Originally published at: "Jolene" and other records that sound great when played at the wrong speed | Boing Boing
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Sorry, Jolene came up so I am required to share my personal favorite cover:
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Reboing.
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And now, the long version…
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Meanwhile, Fatboy Slim often remixes and speeds song up - which transforms them into something even better. Probably not the same ratio of what is on the record player, but the tempo is definitely faster, and sometimes the vocals up-shifted.
Two examples I can think of where the Fatboy Slim version has elevated the song to a new level are Jungle Brothers - Because I Got it Like That, and Cornershop - Brimful of Asha. Two songs I will always always crank up. Brimful of Asha always elicits pure joy.
This one almost works better if you up the play back speed on youtube.
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Aphex Twin fans have found some amazing sounds in this way - turns out a lot of the scritchy high pitched “nonsense” in tracks are actually fully formed drum tracks which sound just as awesome slowed down.
Not to mention the weird pictures visible when some tracks are viewed through a spectrogram (Venetian Snares and others are also known for these audio/visual hidden easter eggs).
A great example is the “Monkey Drummer” track posted on BB recently, slowed down to 33rpm speed:
e; Oh, and my favourite track of all time, “54 Cymru Beats” at 54% speed is amazing, especially if you know the track like the back of your hand, as I do. Picking out the super fast little rolls and the very weird slowed down computerised Welsh voice, never mind music/noise tearing time itself apart towards the end of the track:
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Surely this should be called (John) Peel-ing a record?
Also, Jolene at 33rpm sounds fantastic.
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Ice Ice Baby sounds very dark and 90s ‘gangsta rap’ when slowed down.
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Something doesn’t seem right with the Jolene video. If you speed it up to 1.25x and even to 1.5x Dolly just doesn’t sound right. 1.5x is above the Dolly tempo but the vocals are still pitched low. For reference:
I like to listen to old surf rock compilations on YouTube slowed down to 50% speed. Since they usually have a quick tempo and fast guitar parts, they sound really interesting when slowed down.
I had a fun phase of making slowed down songs a while back, I think Don’t Stop Me Now gave my favorite result don’t stop me now - queen | SoundCloud
Dolly can do it herself without any of that fancy modern technology (starts at about 3:10)
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To go from 33⅓ to 45 we’d want 1.35 but YouTube does things to keep the pitch the same regardless
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When you play the LP version of Springsteen’s I’m on fire at 45 rpm he sounds exactly like Dolly Parton.
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When I was a kid a local DJ compared Graham Parker’s version of “Fool’s Gold” at 45 instead of 33 (Graham Parker Fools Gold - YouTube) to Rachel Sweet’s version (Rachel Sweet Fool's gold 1980 - YouTube) and was convinced they were the same version.
This went on for most of the night. Thanks for that Vin Scelsa.
That’s awful, and I like the Sisters and Dolly.
Hey now…
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