"PM"?

[Veets]

Anybody know why Paul says "PM" at the beginning of some songs? It's on a few recent albums, I think at least CFMT, DMS, and Mono.

[GtrPlyr]

He probably says PM or AM, so that when he listens back to his tapes, he knows what time of the day, the version was recorded.

It's not uncommon for artists, to leave various non-musical messages, on the tracks they're working on. These can include, everything from tuning references, to musical ideas, to information for other musicians, that might be recording on the track at a later time.

Paul probably records, a bunch of takes for a given song, over the course of a day/week/month, and leaves a little voice message at the start of the song, as a little reference that will mean something to him, when he listens back to it...



Of course PM could mean absolutely nothing as well.

[ClamsCasino]

He's saying "three and..." as in "one, and two, and three and four." He's just counting the track in.

[torethatbridgeout]

AM the FM the PM too, churning out that boogaloo ... I don't think so

three-and ... it just doesn't sound like three-and

until someone nails this, I'm hearing "A-m" as in A minor chord.

[GtrPlyr]

I don't think it's Am (A minor) TTBO. The song doesn't have an Am chord in it. There's an Em and a Bm though, so maybe he's saying one of those instead.

[ClamsCasino]

Well, I'm pretty certain he's just counting the track in. I've heard him grunt out a couple "three and..."s during shows, so I never questioned it when I heard it on his albums. Of course he doesn't exactly enunciate it, so it could sound like a lot of things other than what it is. Remember he records everything himself, so counting in the track would be necessary. He doesn't need to make an audible note of AM/PM, or remind himself what chord to start the song with by declaring it right before he plays it, but he does need to give himself a count for later tracks. Now that I think about it, he's done this as early as "They're Blind" so unless all those songs are in A minor, I'm sticking with my theory.

[A Regular]

Why include the count-in or time stamp or whatever it is on the recording? Does the listener really need it to understand the recording is a "do it yourself" project?

I didn't mind the tape running out on S/M, or even the recorded count ins... but it is starting to border on overkill. We know it is the PW version of the basement tapes.

[ClamsCasino]

A_Regular said:

Why include the count-in or time stamp or whatever it is on the recording?

Well, he did cut off the "One, Two..." part of the count. I think it's just part of that homemade feel. It's the kind of thing that usually gets edited out, but if he's willing to let tape run out in the middle of the song, then I don't imagine he cares too much about leaving a few "three and..."s in there.

[Brad]

He does this the loudest right before "Postcards from Paradise" on Stereo. I always thought since it was the very last song he was saying "The end..." I don't really know but it sounds cool to me.

[ElegantMule]

I'm with Clams on this one. Counting the track in. "One" and "two" are prolley never even said, as they're just in his head. Hey, that rhymed.