Napoleon XIV is dead
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Thursday April 20, 2023
David Mellor
David Mellor is CEO and Course Director of Audio Masterclass. David has designed courses in audio education and training since 1986 and is the publisher and principal writer of Adventures In Audio.
@robertridley9279: He was the first white rapper.
@29naf: 😢
@29naf: Why did Jerry use a mask on his record sleeve?
@Thunder_6278: Only in America....
@edwardcnnell2853: Yes, the cause of the misery was a dog. I wonder if this inspired David 'Son of Sam' Berkowitz? As I recall, the song was banned because it would offend the mentally ill.
@MikeHunt-n3i: 84, 1966... wow his death was as insane as his song.
@nigelgreen9369: So, MAD Magazine released a 45 version I own where on one side it is inverted, where does this sit in the Canon?
@rh01: In 1968 and 69, I built studio recorders for Accurate Sound Company in San Angelo, Texas. While I was there, I actually saw and had access to the variable speed oscillator and amplifier necessary to make the tape recorders in the studio vary the speed. The people on here who talk about tape recorders with variable speeds, that was home recorders.
@MichaelBoyce-tm2vw: He had a you tube page.
@robinkleinsteuber5217: Oh, c'mon now. This be the perfect song to take to the nearest high-end audio shop to seriously audition a new set o' speakers! 😁
@RedVynil: They were thigh slaps, not hand claps.
@mwmaaiky1024: That's so not true. ALOT made sense.
@lennyh500: Too young-ish to have nobbled tape recorders with varying frequencies in the '60s, but in my alter ego of renovating old American jukeboxes, I do build power oscillators to run the 60Hz motors off 50Hz UK mains. Don't try this at home, kids.🤣
@adamdrummer1991: What was the 1972 song you mentioned?
@AudioMasterclass replies to @adamdrummer1991: Prisencolinensinainciusol
@PIERRECLARY: try this on headphones (done in a rotten bungalow on a cheap laptop and a 15 w amp 2nd hand instruments, toy microphone from playstation...
@Underp4ntz_Gaming_Channel: i think the videoclip that is uploaded on youtube is corrupt, the original song doesnt sound like that. i got the orginal pressings and new pressings and a studio file and all do not sound like the clip thats on youtube.
@davidbuffalo6821: It was recorded in 1966, not 1972.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @davidbuffalo6821: You need to watch the video again. Perhaps you will realise your error.
@RedVynil: I can't look it up, I have no idea what you said.
@larryjacobsen4079: Bob Dylan's Rainy Day Woman has the same rhythm. Who copied whom?
@RedVynil: What's one of your faves?
@kbjerke: I bought a copy of the 45 in '66. Still have it in the basement, somewhere. Thanks for the memories!! 👍
@kbjerke: Someone looks just like the Caretaker in the Star Trek original series. Change my mind!
("Shore Leave" is the fifteenth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek.)
@AudioMasterclass replies to @kbjerke: One has to wonder where this is coming from https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Oliver_McGowan
@kbjerke replies to @kbjerke: @@AudioMasterclass Certainly no insult was intended! That episode was one of my favourites! Thank you for the link to Mr. McGowan's profile.
@livet-enresa4337: I have the singel... :-)
@PtolemyJones: What was that first tune he mentions? Can't even remotely understand what he says.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @PtolemyJones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisencolinensinainciusol
@PtolemyJones replies to @PtolemyJones: @@AudioMasterclass Oh! I know that tune, very clever! I have heard mock-other languages a lot of over the years, neat to hear mock-my language.
@pierremainstone-mitchell8290: A very funny song especially the ending!
@Neverspeaktomeagain: His music saved me, I listened to all his music, everyday and every single time. But after knowing he past away I couldn't help but cry. I love him and his music more than my family or anything else in this world. Rest in peace, legend.
@JimiLoko0822: I'm doing a cover of "Theyre coming to take me away"......
@Suddenlyits1960: Jerry Samuels did a song called "puppy love" in 1956. (Not the same as Paul Ankas song). Nobody could have guessed that 10 years later he'd be sitting in his easy chair high on grass when this song came to him.
@mjh5437: Mate,are you Paul McCartney`s twin brother??
