..but you can never really leave.

Although I worked on several phenomenal and successful records while I was at the Record Plant, (Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life" and Boston's "More Than a Feeling") the peak experience for me was the 9 months we spent recording the Eagles "Hotel California" with Bill Szymczyk producing.

The band had only written a couple of complete songs by the time the recording began, and the rest were either written by the members in the studio or pieced together from individual members demos, with lyrics constantly being written and rewritten.

All of the band's equipment with many combinations of amps and instruments were set up and miked, ready to record all the time.
Since the studio was so large, in addition to the musical instrument set-up, we also had a ping pong table behind a wall of gobos in front of the mic. cabinets. We even moved a fridge into the control room. ( a peculiar Eagles' trait, I once saw them put one onstage in Amsterdam when they opened for Joe Walsh on his "So What" tour. I was mixing the P.A. for Joe's band. I believe Tom Nixon was the inspiration for cold beverages
in close proximity to the artist.)

I'd arrive around noon with the band's crew and we'd turn everything on.
Someone took breakfast orders in the control room and then went across the street to Gottfried's Deli for our greasy meals. We ate and began recording around 2:30 p.m. We were "on the clock" until 6:00p.m. when you could have a beer and a "break". The only other rule was that all five guys play on the basic track. We didn't always use all the parts. We'd do about 20 to 40+ takes of each song with a click track. We'd then listen and make lists of the best sections of each take and edit together a master basic. (...to be continued)