Fifty years ago, the Beatles released what many call their masterpiece: "Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band." The year was 1967, the summer of love. It was also the height of the psychedelic era of rock. The boys, with the help of George Martin and Abbey Road engineer Geoff Emmerick, created an album filled with innovative sounds and experimental recording techniques. In that spirit, listed below are 5 artists and their inspired, innovative techniques in the studio.
1. The Beach Boys
One of the ways Brian Wilson tried to inspire great work was during the recording sessions for his ambitious concept album Smile, where he would incorporate themes from the music into actual physical forms. During the recording of the “Fire” section of the elements suite, Brian tried to capture the chaos, swarming ambulances, and hellish fire onto tape. To do this, maybe most musicians would simply tell everyone to think about an ambulance roar or flames or even just demand that your paid musicians play what you tell them to, but Brian went much further.
He not only got firemen helmets for everyone in the studio, but he then lit an actual fire in a trashcan so that everyone could smell the smoke while they played. It would definitely be hard to question the man who just a year before produced Pet Sounds, and why would you want to? Besides getting some ash in your trumpet hole, it sounds pretty nice getting to wear a cool firemen’s helmet.
2. The Beatles
I had to include this nugget from Sgt. Peppers. During the sessions for the orchestral part of “A Day in the Life” the Beatles hired 40 orchestral musicians to create the large swell at the end. These are highly trained musicians and they arrived to work in white tie at the Beatles request. But the Beatles needed to loosen them up, and what better way than to make them wear party hats, clown noses, and fake plastic nipples? So the orchestra performed, going from the lowest notes to the highest notes in no specific time, wearing carnival novelties.
3. Brian Eno
Brian Eno is known as much for his music as his producing skills, and he also created a very interesting technique to help deal with writer’s block in the studio. His process was called oblique strategies and it is basically like tarot cards mixed with those sex dice you can get that give orders like “rub her back” or “let’s just watch TV instead.” Eno created a deck of cards that you would flip over whenever you were unsure what to do, and they would give you an instruction. Some examples of this were to “use an old idea” or “work at a different speed” and some more vague ideas like “ask your body,” which might just mean that maybe you’re hungry and need a snack break
4. Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is known for being pretty loose in the studio, and not really interested in getting things to sound perfect there, because he just has to make the song in that moment, and maybe it will find its perfect form live on stage somewhere. So Bob Dylan is lazy is what it really sounds like. As Bob Dylan set to work with studio musicians in Nashville on the then untitled “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35” he got everyone in the studio high as he passed around weed throughout the room, and then had all of the musicians switch their instruments. Now, this somehow doesn’t seem lazy, it sounds like Bob actually systematically trying to make a bad song. “Hey, you. Expert organ player, go grab that guitar.” Yet Bob seemed to know what was going on or got pretty lucky because the song became a hit, reaching #2 on the billboard charts. If you dream high enough, kids, you can get paid to get high and play an instrument you don’t know how to play. What a world.
5. Phil Spector
Phil Spector is a maniac and infamous asshole currently in prison for allegedly shooting his wife, and as is expected, he brought that crazy with him into the studio on multiple occasions. He is known for threatening several notable musicians in the studio, and not by telling them he won’t come to one of their shows — he used guns. Phil has pulled a gun out to threaten Debbie Harry, the Ramones, and John Lennon. The man actually shot a gun off in the studio near a former Beatle, and held the Ramones hostage.
