"Mr. Bojangles" - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Thanks Tom! Interesting -- amazing that you caught that. Those parts are played so closely that I don't think anyone would catch that unless they made an mp3 of each version on one channel and then listened! Other than the fact that it's not mono and then becomes a mono recording as soon as the vocals click in, it's really hard to tell that they're not the same -- with the exception that one of the versions has an extra guitar strum on beat 3, and the other version does not. And what's interesting about that is that neither my "Super Hits Vol. 4" (which contains the B-side version) nor my "Best Of" (EMI America CDP 7 46591 2, which contains the long version with "Uncle Charlie" prologue) -- have an extra guitar strum on Beat 3! Could the Curb version be unique? Also, in the mp3 you made, did you use the left channels of both recordings, the right channels of both, or make mono versions of both recordings first before creating this mp3?

Edited by EdisonLite

Here is what I did:

The version from "Twenty Years Of Dirt" was folded to mono and put into the right channel. The version from "Super Hits Of The 70's: Have A Nice Day Vol. 4" was folded to mono and put into the left channel. During that time I had two versions of Adobe Audition open (one with each version) and was playing both at the same time to hear the total playing time difference of just the song. Overall, for just the song, the Twenty Years Of Dirt version was sped up by about 3 seconds. So I slowed it down and synced it up to the other version that i had open in my 2nd copy of Adobe Audition.

If you listen in headphones, you will hear that there is a guitar strum on not just beat 3, but beat 1 as well. That is in the version of the song with the Uncle Charlie introduction, as found on the Twenty Years Of Dirt cd, and that is the same as is on my copy of the 45. The Curb cd contains the exact recording as found on the B side of my 45, without the guitar strums on beats 1 and 3.

If I'm reading your last message correctly, are you saying that there is a cd with the Uncle Charlie prologue tacked on to the B side version of the song somewhere on cd ??

Edited by TomDiehl1

Tom, yes now I hear the extra guitar strums on beat 1 as well as beat 3 of the intro in your mp3 sample.

<If I'm reading your last message correctly, are you saying that there is a cd with the Uncle Charlie prologue tacked on to the B side version of the song somewhere on cd ??>

Yes, exactly. On "Best Of" (EMI America CDP 7 46591 2, which contains the long version with "Uncle Charlie" prologue), there are no extra guitar strums on beats 1 & 3, so therefore, they took the B-side version and tacked it onto the Uncle Charlie prologue, and therefore this is not the "LP version with prologue" as is indicated in the 10th edition of Pat's book.

The only other place I have this song is on the CD "Rock Me Gently". Pat lists this as alternate take in the 10th edition book. This HAS the extra strums on beats 1 & 3. (Also, it's sped up much faster). So I wonder if a better description for the database/book (instead of "alternate take") is something along the lines of the "dj B-side". Pat, were there other reasons that made this an alternate take? I didn't listen closely or A-B. I just noticed the strums added, and the faster pitch, on a casual listen.

Edited by EdisonLite

MMathews (who contributes to this board) filled me in on what's going on here. Pat you'll probably want to take notes for the database. Turns out the version with the extra guitar strums is a remix done many years later.

MMathews writes --

there was a remix done when they were signed to Warner and it appeared on the album "20 years of dirt". "American Dream" was also remixed, by the way.    Years ago i was less fussy about the sound and prefered the orig. mix of Bojangles for the wider stereo. But the Warner remix was very clean sounding. This question now had me curious to hear the Warner remix again. I never actualy compared them side by side, interesting. The intro has an extra acoustic guitar "strum" you can hear that is not audible in the original mix. Back then i thought it just had the complete strum and on the original it was clipped off, but i can hear now it's actually an overdub that was not present originally. On this newer mix, both guitars in the old intro are together on one channel, with this extra strum in the left channel. On the original the 2 from the right channel are simply mixed left/right, and that extra strum guitar is mixed out (or was recorded later). After the intro, all tracks used are the original tracks as recorded, just placed differently in the mix. They also EQ'd it more modern sounding, less mid-rangy. More 70's sounding, less 60's. Also, the remix was sped up a tad. (i only noticed this because i had to re-pitch it to drop it into a track to do a left/right synch comparison.)

Hi Edison,

I had no idea this topic was going on when you emailed me about this track. I hadn't the remixed "20 Years Of Dirt" version in years, it was the only place i had heard the alternate mix, so I assumed it was made just for that album.
Then i went in to to see the database listing, and i noticed Pat lists the "Dirt" version accurately as a remix. Then i saw the one on "Rock Me Gently" listed as "alternate take".
I came in hear so i could point out to Pat that [as i just learned] the version on "Rock Me Gently" is the same remixthat is on "20 Years Of Dirt" - it's just sped up even more.
I ripped it from "Rock Me Gently" Cd, pitched it down and re-eq it (restoring the hi-end) and what you hear is the very same alternate mix.
So, since Pat is saying this mix was on the B-side of the 45, I'd assume it does pre-date the "20 Years" comp.
On that comp, as Tom D. asked, they took the Uncle Charlie prologue and tacked it onto this other mix.

So, i guess there's no alternate take, just 2 different mixes.   Seems like one is the LP mix, intended to include the prologue.
The other seems to be intended as the 45 mix, which includes that minor extra acoustic guitar strum overdub in the intro, left channel. And seems this alternate, perhaps 45 mix is floating around in various speeds.
I pitched the Cd rip down to match the speed of the LP version and it now times out at 3:35.

Hope any of this helps!

-Mark M