View Single Post
  #7  
Old 10-25-2014, 12:04 PM
BklynBlue BklynBlue is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 297
Default

I seem to have come to the exact opposite conclusion of LesPaul 7 and GJK –

First off, you have to ask where Celmins got his information from. As there don’t appear to be any studio logs for the sessions, I am working from the assumption that it was based on the press release that Green was in the studio recording material for his first solo album (after leaving the band) and that he was going to be playing all of the instruments on the tracks.
Hjort writes of sessions taking place over a period of ten days, from May fifth through the fifteenth.

I can easily believe that Davis either decided to simply take advantage of the already paid for studio time to cut a few numbers himself (as he did during the “Then Play On” sessions or realizing that no new material from Green was going to coming from these sessions he wanted to show the label that at least something was accomplished.
So, again it must be asked: was Hjort simply repeating the information found in sessionography in Celmins’ book?

Listening to the tracks, I think the claim is actually half right: Green does play all the instruments on ‘Homework’ but not on ‘Come on Down and Follow Me’

I believe that ‘Homework’ may have been one of the few tracks that Green actually completed for the proposed solo album, or even possibly as the B-side for the already announced single release of ‘Sandy Mary’, but not satisfied with the results of the session(s) decided to let Davis place his own vocals over his instrumental tracks.

While there should be no doubts concerning the guitar work, (it is some of the most incendiary that Green put to tape in the studio) the poor timekeeping by the rhythm “section” on the track, with the beat rushed during the opening and then reduced to a “right, left” march-in-place stomp during the verses would seem to indicate a backing track built in layers, with a single player duplicating the beat of a guide track rather than listening to and interacting with to another musician in the moment.
Comparison with the studio version from the Chess sessions, and any of the live versions is again telling, the piano work here is extremely rudimentary – Spencer’s playing on all of the available recordings is far superior.

Come on Down and Follow Me’ is far more problematic. If one was not “told” that Green was playing on this track, let alone that he was playing all of the instruments, there is nothing that would make one jump to that conclusion.
The playing does not sound like anything (thankfully) that Green had before or after ever played, live or in the studio, on his own or as a guest on someone else’s session.
The only contribution that I could hear Green having made to the number is on bass. That is the only instrument with any punch. There is no way I can believe that the limp, watery tone of the lead guitar is Green.
We know that Clifford Bennett sings backing vocals on the track; could he not have brought in members of his band to record at the same time?

As this is all subjective, I am looking forward to other’s opinions
__________________
www.smilingcorgipress.com

All the rusted signs we ignore throughout our lives, choosing the shiny ones instead
E. Vedder
Reply With Quote