. ‘SeeMe Feel Me’ (a song title given on the 45 but not on the Tommy LP or CD) is furtherdescribed on the 7ʺ label thus: ‘Excerpt from the TOMMY Finale We’re Not GonnaTake It’. The single skips all of the ‘Welcome to the Camp’ and ‘Hey you gettin’drunk’ verses, the following chorus, the ‘Now you can’t hear me’ verse and anotherchorus, completely transforming the finale’s identity by eliminating much of thetension between Tommy and his followers. Donna Summer’s cover of‘MacArthur Park’ has a majestic, slow-build-to-big-finish character in its radio ver-sion, but loses all but a few chords of its intro, two lines of the first verse (‘betweenthe parted pages and were pressed’ vanishes!), most of a fantasia and the secondsubject to which it had led, and a chorus. In all of these cases, the differing editscan be considered not only as conforming to different market expectations, butas radical rewrites.

Table 4. A selection of recordings with multiple edits.

The Animals, ‘House of the Rising Sun’ (1964) [original mono single and reprocessed ‘stereo’ LPboth 2:58; reissue MGM Gold single 4:29, not 4:18 as marked on Best Of LP]

Bob Dylan, ‘Just Like aWoman’ (1966) [2:56 on stock single, 4:39 on first compact-disc release ofBlonde on Blonde, 4:54 on Greatest Hits CD]

Cream, ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ (1968) [3:03 on single, 4:08 on LP]The Moody Blues, ‘Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)’ (1968) [2:16 on single, 8:25 on LP]The Chambers Brothers, ‘Time Has Come Today’ (1968) [4:45 on single, 11:06 on LP]Iron Butterfly, ‘In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida’ (1968) [2:52 on single, 17:05 on LP]Cream, ‘White Room’ (1968) [3:04 on single, 4:56 on LP]The Rolling Stones, ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ (1969) [5:00 on single, 7:28 on LP]Crosby, Stills & Nash, ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’ (1969) [4:35 on single, 7:22 on LP]Chicago, ‘Make Me Smile’ (1970) [2:58 on single, 3:32 on LP]The Who, ‘See Me Feel Me’ (1970) [3:22 on single, 7:09 on LP]Derek and The Dominoes, ‘Layla’ (1971) [2:43 on 1971 single, 2:52 on ‘Radio Version’ CrossroadsEP, 7:10 on original LP and 1972 re-released single, At His Best LP marked 7:01 but same mixas on previous album]

The Who, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ (1971) [3:37 on single, 8:31 on LP]The Grateful Dead, ‘Truckin’ (1971) [3:13 on single, 5:09 on LP]Yes, ‘Roundabout’ (1972) [3:27 on single, 8:29 on LP]The Allman Brothers, ‘One Way Out’ (1972) [3:40 on single, 4:58 on LP]Deep Purple, ‘Smoke On the Water’ (1973) [‘edited version’ and B-side of single are actuallydifferent recordings of same song]

Aerosmith, ‘Dream On’ (1973) [3:25 on original single, 4:28 on 1976 re-released single]Stevie Wonder, ‘Living for the City’ (1973) [3:12 on single, 7:20 on LP]David Bowie, ‘Rebel Rebel’ (1974) [2:58 on single, LP marked 4:21 but actually 4:28]Gloria Gaynor, ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ (1974) [2:55 on single, 6:28 on LP, 5:00 on 12”]David Bowie, ‘Young Americans’ (1975) [3:11 on single, 5:10 on LP]10 cc, ‘I’m Not In Love’ (1975) [3:46 on single, 6:01 on LP]Boston, ‘More Than a Feeling’ (1976) [3:25 on single, 4:44 on LP]Eric Clapton, ‘Wonderful Tonight’ (1978) [3:13 on single, 3:41 on LP]Bob Dylan, ‘Baby Stop Crying’ (1978) [4:17 and 5:17 edits on promo]Donna Summer, ‘MacArthur Park’ (1978) [3:59 stock single, 6:25 promo [!]]Fleetwood Mac, ‘Sara’ (1979) [4:37 on single, 6:26 on LP]Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, ‘The Message’ (1982) [4:30 on single, 7:02 and 6:35 editson 12”, 4:33 and 3:15 on French pressing, 7:12 on CD]

