Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust by Scott Ken & Bobby Owsinski

Author:Scott, Ken & Bobby Owsinski [Scott, Ken]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780739092668
Publisher: Alfred Publishing Co - eBooks Account
Published: 2012-06-08T00:00:00+00:00

Mixing in New York

A bit later I flew back to New York to complete the recording of the album at Electric Lady, then mixed it there. Once again, not being used to America, a couple of things happened that initiated me to the New York scene. On the first day in the studio, one of the roadies said he was going to the deli and asked if I wanted him to bring me back a sandwich. I immediately replied, “Yeah, get me a couple of roast beef sandwiches.” He looked at me kind of funny and said, “A couple? Are you sure?” I replied, “Yeah, I’m quite hungry,” so he smiled and nodded his head and off he went. Of course I was used to the typical English sandwiches of two pieces of white bread with maybe two slices of roast beef in the middle. Two of those would have been perfect. Instead he returned with two New York deli-style sandwiches that each stood at least six inches tall. I was blown away. Half of one was all I could eat. I had absolutely no idea what I was letting myself in for when I asked for two sandwiches, but at least the band and all the Electric Lady staff got a good laugh out of it.

The other thing that I didn’t realise about working in New York was how steeped in unionism New York record companies were at the time. I was astounded, and even offended, to find that on the first day at Electric Lady a CBS engineer was sitting there waiting when we walked in. I angrily thought, “I’m supposed to be doing this. What’s he doing here?” Then I found out that all we had to do was sign off that he was there and he then disappeared for the rest of the day. He was paid for the entire time that we were working as per union rules, but we were doing the work, not him. The thing was that CBS wanted their artists to record at the CBS studio facility, but they realised from past experience that position was a thorn in the side of some of their acts, so they allowed them the freedom to go to other studios as long as they had a CBS engineer with them. The CBS engineers didn’t want to be there any more than we wanted them there, so they would just turn up at the beginning of the session and go, “OK, I’m here. OK, I’m gone.” They’d come in at the beginning of the next session and ask, “OK, what time did we go to last night? One o’clock in the morning? OK, see you tomorrow.” It should also be noted that the cost for the CBS engineer to be at an outside studio for all those long hours was always tagged on to the recording costs that had to be recouped by the artist. That was my primer on “the union way,” one that reached its peak when later recording in the city with Bowie.

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