@AudioMasterclass replies to @mjh5437: Let me debunk you of that - https://youtu.be/aB3JNivlMnI
@kayeninetwo3585: I was a small child when this song came out, but I remember all of the whoopla that surrounded it. People forget today how controversial it was back then. It was not only a song about mental illness, but a song that MADE FUN OF mental illness and people who were mentally ill. Many radio stations banned it in the mid-'60's.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @kayeninetwo3585: It isn't his only controversial song.
@ThursoBerwick replies to @kayeninetwo3585: I'm the opposite. I heard it on the radio years ago but now I look at it and think it is quite cruel
@patgalvez4563: My all time favorite novelty song
@BLKBRDSR71: This song is about a man who went insane cause his dog ran away.
Sad but true. Some people go crazy when their pets leave them.
R.I.P. Napoleon XIV
@txcrix9236: Every time I listen to this song those high pitched sirens crack me up like nothing else, love it! 🤣
@DarrylRuiz-s1w: Im 70 and I still have the lyrics memorized spent a few weeks at the funny farm with trees and flowers and chirping bird's with basket weavers who sit and 😅 ....
......
@Happy_HIbiscus: jerry, come and take me away😊😊😊😊
@RedVynil: They weren't claps, they were thigh slaps.
Older tape recorders had pitch control. Quite often, a little knob where, if it was pushed down, you could turn it as much as you want and it wouldn't make any difference but, if you pulled it up, you could turn it one way to make the tape speed up and the other way to make it slow down. No matter where you set the knob while up, as soon as you push it back down, the tape machine runs at normal speed again.
In my door? What does that mean?
Yeah, I thought it was a dog, too but I just heard him say it was a girl that left him. A few years before that, he went through a terrible divorce so, that's probably got something to do with it.
The way I would do it today is to record the backing tracks, then go back to the start of that recording and add the vocal while listening to the backing and then when it comes to chorusland, start slowing the tape down gradually while matching your vocal rhythm with the fluctuating backing track. On playback at normal speed, the backing stays static but the vocals speed up in the chorus. Either add the effects during the vocal recording or afterwards. Mix lightly and serve in a tall glass of ice.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @RedVynil: I don't know every tape recorder but I do know that the Revox PR99 had variable speed, 'varispeed' but only via an accessory and the range was far too limited for this kind of effect. I made my own varispeed box without the limiting resistors and achieved a much wider range. Earlier tape recorders, I think the Revox B77 and A77 were similar. In the Studer range, the A80 had varispeed built in but again only a narrow range. The B62 and A62 didn't have it built in and I can't remember an accessory being available. Likewise the Revox G36. Legend has it however that in the earlier days of tape recording, variable speed could be achieved by having an oscillator and a power amplifier powerful enough to act as the mains supply for the capstan motor of the tape machine. The capstan motor would lock to that and the frequency could be varied from the normal 50 Hz or 60 Hz. As far as I know and I may be wrong, the rest of the machine could be run from the normal mains. A number of commenters have said along the lines of 'oh, it's just the varispeed control'. In this era no, it was more complicated than that, and much more of an achievement. Maybe a comment reader who has a longer memory than me can fill in the details.
@RedVynil replies to @RedVynil: @@AudioMasterclass If I remember correctly, nearly every open reel deck I've ever used (at least 13) had Varispeed on it. Even my little portable General Electric 3" deck back in the late `60's. I just bought a Teac 10X-R (not sure that's the number but it's a 10" deck that plays and records both directions and can play & record both sides non-stop or repeatedly.) And I have a Tascam 2-track 10" mastering deck with Varispeed and even the Tascam Porta-Studio I bought about 15 years ago has Varispeed. Most cassette decks don't have that. I never knew what the ranges were but I think I experimented on at least one where, if I recorded at slow speed with the Vari turned up as high as it would go and then played back at high speed with Vari as slow as it'd go, it almost played back at the same speed it was recorded at. Maybe it's not like that on all decks but, at least with the Porta-Studio, I was able to record a 78 from a turntable that only plays at 33 and 45 with the pitch turned up on that to a certain point, onto the Porta-Studio with the Vari turned down to a certain point and, when I played the tape back at normal speed I had correct pitch and speed.
I just listened to several interviews of Jerry but none asked him how he changed the pitch on that. Early this year, I found his phone number and was planning to call him up to ask a few things but, a day or two after I found his number, he died!
