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| From | "Miguel Motta" <a2j@bellsouth.net> |
| Subject | Taking over? or The way it should be?... |
| Date | Sun, 29 Aug 2004 11:31:43 -0400 |
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Just had one of those musical moment thoughts where Paul McCartney & John Fogerty came to mind... Why these particular two? Well in the years that I have exhaustively read and "studied" rockumentaries where either the artist themselves or musicians who played with them revealed how dominant (for better or worse) they were in the studio...
Case in point... It's a well know fact that John Fogerty "WAS" Creedence Clearwater Revival (as good as his fellow musicians might have been)... If you caught VH-1's "Behind the Music" on CCR; Fogerty himself discussed the fact that he "knew" what the end result of the song should be once recorded; he had "the sound" in his head and confessed that after recording sessions with the band members he would stay behind and re-record many of the parts to the way "he heard it in his head"... Fogerty allowed his band members to "take over" the album "Mardi Gras" and the result was, well... not so great... Probably proved his point...
Some of McCartney's early session men (for the RAM album and Wings) said that Macca would tell them exactly how to play their parts... One famous story is when taping "My Love" for the "James Paul McCartney" TV special in '72, the lead guitarist turned to Paul and asked; "Mind if I change the solo part?"... McCartney gulped and reluctantly agreed (it turned out beautiful by the way)... During the '72 "Ram" album sessions one of the session players supposedly complained because he wasn't allowed to play anything that "didn't sound Paul McCartney"...
One of the most famous arguments was captured on film during the filming of "Let It Be"... How many remember George telling Paul..."I'll play if you want me to, and if you don't I won't play at all"...
Well, I'm not trying to put any of these two great artists down, probably the contrary... How many of you musicians on auditees think that either the main artist of a band (or particular song on an album) should take over or should it always be a band effort? ... It's worked for Macca & Fogerty but perhaps its not always the case... and come to think about it, it's probably one of the main reasons bands break up...
Thanks for allowing me to ramble on a lazy Sunday morning...
Cheers,
Miguel
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