Takin Care of Business - Studio recording

[Kreskin]

My brother is good friends with some members of the band BTO. He told me a pretty funny story about them making the song 'Takin Care of Business'.

BTO were recording the album (in the 70's) in Seattle. Someone ordered a pizza at the studio. As the pizza delivery guy arrived they were sitting around listening to the song they just finished recording. The pizza delivery guy said that they should have a piano track in the song. The delivery guy convinced them to let him record the piano track. So he did. The guy finished, left, and they all chuckled about it. The band actually didn't like the song and considered it a throw away. By the time the album went to production the song was kept but they had no idea who the piano player was (It's the only song on the album that has piano in it). They contacted the studio to find out who would've delivered the pizza. Still not sure, they phoned around to different pizza joints trying to find out who he was. They eventually found him, got his name and gave him credit for his part.

The song of course became a smashing hit. With that credit in his back pocket the pizza guy got more work. He became quite popular amongst studio musicians and eventually produced an album for Bette Midler.

 

[cortez]

a very interesting story
ive always thought the use of the piano combined with the electric guitar powerchords was unusual
you dont often hear those two sounds together

also its interesting that songwriters often lack objectivity about the value of their work

 

[Kreskin]

That's true. Want songwriters hear and what producers know will sell are two different kettle of fish.

 

[cortez]

Yeah, Kansas thought DUST IN THE WIND was a throwaway song and it ended up being their only hit...besides wayward son

 

[Kreskin]

That it is interesting as well. I think most of the 70's progressive rock bands were an interesting breed. Back then music wasn't quite so corporate controlled. Bands like ELP, Yes, ELO, Genesis had there followers and that's who they played for. Even Chicago when Terry Kath was still alive. Phil Collins decided he wanted to make money and went commercial.

 

[cortez]

im a big prog-rock fan particularly yes - but many others-- the muscianship and creative originality behind the compositions were just phenomenal
my pick of
some of the classics from that era

- fragile-
- close to the edge
- tales from topographic oceans
- the yes album
- relayer
- going for the one
- lamb lies down on broadway
- trick of the tail
- selling england by the pound
- tarksus
- triloggy
- elps first
- brain salad surgery
- phaedra- td
- rubycon-td
- richochet-td
- stratosphere-td
- the hero and the heroine
- aqualung
- led zep 1-6
-court of the crimson king

i agree relatively less corporate control may have been a factor but i also think there isnt much of an audience for this type of stuff anymore- and i often think that prog rock perhaps had reached its limit---what more could it say....
you can always recycle a three chord rock song for the teens but how can recyle something like tales from topographic oceans

i think genesis crapped out before collins left though-wind and wethering probably their last good album

even though i enjoy a lot of the more recent bands as well i cant believe i actually think --wow they just dont make music with the kind of depth they used back in the seventies - just like an old geezer

 

[Kreskin]

Man, Cortez, we grew up with almost identical music tastes. That's unbelievable stuff. I was a progressive rock nut. I saw ELP in 1974 on their Brain Salad Surgery tour. They were cutting edge..the quadraphonic sound system etal. Keith Emerson is a genius in my opinion. It's too bad those guys didn't have todays' technology re sound engineering. Imagine if King Crimson was recording and releasing 'In The Wake of Poseidon' or 'Larks Tongues in Aspic' in this age.

I have to agree with you, where else was progressive rock to go. I remember bands like Triumvirat who were basically ELP clones and it became alittle boring. And I felt the same about Genesis. I never could get into the Wind and Wuthering LP.

I eventually drifted to fusion. One of the best concerts I've ever been to was Jean Luc Ponty at the Commodore - Vancouver. That was 1980 I believe. They played the entire Enigmatic Ocean album to start, everybody was drinking it up and the band was dynamite. About 5 years ago I sent him an email through his site and asked him if he remembered that show. He responded with details that only he could know, and even he had to agree it was one of the hilites of his career. But I did see him at the Orpheum about 4 years later and it was boring. They didn't light it up in a sterile music hall.

I also drifted to pure jazz. Miles Davis, especially his real old stuff with Ron carter on bass. Coltrane - Giant Steps, Dave Hollands - Conference of the Birds. Some of it is totally wacked but the experimentation is genius, as is the musicianship.

