A STRANGE DAY AT WORK
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I just got an email about a movie that's airing tomorrow night on public television in LA about the music scene in Joshua Tree, CA. Most people know of this desert locale as the name of a classic U2 album or where Gram Parsons made his home, but it's always been a very unique and thriving music community and this film tells about it. Frankly, having been there, I can see why they make music. It's freaking hot and I don't see much else to do. But I've always loved what I've heard coming out of Joshua Tree and I'm psyched to see the flick. I don't know if it will air near you, but here's the press release. Featured artists include Gram Parsons, Eric Burdon, Gram Rabbit (a newer JT artist and if you haven't heard them yet you should) and Victoria Williams, which brings me to this post.
Some time in 1986 or so, I got a last minute call from Sorcerer Sound Studios in NY to fill in engineering on a session. I loved that kind of call and not just for the gig. Whether it was to fill in doing live sound at the Bottom Line or for a session like this there was a great Lower East Side music scene in NY and besides helping each other out it was always something good. My friend Anton Fier (Golden Palominos) was producing as well so it would be a fun hang. When I got down to the studio, I found out we were cutting vocals for this artist Victoria Williams who I didn't know, but a lot of great musician friends had played on this album so I was psyched. Anton told me to put up a mix for us to monitor and a headphone mix for Victoria and that's when things got interesting.
Getting these mixes together was usually pretty standard procedure. You'd put up the bass and drum tracks, add in some instruments to get the vibe of the tune, and then create a mix that would set the mood for the vocalist. Since most things began with 24 tracks back then, at least the bass and drums usually showed up on the same bunch of faders on the console or something nearby. Unfortunately, when I reached out for those, all I heard was strings and it wasn't even like a normal string arrangement, it was WEIRD.
I had never worked with Van Dyke Parks before, but it was quite an amazing first hand introduction to his work. I knew of him dating back to his work on the Brian Wilson "Smile" masterpiece, but it was quite different just listening to it. All of a sudden, I had to decipher it and make something sensible for this session and quick. I think Anton got a kick out of it, since he hadn't given me a heads up and I seem to remember him cracking up as he watched me scrambling a bit trying to put it together. I think my live experience came in handy that day, as well as being rooted in a creative scene in NY that was based around avoiding the expected. The arrangement was an absolutely brilliant combination of experimental Jazz and Americana and the quirkiness continued when the song ended up being kind of a love story about shoes.
Looking back now, it all makes sense. Victoria was born in another musical Mecca (New Orleans) and obviously enjoyed living in creative circles like Joshua Tree. I had a great time when her trip passed through NY that year.
Comments (25)
Got it scheduled on the DVR. Fun story.
Love this post. Thanks for the story Robin. You do what I thought I was going to do out of school, so I am happy to have enough insight to really understand this trial by fire experience. I am trying to recall how I know Victoria's name. Can't come up with it. Anyhow back to lawschoolin'.
Oatmeal--i'll let you live vicariously through me anytime. you'll probably be happy that you went to law school though......lawyers wrote a great Constitution. i think it goes something like "we get paid first"!
Haha, I did live engineering for about four years before I decided that another career was in my future.
Robin, this is exactly why I love the great big two way street MOG is.
I don't think you ever ran a Cub Scout pack and I have never engineered a live show. Not even when I have some of the equipment lying around my attic.
In that we have something in common. We are both sharing experiences with stories about life and we both learn something new about each other.
My day was weird also ..... just in a different way. A good kind of weird.
I used to tell everyone I was weird with a childish sense of pride when I was young. Great word.
I can't get the 30 sec sample to work due to my slow connection, but I am intrigued.
Good weird is nice.
good weird rocks!
It certainly does.
Amiel, I can't imagine anyone calling you weird.
Yeah right, who am I kidding.
What a terrific post. Van Dyke Parks's "Song Cycle" has been in my collection since it came out (late Sixties?) and it offers something wonderfully peculiar and as yet unheard on practically every listening....
the guy is brilliant!
Pleasant surprises are the best. Cool tale. V. Williams voice is pretty wild. Wasn't she married to Mark Olson from the Jayhawks? Yeah..I guess they got divorced in '06.
There was a minute when she was the talk o' the town..early 90's?
I just wikied..she was married to Peter Case too. I never realized how many connections she had. Would you say she's a musician's musican/songwriter? 'Cause it seems like people in the biz think she's the schizz..and she's not too known outside of those circles.
What do you think the qualities are in her songs, if you agree with the first part,that make for a musician's musician?
It was 1968, ivy. It was a brilliant musical stroke. Both sweeping and intimate. Operatic and poetic. It all didn't have to be rock 'n' roll to him.
I couldn't hear the sample here, Robin. I'll nose around for it. I can imagine the compatability between Williams and Parks. She's a very quirky singer/songwriter with ingtensely personal insights imparted with sweet sincerity, irony and humor. Another delicate combination of elements one might think unlikely. Folk music that doesn't necessarily have to be folk music. You were there to help create a magical artistic moment, I'm sure.
Great story. I'll be looking for that programme over here - probably on BBC4. One to watch out for on your side is one that just showed called 'Krautrock'. It was an exploration of all the German bands of the late 60s/early 70s and what made it so fascinating was the exploration of their artistic identity. They had to deal with the reality of the country's and their parents' past. They didn't want to sound like American or English rock music. They wanted to find their own cultural source. Fortunately, there were synthesisers with which they could make a brand new sound. Highly recommended show.
great story! Can picture your perplexity on your stumped expectaions, and that's a most amusing and enjoyable tune. Will see if I can catch the flick as well...thanks for a great post!!
Interesting question about what makes her a musician’s musician/songwriter. Maybe it’s that her unique style is based on combining elements that are understood by many and yet when you throw them together they’re more easily understood by musicians that like to avoid “the template”? Besides the musical aspects, her vocal stylings and storytelling techniques are not your run-of-the-mill approach, yet they come from places we’re all familiar with.
Of course, it was perfect that she ended up with not only Van Dyke, but also the rest of her “cast of characters”. It’s also great to see that you guys “get it”! You might want to check out Mary Margaret O’Hara sometime. She’s a Canadian artist my friend Michael Brook produced who’s also very distinctive for similar reasons.
hey Jonh--is that aka: Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution (2008)??
Could be! Krautrock was a catch-all term UK journalists used for it back then. The bands covered - in contemporary interviews and a lot of period footage - are Amon Duul, Faust, Neu, T Dream, Can, and of course, Kraftwerk. The latter two have some really great old films. The one constant refrain from almost every band is along the lines of 'I don't really remember - we smoked a lot back then.'
Hopefully there's a program director smoking enough to air it here.
nice post robin!
i've made it out to Pappy and Harriet's to catch one of her local shows
what a treat sitting in an audience of ten and chowing down while she just put her band through the ringer trying to follow her every weird and wild move
they took a break and then hit another hour long improvisational set and we just got drunker and drunker
then stayed in the little motel in Pioneertown next door that used to be used for movie sets I believe back in the day
one of those wild west main street kind of deals
Neil--i love your story, man. sounds like you really experienced Pioneertown. the documentary was pretty trippy. not awesome, but you would have gotten it.
How did I miss this post the first time?
I like they way you reference "great Lower East Side music scene in NY" - It's still going strong, my friend. ;-)
i'm real psyched to be back there in a couple of weeks, man!
I love V.W. Thanks for sharing this story!
cool, jenny.......good to "meet" you.
can get the track to play... irritating.. looking for it now out in the WWW