: The Making of Tender Loving Abuse – Parts 5 & 6
We’re now up to Parts 5 & 6 of my little personal history. There’s a fair amount of technical info about studio recording in here, but there’s a bunch of other stuff to keep things entertaining for you non-techies out there.
PART 5
I’m hearing that you folks want more about the album and the recording process. I will cover a little of that this time. However, as I said in my first letter, the only way I know how to relate things is from inside of me. So please bear with me while I ramble a bit… and I promise that my next letter will go into as many details as I can remember.
Jeff Seitz to the Rescue:
I don’t recall the exact timing of things, but while Jeff was touring with Long John Baldry they passed through LA – we all caught the show. My only strong memory is that they had a great piano player. Now Rick was very unhappy with some of the rhythm tracks, in particular 10,000 BANDS. So after some behind the scenes pow-wow, the decision was made to get Jeff in to re-do those tracks. Jeff was flown in from where ever he was, the Midwest or something like that. I think this was after Baldry’s LA show. We were still working in the big room, and the drums were still set up and miked; so Jeff just came in and we started playing. After the first run through Jeff said “Hey, can you open up that curtain just a little so I Eric & I can see each other?” Gee, you could actually say that? Like duh! So we knocked off 3 songs in a few hours and later that that afternoon Jeff caught a plane back to his next gig.
And all of Jeff’s drum fills in 10,000 BANDS that Rick made Tico memorize beat for beat from the original demo tape? Jeff played them all differently. But it didn’t matter, cuz Jeff had … the feel. He probably would have played them differently each time. Now Tico came to this session, and Rick thanked him profusely for being a professional and not taking things personally. Tico didn’t buy any of this. When I got back home and talked to Tico, one of the first things he said was how Jeff’s playing wasn’t any better than his. I hate being put in these situations, but professional courtesy dictated that I agree. And in a certain sense, Tico was not wrong. In the context of the full album, I would be hard pressed to pick out which songs Jeff played on if I didn’t already know.
I’m an agnostic, but if I’m wrong and there is a heaven, one of the things I’d ask God – after the usual stuff like how does the universe work and why must innocent children suffer – would be why did you create this talented guy like Jeff and not allow the world to truly appreciate him. Jeff’s story ends up pretty decently: he got what (as far as I know) has worked out to be a lifetime gig as drum roadie/master for Stuart Copeland of the Police. And in one of those 2 degrees of separation things, Stuart formed the band Animal Logic with bass player Stanley Clarke and my sister, Deborah Holland. Jeff mixed the first Animal Logic album. My sister told me that even Stuart is amazed by some of the things Jeff can do on the drums. She also hears that Jeff is doing OK these days, he’s married and has a big mobile home somewhere out in California; when Stuart needs him he takes the mobile home down to LA.
Gary & Tico go back to NJ
I think the whole album was supposed to be finished in something like 2 months – and I think Tico, Gary, and I were only supposed to be in LA for 4-6 weeks. Well we finished the rhythm tracks in something like 2 or 3 weeks, so Gary and Tico had nothing else to do. I was still needed for keyboard overdubs, so I was in the studio pretty much every day soaking up as much as I could from Jack and Lee. I remember Jeff’s wife and young daughter visited while we were out there, and Tico was doing his thing. However, musically there wasn’t anything more for them to do, plus the money that Landers/Roberts had budgeted for the motel was used up. So Gary and Tico flew back home and I ended up crashing at Rick’s place for nearly two months. I think this was early July.
The last week they were there, Rick and Tico were out in the studio parking lot and Rick said something that pissed Tico off, so Tico walloped Rick in the stomach. Tico was very powerfully built, so Rick was doubled over for a few minutes. I didn’t see this, but both Tico & Rick told me – Rick thought it was funny!