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‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’, comprising a multi-section form at 7:22 on the album,retains its basic structure in a 4:35 single that remains wide ranging and is surpris-ingly acceptable despite its five isolated excisions: second verse (‘Remember whatwe’ve said . . .’) and its refrain, all of the third verse (‘Something inside . . .’), thesecond B section (‘I’ve got an answer . . .’), the second half of the modal guitar soloand the ‘Lacy lilting lady’ section, splicing directly from ‘How can you catch the spar-row?’ into the guitar duet that ushers in the Spanish coda. The 45 is a listenablerecording (because entire sections, rather than parts of phrases, are cut), but onethat loses much of the brilliance of Stills’ emotional exposure. Less successful is thesingle version of ‘Sunshine of Your Love’, a violent butchering that saves only justover a minute in duration. The engineers here are intent on chopping each guitar/bass lick in half through the intro and following each of the three verses, groundingthe proportions that soar on the album cut. Most of the guitar solo is discarded, as isthe riff introducing the third verse (‘I’m with you, my love . . .’). It also fades a fewseconds early, but few would notice this loss. The single version of Yes’s‘Roundabout’ skips Howe’s unmeasured 40-second-long harmonic-laden nylon-string tastar de corde opening and one of the two hearings of the funky intro. Itthen cuts from the end of the second subject (‘In and around the lake . . .’) to theend of the Hammond solo; the remainder is presented uncut. The song’s monumen-tal interior, including unique presentations of strong passages, is eviscerated, and yetthe edit works surprisingly well as a single, due to the original track’s astoundingvariety of tunes, rhythms and colours.

I would like to close by mentioning four projects in which editors have createda large number of versions from a single source. First is Jethro Tull’s A Passion Play(1973). Despite its identity as an indivisible, free-form, full-length magnum opus (aswas its predecessor, Thick As a Brick), Tull’s management and record executivessought to have segments of it become known as parts of the larger whole. Afterall, the album, with uninterrupted sides running 23:07 and 22:04, was not radiofriendly; even the side-flip broke continuity. Therefore, the album was promotedwith two singles. The lead single contained two excerpts, ‘A Passion Play (Edit#8)’ (3:04) backed with ‘A Passion Play (Edit #9)’ (3:29). ‘[Edit #10]’ was released asa follow-up four months later; neither single sold well (‘#8’ peaked at #80; ‘#10’only bubbled under the ‘Hot 100’), but Chrysalis Records mounted a strong effortin another unusual way to have bits of the work recognised as excerpts. As mightbe guessed by the singles’ numerative titles, these edits were not the only ones toappear: Chrysalis manufactured a unique 12ʺ promo LP featuring 10 differentexcerpts from the album, ranging in length from 2′15ʺ to 4′58ʺ (see Figure 6). Someof the edits are all-instrumental, some include vocals. Some are oddly conceived:‘Edit #3’ opens abruptly and ‘#2’ fades out just before an obvious cadence.Strangely, the album’s lead single (the ‘Colours like none . . .’ section from the LP’ssecond side) appears on M.U. – The Best of Jethro Tull with a timing of 3:29 – thus,there are two extant edits of ‘Edit #8’, this second version including a synth soloabridged on the single!15 Radio programmers and singles buyers paid little attentionto this material, but the album sold remarkably well – in the US, Thick as a Brick andA Passion Play were Tull’s only two albums to top Billboard’s Top LP chart.

A second item of interest is Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. This 1974 title, initiallywell known as the source of the instrumental film theme from The Exorcist, appearedin numerous guises. A heavy layering of overdubs that put multi-track tape throughtougher paces than would even Walter Carlos or Tomita, Bells was sold through a




stock single of 3:18 (the static, minimalist ‘Georgetown’ theme based on a 15-beat pat-tern in A Aeolian), the edit also appearing on the soundtrack LP, and throughOldfield’s unified-composition Tubular Bells album (whose first-side finale announcesthe entry of each layer: ‘grand piano . . . reed and pipe organ . . . glockenspiel . . . bassguitar . . . double-speed guitar . . . two slightly distorted guitars . . . mandolin . . .

Spanish guitar and introducing acoustic guitar . . . plus, tubular bells’, a passagetaken for the single’s 4:39 B-side). The original promo comprises two other excerpts:‘Long Version’ (7:30) and ‘Short Version’ (4:39), both taken from the first-side finalesection. Despite Oldfield’s having produced other memorable music, Tubular Bellshas grown from a multiple-edit franchise recording into a highly derivative cottageindustry: we have highly similar approaches in Oldfield’s The Orchestral TubularBells (1975, recapping the original tunes and adding new material), Tubular Bells 2(1992), Tubular Bells III (1998) and a live DVD (2006).

