Q. So we’re picking it up from where you left the Bay Area for LA after 7 years, it’s March, 1975 and you’re going to work for the Village Recorder.

A. Yes, I was not happy with the lack of studio work in the Bay Area. I was not making enough records, my contacts were getting stale and I thought that a return to the studio system might be in order. I had maintained a friendship with Geordie Hormel, owner of the facility and had stayed in contact with many of the staffers there over the years and would visit whenever I was in LA. I befriended the General Manager, Dick LaPalm, and he extended an offer to join the staff.

Q. What attracted you to the Village, as opposed to Heider’s or the Record Plant?

A. Well, it seemed friendly, and I really didn’t like Hollywood, and I didn’t want to go back to Heiders because Wally had left and it was becoming more and more corporate every day. But the problem with the studio business in general is that many would-be engineers started flocking to studios by this time, and would work and intern for free, so the value of staff engineers was eroding.

Most of the sucessful engineers were becoming independents and making the money on the artist and record company side, as opposed to having their salaries absorbed into the studio rate. At the same time, more and more independent studios were being built and the competition was becoming fierce, so the first thing to get cut was engineer’s salaries. It was no longer a draw to have a great engineer on the staff, the money now went to building bigger rooms or buying 24 tracks.

So the first shock was a pay cut. Heider’s in 1969 was paying me $400 a week starting salary, with overtime on top, which was a hell of a lot of money then. When I arrived at the Village, the best they could do was $250 a week and the inflationary spiral had already started in America. I thought it was worth it to make new contacts, so I went ahead and took the job.

The Village was in a financial paradox. I knew Geordie had the money (he was heir to the Hormel meat fortune) but for some reason did not invest it in new equipment for the studio that year. Maintainance was down, and the consoles and machines were becoming out of date. The rooms were still geared to 16 track business and the tape machines were tired and sluggish. But I stayed around because I really needed to meet new people.

During this period I worked a great deal with producer Jim Price. Jim was an amazing fellow, very funny and prolific. I got to work with Joe Cocker, Jennifer Warnes, KGB, David Bromberg and several other acts that he produced, and this was my introduction to the LA studio scene.

Jim was, as you may know, in the Mad Dogs and Englishmen band backing Leon Russel, he also played horns with Bobby Keyes on Exile on Main Street and had a solo album. He was the first real producer-arranger that I had worked with, and I was quite impressed. He played, he wrote, he arranged strings and horns.

Another interesting artist I worked with was with the Woody Herman big band. The studios were too small to hold the entire orchestra, so I had to split it into two rooms. This is not the recommended way to record a big band, but I had make it work, the studio manager had said we could do it. It was a nightmare to get all the headphones working and all the mic lines to jibe, but I pulled it off. It would have been better recorded in a huge hall with 5 mics, though.

At the same time as my LA move and before, I had maintained a social relationship with David Crosby, and he and Graham had been cooking up a new phase for the concept of Crosby And Nash as a real entity, as opposed to being a ‘side’ project. Their aborted CSNY activities had aligned them into making their own, independent career decision, and Crosby-Nash became a full-time business. They hired a line manager, Leslie Morris and a booking agent and they were in business.

Q. Everything except a new record, right?

A. Exactly, and they were hanging out at Nash’s one night and decided to commit to making a new band record and they called me up in LA. Graham had remodeled this wonderful Victorian house on Buena Vista Avenue in the Haight, and had put a recording studio in the basement.

‘Wild Tales’ was recorded there, and Don Gooch was his engineer on that record. I used the studio myself quite a bit myself for a while in 1973 and 1974 for tracking and overdubs with a duo known as ‘Cormack and Ross’, who did a sort of world music approach to music, and another one of my projects that I ended up completing 25 years later.

So anyway, Crosby calls me up at the Village, and says "Hey Barncube, we want to do a new Crosby Nash record, and we want you involved!" And I said great.... then Crosby said, "there’s one more thing -- you’re going to do it with Don Gooch!" Well, my heart sunk at this point, because, of course it sounded like the Healy/Dead thing all over again. I never thought a 2 engineer project could really work, unless the two guys were REALLY close like, the Albert Brothers. The next day I flew up to San Francisco and met David, Graham and Don at Nash’s house.

