Recording
Recording for the album began in February 1972 with an advance of £4,000 from A&M Records. Seven musicians from Yes and Strawbs, the folk rock group Wakeman performed with earlier in his career, perform on the record. The basis of "Catherine of Aragon", the opening track, was originally a piece that Wakeman wrote for Fragile titled "Handle With Care". Recorded at Trident Studios in London, the track features Yes guitarists Steve Howe and Chris Squire with percussionist Ray Cooper. While recording "Anne Boleyn" at Morgan Studios, featuring Yes drummer Bill Bruford, a dream Wakeman had about attending her execution caused him to include a version of "St. Clement", the tune to the hymn "The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, is Ended" written by John Ellerton. Though E. J. Hopkins is credited on the album, the piece is generally attributed to Reverend Clement Scholefield.
By the time production began on "Catherine Howard", engineer Ken Scott was replaced by Paul Tregurtha. Strawbs member Chas Cronk, who plays the bass guitar on the track, recalled the "total confusion" during the recording and "couldn't make head or tail of what were doing. We were going through it part by part and I couldn't see how all the parts were going to match up." He noted that Rick "knew exactly what he was going to do although he had nothing written down. It was all stored in his head."The organ on "Jane Seymour" was recorded at St Giles-without-Cripplegate church in London. "I couldn't reproduce the sound I needed on an electronic organ, so we got permission to move the recording equipment into St Giles," said Wakeman. "It was quite an experience playing a lovely instrument like that." Wakeman describes "Anne of Cleves" as a "rather free-form" track, "almost having no form at all, there was a contradiction in what everyone was playing. The guys in the band thought I was completely barking, but it had to be like that."
The album was to be titled Henry VIII and His Six Wives with a track dedicated for Henry himself, but Wakeman recorded the tracks on the wives first and had used up the space available on a vinyl record. The track was then discarded and the album renamed. When recording ended in October 1972, the final cost for the record had reached around £25,000. Wakeman described working on the record as "difficult and cumbersome", but said that the album was a "finally rewarding project". The album's cover photograph was taken at Madame Tussauds wax museum in London, where a figure of Richard Nixon can be seen in the background as the curtain was not fully closed.
Read more about this topic: The Six Wives Of Henry VIII (album)
Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“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)
“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)
“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)