Tiger Feet sound

MartinBush

I bet it's not often someone asks about Mud, but I am about to.

It struck me recently how good the guitar sounds are on Tiger Feet - I think there's two or three different ones on the record.

Does anyone know how they achieved the sounds? I'm particularly interested in the sound of the sound used on the chord that slides up on the chorus.

EricTheWeary

That Steve Cropper type lick as they go into the chorus is great. One of my absolute favourite tunes as a kid, still sounds great. I saw a version of Mud live in about 1985 which I remember fondly but not to the level of detail as to what pedals. 

There's two or three guitar parts, I'm not sure there's anything unique about the sound of most of them but there is a huge fuzz going on. Gawd knows what that is, I want to say something like the sound you get from over driving a mixing board ( or plugging into a JHS Colour Box these days). It's not a typical guitar tone and as they were being recorded as a pop band rather than as a rock band I guess someone thought plugging straight into the board would do it. 
Having sat on the toilet and googled it for ten minutes I'm none the wiser although I don't think it's done my piles any favours. 

Trude

I play that song most gigs with one of my bands.  Yeah, the lick into the chorus is nice, as is the harmony lead bit at the end of the chorus.  I do that with a Bm/Dmaj harmoniser setting on my MS3.

What always surprises me is just how universally liked it seems to be.  I mean, it can't be on the radio much nowadays but literally every age group seem to know it and they all do the fingers in belt-loops Status Quo dance too!  Guess it must've been in a film or something.

It's also my birth-date no1 single!

EricTheWeary

According to Wikipedia there's a Girlschool cover, I must dig that up. 
There are a few pop culture uses of the song as well in Mr Bean, the 2012 Olympics ceremony and A Very English Scandal although I don't think any of those would have shown the thumbs in loops dance. 

Anyway, this is Rob showing how to play the solo, in-between writing hit songs for Kylie and Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Trude

I just listened to the original for the first time in ages, and was shocked at how different our version has ended up - my version of the solo in particular is a bit of a ham-fisted bodge.

Then I watched that video and felt a lot better! 

TTony

EricTheWeary said:

According to Wikipedia there's a Girlschool cover, I must dig that up. 

It’s on disc2 of “The Collection”.  Track12.  

(thanks to Media Monkey’s excellent indexing of my mp3 library).

Prefer the original though.

Fez

Trude said:

I play that song most gigs with one of my bands.  Yeah, the lick into the chorus is nice, as is the harmony lead bit at the end of the chorus.  I do that with a Bm/Dmaj harmoniser setting on my MS3.

What always surprises me is just how universally liked it seems to be.  I mean, it can't be on the radio much nowadays but literally every age group seem to know it and they all do the fingers in belt-loops Status Quo dance too!  Guess it must've been in a film or something.

It's also my birth-date no1 single!

The thumbs in belt dance was generally known as the grease bop at least in the north west. There is also a variation known as the wanking dog dance,  I kid you not. Ah memories of the sweaty rock disco's of yesteryear.

Grangousier

They probably learn the dances from the TOTP clip on YouTube that I just watched. I mean if those roadies can do the dance, anyone can. 

1970s, golden age of pop, the record companies just used to point the artists at Top of the Pops and let them get on with it, no stylists, no choreographers, just exuberance, desperation and beer. And a lot of shiny clothing. It might be me being old and nostalgic, but it seems a lot less dull than the manicured product we get today. 

Trude

I do miss TOTP.  Viral YT videos and Spotify just can't replicate that communal, generation-spanning musical interlude we used to get every Thursday evening. 

Danny1969

Trude said:

I just listened to the original for the first time in ages, and was shocked at how different our version has ended up - my version of the solo in particular is a bit of a ham-fisted bodge.

Then I watched that video and felt a lot better! 

Ha ha, ain't that always the way ..... I did that song with Kojaks a couple of months ago and thought I had better listen to it first because I hadn't played it since the 90's with Mafia  ... I was shocked how different their version had been as well !  ... it's one of those songs everyone morths into their own version 

Trude

Danny1969 said:

Ha ha, ain't that always the way ..... I did that song with Kojaks a couple of months ago and thought I had better listen to it first because I hadn't played it since the 90's with Mafia  ... I was shocked how different their version had been as well !  ... it's one of those songs everyone morths into their own version 

Too true - and that's glossing over the fact that we segway into Agadoo for some long-forgotten reason during the breakdown part! 

EricTheWeary

Trude said:

I do miss TOTP.  Viral YT videos and Spotify just can't replicate that communal, generation-spanning musical interlude we used to get every Thursday evening. 

I am the youngest of four and if I try to remember any occasion that brought all of us together it was probably TOTP. My oldest brother was at Uni by the time I was 6 so in reality he probably wasn't usually there but my other brother was quite serious about music ( he earned his living as a DJ for a while), my sister swooning over Donny Osmond, my father complaining about all the boys looking like girls and not hearing the lyrics and I loved that cartoon element of bands like Mud and the Rubettes. 
If I'm flicking through the channels and there's an old TOTP on I'll usually stop and watch it. Huge amount of mediocre twaddle that's largely disappeared from our collective psyche but then sitting through all that in hope of seeing a really good band was part of the pleasure of it.  

Trude

Yeah, and then everyone talking about it the next day at school.
These days it only seems to be bloody Fortnite in-game events that capture the kids' attention in the same way. 

Danny1969

I remember when Boy George was on TOTP ..... that was all everyone was talking about next day at school

Sassafras

I remember Ray Davies kissing Dave Davies full on the lips on an early edition of TOTP.
(or I might've imagined it).

midlifecrisis

i learnt tiger feet a few months ago when i depped with a band. i used my zoom g3 i think it was a harmonizer that added 4ths or 5ths above the played note that gave a good effect.

hollywoodrox

EricTheWeary said:

That Steve Cropper type lick as they go into the chorus is great. One of my absolute favourite tunes as a kid, still sounds great. I saw a version of Mud live in about 1985 which I remember fondly but not to the level of detail as to what pedals. 

There's two or three guitar parts, I'm not sure there's anything unique about the sound of most of them but there is a huge fuzz going on. Gawd knows what that is, I want to say something like the sound you get from over driving a mixing board ( or plugging into a JHS Colour Box these days). It's not a typical guitar tone and as they were being recorded as a pop band rather than as a rock band I guess someone thought plugging straight into the board would do it. 
Having sat on the toilet and googled it for ten minutes I'm none the wiser although I don't think it's done my piles any favours. 

They used to play at the maid Marian on Robin Hood camp around 84 85  in ingoldmells Skegness . Poor old Les . Good old rob did well writing some mega selling songs 

hollywoodrox

I remember a girl at one school I went to called tiger feet, she had a CB ,her sister was cute too. Oh to be young again

hotpickups

EricTheWeary said:

According to Wikipedia there's a Girlschool cover, I must dig that up. 
There are a few pop culture uses of the song as well in Mr Bean, the 2012 Olympics ceremony and A Very English Scandal although I don't think any of those would have shown the thumbs in loops dance. 

Anyway, this is Rob showing how to play the solo, in-between writing hit songs for Kylie and Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Hardly recognised him without his flared trousers and very long dangly ear rings