seriously
Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King – [April Demos]
01 Grux —>Shake Me Like A Monkey
02 Funny The Way It Is
03 Lying In the Hands of God
04 Why I Am
05 Dive In
06 Spaceman
07 Squirm
08 Alligator Pie (Cockadile)
09 Seven
10 Time Bomb
11 Baby Blue
12 You & Me
“Differences between Release and April Demos”
You and Me
I’m starting to think these are entirely different vocal takes, even if they sound a LOT similar, the backing track synchronizes perfectly, but the vocals don’t. Dave should be doing vocal takes one after another, so that would explain why they sound SO similar, but don’t sync 100%.
Obvious differences would be the lack of drums, strings and electric piano on the April Sessions and the bridge at 2:37 which feature vocals on the released version.
The ending features electric guitar and a tambourine on the April Sessions which is not on the released.
The bass is much more pronounced on the April Sessions. On the ending it is completely absent from the released version.
My Baby Blue
Obvious difference: orchestra on released version.
Different guitar take (or edit?) at 0:11. Couldn’t determine when guitar tracks come back to being the same one.
Different vocal take on the word “holding” at 1:23.
Different vocal take on “you and me forever” at 2:26.
Different vocal take on “you will” at 2:36.
Different vocal take from “blue blue world” at 3:18 until the end of released version.
Released version ends around 3:29 (fades out until 3:40). April Session continues for a minute more until 4:38. So April Session has an extra minute in length!
Oddly enough I had to reduce the April Session version’s volume more than the released one. But then again, I’m working with the Pandora streaming for the released…
Time Bomb
Obvious difference: released version begins with Carter counting in using his sticks. There’s a tiny muted guitar picking right before the riff begins.
Organ and electric piano on released version starting at 0:52.
Organ “riff” at 1:44 is a little louder on the April Sessions. At this same point, released version features percussion (shaker) not on April Sessions.
“Baby when I get home” part at 1:52 features louder vocals and less saxophone on released version.
At 2:10 the organ continues on the April Sessions, but it’s absent from released version. But released has electric piano at 2:17.
“No one would believe you” at 2:29 has louder horns on April Session.
Horns are also louder on the fast part of the April Session.
Seven
Intro features organ on released version.
First word is the same vocal take, then vocal takes are completely different (even lyrics).
Vocals from “I never knew but I do now” (0:52) are the same until 1:03.
Horns are more pronounced on the choruses of the April Session.
Bridge at 1:32 has louder vocals on the released version, April Session has more pronounced drums.
Different vocal takes from 2:54 until 2:59. Then from 3:29 until 3:35.
Organ and longer fade out at 4:09 on April Sessions.
Alligator Pie
Dog barking is mixed with the intro on April Sessions, it’s before the intro on the released.
Some extra vocals/vocalizations on the released version, like a falsetto on 0:32.
Extra violin starting at 1:52 only on April Sessions.
Extra banjo on released version at this same spot.
Organ is louder on “all the things we know” (2:24) on April Sessions.
At 3:53 on the released version the guitar feedback continues without fade (links with Seven). On the April Session this is faded out.
Squirm
Intro of the released version seems to feature Tim’s sitar in the background. It’s either a sitar or one of those electric guitars with a sitar bridge.
0:51 – “drum beats louder” vocals on released version.
1:39 – backing vocals louder on April Sessions.
1:48 – electric guitar on April Sessions.
2:37 – backing vocals louder on April Sessions.
3:38 – released version fades to complete silence. April Sessions does not.
4:54 – released version has chimes and a shaker. Also the fruit selling man is in a different spot during fade out, and lasts longer on released version
Lying in the Hands of God
Released version features organ and chimes not on April Sessions.
Drums are louder on April Sessions. Vocal is louder on released version.
At 4:51 the two versions go separate ways. Released version starts gearing towards the end while April Session continues. So April Session is around 30 seconds longer.
April Session ends cold, with just Tim’s guitar holding a note. Released version features that, then some synth FX.
