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Most of you are probably familiar with Brian Eno’s “Oblique Strategies,” a set of cards containing instructions that he uses to guide his creative decisions. My favorite is this one:
Eno did not invent this idea, of course, just codified it. Accidents — which we call “serendipity” when we’re happy with their results — are part and parcel of the creative process. On this day in 1969, for instance, according to Geoff Emerick’s Here, There and Everywhere,
Paul overdubbed his bass on “Polythene Pam,” and at one point he overshot the note on one of his glissandos. Instinctively, he said, “Oops, let me drop that in and fix it,” but we all spontaneously overruled him, saying, “No, it’s great! Leave it in” – even George Martin got into the spirit of things. When someone made a mistake like that and the others liked it, we’d often actually make it louder when we’d mix the song so as to accentuate it. Sometimes we’d even double-track the mistake with different instruments, so it would be even more obvious.
I think the “mistake” in “Polythene Pam happens about 45 seconds in, but I don’t have the most acute musical ear in the world. See what you think:
I’d say you nailed it.
even sounds like John can be heard saying “great”