Meat Loaf’s ‘Paradise By the Dashboard Light’ (1978) was essentially an oratoriobased on the story of 17-year-olds making out in a parked car, arranged in three sec-tions – ‘Paradise’, ‘Let Me Sleep On It’ and ‘Praying for the End of Time’ – that formeda dramatic highlight on the Todd Rundgren-produced album, Bat Out of Hell. The LP

Figure 6. Selected vinyl releases of A Passion Play. (a) Side One of LP; (b) A-side of stock copy of leadsingle; (c) Side II of DJ album.

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version ran to 8′28ʺ, judged to be a bit too long for a single, so a 7′55ʺ version was cre-ated that fades out early in the boy–girl ‘End of Time’ duet. But radio stations werealso given a 12ʺ promo disc providing, in a fit of overkill, three edits of the song:the 7:55 hit and two different versions running 6′58ʺ each. The first of this last pairremoves the initial ‘Let Me Sleep On It’ duet, fading out a few lines before the 7:55edit, and the other cuts Phil Rizzuto’s risqué play-by-play as well as most of the com-position’s climax. Really, there is no useful purpose to any of these edits – just play the8:28 version, already!

Finally, we turn to Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ (1979), an alternation ofunrelated raps ranging from braggadoccio to snide anecdotes from Wonder Mike,Big Hank and Master ‘G’, each taking several turns. A 15′00ʺ version appearing ona 12ʺ single might be considered the master, as each artist appears three times inturn, and from that we have a stock single at 4:55, a French 45 coupling ‘ShortVersion’ (3:59) with ‘Long Version’ (6:33) and a second ‘Short Version’ (6:30) backingthe 15′00ʺ ‘master’. The edits present different combinations of sections and partsof sections, occasionally reordered. This track is very appropriately drawn andquartered in different ways, as its material comes across as a random sequence ofunrelated events.

Our survey of the various methods behind the mixes and edits of pop and rockrecordings just scratches the surface of a topic that promises to yield productive resultswhen the work of particular artists, producers, engineers, songwriters, record compa-nies, studios, distribution media, styles and decades is considered from the perspectivesoutlined here. In addition, the wide range of types of intratextuality and intertextualitysuggested in the essay’s opening paragraphs could be pursued along the lines demon-strated here for a fuller understanding of the ways in which individual instances andbodies of pop and rock music might be appreciated as multiple interrelated membersand subgroups of a larger community, all tying economic and other cultural expec-tations and needs to specific musical characteristics. The separate miracles of the enter-tainer writing his song, the bureaucratic exec dictating just the right limits of amarketing tool, a record spinning on the radio, and a major hit transfixing the nationall come together in the star-making machinery of a beautiful and well produced record.

Endnotes

1. The impetus for Joel’s snide observation onedits for the hit singles market was probablyColumbia’s early-1974 marketing of ‘PianoMan’, which had been cut from its album lengthof 5ʹ37ʺ to 4ʹ30ʺ for the single release, creating arecording that dominated AM radio and 45-rpmmarkets. This single release has, I believe, onlybeen issued on CD by Columbia on SonyBMG Europe 5099751901822. I am unaware ofany CD release of the ‘Entertainer’ single edit.‘The Entertainer’ was Joel’s fourth Columbiasingle, first charting on the Billboard ‘Hot 100’on 30 November 1974, on which it peakedat #34.

2. Lacasse (2007) touches on edits and remixes(pp. 160–63) in an exploration of hyper-, para-,meta-, and architextuality, but not intratextuality.His typography is comparable to that presentedin my Table 1 here. Edits and mixes are also of

interest in chapters 2 and 3 of Gracyk (1996).More general treatments of multi-track recordingand post-production work are found in Clarke(1983), Middleton (1990, pp. 84–93), Julien(1999), Théberge (2001), Zak (2001), Moorefield(2005) and Moylan (2007).

3. Of all these sorts of pop intertextuality, cover ver-sions seem to be of greatest interest to pop-rockscholars, as evidenced by studies such asHeadlam (1995), Butler (2003), Zak (2004) andothers given in the Popular Music InterestGroup’s online bibliography at http://www.unc.edu/music/pop-analysis/bib.html, and the entirevolume of Popular Music and Society 28/2 (May2005).

4. Rarely, singles could be marked as dedicated forjukebox play. These designations may have beenmost common in the 1990s, after a steep declinein the sales of stock vinyl.




