Gordon Lightfoot-"Carefree Highway"
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Topic: Gordon Lightfoot-"Carefree Highway"
Posted By: jimct
Subject: Gordon Lightfoot-"Carefree Highway"
Date Posted: 22 June 2007 at 5:22am
| My commercial 45 has a listed time of (3:45), but an actual time of (3:41). |
Replies:
Posted By: MMathews
Date Posted: 01 August 2017 at 3:32pm
|
I see in the DB that DJ copies of this ran (3:00). Does
anyone have the DJ 45 who can describe what is edited? MM |
Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 01 August 2017 at 5:45pm
The instrumental breaks between verses are shortened, and I believe there's an out-of-sequence edit toward the end. |
MMathews wrote:Posted By: MMathews
Date Posted: 03 August 2017 at 12:36am
|
Thanks to John for sending me a dub of his promo 45.
Turns out to be 2 simple edits. First, the promo is mono and it is a fold-down of the stereo. It has a listed time of (3:00) but actual is (3:05). First I tried editing from the "Songbook" box set, but discovered they truncated the fade a little there. But the one from the "Gord's Gold" CD worked great (thank you, Ron, Paul, and John).. First edit is approx. :54 - 1:00, cutting the first guitar solo in half. 2nd edit removes the final chorus. Times are (assume you made the first edit) approx. 2:40 - 3:12, on the downbeat just before "slip away on you" in both places. Your result will run about 3:02. Then pitch down 13% of a semi-tone. That will make it run (3:05). |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 03 August 2017 at 3:12am
| It seems quite rare that they speed down a song for a single version. I know it's been done on occasion, but most of the time, if there's any change of speed, they speed it up to make it more exciting. I wonder why this one was slowed down. |
Posted By: AndrewChouffi
Date Posted: 03 August 2017 at 7:13am
|
To EdisonLite:
You ask a good question; I have a possible answer (conjecture). When a tape was edited (analog days) a copy was made from the master to not destroy the master. Sometimes that copy then got played on a different machine that was calibrated a little slower than the original machine. No one noticed it at the time and the edited single got pressed "slower". Alternatey, sometimes everything was calibrated accurately at the studios, but the pressing plant's tape machine was running slow (poorly calibrated). In a nutshell, I think a lot of these "running slow" cases were inadvertent or cavalier. Andy P.S. I would love to hear that digital recreation of the promo edit of "Carefree Highway"! |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 03 August 2017 at 10:31am
|
My theory is that Mr. Leadfoot made it through just fine on his initial pass along the Carefree Highway, but was pulled over on the return trip, cited for exceeding the posted 45 RPM speed limit, and decided to cut the trip short.
Theory #2: The promo 45 had to jump through an additional hoop that the stereo stock 45 did not (editing notwithstanding): CSG processing. The label states "CSG PROCESS" and the deadwax matrix number is "RCN-0069-CSG". The poor master tape probably dug its fingernails in under duress as it underwent a CSGotomy, thereby dragging down the speed. Theory #3: The fact that the first two threads at the time that I read this were "Carefree Highway" and "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" leads me to believe that Mr. Mathews must be working on an easy listening compilation. ;) This is an interesting promo 45, in that the stock "B" side, "Seven Island Suite" also appears on the flip of the promo 45, unedited (6:00), but in mono... and not CSG processed mono, at that ("7IS" was in stereo on the stock 45.) |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 03 August 2017 at 12:31pm
| Interesting - I always thought it was for creative/artistic reasons - that the people involved thought it would work better a little slower. It never dawned on me that it would be poor calibration, etc., on tape machines. |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 03 August 2017 at 12:32pm
I've never thought of "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing" as an easy listening song. :) |
Posted By: sriv94
Date Posted: 03 August 2017 at 12:42pm
Maybe he meant a 1974 comp. :) ------------- Doug --------------- All of the good signatures have been taken. |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 03 August 2017 at 2:13pm
No, no... "easy" listening, as in carefree and don't you worry. Epic fail on my part. ;)
Point taken, Gordon, and I'm actually glad you brought that up: have you heard Sergio Mendes & Brasil '77's cover of "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" from their 1974 Bell album, Vintage '74? You'd think Stevie had written the song with them in mind. I can't listen to Stevie's original *without* hearing that Brasil '66-bossa nova thing going on. youtube.com/watch?v=KyD26A6hzxI |
Posted By: MMathews
Date Posted: 03 August 2017 at 3:25pm
Actually, I always have because in the 80's, while I heard this on the oldies station from time to time, I mostly heard it on A/C stations. The Latin groove seems mellower than his funk-based tunes. Either way, I always found it irritating this got left off Stevie's best-of's at the time. |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 04 August 2017 at 11:24am
No, I haven't heard this cover. I'll check it out. Sounds interesting. |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 15 January 2019 at 11:46am
|
With all this recent talk about Gordon Lightfoot, I
decided to go back and recreate the DJ edit for Carefree Highway. I used the full 3:41 LP and commercial 45 version from Sundown. After the 2 edits I made, (per Mark's instructions, my file ran exactly 3:05 so I didn't need to pitch down the file. Perhaps, on the Sundown album the song is at it's original pitch. ------------- John Gallagher Erie, PA https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth |
Posted By: crapfromthepast
Date Posted: 15 January 2019 at 2:30pm
|
Mark's reported value of 13% of a semi-tone works out to about a 0.8% change in speed.
I would attribute it to a tape speed error in the mastering chain, and I'd recommend not taking the step of explicitly slowing down your file. Most tape speed errors are a bit smaller than 0.8%, for what it's worth. ------------- There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one http://www.crapfromthepast.com" rel="nofollow - Crap From The Past . |