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The Making of Dark Side DVD

For those Pink Floyd fans out there, here's something you should check out:  "The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon" DVD. 

It's a documentary on the making of the historic album, which spent 14 years on the charts, and is IMO, the best record of all time -- not only for the music, but also for the enduring quality of the recording.  In the early 70s, the mainstays of modern recording didn't exist (digital echo/delay effects, Pro Tools, etc.), so it's really amazing to see how they accomplished some of the amazing sounds and effects.

The cool thing about the DVD is that the story is told by the band and other insiders, including engineer Alan Parsons, mixing supervisor Chris Thomas, sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson (the guy that came up with the prism cover image), and others.  Some of the highlights range from a behind-the-scenes look at some of David Gilmour's amazing guitar riffs and how the band produced "On the Run" using a very rudimentary (and probably the first) sequencer, to how the singer who produced the screaming vocals in "The Great Gig in the Sky" was embarrassed at first by a performance that is now legendary.

I also liked the discussion about how the late Richard Wright infused jazz chords from a Miles Davis record into his keyboard track on "Breathe."

If you love the Floyd and Dark Side -- or even if you're only interested in the recording techniques -- I highly recommend this DVD.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Geo2

Keith Richards tells stories behind Stones songs & riffs

This is interesting.  Guitar World recently re-printed a 2005 interview with Keith Richards, in which he discusses the stories behind some of the top Rolling Stones tunes, as well as how he came up with some of the more memorable guitar riffs. 

For example, he notes that he (and the rest of the band) originally planned to record 'Start Me Up' as a reggae tune:

“It’s reggae, man.” We did 45 takes like that. But then on a break I just played that guitar riff, not even really thinking much about it; we did a take rocking away and then went back to work and did another 15 reggae takes. Five years later, Mick discovered that one rock take in the middle of the tape and realized how good it was.

In one of the funnier quotes, Richards talks about how 'Miss You' came about:

That was basically Mick’s song. He said, “Let’s try this disco shit out.” I think he’d been to too many nightclubs, actually. The guitar riff basically suggested itself from the melody Mick was singing. I just shadowed that and ran it behind the voice. It’s just a piece of fun, that song. It can get really funky if you get the right tempo and slam it in.

This is an interesting read for Stones fans, and also for guitar players, who might be interested to know that the success of 'Satisfaction' was largely due to a fuzz effects pedal:

When I wrote the song, I didn’t think of that particular riff as the big guitar riff. That all fell into place at RCA when Gibson dumped on me one of those first Fuzz-Tone pedals. I actually thought of that guitar line as a horn riff...when this new Fuzz Tone pedal arrived in the studio from the local dealership or something, I said, “Oh, this is good. It’s got a bit of sustain..."

Hope you enjoy!

Geo2