Bottrell, a producer who had worked with Thomas Dolby among others, used to get a bunch of other L.A. songwriters together for semi-drunken brainstorming, songwriting, and jam sessions on Tuesday nights. Others in the group were David Baerwald and David Ricketts, who are known better as David + David (they had a hit with their 1986 song "Welcome to the Boomtown"), Kevin Gilbert, and Brian McLeod (who has played with Wire Train and Tears for Fears).
"Bill [Bottrell] has this huge, old warehouse with old couches and tapestries on the wall, and right in the middle of the room was this board... We'd show up, drink, smoke, party, play and write until the wee hours of the morning. It had the vibe of a good night at the bar mixed with a group therapy session where we would challenge each other to go a step further, deeper, better. Our object was to finish a song before we went home. It was a very special way to work. The first night I was there, we wrote 'Leaving Las Vegas.'"
No one was allowed to bring songs or scraps of songs to the evenings. Nobody owned the material. They co-wrote
everything. A few of the songs were written on election night 1992, as Bill Clinton was elected to office, with the TV plugged into the mixing board. Some songs made it onto the album from their early recordings at the Tuesday Night Music Club. The atmosphere made it easy to try songs, and sounds, out.
"I realized about halfway through making this that we'd made a country-flavored record. I had brought in the records that influenced me the most- "Let It Bleed," Derek and the Dominoes, Dylan's Nashville records- and the one thing that runs through all of them is that they're very country influenced. When we figured that out, we celebrated: we rented "Coal Miner's Daughter," and I made all this fried chicken... country has always had a profound impact on rock."
Tuesday nights & fried chicken
C
crow
(view)
Bottrell, a producer who had worked with Thomas Dolby among others, used to get a bunch of other L.A. songwriters together for semi-drunken brainstorming, songwriting, and jam sessions on Tuesday nights. Others in the group were David Baerwald and David Ricketts, who are known better as David + David (they had a hit with their 1986 song "Welcome to the Boomtown"), Kevin Gilbert, and Brian McLeod (who has played with Wire Train and Tears for Fears).
"Bill [Bottrell] has this huge, old warehouse with old couches and tapestries on the wall, and right in the middle of the room was this board... We'd show up, drink, smoke, party, play and write until the wee hours of the morning. It had the vibe of a good night at the bar mixed with a group therapy session where we would challenge each other to go a step further, deeper, better. Our object was to finish a song before we went home. It was a very special way to work. The first night I was there, we wrote 'Leaving Las Vegas.'"
No one was allowed to bring songs or scraps of songs to the evenings. Nobody owned the material. They co-wrote
everything. A few of the songs were written on election night 1992, as Bill Clinton was elected to office, with the TV plugged into the mixing board. Some songs made it onto the album from their early recordings at the Tuesday Night Music Club. The atmosphere made it easy to try songs, and sounds, out.
"I realized about halfway through making this that we'd made a country-flavored record. I had brought in the records that influenced me the most- "Let It Bleed," Derek and the Dominoes, Dylan's Nashville records- and the one thing that runs through all of them is that they're very country influenced. When we figured that out, we celebrated: we rented "Coal Miner's Daughter," and I made all this fried chicken... country has always had a profound impact on rock."
"Bill [Bottrell] has this huge, old warehouse with old couches and tapestries on the wall, and right in the middle of the room was this board... We'd show up, drink, smoke, party, play and write until the wee hours of the morning. It had the vibe of a good night at the bar mixed with a group therapy session where we would challenge each other to go a step further, deeper, better. Our object was to finish a song before we went home. It was a very special way to work. The first night I was there, we wrote 'Leaving Las Vegas.'"
No one was allowed to bring songs or scraps of songs to the evenings. Nobody owned the material. They co-wrote
everything. A few of the songs were written on election night 1992, as Bill Clinton was elected to office, with the TV plugged into the mixing board. Some songs made it onto the album from their early recordings at the Tuesday Night Music Club. The atmosphere made it easy to try songs, and sounds, out.
"I realized about halfway through making this that we'd made a country-flavored record. I had brought in the records that influenced me the most- "Let It Bleed," Derek and the Dominoes, Dylan's Nashville records- and the one thing that runs through all of them is that they're very country influenced. When we figured that out, we celebrated: we rented "Coal Miner's Daughter," and I made all this fried chicken... country has always had a profound impact on rock."