5. The matrix number should not be confused withthe label’s obligatory catalogue number (thesame on both sides of a single), which was typi-cally uniform for all stock/promo formats andused to identify a product in retail ordering.

6. The usual count-in, either shouted by a bandmember or clicked by the drummer, precedesmost pop recordings, but is almost alwaystrimmed away in the editing process.

7. Multiple microphones were required to best cap-ture a drummer’s work, and the resulting individ-ual sonorities would be bussed (routed throughthe mixing board) to different placements in thestereo image.

8. The 30th Anniversary Edition of the Zombies’Odessey & Oracle (1968, 1998) contains an ‘alter-nate mix’ of ‘Time of the Season’ that reveals aninstrumental backing for the refrain that hadbeen muted out of all originally heard releasesfor a stunning stop-time effect, improving to astaggering degree a texture for the hit that wasalready one of complex beauty in the studio.

9. Zak (2008) addresses epic album-length poprecordings of the 1970s, some of which foundtheir way to abridged singles.

10. Those desirous of locating edited versions shouldbe aware that notated timings are often unreli-able. As an example, Chicago’s ‘Questions 67 &68’ (1969) claims 3ʹ07ʺ on one Japanese-issuedlabel (Sony CBSA 82013) and 3ʹ25ʺ on the accom-panying sleeve, even though the actual duration is4ʹ36ʺ (the long-sustaining final chord cutting off22 seconds before it is done on the LP, which –following Columbia’s then-usual practice – doesnot list a timing at all).

11. The ‘It’s Wonderful’ single also opens with a gal-loping of horses’ hooves not heard in any othersource.

12. I have not been able to examine an original 1967Brazilian release of ‘Penny Lane’, but the 1967Peruvian stock copy shown in Figure 5 featuresan intact mono mix, most likely the same oneissued worldwide.

13. This lacklustre cello part may be what gave riseto George Martin’s casting aspersions on MikeLeander’s string score for ‘She’s LeavingHome’ (Martin 1979, p. 208). The variationsbetween mono and stereo edits of ‘I Am theWalrus’ (1967) are treated in Everett (1999,p. 104, n. 177).

14. ‘Tattoo’ is the term I have coined for a standaloneinstrumental motto that occurs at least twice in asong; other examples include the opening of theAmerican Breed’s ‘Bend Me, Shape Me’. SeeEverett (2008, p. 151), for fuller explanation andother examples.

15. Tull’s early ‘Chateau d’Isaster’ compositionaldrafts contained on the Nightcap collectionsuggest that a number of the promo edits for APassion Play may have been conceived fromthe start as self-contained presentations. ‘Edit#1’ (2ʹ15ʺ) corresponds roughly with the ‘TigerToon’ demo (1ʹ35ʺ, fading early). ‘Edit #5’(4ʹ38ʺ), on the other hand, is related to the firstpart (‘Lover of the black and white . . .’) of thedemo, ‘Critique Oblique’ (9ʹ03ʺ), which continueswith material later excised as the second half of‘Edit #3’ (4ʹ18ʺ). I am indebted to an anonymousreviewer for bringing these demos to myattention.

References

Allen, G. 2000. Intertextuality. (London, Routledge)Butler, M. 2003. ‘Taking it seriously: intertextuality and authenticity in two covers by the Pet Shop Boys’,

Popular Music, 22/1 (January), pp. 1–19Clarke, P. 1983. ‘“A magic science”: rock music as a recording art’, Popular Music, 3, pp. 195–213Everett, W. 1999. The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver Through the Anthology (New York, Oxford University Press)Everett, W. 2008. The Foundations of Rock (New York, Oxford University Press)Gracyk, T. Rhythm and Noise (Durham, Duke University Press)Headlam, D. 1995. ‘Does the song remain the same? Questions of authorship and identification in the music of

Led Zeppelin’, in Concert Music, Rock, and Jazz Since 1945 (pp. 313–63), ed. E. West Marvin and R. Hermann(Rochester, University of Rochester Press)

Julien, O. 1999. ‘The diverting of musical technology by rock musicians: the example of double-tracking’,Popular Music, 18/3 (October), pp. 357–65.

