since it has been stated that backing tracks (piano-bass-drums or guitar-bass-drums) were recorded in one take and it was the definitive take unless of course somebody did a huge mistake, I was wondering if you can help me to figure out a couple of things:
Master Stroke: Basic track was piano-bass-drums, or harpsichord-bass-drums?
Best Friend: Bass-drums or piano-drums?
Sheer Heart Attack/Fight From The Inside?
btw, besides castanets is there any additional percussion instrument in masterstroke?
thanks
I think there may well be lots of exceptions to "always a backing track of such-and such"
However, I'd go for Piano-Bass-Drums for Master Stroke, then overdubbed with harpsichord which the piano blends into
No views on the others
Master Stroke: I'd say definitely piano rather than harpsichord. Fred would have been more comfortable playing this instrument, and there's some fairly tricky harpsichord licks played in the middle section that I'm sure Fred would have preffered to overdub rather than nail first time. The piano also features throughout whereas the harpsichord is only brought in for certain sections.
Best Friend: I'd say piano and drums. The e-piano is the basis of the song, and John's bass part has obviously been meticulously crafted, so I get the feeling he would have preferred to have the basic bed of the song laid down before he could go about honing the bassline to be laid down on top of that.
Sheer Heart Attack/Fight From The Inside: Whatever was done, I'd say that drums have to be laid down first, otherwise it's just too difficult to ensure everything stays in time. Whether that meant John and Bri played bass and rhythm as guide, or Rog simply put down the drums on his own I don't know.
The castanets are always doubled with handclaps in Fairy Feller. There's certainly some kind of cowbell as well, although god knows what the hell is producing the tick-tock-tick-tock at the start of the tune.
Whatever, Fairy Feller is easily one of the best pieces of music ever recorded.
I didn't see Niek's post when I did mine, but that's exactly what I'm on about in SHA/FFTI. It's just not the done thing to lay a drum track on top of an existing guitar track in that kind of song.
Maybe Roger laid down drums while Brian played some rhythm, I would find it very odd if John came in and played bass only to have Roger redo it.
Perhaps Roger recorded the song alone on drums, then recorded a rhythm part, and just sort of built everything up from there.
"Maybe Roger laid down drums while Brian played some rhythm, I would find it very odd if John came in and played bass only to have Roger redo it."
But it's also very odd that Brian played the rythm guitar as a guide to Rogers drums, and then let Roger replace the guitars again.
What if Roger did a hi-hat loop or something and then recorded the proper drums, proper guitars and proper bass on top of that?
Fun In Space was easier since Rog could programme drum machines and synths and use them as backing track.