quote:I'm wondering if the vocals are all one take as well. I suppose he could be using a harmonizer to get some of the vocal harmonies, and perhaps some of the other vocal sounds could be vocal patches on the keyboards.
I listened to it again, and I see (actually, hear) what you mean. Considering the album came out forty years ago (whoosh! what was that? Your life, son! Holy cow, that was quick!) details are sketchy.
The liner notes say the album was recorded live at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, Georgia April 25th, 1974, but I remember an Interview with Todd at the time (Creem magazine, I think) where he said something about doing it live in the studio, in one take. Might have been one of the other songs (or the drugs )
There were no harmonizers in 1974 (that I know of, anyway). Synths could only play one note at a time. The Polymoog and E-mu polyphonic synths were still years off (especially the
legendary Prophet 5), so my guess is Todd used a
Mellotron Mellotrons used tape loops (kinda like an Echoplex, with separate loops for each keyboard key) and could be set up with three voices, usually strings, horns and woodwinds (Strawberry Fields Forever, Nights In White Satin, Stairway To Heaven, etc.), but Rick Wakeman and the Moody Blues also opted for a vocal set, for that Mormon Tabernacle Choir vibe.
I turned up this interesting paragraph in a
Rolling Stone bio of Todd quote:By 1972 Rundgren had taken over production of Badfinger's Straight Up LP from George Harrison (who was involved with his Bangladesh concerts) and had engineered the Band's Stage Fright and Jesse Winchester's self-titled 1971 LP, as well as produced records by the Hello People, bluesman James Cotton, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Half-nelson (who later became Sparks). In 1973 he would produce the New York Dolls' debut LP, Grand Funk Railroad's We're an American Band, and Fanny's Mother's Pride.
Busy boy, huh? It was three years before he produced Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell, a fact that I didn't know until just now, while looking up this stuff. (The things I do for you people.)
Note
this interesting tidbit:
quote:Recording started in late 1975 in Bearsville Studios, Woodstock, New York. Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg, the pianist and drummer from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band played on the album, in addition to members of Rundgren's group Utopia: Kasim Sulton, Roger Powell and John Willie Wilcox. Edgar Winter played the saxophone on All Revved Up. Rundgren himself played guitar, including the motorcycle solo on Bat Out of Hell.
So I wouldn't be shocked if Todd sweetened things a little.
