(📸: East End Studio, outside of Nashville)
Live or Memorex?
Live music is really cool. I think that goes without saying, but I had to say it again. I read a liner notes passage sometime ago by Bela Fleck from one of his live records with the Flecktones and to paraphrase, he said that ‘the notes you hear live will never be played exactly the same way ever again’. ‘Track acts’ not withstanding, he’s right. And that reminder is kinda sobering. This performance, this show, unless recorded, will be lost forever.
I never really got into the phenomena of the Grateful Dead, or really jam bands in general. I’m sure there’s more to it, but just heard a lot of noodles from guitar world, movie-length drum solos, and musical compositions that sounded like everyone talking at the same time. One could argue that my old band was a little bit of a ‘jam band’, but where does the cutoff line happen between ‘band’ and ‘jam band’? +/-5 minute guitar solos? Having a percussionist? Rabid fanbase? Marimba playerrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooohhhhcrap we were a jam band.
But if we were a jam band, I suppose the beauty of being a jam band (WHICH I STILL DON’T THINK WE WERE) is that we always pushed ourselves musically to get better. We experimented, both intentionally and unintentionally, into new directions, and sometimes the ideas worked, sometimes they didn’t. It also meant that every show would be framed the same way, but the pictures inside would be painted a little different every time. That is probably what kept people coming back? Maybe it was just the daiquiri specials.
Just like most everything in my life, I straddle the fence. (Cracked crab or lobster? Can’t we do both?) I don’t need to hear your single exactly like the record. REGALE ME! I like when a band changes up a popular song live. Give me a funky breakdown. That being said, I don’t need to hear 22 minutes of whale sounds from the guitar in the middle of it. Find me some middle ground that gives me a moment of showing off your band’s prowess whilst maintaining the integrity and emotion of the song. That’s what makes me happy.
Capturing that live emotion on tape has been the age old dilemma for producers since producing became a thing. So many bands don’t translate across those state lines, you can either make great records or be great live, but not both. Don’t get me wrong; lots of bands of course are amazing live, but is it because they had great songs or expanded them into musical territory you weren’t used to in the 3 1/2 minutes they had your attention?
Recording for me has always been a fun process. I can absolutely play the simplest and best part for your songs, and I do it all the time. There’s that ‘live’ player side of me that wants to add that bit of emotion, that one lick or even a quick slide that what I think a ‘typical’ bass player won’t do. I won’t call it a style because it’s not that. I try to find one spot to bring just a little light from the dark and gloomy place where the bass notes dwell. I’ll sneak it in somewhere and when I hear the track back on a streaming service, it’s the one spot my ears point. Call it my easter egg, I guess.
But that is NOT the way to do things in Nashville. No no. Money, baby. Time is money. Churn and burn 3-4 songs in a session and move on. You have to remember that this is not your session, it’s not your band, and you don’t have the luxury of experimentation, UNLESS the session is set up as such. Those are the fun ones. ‘Hey Steve, be you and find something cool here…(subtext ‘but do it quickly)’ I dig those words.
Even if the session is your band, you still don’t want to waste ungodly amounts of time writing parts in the studio. Typically that’s what preproduction is for, but then once tape rolls, inspiration will hit, and sometimes that will need a few moments to work itself out. Again, cool if you are running the show, not cool if there are 4 other players waiting around for you to get it right.
That’s not to say I haven’t kept people waiting. I want it right. It sounds ridiculous to even type this, but there is a difference between, say, an open ‘A’ and a fretted ‘A’. They both are in the same frequency, but one will sound differently than the other, and one must think of these nuance performance things as we’re recording.
I still think people listen to records with headphones so they can actually hear the difference in what I play, but the signal gets squashed so far down the chain that it truthfully doesn’t matter to anyone. Except me. And if I can go to bed and feel good about what I did that day, that’s a good day.
Even though I am not on the road like I was before, I am still very much doing sessions, I am at the helm of a couple of records, and I very much love making music. I have an unlimited budget to do my own sessions at my home studio, which is a blessing and a curse. It means that I take a lot more time and more direction than I would in someone else’s studio space, but that means I’m just working things out for the next time I need it on the fly for someone else.
And those jam bands? Well, I can’t say it enough: Get out and support live music. Those notes will never be played the same way again. No do-overs. Just like life.
See you on the road?
Beautifully written sentiment Brutha… I miss you buddy.