BACK IN LA now it seemed Mal had become more distant. Paul
McCartney was in town, and Mal was still the ex-Beatle’s main guy to drive him
around and tend to his needs. He was also getting involved in pre-production
with a band called Natural Gas with Joey Molland from Badfinger and working on
his book of memoirs called Living The Beatles' Legend. Most of our sessions at the Plant now were
with Bob Merritt at the helm, which was all just as well. It was a learning
experience for all of us.
With almost half of an
album in the can, it was time for Larry Gordon to make a deal for the band. How
hard could it be with the Beatles road manager as a producer? But we were getting
turned down left and right by all the major labels. What was going on? It was
taking much longer than we thought it would, We kept reminding ourselves that
the same thing happened to the Beatles in the early sixties.
We needed something more I
thought, and I retreated to Oakhurst and that magical baby grand in the Haymer
living room figuring that a new hit song (at least a hit in my mind) would
solve the problem. Stephen would blame Joey for not "putting out"
enough on his lead vocals. Blair would blame all of us for not having
a good enough bass and drums. It went around and around like that for months,
but that never stopped us from going to the Rainbow every night just to be
where it appeared to all be happening, unless of course we were booked in the
studio which was getting farther away and fewer in between.
Back in the still
friendly confines of Studio B at the Plant, you never know who would be popping
their heads in after listening to Spoon melodies wafting out the door. One
night Emitt Rhodes entered the room as we were attempting another mix of You
Hurt Me So. His self-titled debut album was released in 1970 and got as
high as # 29 on the pop charts. Although it made me feel a bit self-conscious
about our vocals, I was truly honored to be in the presence of such talent and
what's more, he seemed to be enjoying what was coming out of the speakers. This
guy was the closest thing vocally to Paul McCartney I had ever heard except for
the lead singer of Positron, a band that future Spoon, Michael Kennedy, played
guitar in the early seventies in Philadelphia. I wouldn't hear this tape for
another month or two and it would be a life changer.
November came rolling in
and with it was my 22nd birthday on the second. I knew it was going to be a doozy,
but I had no idea what a doozy it would prove to be. My old buddy, BJ oversaw
the list of people to be invited to a party at the Record Plant, our little
playground. But as it always turns out, the word got around and by seven
o'clock that evening the place was mobbed with rock and rollers, groupies, you
name it, they were there. If you are one of the afore-mentioned, please let me
know. I'm thinking Toni Bress and Laurie Bronstein were there along with the
usual crowd. Dorian Lazerbeam with his trademark lightning bolt etched into the
side of his jet-black hair, and the slightly built super-geek Rodney
Bingenheimer could also be seen. Even my favorite waitresses from The Rainbow,
Eileen and Kathy showed up.
Of course, there
were paying customers in the studio, people like Bon Margouleff (pictured) and
Malcolm Cecil who were one of the first synthesizer programmers on the planet.
They were working on Stevie Wonder's album Fulfillingness' First
Finale and
had also taken an interest in Silverspoon, especially Blair's contribution to
the band. Jim Keltner had just finished another monster jam in the session
dubbed as the "Too Many Cooks" debacle. Under the leadership of
John Lennon, an all-star lineup performed an extended version of the blues song
"Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup)", with Mick Jagger on lead vocals,
Keltner on drums, Danny Kortchmar and Jesse Ed Davis on guitars, Al Kooper on
keyboards, Bobby Keys playing tenor saxophone, Trevor Lawrence on baritone
saxophone, Jack Bruce on bass and Harry Nilsson singing background vocals.
Jagger was uncomfortable stretching to reach the top of his vocal range, and he
grew unhappy with the progress being made on the song. Gary Kellgren told
Jagger to "sit on it", ending the complaints. After sessions like
these the staff at the Plant were used to strange goings on but things were
about to get even stranger.
Now the hangers on started to arrive and
we were getting worried that the joint was going to get wrecked. Fortunately
for us, neither of the owners, Chris Stone or Gary Kellgren, were there that
night. I still don't know how all these folks got passed the girl at the front
desk because you had to be buzzed in to enter.
The Plant was kind of like a big
party-house with its guest rooms in the back - one was a torture chamber, and
another was very dainty-like with white wicker furniture and flowery patters on
the wallpaper. A real diva's quarters called the Sissy Room. As I mentioned
before, Studio C was the size of an airplane hangar, but studio B was much
cozier, more than half its size. Studio A (pictured) was smaller still. People
were spilling out of one studio into the other and it was getting crazy.
Keith Moon showed up in his limousine
chauffeured by his long-time mate and driver, Dougal, who later wrote a book
titled Full Moon. Even though he never mentions Silverspoon, it’s still
a good read and an accurate tale of the madman himself. Keith asked if he could
play something on one of our tracks and we sat him down in the control room to
listen to Shades of You. He jumped up out of his seat and said one word.
Timpani! He got on the phone and called Studio Instrument Rentals and in less
than an hour twin timpani had arrived in studio B. Keith turned off all the
lights in the room and all we could see was his silhouette glowing in the
little light from the music stand. It was incredible, and when it was over we
walked into the room and Bob turned on the lights and it was like a scene out
of Halloween or some Vincent Price movie. The timpani were covered in
blood. He was playing the damn things with his hands. The party went on all
night long, as Lionel Richie would say, and before you knew it the place was
reaching its capacity. Drinks were spilled on the carpets and cigarette butts
were flowing over the ashtrays.
As it turns out,
the girl at the front desk had given Blair some of that
"green" substance I had taken a few weeks before and was a little too
high. She neglected to mention that you were only supposed to snort a little
bit, not more than you could put on the head of a pin, but in his haste he snorted
the whole line, enough to put an elephant over the edge. He thought that a
sauna would make him come back down to earth, but by the time he sat down on
the wooden bench he was completely gone. Stephen had come into the studio to
get me and together we had to talk him down. After a few glasses of water and a
little time he began to come back to some sense of reality. Later on that night,
we left him alone with some Rainbow-ette for a little female companionship
thinking he would be alright. It took about fifteen minutes before sparks went
flying after she poured water on the electric sauna. When the power went off people
started running around the halls in a frenzy, and pandemonium struck the
engineers who tried to save, or at least remember any work they had begun. The
sauna was ruined and so was the free studio time at the Record Plant. It sure
was fun while it lasted, but at much too high a cost for Silverspoon. Was this
the beginning of the proverbial end? I didn't know for sure but one thing I did
know, the times they were a changing.
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