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Wednesday, December 08, 2004

THE ROLLING TRUCK STONES THING

In response to Chris’ comment on his blog about my Double Album blog wherein I mentioned the Rolling Stones Mobile Unit, I decided to do some research about the classic albums that were made with it (at least in part). What I came up with is an incomplete (I’m quite sure) list of albums and some neat quotes.

Deep Purple – Machine Head, Who Do You Think We Are, Burn
Faces – Long Player
Led Zeppelin – III, IV, Houses Of The Holy
Bob Marley – Live
Fleetwood Mac – Penguin, Mystery To Me
Bad Company – Run With The Pack
Nazareth – Rampant
Zappa – 200 Motels
Blackfoot – Highway Song Live
Stones – Exile, Black And Blue, Some Girls, Tattoo You

“The recording (Deep Purple, ‘Machine Head’) would be made with the Rolling Stones Mobile Unit, which is quite simply a 16-track studio perched on the back of a lorry and painted with camouflage colours, for reasons best known to the Stones.” – Roger Glover

“The whole environment in this place in Holland was not really right and extremely inconvenient. I was parked in the street. They were on the third floor of this building. Every time I wanted to go and adjust a mike, I had to walk up four flights of stairs and down ten corridors. In the end, there was a misunderstanding between Keith and I, which caused an argument from me. I lost my rag, and supposed it was years and years of nonsense that had built up... I said my piece and told the Rolling Stones they could go fuck themselves. That was the end of that... I've never listened to the record (Black And Blue). I'm sure they fucked it up.” – Glyn Johns

“Glyn Johns [you know, the Stones’ engineer] had their mobile recording unit set up in a big Mercedes truck outside – huge cables running out of it and everything. [Johns] had this primitive video system running from the auditorium to the truck, and he would just talk to us from outside through the monitors.” -- Matt Hanks

“Because we rented the Rolling Stones' mobile recording studio, we could relax and take our time and develop the songs in rehearsals. We didn't have to worry about wasting studio time.” –Jimmy Page


If anybody has any more info on this, please comment away….

Comments:
Glyn John's... Just another in a long list of rational individuals who could only last so long hanging with Keith. Can't blame him a bit.

If I were a musician in a popular band and had the clout to call shots like picking the studio location, I would think the mobile truck, or setting up a studio somewhere (ala U2 for Unforgettable Fire) would be what I would go for. Yeah, it might present it's own set of challenges, but it would certainly make for dynamic creative environments. I guess in the mobile unit scenario space in the control room would suck, but I don't see any other real downside.
 
In that Roger Glover article I excerpted he talked about why they went with the 'Rolling Truck Stones Thing' in the first place. During the making of 'Fireball', the album prior to 'Machine Head', Ian Pace was walking around the studio banging his snare, and he found that when he went out of the live room into the corridor the sound of the snare went from a crack to a bang, thusly he set up his kit in the hallway, the live room being too dead for his taste. So they decided to make their next record in a big hall, instead of a studio, enter RSMU1.
 
You forgot about Chrome Locust, who recorded at our old stomping grounds the Continental with the mobile unit way back in 1999!

Ah, Chrome Locust.
 
Yes I want a copy of the CHROME LOCUST gig at Continental. They recorded on The Manor's mixer at S-Lo Ho Studios too. Many deep Purple connections...
 
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