Spaceman
Drums at the start are very similar but don’t sync. Different takes? Edit? It only synchronizes when Dave starts singing.
Released version features electric piano not on April Session.
Vocal starts with different takes until “yes I love the way you move” on 0:21.
Also different vocal takes from 0:28 until “still I love the way you love me baby” on 0:36.
1:01 – Chorus on the April Session has backing vocals spread through the stereo channels (left + right). Released places them in the center along with the lead vocal, so April Session sounds like it has more backing vocals. Seems like the released only spreads the BVs on “good life”, emphasizing it like the live versions.
Also, the banjo is louder on the released version. Is it there at all on the April Session?
Drum fills differ slightly throughout the song. I’m thinking Carter was following the same clock, but doing different drum takes. Still impressive how he reproduces his own fills perfectly. I thought that kind of thing (little drum fills) would be improvised on the spot.
1:45 – 1:54 Different vocal takes?
3:58 – Shaker and banjo ending only on the released version.
Dive In
Backing vocals on chorus are louder on released version.
1:58 – Released version goes straight to chorus. April Session has an extra bar where Dave sings “care… of…” and then goes to chorus.
Drums are a little louder on released version throughout the song.
Strings fade out at the end is louder on released version.
So the only real difference is that the April Session version is a bar longer!
Why I Am
Well, the big obvious difference is at the intro. The released version features only 4 bars of intro, without sax solo while the April Session features 8 bars with a pretty neat sax solo that was unfortunately deleted from the final version.
Once the vocal starts it seems we have two different, but very similar, vocal takes. The difference is clearer on the word “wave” (“…with the wave of my hand”), but then on “water turned into wine” it seems like both vocals come from the same take.
1:02 – “out of my head and into the room” are different vocal takes.
1:29 – Some backing vocals for the chorus seem to be re-recorded. But the “always the one to make you smile/snake in the wood pile/still dancing with the groogrux king” response vocals are the exact same take.
1:48 – again “out of my head…” are different vocal takes. Only back to being the same on “the lose and the win of the world”.
2:46 – again the response vocals (“unlikely to agree/climbing out of my monkey tree” etc) are the same take.
3:34 – again “out of my head…”: different vocal takes.
Seems like Dave’s electric guitar is slightly louder on the April Session. More noticeable during the instrumental passages.
Funny the Way Is Is
Intro is louder on released version. Features some percussion sounds not on April Sessions.
0:47 – Different strumming sounds coming from each version at the chorus. Different acoustic guitar takes? Especially on “somebody’s going hungry…”.
1:31 – Again different acoustic guitars on the chorus. Continues different on “Standing on a bridge…”
Something weird happens from 3:48 until 3:51. Some elements seem to cancel each other out, but I’ve no idea why. Might be some sort of edit.
4:07 to 4:20 – Those unintelligible backing vocals seem to come from different takes here.
That weird “cancel out” sound happens again at the very end at 4:23.
And wow, I must have synchronized these two very well. I inverted one of them and this canceled almost all of Dave’s vocals and some other stuff. Now it confirms that each version features a different acoustic guitar track, it stands out beautifully! I’m gonna be able to figure this guitar part to the details now!
Also, the violin must have been heavily re-EQ’d or something, because it stands out a lot as well.
This also revealed that on the released version there’s percussion not only on the intro, but all through the song (shaker and bongos).
Violin solo on the cancelled version sounds pretty weird, with only a few notes being cancelled and some parts sounding like two different violins. Different takes? EQ? Auto-tune? Who knows?
After Tim’s solo I had to move the WAVs around to get better cancelling, now the first part doesn’t cancel so well. Damn, there must have a tiny little edit somewhere in the song.
But the backing vocals at 4:07 are very clear now. But not being a native english speaking person, I still can’t figure out what he’s saying.
But this was pretty interesting. I hope I’m able to do this cancelling with the other tracks as well!
Grux
No difference detected.
Shake Me Like a Monkey
Both are virtually identical (it sounded like a mono track when I synchronized them), except for a bit of percussion (shaker) on the April Sessions version at the break on 0:19.