Phill Brown: Robert Palmer 18th March 1975

We interviewed Phill Brown in Tape Op #12 . Over the years he's worked with some of the greatest artists ever, like Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Traffic, Spooky Tooth, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, Robert Palmer, Bob Marley, Steve Winwood, Harry Nilsson, Roxy Music, Stomu Yamash'ta, John Martyn, Little Feat, Atomic Rooster, and Talk Talk. This is another excerpt from his (as yet) unpublished book, Are We Still Rolling? Last issue: Phill worked with Dana Gillespie and had a frightening time with PCP. –LC

On the morning of July the 14th, 1974, 1 took a cab to Heathrow Airport where I had arranged to meet Steve Smith. As soon as I saw his bloodshot eyes and unshaven face, it was obvious that he had been up for most of the night. We were about to fly to New York to master Robert Palmer's Sneakin' Sally... with George Marino at Sterling Sound, after which we planned to move on to Baltimore to start Robert's new album Pressure Drop. We checked in our baggage at the airline desk and headed for the bar and a few brandies. Steve took a couple of downers to help him sleep and we boarded the plane. We settled in for the seven hour flight. I took out my portable cassette tape recorder to record some of the sounds of the aircraft - the take-off, intercom messages, and the general hum when flying at 30,000 feet. This was used later on the track "Off the Bone" from Palmer's album Some People Can do What They Like in 1976 and on "Christians who Kill" - one of the SPA recordings of 1993. Under the influence of a mixture of Mandrax and alcohol, Steve, who was smoking a cigarette, almost immediately fell asleep across the centre section of the 747. Some minutes later he woke up violently. A stewardess was beating out a fire on his jacket lapel - he had set himself alight.

We spent the 14th - 16th of July in a hot and humid New York City, mastering Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley and taking in the night life of the city. Steve made some telephone calls to confirm our arrangements with Little Feat, who were finishing their album Feats Don't Fail Me Now at the Blue Seas recording studio in Hunts Valley, Baltimore. They had agreed to stay on for a further five days and record album tracks with Robert. Before this session we flew to Atlanta, staying at the wonderful Hyatt Hotel - complete with full-grown trees in the foyer and glass 'pod' lifts on the outside of the building. Steve was on the phone at every opportunity, still finalizing plans. With another whirlwind tour of the city behind us we flew north to Washington for a day's sightseeing, before meeting Robert on the 21st in Baltimore to start work.

Robert and I had a quick conversation about sound and approach. "I don't want to tell the guys what to play", he said. "What the song requires should be shown by the way I sing it. The volume and tempo of my voice and the phrasing - that's what determines the music that goes with it. We're going for a certain atmosphere here and if we don't reach it in three takes, then we should leave it and move on to something else. Help me to keep things moving fast."

The Blue Seas studio was on an industrial estate, by the car park at the back of the ITI factory. Originally set up to test their parametric equalization equipment, it featured a 20-channel ITI parametric desk, limited outboard equipment and a 3M l6-track machine. All the band members of Little Feat were there: Lowell George - guitar, Ritchie Hayward - drums, Kenny Gradney - bass, Bill Payne - keyboards, Sam Clayton - percussion, and Paul Barre?re -guitar.

I set everyone up in a small, tight semicircle, only using screens between drums and keyboards. There was an immediate, positive feeling and we spent five days cutting basic tracks, with Robert in the studio doing live vocals and 'helping the vibe', and the band in this half circle in front of him. I used Neumann U67s and Electrovoice RE20s for most instruments, with a Sennheiser on Robert's vocal. I had to concentrate on getting to grips with a new desk and monitors, but nevertheless it was a sheer delight. The band loved Robert and the sound we had created, and I got on well with everyone, especially Ritchie Hayward and Bill Payne. Watching Ritchie play was fascinating, as he always looked as though he might collapse and stop drumming at any moment. Little Feat had just finished a new album and were happy and relaxed, so it was 'eyes down, music and party' - all live - a storming band.

I was in awe of these guys and loved their playing and style. Lowell appeared more distant than the others, but that could have been just my anxiety - I was recording Little Feat! There were no outside distractions and we rehearsed and recorded several songs each day. Besides Robert's collection of song demos, we recorded tracks by Alan Toussaint and Lowell George. This was one of the most enjoyable five days I had ever spent recording.

Steve, Robert and I left on the morning of the 27th of July with six songs mastered and moved back to our base in Washington, DC, for a couple of days' rest. Steve had a friend called George, who was the MD of Head Sportswear Manufacturers and had been promising a trip on his boat for some time. This weekend break seemed an ideal opportunity to take him up on his offer. The boat was a 40-foot ocean-going yacht, and could berth six. It was cramped below deck but had all the necessary requirements for the sort of sailing we had in mind - fridge, cooker, loo and sound system. After loading on board supplies of grass, beer, food and slivovice (plum vodka), we headed out to sea. We sailed for five or six hours and then anchored out of sight of the mainland, about a mile from a bay, made some food and, after a quiet evening chatting, slept.

The next day was really hot from early in the morning and we decided to stay where we were and head back in the evening when it was cool. We got stoned and sunbathed, swam, drank beer and listened to our rough mixes, all feeling really pleased with the results. George was the perfect host - probably in his early forties, with sun- bleached blonde hair, tanned skin, blue eyes and an infectious smile. He was affable and courteous and wanted us to enjoy the sailing experience - even when anchored. He gave the impression of a successful businessman who was laid-back and happy with his life.

