The MISTAKE in September - An Investigation

Is this a mistake or am I crazy? Investigating the intro of Earth, Wind & Fire's "September"

__________________________________

OTHER VIDEOS TO WATCH

GET THE VINYL

__________________________________

__________________________________

TOPICS COVERED
Earth Wind & Fire
September
Mistake
Bass
Verdine White
Maurice White
Philip Bailey
Groove
Best of
Ableton
Fix
Tutorial
Bass Player
How To
Al McKay
Trolls Soundtrack
Live
Breakdown

[EddieG]

Bassist of almost 28 years here, and my two cents is; no way that's a mistake. He's playing against the time in a great way for that little part.

[lamontsanford]

Air guitarist for over 40 years here, this has been the trickiest into for me to master. It’s not a mistake, it’s just funky overload in the bassist fingers nerve endings.

[ryangoodrow]

To me it felt like a “Bob Ross mistake“ where it’s more of a happy accident, adding a bit more spice and character to the art, giving it more personality and a less typical feel

[brendanp]

My two cents as a musician:
Just because something comes out unintentionally does not qualify it to be a mistake. I’ve gone for plenty of licks that I end up flubbing. On occasion, a flub will turn into something cool enough that it doesn’t matter. So I roll with it. We’ve all been there

[connorjames]

Definitely NOT a mistake, it's not even out of time. As a bass player, it's clear, obvious syncopation. I would even go to far as to say the intro does NOT work half as well without that syncopation. It creates a moment of suspense (placement of rhythmic stresses or accents where they wouldn't normally occur) adding to the buildup right before the song settles into the groove.

[jonsimon]

As a former recording engineer, that intro "mistake" sounds to me like a wonky punch-in that they just decided to leave.

[HanSolo-kdtb]

As a Bassist, I clearly hear this as something I, and many other bassists would play, and I do think it sounds amazing.

[trroopforever]

This has been killing me for years. Never heard it isolated before. Isolated, it's fine, in the track, doesn't work. I've been playing bass for over 40 years. Audio engineer for 25. But I worked with Earth Wind and Fire, and I can totally see Maurice saying "it's fine, I like it!"

[sakunkanava]

Definitely not a mistake! It acts as a little rhythmical fill to spice things up after 2 bars of the same bassline.

[zaykillin]

it actually isn’t a mistake, that’s a simple groove decision. and definitely sounds good.

[themotownboy]

If it was thought of as a mistake, they could have easily muted the bass track for that split second during mixdown and no one would have really noticed. Also, that it was not addressed probably means it wasn’t seen as a big deal.

[jamescallaghanmyp]

I studied music performance in college, we had this song for our funk night, I played everything from ear and I played this live and the lecturer shredded me for playing the “iconic bass line wrong” so I played him the track and he’d never noticed it before. This guy had been teaching for nearly as long as the track had been out. Felt so proud of myself😊

[brown]

i think people are forgetting another possible idea which is that it was a mistake they kept because they liked it.

[gibson]

Deffinitly not a mistake. This is literally how to play against the rythem. It's fully syncopated. I can't even conceive why you would think its a mistake

[hrundibakshi]

That fact that the tempo doesn't line up with the grid is exactly why IT'S PERFECT! What is Soul Music without the freedom to express your Soul? *De-Quantize your brain and be free!*

[tyler]

Jazz drummers are never wrong. I don't make the rules

[MaestorRasanen]

If that is a mistake that is one fucking awesome mistake.

Also listening these two version at the same time is the perfect way to hear what was best in before and what's horrible now.

[rosslawson]

This reminds me of when I was in a Miles Davis tribute band. I was transcribing stuff straight from the records and I did dots for Autumn Leaves from Cannonball Adderley's album Something Else. It starts with a long bass riff intro before the main melody, with a simple horn line. The trumpet player in the band says to me 'you've really gone for authenticity, you've even transcribed the cracked note (in Miles's line).' Up to that point it hadn't even occurred to me that it was a clam, I was so used to hearing it that it was just part of the music- he heard it differently. To me, the 'mistake' was so baked into the music that it would have sounded weird without it.

[dev]

Whether intentional or not, it certainly IS syncopated and falls in perfectly in the offbeat. If you think of the bass as more of a rhythm instrument, it makes way more sense as to why it wouldn't always line up with the horns. If it sounds good, then it's not a mistake, it's improvisation, or letting the rhythm and the funk take hold of you.

[the-selfish-meme]

That's my definition of a genuine musician - someone whose wrong notes sound better than my right notes. This qualifies.