Recording
In 1980, Jim Lea was interviewed for the Slade fan club newsletter. He spoke of the band first recording the album. "This was our first major crack at making a record, so it was all important now to let it slip. So we did "Roach Daddy", "Mad Dog Cole" and "Genesis" out of total fear."
Lea was asked how the cover versions of numerous tracks ended up being recorded. "They were all numbers that we were doing live on stage at the time. We had started to move away from the Flower Power thing then, but we were still doing unusual numbers. You can see by all the writers of the songs, they are all big names now, but at the time they were unheard of. Frank Zappa - he was totally unknown, he had only recorded one album, but we recorded his "Ain't Got No Heart".
Lea was also asked how "Pity The Mother" was written. "It was another one of the songs that Bavistock "forced" us to write. We wrote it in Nod's parents' kitchen, the day before we went down to do some recording in the studio. Louise (Lea's wife) was there, and she helped me and Nod write the song."
Originally, the band were introduced and recorded with producer Irving Martin through their London Booking Agent Roger Allen. The band and Martin recorded "Journey To The Centre of Your Mind" and "Mad Dog Cole". Bavistock heard the demos and thought "Mad Dog Cole" was great, and insisted if the group wanted a contract they would have to write more of their own material. Out of total fear, and realising this would be the big chance, they sat down and wrote "Roach Daddy", "Pity The Mother" and "Genesis" within days of Bavistock's request. Bavistock and Co. were suitably impressed with the results and, together with a suggested name change to Ambrose Slade, a contract was agreed upon.
Read more about this topic: Ballzy
Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I didn’t have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let’s say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing!”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“Too many photographers try too hard. They try to lift photography into the realm of Art, because they have an inferiority complex about their Craft. You and I would see more interesting photography if they would stop worrying, and instead, apply horse-sense to the problem of recording the look and feel of their own era.”
—Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870–1942)