I have had the opportunity to read through the liner notes from the box set. Very interesting. I was always unable to obtain a copy of the 30th Anniversary release, and don't know if the pictures of the master tape legends were included in that set, but I found that to be the most intriguing of all! A majority of what I read was not anything I hadn't already heard, either from Richard himself or from Randy's book. A few facts that I was unaware of were:
1) The 1971 Bacharach medley ("Carpenters") rhythm tracking was played by the musicians from the live show per Richards request and not studio musicians. This was due to the fact that they were all very familiar with it, and were playing it every night on the road. Richard said that "we all got it in one take, although due to the inconsistency of the tempos was 'sped up'". The album version was "just too fast".
2) As mentioned in an earlier thread, the "Christmas Portrait" album (remixed version) was due to the fact that the master and master-copy of the album from 1978 upon shipment to Japan was now defective, even though they were mixed onto an "improved series of tape".
3) "Your Wonderful Parade" and "All I Can Do" on the "Offering" album were actually the demos cut in Joe Osborn's garage studio, "All I Can Do" in its entirety and "YWP" the whole track, less the strings, etc which were replaced at A&M during the tracking of the album.
These were just a few, however as I mentioned, the most interesting thing is the tracking logs from some of the songs/albums. It is notable that as "Offering" was recorded 8-track (with the exception of the two songs listed above from Joe Osborn's studio which were cut on 4-track), the next four albums cut 16-track, and the remaining on 24-track. It is fairly consistent that the backing vocals were all submixed onto a total of (4) tracks on every master. As it was handwritten "BG ones, BG twos, BG threes, etc... Or simply listed "VC group #1, VC group #2, etc".
The notes on the "Superstar" master for instance, on one of the track spaces it is listed as "new oboe track", another "new harp", "tpts (trumpets)", "bones-horns" on track 16 space etc. Also a notation off to the side by the engineer "track 5 good if lead vocal to be doubled on choruses". I also noticed that on most of the masters with regards to the strings, the viola/cello were always submixed onto one track, and the violins separately on their own track (singular).
On "Won't Last A Day", the background vocals which are of course logged by track #'s, and "BG Ones/BG Two's", with notations (<) indicating the phrases in reference "When you're near..." and opening "Oohs" on both tracks, (meaning these are the background vocals for these particular phrases found on these tracks). Pretty interesting stuff.
I know that my cheesy notes here don't do justice to what is in the book, but just thought I would share a few things that stuck out to me. -Chris
1) The 1971 Bacharach medley ("Carpenters") rhythm tracking was played by the musicians from the live show per Richards request and not studio musicians. This was due to the fact that they were all very familiar with it, and were playing it every night on the road. Richard said that "we all got it in one take, although due to the inconsistency of the tempos was 'sped up'". The album version was "just too fast".
2) As mentioned in an earlier thread, the "Christmas Portrait" album (remixed version) was due to the fact that the master and master-copy of the album from 1978 upon shipment to Japan was now defective, even though they were mixed onto an "improved series of tape".
3) "Your Wonderful Parade" and "All I Can Do" on the "Offering" album were actually the demos cut in Joe Osborn's garage studio, "All I Can Do" in its entirety and "YWP" the whole track, less the strings, etc which were replaced at A&M during the tracking of the album.
These were just a few, however as I mentioned, the most interesting thing is the tracking logs from some of the songs/albums. It is notable that as "Offering" was recorded 8-track (with the exception of the two songs listed above from Joe Osborn's studio which were cut on 4-track), the next four albums cut 16-track, and the remaining on 24-track. It is fairly consistent that the backing vocals were all submixed onto a total of (4) tracks on every master. As it was handwritten "BG ones, BG twos, BG threes, etc... Or simply listed "VC group #1, VC group #2, etc".
The notes on the "Superstar" master for instance, on one of the track spaces it is listed as "new oboe track", another "new harp", "tpts (trumpets)", "bones-horns" on track 16 space etc. Also a notation off to the side by the engineer "track 5 good if lead vocal to be doubled on choruses". I also noticed that on most of the masters with regards to the strings, the viola/cello were always submixed onto one track, and the violins separately on their own track (singular).
On "Won't Last A Day", the background vocals which are of course logged by track #'s, and "BG Ones/BG Two's", with notations (<) indicating the phrases in reference "When you're near..." and opening "Oohs" on both tracks, (meaning these are the background vocals for these particular phrases found on these tracks). Pretty interesting stuff.
I know that my cheesy notes here don't do justice to what is in the book, but just thought I would share a few things that stuck out to me. -Chris