Rick Tries to Give Me a Makeover
Rick was very conscious of image & style, and his major concern with me was that I didn’t fit the bill image-wise. So one day, after we had been in LA a week or two, Rick took me shopping for shoes. He picked out a pair of high heel woven alligator leather boots for $375. This was more than a week’s salary for me, and more than my monthly rent back in NJ, so I gulped. But then I figured what the hell, we were all going to be rich and famous soon, so what was a mere $375? Tico tagged along and picked up an identical pair. I had never worn high heels in my life, but I teetered along in these boots for a couple of weeks. Then Rick decided that this wasn’t the right image for me after all, and I really should be wearing black sneakers. I kept those boots as a memento for years afterwards until finally my roommate’s cat peed on them and I had to throw them out.
Rick was also concerned that I would not put on enough of a stage show. Actually, I was pretty wild on stage; I jumped around, played the piano behind my back – show off stuff. But I didn’t do that when rehearsing/recording; I generally needed an audience in front of me. One day, we got advanced warning that the teenage son of the president of the record company wanted to see us; no one was happy about this, but it was just one of those things that you had to go along with. The kid was hanging around, but Rick hadn’t shown up yet. Gary, Tico, and I were jamming and I started doing my stage act for a few minutes.
Rick showed up soon after that. Rick must have talked about his concerns with Gary, because as soon as Rick came in Gary sounded very excited – “Hey Rick, you should have seen what Eric was just doing! He puts on a great show! Eric, do that again!” I think Rick eventually came around to the notion that I’d do OK on stage – but I’ll never know for sure.
Meanwhile, on a personal level, I was always a little intimidated around Rick, Jack, Jack’s wife, and Lee. They were all very strong personalities, talkative, funny, and confident. I picked up a paperback book on how to be less shy; but you can’t change your basic personality by reading a book. One day, Rick stumbled across the book. I was pissed at him for looking through my stuff. He apologized and then gave me little pep talk. He said that I shouldn’t worry about being like other people, that I had a unique presence all my own and that I should be proud of that. Now it’s funny. Be yourself. Yeah right. That’s one of the oldest cliches in the book. But somehow, on that afternoon in August 1979, coming from Rick with his intense honesty, it penetrated to some deep level inside me. Even though 20 years have passed, I can still pull that memory out. Not that I’m a different person, but I have come to feel comfortable “in my own skin”. So Rick, if you’re reading this, I owe you one.
The Digital “D’s”
Most of you know that this was one of the very first albums ever recorded using digital technology. I’m not sure why that decision was made. But it turned into a whole funny routine. There was Rick Dufay, Jack Douglas, Lee DeCarlo, Digital. All these things starting with D. So all the non-D people had to have a nickname starting with D. I forget what Gary’s was, but my nickname was Derrick. It was sort of goofy sounding but at the same time had a good ring to it from Derrick and the Dominos…\
Hanging Out with the ‘Bad Boys’
The Record Plant had a Jacuzzi room which people regularly used for purposes other than taking a Jacuzzi. One day, there’s a lot of winking/nudging going on, and then someone says “Let’s go on the roof and hose them!” I had no idea what was happening, but I tagged along. We went outside and climbed up a ladder to the roof. There’s a skylight in the Jacuzzi room – we all peer down and there’s a threesome going on with one of the engineers, some other guy, and a woman who I had seen hanging around. It was like watching a live porno movie. Then someone opens up the skylight, someone else grabs a hose, turns it on, and sprays cold water down through the skylight onto the frolicking threesome. We all go back downstairs, and the threesome came out looking all bedraggled to cheers and general laughter.
Another time, we had to join the musicians union and go to an introductory meeting. The union rep was in the front talking about medical insurance, and several serious working guys were up in the front trying to get the details. We were in the back and Rick was goofing on the whole scene and cracking everyone up. For me, being in this environment was like getting an opportunity to re-live high school, only this time I was part of the tough/cool crowd instead of the academic types.
Next Time:
The recording process: first rock album in the digital realm – Vocals, Guitars, keyboard overdubs, and a song by song analysis.
