Recording
Prior to the recording of the album, Waits became friends with his designated producer Jerry Yester and one afternoon in early 1972 recorded a pre-production tape in Yester's residence. The instrumentation, recording arrangements and musicians were also discussed during this session with Waits making "it absolutely clear he wanted a standup bass player." Drummer John Seiter, guitarist Peter Klimes, trumpeter Tony Terran and additional guitarist Shep Cooke were recruited through Yester and through Seiter, jazz bassist Bill Plummer was hired.
The main recording sessions for Closing Time took place at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, California—where Buffalo Springfield, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and The Doors had previously recorded—during spring 1972. Yester fronted production and the sessions were held almost immediately after Waits' record deal, and were described "quick and efficient." Waits was "nervous, but confident enough in his own material" during the beginning of the sessions, however, as the sessions progressed, Waits and Yester "were pulling against each other" over the direction which the album would take, with Waits wanting a jazz-laden record and Yester more focused on producing a folk-based album. Despite this, Waits was "absolutely communicative" with his fellow musicians, articulating his direction and using metaphors to describe how he wanted the songs to sound. The sessions took a total of ten days, with the first two days focusing on "getting used to ." Both Waits and Yester wanted to record during the evening, but as no slots were available, it was recorded through the morning and afternoon "from ten to five every day." During the recording of "Ol' '55", Seiter contributed backing vocals and "came up with a perfect harmony line that started faintly before the chorus even began." The sessions concluded with a total of nine songs completed. Though unsatisfied with the amount of songs, a second recording session was arranged the following week in United Western Recorders. The final session for Closing Time began the following Sunday, with guest musicians Arni Egilsson replacing Plummer and Jesse Erlich performing cello. The title track, "Closing Time", was the only song recorded in full, and Yester later described the session as "the most magical session I've ever been involved with. At the end of it, no one spoke for what felt like five minutes, either in the booth or out in the room. No one budged. Nobody wanted the moment to end." String overdubs were later cut for "Martha" and "Grapefruit Moon" the following day. The final recordings were mixed and mastered at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco.
Read more about this topic: Closing Time (album)
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)
“He shall not die, by G—, cried my uncle Toby.
MThe ACCUSING SPIRIT which flew up to heaven’s chancery with the oath, blush’d as he gave it in;—and the RECORDING ANGEL as he wrote it down, dropp’d a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for ever.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“Self-expression is not enough; experiment is not enough; the recording of special moments or cases is not enough. All of the arts have broken faith or lost connection with their origin and function. They have ceased to be concerned with the legitimate and permanent material of art.”
—Jane Heap (c. 1880–1964)