Lacasse, S. 2007 [2000]. ‘Intertextuality and hypertextuality in recorded popular music’, in Critical Essays inPopular Musicology (pp. 147–70), ed. A.F. Moore (Aldershot, Ashgate)

Martin, G. 1979. All You Need Is Ears (New York, St. Martin’s)Middleton, R. 1990. Studying Popular Music (Philadelphia, Open University Press)Moorefield, V. 2005. The Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music (Cambridge, MIT Press)Moylan, W. 2007. Understanding and Crafting the Mix: The Art of Recording (2nd edn) (Amsterdam, Focal Press)Spizer, B. 2000. The Beatles’ Story on Capitol Records, Vol 2 (New Orleans, 498 Productions)Théberge, P. 2001. ‘“Plugged in”: technology and popular music’, in The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock

(pp. 3–25), ed. S. Frith, W. Straw and J. Street (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)Zak, A.J. 2001. The Poetics of Rock: Cutting Tracks, Making Records (Berkeley, Universiry of California Press)Zak, A.J. 2004. ‘Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix: juxtaposition and transformation, “All Along the Watchtower”’,

Journal of the American Musicological Association, 57/3 (Fall), pp. 599–644

248 Walter Everett



Zak, A.J. 2008. ‘Rock and roll rhapsody: pop epics of the 1970s’, in Expression in Pop-Rock Music: Critical andAnalytical Essays (2nd edn) (pp. 345–60), ed. W. Everett (New York, Routledge)

Discography (selective)

(US releases unless noted otherwise)The Beatles, ‘I’ll Cry Instead’. A Hard Day’s Night (mono). Parlophone, PMC 1230. UK 1964The Beatles, ‘I’ll Cry Instead’. A Hard Day’s Night (stereo). Parlophone, PCS 3058. UK 1964The Beatles, ‘I’ll Cry Instead’. Something New (mono). Capitol, T-2108. 1964The Beatles, ‘Let It Be’. Apple, R 5833. UK 1970The Beatles, ‘Let It Be’. Apple, PXS 1. UK 1970The Beatles, ‘Penny Lane’ (matrix 7XCE 18416). Parlophone, R 5570. UK 1967The Beatles, ‘Penny Lane’, Promotion record (matrix 45-X45871). Capitol, P 5810. 1967The Beatles, ‘Penny Lane’, Stock 45 (matrix 7XLE 18416). Odeon, 9827. Peru 1967The Beatles, ‘Penny Lane’, Reissue 45 (matrix 7XCE 18416). EMI, 04475. Brazil 1970The Beatles, ‘She’s Leaving Home’. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (mono). Parlophone, PMC 7027. UK

1967The Beatles, ‘She’s Leaving Home’. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (mono). Capitol, SMAS 2653. 1967The Beatles, ‘She’s Leaving Home’. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (stereo). Parlophone, PCS 7027. UK

1967The Beatles, ‘She’s Leaving Home’. Magical Mystery Year Vol. 2 (exploded four-track). Phony Chick, PC 131-2.

2007Cream, ‘Sunshine of Your Love’. Atco, 45-6544. 1968Cream, Disraeli Gears. Atco, 33-232. 1967Crosby, Stills & Nash, ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’. Atlantic, 45-2676. 1969Crosby, Stills & Nash, ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’. Crosby, Stills & Nash. Atlantic, SD 8229. 1969Derek and the Dominoes, ‘Layla’. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Atco, SD 2-704. 1970Derek and the Dominoes, ‘Layla’. Promotional 45 (matrix ST-71-C-21302 SP). Atco, 45-6809. 1971Derek and the Dominoes, ‘Layla’. Stock 45 (matrix 2001-11214). Polydor, 2001 172. Canada 1971Derek and the Dominoes, ‘Layla’. Stock 45 (matrix 72C-20289-PL). Atco, 45-6809. 1972Derek and the Dominoes, ‘Layla’. Crossroads EP: Radio version. Polydor, 887 754-7. Holland 1978The Doors, ‘Light My Fire’. Elektra, EK-45615. 1967The Doors, ‘Light My Fire’, The Doors. Elektra, EKS-74007. 1967The Doors, ‘Light My Fire’, Spun Gold reissue (matrix ESR 71377T?). Elektra, E-45051. 1971The Doors, ‘Light My Fire’, Spun Gold reissue (matrix ESR). Elektra, EKS-45051. 1970sThe Doors, ‘Light My Fire’, Reissue (matrix 1A-4-X). Elektra, E 45051-1. Canada 1970sThe Grateful Dead, Anthem for the Sun (matrix S39369/39370). Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, WS 1749. 1968The Grateful Dead, Anthem for the Sun. Remix (matrix WS-1-1749-Re1-SR1/WS-2-1749-SR1). Warner

