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The power of song production
Written by Ed Stone
Check out these two videos.
The first one sounds rubbish and boring acoustic (skip through to the song start at 1:10 – don’t bother listening to this for more than a minute, it gets really rather dull). And then the second one sounds cool (and grammy winning) with the full band (be sure to listen to this the whole way through).
Key differences in my mind? The combination acoustic strumming giving some percussion effects + the piano chords filling out all the chords nicely with some 7ths and 9ths, the claps holding down the beat in the verse, the genius delayed and reverbed doubling of the voice on the high bit of the vocals, all the vocal harmonies in the chorus, the drums kicking in properly for the chorus (fill into chorus + the snare). The vocals are also much stronger – sung with real rock n roll passion, conviction and aggression, and with plenty of compression.
Interestingly I don’t think Santana adds that much to the vibe – he really helps to keep the interest in between the main vocals parts (having two lead instruments is always cool), but the song would still stand up very well without the guitar.
Sometimes the producer deserves more credit than the writer!