PART 6
Tender Loving Abuse
This is the hardest part of all to write. I’ve been sort of circling around it for the last few letters, avoiding it, but I can’t duck any more. I wish this story had a happier ending, but I can’t rewrite history or gloss things over. Things started off with such hopes. Rick had it all: great looks, tremendous charisma, fabulous singing, rock solid guitar chops, uniquely creative song writing talents. And all the people guiding Rick did the right things too.
And Tender Loving Abuse is a good album, a damn good album. But… it had the potential to be so much more. IMHO, it could’ve been a multi-million platinum seller, one of the all time great albums. But when it was all done, the final product was missing some essential ingredient that made the demo tape so great. The demo tape had this — aura — it had some indefinable quality to it that made it scary and exciting and moving all at the same time; it made you fall into the music.
The album didn’t have this indefinable…And I felt it happening as we were recording…And I didn’t/couldn’t do anything…And I’ve carried it with me since then, second guessing myself, wondering whether I should have spoken up instead of keeping my mouth shut…
Am I being overly dramatic here? Dunno – you be the judge.
Recording Digitally
As most of you already know, TLA (the first time I got onto the group site, it took me a few minutes to figure out what TLA was) was one of the first rock albums recorded digitally. Without getting into too many technical details, the main difference from a musical perspective is that when you record in analog (the way things were done in the past) the recording process introduces a certain distortion to the music and (up to a certain point) this distortion actually improves the quality of the sound for certain types of music; this is especially pertinent for the rock and roll – and the all critical snare drum. To over simplify things a bit, there are 2 types of snare drum sounds, the ‘fat’ sound vs. the ‘crisp’ sound. A good example of the fat sound might be early Led Zep, while the crisp sound is something like the Police. Each sound has it’s own place. Rick’s music called for a fat sound, and analog was better for getting that fat sound. So Jack and Lee spent a fair amount of time working on the snare sound to get that ‘dooosh’ quality to it. For a while, they considered moving the snare drum parts off the digital onto an analog recorder to fatten it up, but I believe that was beyond the technology of the day – to synch the analog with the digital. Today there are gadgets and software which duplicate analog tape distortion, but they were not available back then.
The other quality of analog is that there is a slight blurring/blending of instruments. In digital, every instrument is totally isolated. This quality also `fattens’ the sound a bit.
The whole analog vs. digital thing can take on a religious fervor. There are some people who will swear by analog to their dying breath, they say that analog has a warmth which is missing from digital – that digital somehow sounds sterile. My feeling is that the digital aspect was not a make or break type of thing on TLA, but that it played it’s part and was a distraction. I’ll get back to this point.
Guitars and Vocals and Keyboards
After we finished the basic rhythm tracks (using acoustic piano), we went back and did some basic keyboard parts like the synth line in the chorus of LOVE IS THE ONLY WAY. We had fun with that. Jack had me play 2 different synths, one with my right hand the other with my left, and I switched from right to left halfway through the line, then Jack panned the 2 synths to either side.
I think we did the vocals next. Jack had an interesting way to record vocals. He would have Rick sing the song all the way through 3 times on 3 different tracks. Jack would then take the best lines from each of the 3 tracks and make one “best of” track. Then he’d have Rick listen to the “best of” track and try to top it. We went through the vocals at a pretty fast clip, I think we did them in a week or so. Rick sang his heart out. He was (and still is) one of the premier rock vocalists ever. He has a wide variety of different ‘voices’ which he uses to great effect, you feel that each song is coming from some deep personal level. To me, the vocals on the album were very close in quality to the demo.
We then did most of the guitars. I’m pretty sure that Rick did most of his guitar solos pretty close to the demo tape. In 10000 BANDS there’s one section where the piano doubles up in a descending line behind the guitar, and I remember learning that verbatim. One exception is the solo in DON’T WAKE ME UP. Jack kept trying to get Rick to do the demo solo, which was a ore ‘traditional’ guitar line, but Rick heard this low whoop, whoop, whoop thing – eventually Jack heard it too. Jack then had Rick multi-track the solo on different guitars to fatten it up (there’s even my nylon string acoustic in there). It sounds pretty cool.