Bros-Seven Arts, WS 1749. 1971Jethro Tull, A Passion Play. Chrysalis, CHR 1040. 1973Jethro Tull, A Passion Play. Edited Version for DJ Use Only. Chrysalis, CHR 1040. 1973Jethro Tull, ‘A Passion Play (Edit #8)’/‘A Passion Play (Edit #9)’. Chrysalis, 2012. 1973Jethro Tull, ‘A Passion Play (Edit #10)’. Chrysalis, 2017. 1973Jethro Tull, M.U. – The Best of Jethro Tull. Chrysalis, 1078. 1976Jethro Tull, Nightcap: The Unreleased Masters 1973–1991. Capitol, CD B000007177. 2000Joel, Billy, ‘The Entertainer’. Columbia, 3-10064. 1974Joel, Billy, ‘The Entertainer’, Streetlife Serenader. Columbia, PC 33146. 1974Meat Loaf, ‘Paradise By the Dashboard Light’. Cleveland International/Epic, 8-50588. 1978Meat Loaf, ‘Paradise By the Dashboard Light’. 12ʹ Demonstration disc. Cleveland International/Epic, AS 477.

1978Meat Loaf, ‘Paradise By the Dashboard Light’, Bat Out of Hell. Cleveland International/Epic, PE 34974. 1977The Moody Blues, ‘Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)’. Deram, 45-DEM-85028. 1968The Moody Blues, ‘Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)’, Days of Future Passed. Deram, DES 18012. 1968Oldfield, Mike, ‘Tubular Bells’. Demo (Long Version [7:30] matrix ST-PR-199A SP/Short Version [4:39] matrix

ST-PR-199B-SP). Virgin, E.P.-PR-199. 1974Oldfield, Mike, ‘Tubular Bells’. Stock 45 (‘Exorcist’ Theme [3:18] matrix ST-VR-28231-PL/[4:39] matrix

ST-VR-28232-PL). Virgin, VR-55100. 1974Oldfield, Mike, ‘Tubular Bells’, Tubular Bells. Virgin, VR 13-105. 1973Oldfield, Mike, ‘Tubular Bells’. Music Excerpts from The Exorcist (soundtrack LP). Warner Bros, WS 2774. 1974Oldfield, Mike, The Orchestral Tubular Bells. Virgin, CD 0777 7 86049 2 1. 1975Oldfield, Mike, Tubular Bells 2. Reprise, CD 9 45041-2. 1992Oldfield, Mike, Tubular Bells III. Warner Music, CD 398423492. UK 1998The Rascals, ‘It’s Wonderful’. [Music 2:30/Effects 0:50]. Atlantic, 45-2463. 1967




The Rascals, ‘It’s Wonderful’, Once Upon a Dream [Sound effect 0:10/Music 2:40]. Atlantic, SD 8169. 1968The Rascals, ‘It’s Wonderful’, Time Peace: The Rascals’ Greatest Hits [2:40]. Atlantic, SD 8190. 1968The Rascals, ‘It’s Wonderful’, Time Peace: The Rascals’ Greatest Hits [2:18]. Atlantic, CD A2 8190 [1968]The Rolling Stones, ‘Dandelion’. London, 45-905. 1967The Rolling Stones, ‘Dandelion’, Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2). London, NPS-3. 1969Sugarhill Gang, ‘Rapper’s Delight’ (matrix VID 7-526 BW) [4:55]. Sugar Hill, SH-755. 1980Sugarhill Gang, ‘Rapper’s Delight’, 12ʹ (Long Version [15:00] matrix VID-152RE/Short Version [6:30] matrix

VID-153RE). Sugar Hill, SH-542. 1979Sugarhill Gang, ‘Rapper’s Delight’. European mix (Short Version [3:59]/Long Version [6:33]). Vogue, 101260.

France 1979The Who, ‘See Me, Feel Me (Excerpt from the TOMMY Finale)’. Decca, 32729. 1970The Who, Tommy. Decca, 7205. 1969Yes, ‘Roundabout’. Atlantic, 45-2854. 1972Yes, ‘Roundabout’, Fragile. Atlantic, SD 7211. 1972Yes, ‘Total Mass Retain (From “Close to the Edge”)’. Atlantic, 45-2899. 1972Yes, Close to the Edge. Atlantic, SD 7244. 1972

250 Walter Everett


article 2.pdf

Documents

intratextual mixes

hereif youre gonna

longif youre gonna

record industry

edits of pop recordings

number of recordings

beautiful song

hissecond columbia album