It's certainly not the first time that was done on a record or the last. During the psych era, there were a number of records that messed with the pitch and loads of other aspects of recording. You COULD do the vocal first and then add the backing but, you wouldn't be able to guarantee keeping the tempo the same throughout and, as Jerry said, the drummer he used was a terrible drummer so, I wouldn't count on him being able to match the tempo on the Vari part. It'd just be much harder to do it that way.
@artturner2054: Jerry died in the hospital I work at; in the kitchen. Even delivered his dinner once. Wish I'd taken time to talk to him
@gwendolynemaeystadt7531 replies to @artturner2054: He died in the kitchen?
@BharataWinghamLaughaYoga replies to @artturner2054: @@gwendolynemaeystadt7531 🤣
@lmoonzero2: Ride that little red tricycle to the stars ! rest in peace Jerry
@scottallen6133: As a kid I would drive my parents crazy with this song.
@spacemissing: And if you like This classic, you might want to also look up Napoleon's "I Live In A Split-Level Head".
@headfirstonly: I'm laughing because Little Alter Boy was my first thought for how I'd go about trying to replicate the effect.
@ianl.9271: Vocal processor with formant shift. 😂
@drifter7458: And the flip was the same in reverse
@garyduganmusic: Elton John did a song in the same vein as "Prisencolinensinainciusol" called "Solar Prestige a Gammon": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBXtYY0Jf0U
@AudioMasterclass replies to @garyduganmusic: And there is 'Freezin' Cold in 89 Twoso' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wr0QIXaoSY
@garyduganmusic replies to @garyduganmusic: @@AudioMasterclass Love it! Thanks!
@cubeaceuk9034: I am slowly working my way through your back catalogue of videos. Most informative 👍🏻. I don't know about the 60s but by the 70s, Turnkey in the UK was producing Revox machines with various adaptions and alterations including 4 track, a top flat deck with clean head protrusion and fixed editing block as well as variable speed control for the B77 series. We used the variable speed control mainly to correct old 78 rpm recordings which were not always strictly 78rpm and for tape stereo phase effects which if wearing headphones felt like your head was being squeezed and let go. The latter I've never heard close to being as good in the digital domain. I'm not even sure how many tracks would have been available for the song in question to bounce to or whether it was bounced from one machine to another. Either way I always thought of it as a masterclass.
@jamescarter3196: Often heard on the 'Dr. Demento Show' here in the States, in addition to some of his other material like "Split-Level Head", which is less technically-impressive and a bit sloppier but still fun, and only a couple of minutes long so just by the time you're saying "ok I get it", it's already fading out.
@philiphubbard6234: Samuel lost my respect after hearing his song Rape.
@chaoticsystem2211: You forgot to mention the acid :D
@Pitaponpon2010: Bro I didn't find this out until today!
@igorbeuk4068: I use Resampling techniques and this is 100% no Done by design but rather like child playing and experimenting, something that Artist should be humble enough to allow them selfs such workflow. From Tapes to vinyl i realized that Digital solutions are offering much more and this effect will have to be made in limited environment because without boundary's where everything is possible it's more likely to get something new unpredictable ( ABBA and Reverb solution - tube Reverb) . I am thinking about Music then i design what i imagined but i allow happy accidents to happen and it's usually my way of constructing Audio speed affecting pitch like vinyl, pure Resampling pitch and different Variations of sample start and direction of replay and all in one solution would be Granular Sinthezis, Reverb can affect pitch by setting Room size and Tape can be slowed down like it was said in the video but overall Reverb glued Vocal thers no doubt and it was time when Producer exploring how to achieve Reverb effect and if it was Tube with speaker on one side and Mic on the other side recording already recorded sound alterd via Tape to be honest Tape stretching and multitude attempts for achieving desired result. You are welcome. Quality Channel among infinite see of half usable content. Thank you for your Content and Effort because it's real gem for who understands and can accept the truth. Time Capsule definitely
@igorbeuk4068: You are old enough to remember when New Wave came long before Berlin wall xame down there was Jugoslavija and Music ahead anything that exists back then but even now . This reminds me of Bands and strange Music projects i was listening as a kid, unusual phrases and way of vocal expression. My point is that it's not all about English language and i already see limitation when i want to meet someone who doesn't speak English and often expression can't be translated from other languages to English which i must use but when it comes to Art limitation is coming as main obstacle and that's why music without words is universal language. Who ever have needs to express in Music have no excuse to get stuck with Band but to look for crew and in the meantime do what can be done
@dn7685: You look like Paul McCartney
@AudioMasterclass replies to @dn7685: Yeah yeah yeah. DM
@Moluccan56 replies to @dn7685: I think he could be a Python, as well!