We did some of the guitar parts in the big room, and then switched over and did the rest in the smaller studio. I recall Rick playing through a big stack of Marshalls in the big room. Jack had rented a whole bunch of different guitars to experiment with. I’m not a guitar expert, but I think that Rick did most of his playing on his strat (My strung out Stratocaster) but I think there were some wide body Gibsons mixed in there – no Les Pauls but I could be wrong. Rick may have used some type of distortion boxes, but I think for the most part he preferred amp distortion over effects.
Rick had some problems keeping his guitars in tune. One afternoon we went to see the Who movie The Kids Are Alright which had just come out. We all loved the flick, Rick was especially mesmerized by the concert scenes. I don’t know if a non-musician can truly appreciate all the things that Townsend does on stage. He puts on this amazing show, yet at the same time he’s in total control of the sound. At one point Townsend is doing his windmill chords and then for a fraction of a second, (and here’s the point of this digression) with no change of facial expression, his left hand flicks out, adjusts the tuning on his D string, and then goes right back to what he’s doing. This floored Rick.
Eventually, Jack hired a friend of Lee’s to stay in the studio and make sure the guitars were all in tune when they were needed. Landers/Roberts were not happy about this, they thought that Jack was just throwing some money at a friend.
Then came the keyboard overdubs. And more keyboard overdubs. And more. We did weeks and weeks of keyboards. With the exception of getting married and seeing my kids being born, this was the high point of my life. Here I was, working with the Jack Douglas in the Record Plant doing what I loved to do. Each day Jack brought in something different. Various synthesizers, electric pianos, acoustic pianos, string machines, Hammond organ, clavinet. At one point, Jack wanted me to pluck the strings on a piano. To do this, I needed finger picks, but it was 2 in the morning and all the music stores were closed. So Bill, the assistant engineer, duct taped regular guitar picks to my fingers, and Rick pressed down the piano keys on the notes I was plucking. Most of the stuff I did ended up being buried in the mix, but Jack felt that it was important, it helped create atmosphere.
I remember one occasion where there control room was packed. Jack’s wife was there, Rick, Tits, and at least several other people. I had consumed slightly more than usual and was having trouble getting a tricky the part. At one point I said that a take was pretty good. So Jack said, “OK, well if that’s the best you can do, let me try it”. What, let someone else do my parts? No way. I focused in and nailed it the next try. Jack knew what buttons to push.
It was part way through the keys that I started feeling that the album was not turning out right. I’d listen to the demo tape at Rick’s place, then go in the next day and listen to the mixes; and the mixes just didn’t come up to the demo. But I wasn’t sure. The thing which finally clinched it was one evening we switched the monitor speakers in the room. Most of the time, we would listen to the playbacks through large (and loud) speakers which captured every last note that was on the tape. On that evening, someone switched the sound over to some small speakers for a few minutes, and… it didn’t have any depth to it. One of the hallmarks of a truly great album is that it sounds good even when played softly or through a lousy system, and what I heard didn’t work.
I didn’t know what to do. First of all, who was I to say what was or was not working. It wasn’t my album, my vision – it was Rick’s, and my job was to help Rick achieve his vision. Secondly, even if I was right, what was I to do? My last attempt at setting things right (with Debbie) had not gone well. Should I go to Jack? How could I do that? Me telling John Lennon’s producer that the album didn’t sound right? Besides, this was Jack Douglas, surely he could make everything come together in the final mix. Should I go to Landers/Roberts? Uhm excuse me Mr. Landers. This album that you’ve spent a hundred grand on already – well it ain’t working. Yeah, right! That would go over well. Should I talk about it with Rick? I thought and thought about it, but then decided to keep my mouth shut and hope for the best. And finally (and here’s what I feel guilty about) I was having the time of my life and was afraid to spoil it.
