Yesterday Once More/Road Ode 45

Lynda

Well-Known Member
Thought I'd share a 45 of Yesterday Once More/Road Ode I found a few months back at a record store. I was surprised to find, after I got home, a jukebox title strip in the sleeve.

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Nice find!

And Hi Chris!

Can someone verify for me that Karen played the drums on YOM? If so, she did an outstanding job on this - especially on the interval just before "When they get to the part...", and she was a better drummer than I already thought...
 
Nice find!

And Hi Chris!

Can someone verify for me that Karen played the drums on YOM? If so, she did an outstanding job on this - especially on the interval just before "When they get to the part...", and she was a better drummer than I already thought...
Yes Karen played drums on Yesterday Once More

Note: on the RPO version Gregg Bissonette's drums were added to Karen's.
 
Here's the promo version of "Yesterday Once More". The mono version is on the b-side. Note the date stamped on the picture sleeve, May 31, 1973. Probably the date the record was received - or placed in rotation on whatever radio station had this. scan0018.jpg

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Yes Karen played drums on Yesterday Once More

Note: on the RPO version Gregg Bissonette's drums were added to Karen's.
Thanks much Simon!

I'm wondering why Richard felt it necessary to add more drum work to what was already some really good signature drumming by Karen?!?

I guess he just couldn't help himself. He was always "messing" with her - if it wasn't overdubbing her lead vocals on far too many of their songs it was eliminating her drumming on remixes or "enhancing" it on posthumous recordings.
 
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Nice find!

And Hi Chris!

Can someone verify for me that Karen played the drums on YOM? If so, she did an outstanding job on this - especially on the interval just before "When they get to the part...", and she was a better drummer than I already thought...
I always wanted to confirm this as well! I love the drums in YOM and I know Karen played for the Now And Then album except Jambalaya. But I always wanted to know for certain about YOM. :)
 
Thanks much Simon!

I'm wondering why Richard felt it necessary to add more drum work to what was already some really good signature drumming by Karen?!?

I guess he just couldn't help himself. He was always "messing" with her - if it wasn't overdubbing her lead vocals on far too many of their songs it was eliminating her drumming on remixes or "enhancing" it on posthumous recordings.
Back in 1973, Karen’s drum parts were recorded in mono, so while her playing is fine, for the RPO album the mono drums would’ve stuck out like Richard’s mono piano on “Ticket To Ride”. But by adding an additional drummer recorded in stereo, Richard was aiming for the best of both worlds.
 
Back in 1973, Karen’s drum parts were recorded in mono, so while her playing is fine, for the RPO album the mono drums would’ve stuck out like Richard’s mono piano on “Ticket To Ride”. But by adding an additional drummer recorded in stereo, Richard was aiming for the best of both worlds.

If that’s the case how come he managed to remix the track with added stereo piano in 1985 and again in 1991 without having to re-record Karen’s drums on those occasions?
 
If that’s the case how come he managed to remix the track with added stereo piano in 1985 and again in 1991 without having to re-record Karen’s drums on those occasions?
He re-recorded his piano in 1985. So the piano in 85 was a true stereo recording. And in 1985 he seems to have added reverb and brought up the bass on the drum track to present it as “stereo”, even though it’s mono. And he might’ve just copied the drum track to a second track to play with the drums a little bit.

I think in 73 YOM might’ve been done on 16-track, where as in 85 Richard was using 24-track.
 
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Never thought fake stereo was Richard’s thing.
Analog can hide a great many sins whereas digital doesn’t.

I’m reminded of The Beach Boys 1965 albums, Today & Summer Days (And Summer Nights), they’ve been paired up a one CD during Capitol’s 2-fer reissue one 1990 & 2001. Both albums are on CD in mono. And you can hear it as there is no movement across the stereo stage (even though, technically on CD the mono is spread on 2-channels because of Red Book standards), even when listening without headphones and the sound is very narrow, and you can hear the limits of the analog tape. However, when I play the mono 1960’s era LP’s that I have of each album, (and I’m just using a stereo needle, I’m not switching to a mono needle), does the sound ever go across the stereo stage to where someone might think that I was playing a stereo record, but it’s mono.