@baritonfelix: For those who have been struggling to just "look it up "(as I have), the song quoted at the start is "Prisencolinensinainciusol " by Adriano Celentano.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @baritonfelix: I probably should have said that. DM
@RocknRollkat: Hello DM
AC motor speed control is done in several ways.
There is information readily available on the 'net if you need a nap.
I recall that some studios used rock solid 60 cycle generators since the mains frequency does vary slightly during the day.
The power company monitors this and plays catch up or slow down at the end of the day to keep household clocks reading the correct time. They used to, anyway. These days I'm sure it's done differently.
Best rergards,
Bill P.
@rotteenbasil: I listened to the “new” napoleon album, god it’s like he’s still alive
@daveboydmusic744: I knew Jerry very well, and he explained that speed up technic to me - his partner at the studio invented a control to allow the speed to vary during recording, so they actually slowed down the tape as the artist (Jerry) performed the lyric. Then, as the tape played at normal speed, the parts that were altered came out accelerated. The technology didn't exist, and Nat Schnaff invented it for this recording. Another fun fact - it's not registered as a song in the Copyright, because there are no chords, and no melody, so it's registered as a spoken word piece.
@12floz67 replies to @daveboydmusic744: Thanks for putting that out here.🍻
@majikglustik9704: 3:04 this has to be only a part of the sound; reverb: it's like cowbell, kind of. Your sample needs more reverb.
@uli.s: Fun fact:
The B-Side of the vinyl single just was the song played in reverse.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @uli.s: People just don't know how to have fun anymore. DM
@debbieschmidling8158 replies to @uli.s: @@AudioMasterclassI agree! 😁
@hokusman100 replies to @uli.s: My mom used to have that 45. I played the heck out of it as a kid
@WilliamHaisch replies to @uli.s: Karateka, the 1984 video game for the Apple II computer by Jordan Mechner, had a second side to the floppy so if you ran the game from the flip side, the game graphics were also flipped upside down! Of course, it was an entirely different version of the game but it was a neat easter egg! 😂
@bokutoisdaddy: I didnt know he died
@qaser8: I did buy the 45 in 1966. The flip side was the same song playing backwards. I guess we could never broadcast this number ever as so many snowflakes would be offended.
@robertquinn9490: I remember it well. Thank you for bringing our attention to this awesome songwriter, his work, and his passing...hat held on chest in respects for both he and our long (seemingly lost) era.
@Lestatkatt1: Motif XIV (Jerry Samuels cat) says “They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha, Haaa!” and his legendary unissued follow up “For God’s Sake, Stop The Feces” will be reissued/issued on colored vinyl and CD on Needlejuice Records. Both with Bonus Tracks. Pre-Orders start on 4/20/2023
@morbidmanmusic: The deck had vari-speed built in, and and while he was singing they slowed down the tape over the time, and he just manually stayed in time with the track as he sung. Then playing it back wi the speed normal, it would appear to raise in pitch. . Easy really. Not so easy in digital.
@Zednoughtcom: Jerry will be missed. It brings back memories of my childhood listening to Dr. Demonto. Very interesting analysis. Thank you!
@jackwitz5339 replies to @Zednoughtcom: I love Dr. Demento! I listened to him on Sunday nights after Battlestar Galactica.
@mcpribs: I am only 42, but my parents had a record of this, and I played it over, and over again, as a child. Even then I wondered how this would’ve been made, since I’d never heard anything else like it. Now that I am quite knowledgeable in the dark arts of audio engineering…I wonder even more. Fascinating technique, and great song, and thank you for sharing this, and allowing me a moment to think fondly on the music of my youth. 🥰
@danielkoher1944 replies to @mcpribs: My sister was a RN then she played this loudly in the car!
@davidhalliday7776: When I was a kid we did something similar with my dad's Phillips, real to real. We slowed it down by pressing on real feeding the heads.
Now I am older I realize not only could it stretch the tape but also damage the player. I guess it may be worth it for a hit recording, but for some kids to laugh at their high-pitched voices, I am not so sure.
@Moluccan56 replies to @davidhalliday7776: Reel.
@kd3106: RIP Jerry Samuels.
