At work, I have the luxury of being able to listen to my iPod all day. The only drawback is that I have to keep one ear open so that if my boss is trying to talk to me over the cubicle I can hear her. Having only one earbud in causes a lot of audio loss, excluding me from all the sounds that are specifically piped through one given side. Usually, as long as I’ve got the bud that hosts the lead guitar I’m fine. There are a few albums that don’t use both channels, but those are few and far between.
Anyway, the point of the story is that I was listening to A Night at the Opera the other day, and all was going well until “You’re my Best Friend” came on. It seemed normal at first, but then I noticed a very prominent omission: Freddie’s vocals were only audible on the bud that was not in my ear! The backing vocals were all pumped through my active bud, but I couldn’t hear the main lyrics at all. Actually, it was only for a single verse, so it wasn’t a terrible loss. The song has a somewhat unique stucture lyrically, so I guess it’s the second verse? The one that starts with “I’ve been wandering round” anyway.
I’m used to instruments going to one side or the other, but not the lead vocals. There are harmony parts in “The Prophet’s Song” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” that have lead and backing vocals singing back and forth between channels, but that makes sense. A single verse sung through one side only? A little less usual.
It was a bit jarring, but it seems like it was an isolated incident. I kind of want to listen to the song through the other bud to see if the vocal track used the other channel exclusively at any point, or if it was maybe a mixing error that went unnoticed. I can only assume it was intentional, but it seems like a senseless separation to me.