wowbobwow OP t1_iuer4of wrote on October 30, 2022 at 7:45 PM

Reply to comment by mqudsi in TIL When soul legend Wilson Picket recorded his iconic version of "Mustang Sally," he & his band rushed to hear the playback. The tape machine broke, cutting the tape into 30-40 tiny pieces. The engineer Tom Dowd carefully spliced them all back together, & that's the famous album version by wowbobwow

I'm not a professional musician, but I can wager a couple guesses:

The Stax Records 'house style' at the time was to record every player on every track all at the same time in one big room (as opposed to the more modern approach of recording each part separately). This was a big factor in the spontaneous magic of so many Stax recordings, including occasional flubs and goofs that made it onto finished tracks, which were often recorded in just one or two takes. Doing it over again would've reduced that feeling
Wilson Pickett was a notoriously violent, short-tempered man, and was well known for beating the shit out of people who he thought were messing with him. Tom Dowd was probably wise to offer to fix the problem while everyone took a lunch break rather than telling Pickett, "oops, my bad, let's do that whole thing over again"

bolanrox t1_iufzz8h wrote on October 31, 2022 at 1:03 AM

Also they bolted the amps and mic stands to the ground so they couldn't be stolen. Another reason for the consistency. That and booker t and the mgs were fucking tight