The saying “nobody is perfect” has been said countless times, and it certainly applies to bass players because everyone can make a mistake.
Below is Give It Away from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, bass (Flea) and drums only. At the 3:36 mark you hear a mistake by Flea. And it’s a whopper of mistake where he goes completely off key…
…but they kept it in the mix anyway. In the STUDIO mix no less.
For those of you who know this song, this is probably the first time you ever knew that glaring mistake was in there. But it just goes to show that if the groove is strong enough, you don’t hear the mistake – even if you’re a bass player.
So if when recording you goof up as we all do from time to time, if the groove is good, you can leave it there and it’s probably true nobody will ever notice unless it’s specifically pointed out to them.
I will leave a less than perfect take in a mix if I’m the only one in the room that is displeased with it, but this is a bit more than I could stomach. I get that it gives a certain level of authenticity or approachable human appeal, but I think at this level it’s a bit more disconcerting than anything else.
Great. I will never not be able to hear that again.
😉
No need. I will make my own mistakes
“A whopper of a mistake…” You´re all overreacting and I’m pretty sure Flea doesn’t give a damn about this “mistake”. I challenge any of you pros to nail a groove good like this before you start pointing mistakes in others recordings. Better leave like this, it preserves a performance and doesn’t sound artificial like some recordings done by some people that have almost infinite takes for each couple measures…
Absolutely!! I just wish I could make the same mistakes as he does!!
Honestly I didn’t catch the “big mistake” if it was that big one should catch it…not what I would call big at all…
Let’s not forget that this album was recorded completely analog on tape. Although not impossible, it does make it slightly harder to just punch in and fix mistakes and you definitely can’t just slide tracks around or cut and paste.
Sounds fine in the mix and not even noticeable with the rest of the tracks playing. if that was my mistake, I probably would have also left it because I hate punching in to fix parts. Sometimes mistakes add tot he take and going back to record the track again can cause you to lose some great stuff you laid down as well.
I had actually heard that mistake originally but figured he did it on purpose, way to ruin that. =p
I’m not sure that’s even a mistake!
Wow, I never noticed that before! He also missed a few down beats really bad. They’re like a full 8th off right on 1 for the next part. See about 2:12.
I think you guys are over-reacting. In that song, Flea does the same glissando over and over. On one occasion, his finger slid slightly off the string resulting in a “muted” glissando.
The description of that “Huge Mistake” was that he went off key. As if the rest of the band was in D Minor and he was playing in B flat major or something.
Oh no! All my hopes for this guy are out the window. For the thousands of times I listened to this song he tricked me into listening to a wrong note being played and I never even noticed. Now with the stripped track the truth finally comes to the light as it always does! I really thought this Flea guy had it in him to get somewhere with his music, but this just kills it for me! Sooo disappointed.
I much prefer a live untouched track. If you dig the feel, just leave it….especially with rock/funk.
No big deal I think. Even if they caught it, time is big money in the studio and the fact is likely NONE of us ever even noticed it. They never anticipated all the fame and glory they would have and the isolated tracks fascination the future would hold. I like the track, watts and all.
I want my money back!
have you ever heard of Led Zeppelin ? jimmy was notorious for leaving little mistakes in the mix ,he saw it as the groove was so good you just live with it like the phone ringing in the ocean
I heard the mistake shortly after first hearing the song, not a big deal . It really isn’t that noticeable especially for the layperson. It almost sounds like in the mix the person who edited it had hit the mute button halfway through the strike of the note killing the sustain and not making it as noticeable
A lot of the old session players and touring sidemen back in the day didn’t sweat little “mistakes” here and there. Sometimes they just became part of the song- a slip here, a trip there, and that’s the way it was supposed to be because that’s the take that got mastered, right? And especially with a limited number of analog tracks, you would accept minor “imperfections” in an otherwise perfect take. Beethoven said “to play a wrong note is insignificant, but to play without passion is inexcusable.” Or, a good groove covers a multitude of mistakes.
I’ve been a session & live working pro for over 40 years. This is a very minor mistake.
That line happens so many times in this tune that I’m surprised the engineer didn’t just grab a good half a measure from one of the other 100+ times and paste it in. That is if it was even noticed while mixing in all the other tracks.
Really? Come on. I will take a live gig full of one off sounds [mistakes] over a production thing in a studio any day. I think it sounds human, real, and as a bassist i have done that myself and its just part of it in the end.
He’s human and he made a mistake. Let it be. Baseball players swing and miss. Football players drop passes. Golfers miss putts. It’s all good…
I’ve heard a glaringly obvious 1 in Hendrix’s “Fire”, where during the fadeout the bass goes to the intro riff for about 2 notes. This is slightly off the subject; even though it’s usually shrugged off because I’m accused of being “anal” or “pedantic” – I don’t care! What REALLY pisses me off is the perfunctorily amateurish editing of the official music video; towards the end during the embers in silhouette section – it’s out of sych! Flea’s playing the high part & you see him playing the low part!
van halen songs have mistakes , thats rock and roll
That wasn’t off key at all.
I’m surprised he didn’t do it more often !
Agree with others here that the slide could end anywhere on the neck and sound fine
Just listened to this, heard that one a million times- it’s a g# against an a minor chord- ( min.maj7 or accentuated passing tone – whatever ) not intended, I’m sure, but actually gives the line a sense of jump and urgency- there’s a million mistakes on classic albums, this one comes under the category of ” learn to play that mistake- its frikkin’ awesome– as a matter of fact, do it a few times “