Now I had some contact with Don, but didn’t know him that well. He became a staff engineer for Heider’s about the time I left that studio in 1972, and we both ended up overdubbing and mixing a few things for Paul and Grace on the Airplane’s Long John Silver. I found out later that he had quite a history with Motown records, and had been a staff mixer there.

I’m not sure how he ended up being Graham’s engineer, but I heard a story that Graham had called me one day to do a session at his new studio, and I wasn’t home to take the call, so he called Heider’s for a recommendation, they said Gooch, and the rest is history. Anyway, there is no way that I wouldn’t do the project, so I swallowed my pride and accepted, hoping everything would work out. Besides, I had a position to ask for some real money for a change.

Q. So this was the beginning of the ‘Wind On the Water’ project?

A. Yes, 1975. Nixon was on his way out, the war in Vietnam was ending in a heap, and I was in LA. As it turned out, David and Graham were committed to do the project in LA, because the backup band was the Jitters (the Section) and they weren’t going to work an extended project in San Francisco since they had other studio obligations.

So I brought up the idea of doing the project at the Village. I wasn’t ready to leave the Village just yet, and was becoming quite fond of Studio B there, even though the equipment was aging. So that sounded ok to the guys, since they didn’t really have a studio preference anyway. So we started March,1975.

There was a complication, however. Nash had just purchased a brand new 24 track MCI recorder and wanted to use it instead of a 16 track. But the monitor system in Studio B was only set up for 16. So I brought in a funky homemade 16 track monitor panel that I had originally built for Weir’s studio (that was replaced by a better one in phase 2). This supplimented the other mixer and gave me the extra channels of monitor. It worked, and we nailed 7 great tracks there.

In fact, I recorded basics for 4 songs in one day, June 10,1975; "JB’s Blues", "Take the Money and Run", "Mama Lion", "Lowdown Payment", and 3 more the next day, "Marguerita", "Love Work Out", and "Time after Time". Some of these songs were saved for the next record. After that experience I knew my days at the Village were numbered. It was obvious that the studio was behind the times and the recording would have to continue elsewhere.

Don had been doing some projects at Armin Steiner’s Sound Labs, so we all went over to see the facility. This was definitely a studio more suited to their needs, I had to admit. A 32 position main section, 16 Busses, 3 band EQs, and a 24 channel monitor section, off to the side in an ‘L’ configuration. Lots of room to hang, easy parking, central location in Hollywood, better maintenance, and a bigger recording room with a huge booth.

It was a no-brainer. I had to quit the Village after only 4 months. A heart-wrenching decision, because I loved the people, but there was no way I was going to turn down this project. They even offered me a position as Chief Engineer, but with no increase in salary. So I did a few things for a week, but that was the last time I worked as a staffer there. I did do a few projects there after that, to help out or fill in , and brought some other projects in.

Q. What was going on with David and Graham at this time?

A. Well, they both had all these great songs saved up from the aborted CSN(Y) projects and had to get them out there. They had strained relations with Atlantic because the label just never seemed to take their individual projects other than CSN seriously, so they decided on drastic action -- go to a different record company. They had an accounting firm that took care of all their finances called Rubenstein-Siegel-Goldman, and one of the partners, Jerry Rubenstein became the chairman of ABC records, the successor to ABC-Paramount records. They had Steely Dan on the label, and it was a natural move for them to go there given the association with the chairman. Jerry gave them everything they wanted in their deal, including unlimited studio time and tour support. So for the first time, Crosby and Nash as a group had full backing of a record company.

After I quit the Village, we started the project, which turned out to last over 5 months. I guess it was a good decision. I needed to get back to the music.