@musicalneptunian replies to @kd3106: He may have been taken away. BUT WE DEMAND A REMIX!
@jeffchristian6798: Yes, I saw the post of his passing. Very sad, but it also put a smile on my face as I replayed the song in my head.
@pimianimavdo1523: A good friend of mine used this as an intro to a cassette taped super mix that faded perfectly with "you got yo be a winner, you got to be the best,thebest,the best, the best"... Great souvenirs :)
Also, cool video subject :)
@andywray3446: FWIW: this is one of my all-time favourite songs from my childhood ... I've shared it with many younger folks in recent years and they have all loved it both for the way it sounds and its weird lyrics. I usually share it with people who are a bit stressed at work and it makes them laugh and relax.
@misterhenri3710: Yes, I want that in my DAW! I'm pretty sure David Bowie got away with a variation on this trick at least twice.
@morbidmanmusic replies to @misterhenri3710: Fame is one place.
@misterhenri3710 replies to @misterhenri3710: @@morbidmanmusic Bewlay Brothers is another, and I'm thinking maybe Scream Like A Baby as well. Unless some digital gadget could do the same thing by then.
@RobertWilliams-kw5dl: At that time they had DC motor speed controllers which compared the spee of a taxhometer with an adjustable speed referemce oscillator. If they had recorded the backing at a set speed, then replayed that using the record head into headphones while Napoleon recorded the vocal in time to the backing replayed at variable speeds, the result when replayed at a fixed speed would have resulted in the desitrd ffrct, To keep the echo time constant they may have had to replay the vocal track again from the record head and add rhe echo separately.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @RobertWilliams-kw5dl: Thank you for your input, which is most welcome. My memory doesn't go back as far as 1966 professionally, but I remember machines not much later than that that either had no speed control (other than switched), or a very limited varispeed. What I hear in this record is a much greater speed variation than any machine I've come across had built in. If anyone can pin down the exact machine that this would have been recorded on, then that would be interesting and useful information. DM
@RobertWilliams-kw5dl replies to @RobertWilliams-kw5dl: @@AudioMasterclass Thank you for your excellent videos! The only 'evidence' supporting my theory is that I was once told that "A day in the Life" was recorded not long after on two Studer two track stereo tape recorders where the two capstan motor speed controllers were synchronised from one oscillator. (I'm sure that they had to record any phase sensitive stereo inputs on one machine, but otherwise this gave themselves four tracks to play with.) If and only if the transport and speed controllers would have withstood (say) a 50% speed reduction on recording (no increase in speed would have been needed), then Napoleon XIV could have done it this way, The EQ would have been an issue, but that could have been sorted out manually on the final mix. I'm curious if anybody knows how it was actually done, because a some atrists I rceorded wanted an effect a bit like that back in 1979. My equipment had synchronous motors, so did it with a variable bucket brigade delay line: you could achieve that effect but with severe limitations.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @RobertWilliams-kw5dl: @@RobertWilliams-kw5dl Thank you for that. Bits of this story come out from time to time, but the whole definitive version is elusive. What I can add, which will be further fog, is that sync requires two things - for the machines to run at the same speed and - importantly - for their positions to be the same. And of course tape has a tendency to drift. My guess would be to sacrifice a track on one machine for the tone which would provide the speed, then trial and error for the position. I used to fly stuff in from one tape recorder to another before we had samplers and it wasn't as hard to get good enough sync as I thought it would be. DM
@paulinboston: Good Job
@marleypumpkin4917: I had thought that Kim Fowley had recorded this track.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @marleypumpkin4917: Apparently yes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWDhLCXEhjo - But it seems that Napoleon XIV is the original. DM
@chrislj2890: Couldn't make that these days, it would offend someones delicate sensibilities. But it was funny at the time.
@morbidmanmusic replies to @chrislj2890: It's funny now. People lose their minds a little to much these days. It's kinda embarrassing for humanity.
@Yakkymania replies to @chrislj2890: Literally no it wouldn’t, there have been a lot of mentally troubled people in my family & i’m sure all of them would find it quite funny, it’s just the basic neurotypical girls who would be “offended” by it, & we all hate those people here. Everybody calls me insane, & i love this song. Concluding my message, please get a life outside of showcasing your wrong opinions on the internet.
@machavez00: Weird Al
@marleypumpkin4917 replies to @machavez00: Don’t thumb up your own comment.🤮