In his In The Midnight Hour episode, Andrew Hickey tells a great story about the recording of Mustang Sally. While the tape was rewinding after recording in one take, the capstan flew of the recorder, shredding the tape into fragments and sending them flying all over the room. The volatile Wilson Pickett was about to explode, when Tom Dowd told everyone to calm down and take a 30-minute break. Dowd then spliced the fragments, a total of 40 splices, an average of one every three or four seconds. Hickey plays a 30-second sample containing the only possible splice he can hear (it’s at 2:22) but thinks it’s more likely a drumming error. Nah, that’s a splice.
I can’t hear the other 39. Tom Dowd was a badass.
