How Mistakes Can Enhance the Character of a Song
Prolific essayist Noah Lefevre of Polyphonic looked at situations where artists have either recorded or performed mistakes that actually served to enhance the character of the song.
Today, I want to talk about mistakes like this. I want to look at tiny errors that by accident or choice are left in the final versions of songs. And I want to explore how and why these choices make songs better.
Lefevre cited such examples as Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash on “Girl From the North Country”, the great Ella Fitzgerald forgetting the lyrics to “Mack the Knife”, Kurt Cobain hitting a wrong chord on “Man Who Sold the World”, the false start on the Green Day song “Good Riddance”, and several songs by The Beatles.
Pop music is an art form of mistakes and it’s better for it. ….They make it better. But of all the artists to keep mistakes in their music, the most prolific might be none other than the Beatles.
