I'm not just talking about songs that use overdubs (in which case Les Paul is the first artist who comes to mind) — but rather songs where you can hear an obvious jump between verse and chorus and bridge and coda because the basic structure of the song was pieced together after all the individual parts were recorded. Brian Wilson gets a lot of credit for his "modular" songwriting approach, and that's exactly what I mean:
Brian Wilson developed his innovative production methods over several years. In this period, it was still common for mainstream pop recordings to be recorded live in the studio in a single take, but Wilson quickly developed a more modular approach that relied on recent advances in recording technology, using both 4-track and the newer 8-track audio recorders. As well as using multitrack tape to build up layers of elaborate overdubs, from 1964 Wilson also began to use tape editing to craft his master recordings. Initially this was done in order to splice short, hard-to-sing vocal sections into the beginnings or endings of previously recorded songs, but by the time of the Summer Days album in 1965 he was becoming more adventurous in his use of splicing - an example is the short a cappella album track "And Your Dreams Come True", which was in fact recorded in several sections, each a few bars long, which were then carefully edited together to create the final composite master. (from Wikipedia)
But I don't know if "Good Vibrations" was really as revolutionary as people say it is, and I'm looking for other early examples of the same approach.
― garfield drops some dank n' dirty dubz at 2am (unregistered), Sunday, 17 March 2013 17:26 (twelve years ago)
The edits are easy enough to spot in Bitches Brew. Which would be Teo Macero's handiwork if I'm not mistaken. But not 'songs' per se. Is that early enough for you?
― rattled, Sunday, 17 March 2013 17:30 (twelve years ago)
there had to be some of this in the 50s or earlier, right?
― In The Magical Breasts of Britney Spears, Van Cleave makes unforgettabl (Matt P), Sunday, 17 March 2013 17:31 (twelve years ago)
xpost - Yeah, Bitches Brew (1970) is a little late in the game. I'm looking for stuff even earlier than "Good Vibrations" and "Strawberry Fiends Forever" (1967).
This thread was partly inspired by Songs where you can 'hear the join', but none of the examples there are earlier than mid-'60s.
― garfield drops some dank n' dirty dubz at 2am (unregistered), Sunday, 17 March 2013 17:35 (twelve years ago)
(er, "'Good Vibrations' (1966) and 'Strawberry Fields Forever' (1967)")
― garfield drops some dank n' dirty dubz at 2am (unregistered), Sunday, 17 March 2013 17:37 (twelve years ago)
Charles Mingus was known to edit out either whole or parts of some players solos on some of his recordings.
― earlnash, Sunday, 17 March 2013 17:38 (twelve years ago)
Thelonious Monk's "Brilliant Corners" was multiple takes spliced together, after 25 attempts (recorded 1956).
― Darth Magus (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, 17 March 2013 17:43 (twelve years ago)