Ride Into The Sun Instrumental with added vocal

[Elvis Plebsley]

I suppose the easiest way to clarify this is with reference to the Studio recordings listin on Olivier's site: http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/an ... tudio.html

Bobbydriver's version puts the vocal from the Late 69/Early 70 session on to the 5 September 1969 instrumental.

The other 2 versions are using the 5th September instrumental, but are mixing in the vocal from the lower quality vocal version of that same Sept 5th take. These are trying to create a hybrid which maintains the quality of the instrumental and uses the correct vocal.

[DavidH]

Hang on, which acetate are we talking about? I know there was a later acetate version of Ride from an entirely separate session - same source as Countess from Hong Kong etc.

But my understanding was that the What Goes On version of Ride - the one we're talking about here - was sourced from the same set of acetates as the Live 1969 recordings. The actual recording may have been the same session as the Another View version, but it has reached us via an acetate. (And possibly a couple of cassette generations, judging by the sound quality).

When I say "acetate", I'm talking about the acetate with Ride and Countess from Hong Kong etc. As you say, that is the one bobbydriver used the vocals from. I'm not sure, off the top of my head, where the What Goes On version is ultimately sourced from. The notes in the What Goes On booklet do say "from acetate", but they also incorrectly imply it's the version from the same acetate as Countess From Hong Kong by saying it's from the Polydor (France) 5 CD box set, which it isn't, so those notes aren't reliable.

It's probably late enough in the game that it doesn't matter now, but allegedly this was a deliberate 'mistake' to try to minimise how many 'bootleg' tracks it appeared were on this set. It was problematic licensing-wise to include any unofficial recordings, but a few somehow ended up on there. I believe the source of the 'Ride' track was either the 7" bootleg from the late 80s, or the cassette that was the source for that single.

[DopeyJoe66]

The September 5th instrumental version was clearly meant to be instrumental only. You can tell by the way they add a new instrument each time the pattern repeats itself. First it's just Lou, then Sterling adds his pretty part, then another guitar line is added, then a fuzz guitar solo, then a piano, then a second fuzz guitar solo. They would not have added so many solo parts if there had intended to accompany vocals on top. My thought is that Lou had not written the lyrics yet when they did the recording. We know they were playing it with vocals by November, so he probably wrote them sometime that fall.

In my opinion, the most fully realized version of the song, which combines the strengths of the instrumental with vocals is Luna's version.

[marukomu]

Just to add further complexity to this - is the "demo" version on fully loaded the same as the version on PSAS? They sound pretty similar to me. Olivier's site isn't totally clear on this.

[MarkTWIC]

There's another version used by the "Albums that never were" website, it may be the acetate improved as far as possible. I really love this imagining of the fourth album and "Ride into the Sun" is the last track.

https://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.co ... grade.html

[Mark]

To get to the bottom of something that's bugged me for a while, I've just been A/B-ing the Ride Into the Sun instrumental with the vocal What Goes On / French EP version (ie same one that's on the blog above). Like a lot of people, I've tended to assume that it's the same take performance with a vocal added - but it's not!

Even taking into account the longer intro on the instrumental that seems to be chopped off on the vocal version, the various guitar and piano parts, solos etc come in at different points - no matter where you place the vocal on top of the instrumental, it won't fit in the same way as it does on the version it's lifted from. Also, the drum fills are different.

It's odd - the two versions are VERY similar, all the parts (including the solo) are pretty much the same, they're just organised differently. Can't see why they'd go to the effort of recording pretty much the same thing, including overdubs, twice. Maybe they'd done a nice backing track with all the bits on, then tried a vocal, realised the same thing I just have, and then re-did it so it accommodates the vocal better?

[marukomu]

Thanks everyone. I've been re-reading Olivier's list and we seem to have the following situation:

1. Instrumental 5/9/69 - Another View
2. take 1 5/9/69 - What Goes On Aussie 3-CD
3. take 2 with studio chatter at the beginning 5/9/69 - Ride Into The Sun EP (also on https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot. ... n-sun.html). Is this the same as take 1 but with the chatter or is it actually a different take?
4. acetate demo late 69/early 70 with Lou vocal - French CDEP
5. 16/4/70 version - not labelled as anything on PSAS, called "demo" on Fully Loaded and called "outtake" on Re-Loaded. I think the way the table in Olivier's list is set out this means that these are all actually the same, just called different things on the different releases. There's another line under "session outtakes" with the same 3 versions and same timings so I'm assuming we're talking about 1 version rather than 6.

So, potentially, either 4 or 5 versions in total?

[Mark]

Yep that covers it I believe. To the best of my knowledge 2 and 3 are the same version (notwithstanding the chatter).

[Mark]

On a slightly separate point, does anyone else thing Sterling might be singing the low harmony on the chorus of the What Goes On / Ride Into the Sun EP version?

I've just been playing around on Lalal.ai and when the vocal is isolated, there's just a certain quality to that part that makes me think it's Sterling. More of a throaty, slightly flat baritone sound than Doug, and it doesn't sound like Lou either. If I'm right, is that the only time Sterling does a prominent vocal on a VU recording?