I was chatting with my brother one day and we were talking about music back then, and how the corporate world could not have let what happened happen. Take Chicago, for example, and the Terry Kath solo in 25 or 6 to 4. Perhaps not the most talented solo one would hear but the way he built that up to the wah wah peddle stuff was amazing. That would not happen today in a million years - the producers would instead replace the solo with a ten second 'shake your ass' break. There is no room in todays music to be creative, not even close to the the way one could be in the 70's. It's impossible to make creative artistic music the way they did back then because the corporate producers won't allow it. It's not just a geezer complaint, it's reality.

 

[cortez]

right on kreskin
its funny that i too became a fusion freak
however , i guess because i started learning the guitar both electric and classical i was always more connected with the guitar based stuff-- but ponty as you say is incredible-----

some guitar based fusion favorites

-abraxas-santana
- caravansii -santana
-blow by blow- jeff beck
-blue wind- jeff beck
-anything by mahavishnu orchestra with john mclaukin
-elegant gypsy-dimieola
-saturday night live in san francisco- de lucia, maclaukin,
- demeola
- larry coryell stuff
- pat martino-- though that is more pure jazz

you keep mentioning chicago- and i have to admit that they are just havent checked their whole catalog out yet--- but thanks to your enthusiasm -- im gonna do that immediately

25 or 6 to 24
is an amazing song
i think led zep lifted that simple but incredibly powerfull riff to write babe im gonna leave you
or was it the other way around


miles davis to me is a master of tone and moodiness
and subtle expressiveness
its just amazing how he can sometimes hold those purely magical notes expressing --- i dont know something that cant be said any other way

talking to others who were really into prog rock as teens reveals a very familiar pattern, these people give you a list
similar to mine up then they ll tell you stuff like i branched out into jazz and classical and electronic music and world music etc- they tend to have absolutely MASSIVE cd collections-- on average at least a 1000
but what i think is really happening is that we were fortunate enough as kids to have been exposed to music that was so creative and that ALREADY used so much of world, jazz and classical music that it was easy for us to go out and explore these styles seeking i guess the source of that magic that ROCK music cant provide anymore.

this was highlighted to me when someone asked me what the first albbum i ever bought was--
babe ruth first base--- and at that time i knew NOTHING about music --- i thought well il just try it
and it blew me away--easy to blow away a 13 year old.
this is an obscure album -ill admitt but in it are seeds
it to a large extent inspired me to try and learn the spanish guitar and the electric, and fusion was already there- if you have a chance check out the instrumental track--king kong-- one of the most underated fusion gems ever.

all this contrasts with the kids who were into pure rock and derided prog-rock as pretentious crap-- their cd collections on average tend to be a lot smaller

 

[Kreskin]

Too cool Cortez. I saw Return to Forever (Chick Corea etal) with Al Di Meola at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre way back when they came out with Romantic Warrior. That may have been the first concert I ever saw. I was a bass player since I was a munchkin and was a Stanley Clarke fan. I remember it was unbelievable. The backup band was Larry Coryell. His drummer was Alphonse Mouzon. Mouzon was an animal and nearly stole the night. What a night it was. I remember the people in the audience being a who's who of music in Vancouver.

I owned both the Elegant Gypsy album and the live album with Paco De Lucia.

I still drive around listening to Meetings of the Spirits, John McLoughlin. People must thing I'm nuts cuz I can't keep it below volume 10.

I was also a big Weather Report fan, just loved Jaco Pastorius.

Kink Kong, I'll have to look out for it.

From a pure jazz point and some of the best guitar you'll ever here try and pick up a copy of 'Celebrating Grappelli'. The jazz guitarist Martin Taylor and his band bring in an 80-year old jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli and absolutely light it up. I have never hear anything like the jazz riffs, soloing that Martin does in this, song after song. When I listen to it I'll be listening to one song and think to myself "that's the best guitar solo I've ever heard". Then the next comes on and I think, "no wait, that's the best..etc". And to think Grappelli was 80 years old is also mind shattering, as he rips some of the tunes to shreds. It's very pure jazz, even the drummer plays only a snare drum. All accoustic instruments.