Q. How well did you and Gooch work together?

A. A pattern evolved as to who would do what. Somehow it was decided that I would work on David’s songs, and Don would work on Graham’s songs, but what wasn’t decided was what the other guy would do when he wasn’t working specifically on ‘his guy’s’ material. I tended to be there for everything, and when Don was at the console, I would be on the talkback, suggesting things and moving the session along, or adjusting the headphone mix during tracking. However, when I was mixing or overdubbing, Don usually didn’t support me, he usually retreated to the lounge and played the arcade game ‘Tank’ for hours. He just couldn’t handle the support role. Also after the move to Sound Labs, Don seemed to end up doing all the basic tracks, especially the uptempo numbers. When it came to a slow, introspective ballad of David’s, though, he would split and hand it over to me. I wasn’t happy with the state of affairs, but the music was so good, and the spirit of the sessions so positive, that I decided to let this roll.

We must have worked for almost 2 months on tracking and overdubs. The band was superb, and really pushed themselves, and David and Graham and the rest of us were in a wonderful space.

During this period, both Graham and I found our future and current wives. Lesley Foster, who is a photographer, filmaker, and dancer (and at the time was a recording school student who was hanging out at the Village Recorders) became my constant companion at home and the studio. She fell in love with the music which became the backdrop of our life and we fell in love with each other. This certainly helped my attitude about my situation. And the sessions were going so well that Lesley thought all recording sessions were like this, and I had to remind her that what was going on here was not the norm.

At the same time, Graham started spending a lot of time with Susan Sennet, a grandaughter of Max Sennet, the motion picture comedy pioneer and falling in love with her. David had his girlfriend Nancy there, and in spite of secretly starting his slow slide into darkness, was not showing it to any of us, and we had him pegged as being a very happy guy. Whatever he was doing then, it didn’t affect his work.

During the sessions, we had a string of celebrity guests, including Dave Mason, Stephen Bishop, Carole King, and Artie Garfunkel. George Martin came over to hear a demo of a new Nash composition "Winchester Cathedral" with an invitation to score the string parts. When the song got to the "So many have died in the name of Christ that I can’t believe at all" part, Martin left the room without a word and never returned. (It should be noted that Martin is a devout Christian).

After the basics, we settled down for a long string of vocal overdubs, which took the next month. These sessions, I might add, had the longest days I had ever worked with these guys. We would start at 12 noon each day and work way past midnight, usually eating take out food instead of leaving. David and Graham had rooms at the infamous Chateau Marmont Hotel and had very few other places to go during this time. Again, the social compression factor was at work.

Q. Tell me about the music on "Wind On the Water."

A. Many of David and Graham’s classic songs were introduced on this record. Carry Me, Bittersweet and Low Down Payment were all biographical songs of David’s. Low Down Payment evolved out of jams in 11 with the Grateful Dead in Mill Valley at Weir’s studio. "Homeward through the Haze" and "Bittersweet" were David’s first songs written on the piano. "Naked in the Rain" was the first Crosby Nash song where they actually shared writing credit. Graham’s contributions included "Take the money and Run" obviously related to recent business negotiations, "Cowboy of Dreams" inspired by the trials of friend and associate Joel Bernstein, "Love Work Out" and "Fieldworker".

"Wind On The Water", Graham’s whale epic song written the year before in anticipation of a Whales and Farmworkers benefit, took classic shape as the vocals were added. The Crosby contribution to the suite took the form of ‘Critical Mass’, an acapella vocal extravaganza that began life as a second attempt by David as another "I’d Swear There Was Somebody here", the last cut on his first solo album.

We had put that piece away in 1970, but in 1974 David and Graham were at Elliot Mazer’s "His Master’s Wheels" in San Francisco, preparing to do some work on another false start CSN record and waiting for the Alpert Brothers and Stills to arrive. I happened to drop by to visit that day and at that moment they were trying to figure out where the tracks all went on the piece, and they immediately put me to work sorting it out. Nash replaced some of the higher Crosby parts and then the Alperts showed up, made some silly arrangement comments, and we put the track away for a year.

Now, this track was put into the lineup, they finished the vocals on it and we made a 24 track work dub to join it to "Wind". Then, in a supurb string overdub session, Jimmy Haskell added his strings to the suite.

Lesley again thought this is always the way it was in the studio...

