HEY, CALIFORNIA
Geoff Melkonian – strings
JEFF LYNNE
Geoff Melkonian – strings
SHERMAN
me – backing vocals
Today there was less accomplished, though more from lack of time spent than time wasted. We only really worked about four hours today, for some reason there was a cavalcade of guests through the studio, mostly I think to say goodbye to Rob before he goes off to New York. However, what was accomplished was important. Geoff Melkonian (Josh Joplin Group) came in to play on HEY, CALIFORNIA. He played an upright bass with a bow during the bridge-like portion of the song, three tracks of complementary lines. Two low and one higher, sort of a cello sound. This, of course, set my mind to work. Once he was finished I asked him if he’d be interested in playing on another song, which is why JEFF LYNNE has returned to the list above. I knew there was still no way to get the ELO sound I was really shooting for, but I had him do a part during the choruses and the build at the very end, up in the cello range of his instrument. Hopefully it will at least give the illusion of more strings being involved. It sounded great to me, even if it isn’t quite what I had originally hoped for. One thing I did notice, in hearing it again today, is that the backing vocal parts we did a couple of days ago, the trademark ELO chorus vocals we did by mixing myself with the Mellotron, sound great. At the time I wasn’t sure it worked exactly. Anyway, this is the song that I will have completely finished by Friday, mixed and ready to be mastered and sent to David at IPO. I think it works.
We did some backing vocals for SHERMAN. I didn’t have any ideas, so Rob suggested doing the same sort of build up I did in parts of “Jeff Lynne.” We started in and he suddenly suggested I do them in my 1930’s singer voice. Most of you won’t have heard this before, but there’s a particular way that second-rate movie stars sang in the thirties… I first started doing it after I saw the Marx Brothers’ Animal Crackers for the first time, years ago. The romantic lead in that movie does it and it’s hilarious to me, you sort of sing from the back of your throat in a very warbly sort of way. So I did a four-part harmony in that voice, but we stopped before really sitting to listen to it, so whether we keep it or not I have no idea at this point. This is one of those moments where I just trust Rob’s idea until I hear it in action. We also did some work on the mystery song.
Tomorrow I’ll be there from 10am until late in the evening. “Hitchcock Blonde” and “King Sham” aren’t finished, but all they need are some keyboards, which we can do just before mixing. So all that’s left at this point is “Sherman” and the mystery song. I think it’s a safe bet that “Fall Down” will not be recorded, we may decide to give it a go, but at this point I’d rather finish up everything, give every song a listen to and make sure nothing has slipped by, rather than rush to complete one more song. So off the list it goes. Ten songs plus a bonus track doesn’t seem too bad. After Friday I should have “Jeff Lynne” in mixed form, plus rough mixes of everything else, and I can try to work out the track order.
It will feel so good to have them done.