Little Miss Sad Eyes...again

The following evening, we were all back in the studio at 8:00PM, and after a short discussion and a few lines and joints, Peter set up the recording mics on the gear and got the mixing console ready to begin recording. I knew that a number of "takes" would be required before we'd get the tracks we wanted, and I wanted to begin recording from the very first attempt, because sometimes...the first one is the charm. That wasn't the case on this night, however, because I just wasn't happy with what I was hearing from Doc. We did numerous takes...and would often stop playing to go into the control room and listen to the playback to determine what needed to be different. In the end, I had to accept that what I had gotten so used to hearing from Charles on that song was never going to happen without him, and once I was able to adjust my thinking accordingly, and became aware of what Doc's limitations were, and when he was playing at his optimum, the session seemed to move more smoothly. In the end we probably played and recorded seven or eight versions of Sad Eyes, and I recognized that we had a final take on more than one of those versions. We went back into the control room to listen, and after narrowing down my choices to two different takes, I spent the better part of an hour deciding which one best represented the song on tape. After I had made the decision, Peter got a new reel of 2 inch tape onto the recorder, and after we took a short break and got high again, the three of us went back to work, rehearsing the next song. I had selected an old Deep Purple song, "Hush" because again the guys knew that song, even though the arrangement was quite different from the original. This had been the only cover song Avalanche had ever done live, and I believed having a cover song on the album would improve its marketability with some listeners...besides, I had always liked the song. One of the problems I had anticipated happening all along, appeared during the rehearsal of that song. I was the only person who knew what the final version would sound like...and since this version was different from the original, Gene was at first, very resistant to some of the parts I insisted he play. He had his own ideas about what was happening in the studio three-piece and live, and I had to remind him that this was not a three piece band, there would be other guitar and vocal parts added later that would change everything he was hearing while we practiced the song, and laid down the foundation tracks, and that he would have to trust that I knew what I was doing. After a little grumbling he came around, and slowly the song started to take shape...although it would take another two days in the studio before I thought the band was ready to try recording it. I delayed all the overdubbing on Sad Eyes for a future session, and would do that on all the remaining songs to maximize the usefulness of the players and the studio time, since I was paying for both. And slowly but surely the project began to take shape...and gain momentum.