And what about Rick during these weeks and weeks? I think this must have been a terribly frustrating time in his life. Rick told me that he wanted to work on new material in the studio, he had some ideas that he wanted to develop and he had never had the chance to compose in a studio. But this golden opportunity was being lost. Even though he was ready to move on, Rick had to re-do old material. And – I’ll never know for sure, but I suspect that he shared my feelings about the way the album was turning out.
In the years since, I’ve found out that what we were trying to do was really, really hard. In many ways, it’s even harder to re-capture a feel than to create it the first time. Creating a great album is part luck, part voodoo, part science. Timing is critical. How you feel, how people are working together, the weather, what you had to eat that morning … every little thing can affect the final product. How do you re-capture all these fleeting moments?
Personal Digression Coming
Several years after these events, I had recorded some material in my bedroom on a 4 track cassette. There was one song which everyone loved, so I borrowed some money, saved up some of my own, and went into a fully equipped 24 track studio to “do it right”. All of a sudden I had all this equipment to work with that I didn’t have in my bedroom. Long story short, 5 grand later, I had a tape which was much cleaner and professional sounding than my bedroom tape, but the result was lacking the goofy humorous quality that made the original work. When I was done, I realized I had replicated (on a small scale) the experience of TLA.
End of Digression
There are many ways to record an album, but these divide up into 2 basic camps. One way is to try to capture a live feel. The classic example of this is the Band’s second album. They spent months rehearsing in the studio until the songs sounded perfect and then they captured a unique moment in time. The second approach is to build up the sound in layers. The classic example of this is Sgt. Pepper. Of course most albums are some blend of the 2 – but most lean towards one or the other. The key factor in all this is to make sure that the artist and material match the approach. I don’t think Rick was suited for the methodical approach that Jack took; he was better suited for the spontaneous “capture the feel” approach. The demo tape was the template – it had a live, open quality to it. To a musician’s ear, there were a few obvious overdubs (2 guitars playing where there’s only one guitar player in the band) but it did not have all the intricate multi-tracked background details that TLA has – it had breathing space.
So what happened? My theory is that Jack did not have enough time to get to really know Rick as a person or artist. Jack told me a story about Aerosmith when they were recording Toys in the Attic. One day, they took the afternoon off and went to the movies to see Young Frankenstein. There’s a funny scene in the movie where bug eyed Marty Feldman, playing Igor, gestures to the other characters and says “Walk this way”. Well one thing turned into another, and eventually Aerosmith had a hit song with the same name. The point here is that Jack had the time to just hang out and really get to know the guys inside out. This didn’t happen with TLA – the time frame was too compressed. My other theory is that Jack was trying to compensate for the so called ‘sterile’ quality of digital by filling up the background sound to achieve that sort of blending warm quality of analog.
This is all 20/20 hindsight here. At the time, it seemed like all the right moves were being made. From the perspective of Landers/Roberts, they had done everything correctly. Landers/Roberts had a great artist with great material, they hired the best producer, and put them together in the best studio. What could go wrong? From Jack’s perspective he was doing everything the right way too – he had the best, most modern equipment available and he was putting together the best sounding album possible.
So OK. You’re asking me, “Hey Mr. Smarty-pants. With your 20/20 hindsight, what would you have done differently?” I don’t have an answer for that. Wait until Jeff Sietz got off the road? You mean wait for 4 months just for a drummer? Pay Jack to hang out with Rick for a few months before going into the studio? You mean pay one of the top producers in the world to just…hang out? Maybe do some gigs before going into the studio? The studio time had already been booked and Lander/Roberts were doing things ‘by the book’; there were schedules which could not be broken.