Eventually all the vocals were done and we got to mixing. Don ended up mixing all of Graham’s songs, and I mixed David’s. I kept the scoreboard of overdubs completed on a sort of spreadsheet on the wall, and started the practice of writing the tune titles on coffee stir sticks to try out different orders. As the days passed and the due date drew near, things got more tense. I remember one point where we were working on a line in "Naked in the Rain" that said "just when you feel like you’re goin’ insane..." we were literally going insane over trying to punch in that line, getting angry and all, and finally we all just had to laugh and take a break for a while.....

We really wanted to do this record right, but we had a lot of technical troubles. First of all, Graham’s new MCI 24 track had a lot of guide problems which were exacerbated by the tape.

Q. Yes, I’ve heard stories about this, what about that tape?

A. Oh, god, the tape. What a disaster. For some reason Don wanted to switch to Ampex 406, after CSN had been using Scotch 206 for years. The early formulations we were using were AWFUL. We had higher noise and something called "rocks", a sort of rumbling noise you could hear in the quiet passages, caused by the bias. Also the slitting on the tape was often bad and some batches were unusable. Then, we found out 15 years later, the tape was a ticking archive time bomb, because it had an organic backing with one of the chemical sources being whale oil and the tape would start to shed and stick after about 3 years. So here we’re making this beautiful music lamenting the harvesting of whales, and we’re unknowingly using tape made of whale oil!!!.

Q. So how did the mix sessions go?

A. We had to do them rather rapidly, because the vocals took so long and an acoustic tour was looming on the horizon. Two days before the August 14, 1975 Universal Ampetheater show, they realized that they were not going to be in the studio, they were going to be facing 5000 people! It still hadn’t hit them the next day either, as they prepared the set list at the Chateau Marmot, but they still didn’t rehearse. Finally, on show day, they went on stage, and Crosby forgot some chords and Nash forgot some words and both of their guitar chops were down since they had been singing for weeks. It was not their best show; they had not fully made the transition from the studio back to the stage. Nash even said this about one song: "and we got this song in one take!" which made no sense to a live audience.

The next three shows got better, and the acoustic tour was underway. Since they were road bound, there was little time for the last phase of the album production process: cutting the disk masters. And there was one little bit we had to do on the a cappella piece. Graham’s high part wasn’t quite loud enough on the last phrase. So in a last minute session at ABC studios, I remixed the part and played it for Graham on the telephone, and he approved it. We were done with mixing.

We decided we were going to do it the best possible way, we would do a shoot-out and try every mastering place in town. So we went to Allan Zentz at AZ Mastering, Artisan, Capitol with Wally Trougatt, Bernie Grundman at A&M, Lanky Linstrot at ABC, Kent Duncan at Kendun, and Doug Sax at Sound Labs. As we would master them one by one, I would fly out to wherever they were playing on the tour, get a music system together and set it up in the hotel where they were staying. Then we’d listen to 3 or 4 complete master laquers from different mastering places and take notes. The first location I went to was Troy, Michigan on 8/31/75, which had the nearest full service hotel to Pine Knob. Crosby was going to stay there, but the Michigan State Troopers were going to have a convention in the same area, so he went to another hotel.

The ABC records guys had already set up a music system in the room, so I gathered the crew and we listened to masters laquers in a ‘smoke filled room’ for most of the night. The next day I flew back and did more mastering sessions. After that, I went back on the road to Chicago on 9/3 where they were playing the Auditorium Theater, and we did it all again. I then flew back home one more time and Don and I made the final mastering arrangements, then flew to New York City to record the 2 Beacon Theater shows on 9/7 and 9/8.

The acoustic shows featured Craig Doegre on piano and Joel Bernstein who played acoustic guitar as well as serving as guitar tech and photographer for the tour. It was decided by all of us that the Beacon shows were to be recorded. Graham and David long ago realized the advantages of recording as many of their concerts as possible, so a plan was forming for a live Crosby Nash record someday, but it would take a while to realize.

After the tour, "Wind On the Water" was released, and became a hit. We certainly would do another studio record and soon.

 BACK TO THE INTRO

next, part 4 -- more on Crosby Nash recordings, Elektra A&R, Crosby's Capitol disaster, Barncard in the Movies, A&M, Allan Thomas, Crosby's return