While we were having lunch there was no other boat in the vicinity except for a small speed boat circling about 300 yards away. On board were three women who were intermittently taking turns to try to water ski. We waved and cheered every time they hit the water. After we had watched them for a while Robert signaled that he would like to have a go at water skiing too and beckoned them to come closer. They were all in their early twenties and bronzed, wearing bikinis and baseball hats. Two had long brown hair and could have been sisters, the third was short-haired and blonde. We talked for a while, boat to boat, and they asked a million questions - "Are you musicians?", "What are two English guys doing out here?", "Have you got any grass?". Robert asked to have a go and was duly picked up and decked out - this amounted to just a pair of skis.

Robert appeared to be a confident swimmer and unlike me would dive over the edge of the boat at any opportunity. We watched at a hundred yards distance as he tried a few times to ski - with little success, although sometimes he stayed upright for a minute or so. Unfortunately, as he revealed later, he also inflicted several unpleasant rope burns across his back and chest. Within 25 minutes he was tired, in pain and seemed to be in some difficulty. He was waving his arms and calling out, although we could not hear what he was saying, George dived in carrying a life-buoy support ring and one of the women in the speed boat also swam to him. They supported him on either side and he was guided back to our boat. He was lucky - it was a close call and he nearly drowned. Robert was helped back on board and while he got warm and rested and spat out salt water, the woman who helped save him invited herself and her friends to dinner and then swam back to the dinghy to tell the others. Robert was obviously shaken by the experience and mumbled, "Jesus, that was close." Two hours later the women joined us on the yacht for pasta, wine, grass and, of course, James Brown on the hi-fi.

We partied into the evening and then with music blaring headed back to port - in the dark, late at night, everyone suffering from an excess of slivovice, wine and beer. We tied the women's dinghy to the stern of the yacht and secured their oars and outboard motor on our foredeck. We were still out in the open sea and there was no moon so, apart from the shore lights in the distance, we could see nothing but pitch black. Everyone was completely wasted, tripping over ropes and falling about on deck. It was probably very dangerous. I had almost forgotten that we were on a boat and had completely forgotten about George, who was trying to steer us all home.

Suddenly, with absolutely no warning, we lurched forward and stopped. We had run aground on a sandbank. I suddenly realized that this time we were all in danger of drowning, and I sobered up surprisingly quickly. George moved the women to the stern of the boat while Steve, Robert and I took the oars and a long pole from the bows, and tried to push the boat backwards off the sand. This proved to be difficult because the yacht had stuck amidships, at a part of the hull out of reach of our poles. However, by moving everyone aft, we eventually coaxed it off the sand. Fortunately there was no damage to the yacht and we finally reached land. We moored at the dock, and after saying good night to the women, went to our bunks and slept, exhausted.

On the 29th, Robert went off on tour with Little Feat for six days, down the east coast of America, having been asked by Lowell to join them after such a successful time in the studio. Although he did not say much, Robert must have been delighted to be performing with one of his all-time favourite bands and left for the tour with a huge grin on his face. Back at our hotel, while I watched and recorded the Watergate trials from the TV, Steve made phone calls to set up the next phase of recording. This was to be overdubs at the celebrated Muscle Shoals Studio, with its rhythm section of the same name. As this could not happen until the 5th of August and Robert was still away on tour, Steve and I decided to drive there and see some more of the country - picking Robert up in Nashville before driving to Alabama and work at Muscle Shoals.

Muscle Shoals studio was a shack on the edge of the Jackson Highway, number 3614, a few miles out of town. It was permanently set up for the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, (originally called the Royal Spades and then the Mar-Keys). The band consisted of Roger Hawkins - drums, David Hood - bass, Barry Beckett - keyboards and Jimmy Johnson - guitar. The microphones were fixed permanently in place, so I just used whatever mics were plugged in, and adapted. Part of the reason for coming to this studio was to obtain the 'Muscle Shoals sound', so I felt it would be frivolous of me to start changing things, besides which we were only here for two days and needed to work fast.

The first day was spent with the full band. The intention was to record new, alternative versions of songs we had already recorded with Little Feat, and we ran through these, plus the ballad "Give Me An Inch". However, although we kept a master take on three of the songs, we did not improve on our earlier versions and after 14 hours called it a day. This was a typical way of working for Robert and Steve in the mid '70s, in that, although a satisfactory master version of a song had been recorded, they would still try for an alternative. The fact that we failed to improve on our Little Feat version was not a problem and did not dampen events. The next day, the 6th of August, we changed tack and overdubbed keyboards with Barry Beckett and added the Muscle Shoals Horns to "Here With You Tonight". In the evening we tried out some new vocal and harmony ideas and then packed up our tapes and drove to Huntsville Airport. Unfortunately we were well behind schedule, so we missed our flight to Washington and had to spend the night sleeping at the airport on plastic chairs. This was a small-town airport, devoid of bars, convenience foods or any form of distraction or entertainment. However, as usual, we took it in stride and settled down to an uncomfortable night with a bottle of rum, a small amount of grass, and half a gram of cocaine. The next day, after just a few hours sleep, we flew to New York via Atlanta.

On the 10th of August we were all on a plane back to England, with over half an album recorded and a holiday adventure behind us. Having dropped off the tapes at Basing Street, we were suddenly met by reality - I was booked to record an album with the band Hustler, starting in three days time. I had time to absorb this information as I was driven home to Sussex in a taxi, which was just as well, as a further surprise lay in wait. It was late afternoon by the time I arrived home. After a real cup of tea, I unpacked, and caught up on the local news. "By the way", said Sally after a while, "I'm pregnant - due in March."

In the meantime I settled back into the studio and worked on sessions for Joan Armatrading, Stomu Yamash'ta and Dana Gillespie. (to be continued...)

Phill's amazing studio memoir, Are We Still Rolling? , has stories about recording Hendrix, the Stones, Zeppelin, and countless other icons.

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