I’m reminded of what Sony/Columbia used to put on their CD’s in the 80’s: “The sound of the original recording has been preserved as closely as possible, however due to its high resolution, the compact disc can reveal limitations of the source tape.” So if Richard left Karen’s drums as they were on YOM, the les sharp sound would clash with the really sharp sound of the other instruments. Tracks from later in their career, like Postman, & Touch Me had the drums recorded in stereo back in the 70’s and 80’s, so Richard could get away with using those recordings as they were stereo, and with the other instruments he could hide any limitations of the analog tapes better. Remember with RPO, all the tapes from the 70’s & 80’s were digitally scrubbed to remove any unwanted noise and bring them as close as possible to today’s digital recordings so that they would mesh. It’s like in video if you shoot in 16x9 widescreen but at 480i, you can always upscale it to 1080p widescreen and a lot of people won’t know it’s a standard def image, while some may notice that it’s softer and blurrier compared to true HD widescreen. But if you shoot in 4x3 480i and upscale it to 1080p widescreen HD, people will know!
 
Didn't know where to ask this, and didn't find the answer in the Carpenters Resource (I may have just not searched correctly)...

Who performs the flute solo (I assume it's a flute, I'm not a musician) in Road Ode?
 
Didn't know where to ask this, and didn't find the answer in the Carpenters Resource (I may have just not searched correctly)...

Who performs the flute solo (I assume it's a flute, I'm not a musician) in Road Ode?
Bob Messenger is credited with playing flute and alto flute on the ASFY album, and Tim Weisberg on bass flute. However, I don't have a clue which type of flute was used on Road Ode.
 
Thanks much Simon!

I'm wondering why Richard felt it necessary to add more drum work to what was already some really good signature drumming by Karen?!?

I guess he just couldn't help himself. He was always "messing" with her - if it wasn't overdubbing her lead vocals on far too many of their songs it was eliminating her drumming on remixes or "enhancing" it on posthumous recordings.
There is that 'lick' that to me is synonymous with Yesterday Once More that is missing from the RP album that I miss quite a bit. Between several of the phrases utilizing the high hat with the snare. You hear it also on TTR on the Singles album. Mono or non-Mono - I wish he'd have left that lick in. I find the drums on the newer version - not as tasty - not as refined... Just 'there'. Same with Hurting Each Other, actually.
 
I’ve just bought an original UK 45 of this single and while the mastering of the A-side is clean and clear, the B-side - which is what I bought it for - is really poor. The track is so quiet and muffled all the way through that you can barely hear it without cranking the volume right up. Was there such a big difference between A Song For You and Now and Then? Or were the source tapes altered in some way for the single pressing?
 
I’ve just bought an original UK 45 of this single and while the mastering of the A-side is clean and clear, the B-side - which is what I bought it for - is really poor. The track is so quiet and muffled all the way through that you can barely hear it without cranking the volume right up. Was there such a big difference between A Song For You and Now and Then? Or were the source tapes altered in some way for the single pressing?
The UK was probably using masters that were a third or fourth or more analog generation from the original master tapes. So there would’ve been some loss is quality compared to the US versions because analog introduced additional hiss and other anomalies with each generation.
 
Today while listening to AT40 from June 30th 1973, Carpenters at #13 with YOM. 3rd week on the charts. Another memory came to mind. When the song peeked a few weeks later, Casey Kasem started playing the short version of the song. It’s only on the 8-track version of Now&Then. It’s basically filler to make program 1 out of 4 the same length as the others. It does not sound like an edit, but an actual separately recorded track, leaving out the whole middle part of the song. It’s at about 2:15 long. The British 8-track says part 1, instead of short version. The quad 8-tracks only have 2 sides, so it’s not on those tapes. Anyway my question is: should it be on the resource as an alternate version? Short version? Can @ChisMay ask Richard about it’s recording. Edited or separate recording? I finally tracked a guy down that sold old radio shows, and asked about it. He didn’t believe me until he played the record it was on, from 8/4/73. He said it definitely changed the whole song. He’s right. At 2:15 it’s not a hit.
 
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