Perfect is the Enemy of Good

[Byron]

Or, why today’s music sounds lifeless.

[Byron]

That was a follow up to this one:

[rightonthemark]

i have been preaching this sort of thing for years.
i know i told the story of a singer on my case about learning solos note for note. then he comes in and says i should check out the solo on the live version of rock bottom by ufo. i said dude you just proved my point. schenker doesn’t even play his own solo live.
isn’t this why we spend all that time learning and practicing scales?
i’ve played with people who suck all the fun out of playing by trying to be a perfectionist. what ends up being really irritating is their selective perfectionism.
after i learn something i quickly try to play with feel which typically means i change something or improvise certain parts to make it flow for me. so it feels natural.
i like using backing tracks for practice and doing my guitar cover videos.
but not for playing a live paying gig.
and i do find that there is a balance between being well rehearsed and knowing what’s next and being able to extend a song because the dance floor is full.

🤘🏽🎸🤘🏽

rock and roll ain't pretty; that's why they picked us to play it.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by rightonthemark.

[Byron]

Beato was going off more about the incessant editing the life out of a performance in the misguided pursuit of some unrealistic and in fact unattainable standard of perfection. Quantizing everything rigidly to the grid. Autotuning everything.

But I am totally with you on what you’re saying.

I’ve been on a Judas Priest kick lately. Watch 10 different live videos of any of their songs and you’ll see 10 wildly different renditions. Neither KK Downing nor Glenn Tipton (or now Richie Faulkner) play any of their solos note for note exactly like the record. Close. But not exact. Rob Halford never seems to sing anything the same way twice.

Same with Iron Maiden.

[rightonthemark]

yeah. i get the part about editing and he’s right.
i was speaking from the improvising aspect he brought up because that applies to much of my experience.
i’ve done some recording and the majority of editing was just simple clean up. nothing extreme or to change the actual performance. i mean you still want the music and the performance to breathe.

🤘🏽🎸🤘🏽

rock and roll ain't pretty; that's why they picked us to play it.

[Anonymous]

I totally smell what Beato’s steppin in. I used work with guy at Ken Stanton music in metro ATL who was a retired engineer for Capricorn records. Actually the retirement was forced when they folded. Anyhow, I went by his home studio one night and we listened to a project he had done and he starts isolating tracks. When he does you hear some ambient noise of the guitars on the drum tracks. VERY faintly, but it was there. Same goes for every track I except the vocals which were done in a booth. The band insisted on being in the same room.

Once it was all together, you didn’t hear it, but it was there. The thing is, it was such a great song, and the mix was great, but the performance was the star.

He also recorded the Dixie Dregs and talked about how Morse would actually punch in for one note. Not because he flubbed, but because he didn’t like the way he hit a certain note. This was back during the 70s so that kind of perfectionism has always been around. It just was necessarily the cancer that it is today.

I think his tangent about noise gates went a touch into left field, but that’s because I use one🤫.

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