There’s an alternate universe somewhere, and in this alternate universe Jeff did not have the Long John Baldry gig, and instead of going directly into the studio we did a couple of month’s of touring just so we all felt comfortable together. In this alternate universe we went into a smaller studio and worked on a live feel album – in analog of course! – as well as working on some new stuff to make it interesting. In this alternate universe, the album got full backing from the record company, and all the other pieces necessary for getting a new artist out in front of the public fell together. In this alternate universe TLA was released to critical acclaim and became the defining album of 1980 – starting off the decade with a bang. World tours alternated with follow up albums. Rick’s song writing really started to take off once he was able to use the studio to develop his songs. Succeeding albums revealed depths that were only hinted at by his early albums, yet Rick always remained true to his rock and roll roots. In this alternate universe, Rick Dufay is the world famous revered artist and household name that he deserved to be.
Next time:
I promised a song by song analysis this time, but this letter has already gone 5 pages, so that will be for next time. And I promise I won’t mention the demo tape again (well maybe only once in passing)! :->
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April 5, Friday, 9:00-1:00ish PM – The Stumble at Robin’s Nest Rhythm and Blues, 3103 Tremley Point Road, Linden, NJ, 07036 (908) 290-3090
Arne Englund fronts this fine collection of musicians which includes the all star rhythm section of Phil Butler on bass and Matt Patuto on drums. Arne has a humungous repertoire of blues tunes at his fingertips, so you never know what he will call out next. There will be some very special guests. If you want to see some samples of Arne’s work, go out to youtube and search for THESTUMBLE100. You will see some videos of our last show at Ruthie’s – the lighting leaves much to be desired (I’m almost totally in the dark) but the sound is quite good.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Linden-NJ/Robins-Nest-Rhythm-and-Blues-RNRB/178750518562
http://www.robinsnestrhythmandblues.com/
April 19, Friday, 7:00-9:00ish PM – Nikki Armstrong, Ruthie’s BBQ, 64 1/2 Chestnut Ave, Montclair (973) 509-1134
Nikki is one super versatile singer- she can belt out the blues, she can can rock n roll, or she can turn it around and do a sultry ballad. As this is Ruthie’s, we will be leaning more on the blues side of things; but we’re gonna try to sneak in a few standards and some rock and roll. If you’re having trouble deciding what to have for dinner I can highly recommend the Crab Cakes. As always, Ruthie’s is BYOB.
http://www.ruthiesbbq.com/
http://www.myspace.com/nikkiarmstrongbands
http://www.nikkiarmstrong.com/
April 20, Saturday, 9:00 PM-1:00ish – Better Off Dead at The Great Notch Inn, Route 46, Little Falls (973) 256-7742
Now that the weather is getting more spring like (albeit slower than I’d like) the odds are good that there will be more hogs, er umm, motorcyles in the parking lot as you turn off Route 46. But fear not, my timid liberal friends. Your Prii (yes, Prii IS the official plural of Prius) and Volvos are welcome as are you.
http://www.betteroffdead.com/home.htm/
http://www.agreatertown.com/little_falls_nj/great_notch_inn_new_jerseys_rockin_roadhouse_00089580
April 27, Saturday, 8-9:30 PM – Lunatic Fringe, Glen Ridge Community Center @ The Glen Ridge Train Station, 228 Ridgewood Avenue (corner of Bloomfield Avenue), Glen Ridge, NJ Reservations: (973) 429-1527
“Da Fringe” has acquired some new young blood to complement it’s regular aging boomer cast members. How do they continually come up with outrageously funny stuff? I dunno, but it’s amazing.
http://www.lunaticfringeimprov.com
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53938723078&ref=ts
April 28, Sunday, 1:00 AM-4:00ish – Emerson Hotel, Emerson Plaza East, Emerson, NJ 07630 (201) 262-7557
I had a blast playing with these guys last week. I got to use my new electic organ’s special brass and trumpet settings as we did Got to Get You Into My Life, Chicago, Police and other classic rock classics. Wether permitting this show will be out on the veranda.
http://shavedhamband.com
http://www.emersonhotelrestaurant.com/