Quote
Silver Dagger
How does Keith achieve that ethereal guitar sound. It seems more than just backwards guitar, right?
That was a Jimmy Page invention which Glyn Johns nicked.
Jimmy talks about it in some interview, but the basics involve turning the tape around of a previously recorded part, adding reverb to the recording playing backwards, then turning it back round again so that on playback you end up with a backwards reverb effect on a normal recording.
EDIT: Found the relevant part of the interview...
GW: How did you develop the backwards echo at the end of "You Shook Me" ?
Page: Didn't I tell you about that before? No? Well, I should because it's
important -- it proves that I pioneered that effect. When I was still in
The Yardbirds, our producer Mickie Most would always try to get us to
record all these horrible songs. He would say, "Oh, c'mon, just try it.
If the song is bad we won't release it". And, of course it would always
get released [laughs]. During one session, we were recording "Ten Little
Indians", which was an extremely silly song that featured a truly awful
brass arrangement. In fact, the whole track sounded terrible. In a
desperate attempt to salvage it, I hit upon an idea. I said, "Look, turn
the tape over and employ the echo for the brass on a spare track. Then
turn it back over and we'll get the echo preceding the signal." The
result was very interesting -- it made the track sound like it was going
backwards.
Later, when we recorded "You Shook Me", I told the engineer, Glyn Johns,
that I wanted to use backwards echo on the end. He said, "Jimmy, it can't
be done". I said "Yes, it can. I've already done it." Then he began
arguing, so I said, "Look, Im the producer. Im going to tell you what to
do, and just do it." So he grudgingly did everything I told him to, and
when we were finished he started refusing to push the fader up so I could
hear the result. Finally, I had to scream, "Push the bloody fader up!"
And low and behold, the effect worked perfectly. When Glyn heard the
result, he looked bloody ill! He just couldn't accept that someone knew
something that he didn't know -- especially a musician! The pompous git!
The funny thing is, Glyn did the next Stones album and what was on it?
Backwards echo! And I'm sure he took full credit for the effect.Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2009-01-30 22:05 by His Majesty.