Gear Club Podcast

In this Record of the Week, John and Stewart dig into "Peaches en Regalia" by Frank Zappa, the opening track from his 1969 masterpiece Hot Rats. They break down the recording techniques Zappa used across the album and how those techniques shaped one of the most celebrated instrumentals in rock history. Along the way, John shares his own story of accidentally reinventing the same trick decades later, and why Hot Rats still sounds like nothing else ever made.

Here's Record of the Week, where we listen to records that inspire us and made us wonder, how did they do that? This week: Fat Old Sun by Pink Floyd. John & Stewart hone in on production techniques used to create the piece, and dissect the wacky, experimental nature of this song in Atom Heart Mother in comparison to later Pink Floyd albums.

Here's Record of the Week, where we listen to records that inspire us and made us wonder, how did they do that? This week: Fat Old Sun by Pink Floyd. John & Stewart hone in on production techniques used to create the piece, and dissect the wacky, experimental nature of this song in Atom Heart Mother in comparison to later Pink Floyd albums.

In this episode we talk with author, producer, engineer and musician Tom Beaujour. Tom's career started as a writer for Guitar World Magazine, going on to found Revolver magazine and Guitar Aficionado, and most recently co-writing The books Lollapalooza and Nothin' But a good time, Oral histories of two pivotal moments in rock music. In tandem with his writing Tom has been recording and producing albums for the likes of Nada Surf, Juliana Hatfield Three, and Doug Gillard. We chat with Tom about writing his latest book, striking a balance between journalism and record making, and hear some great stories about the insanity of the Lollapalooza festivals.

This week on Record of the Week, we dig into one of the most overlooked and mysterious songs connected to The Band: "Out of the Blue," tucked away on The Last Waltz Suite. Robbie Robertson's lead vocal, the unusual arrangement, and the lack of clear information about who actually played on the track all make this song a real puzzle.
John Agnello and Stewart Lerman sit down with David Mansfield - violinist and multi-instrumentalist for Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue - to dig into the mystery. We discuss Robbie Robertson's voice and his role in The Band's harmonies, the Garth Hudson keyboard signatures buried in the track, why the rhythm section doesn't sound like Levon Helm or Rick Danko, and what the song tells us about the final days of one of rock's greatest groups.
We also get into The Last Waltz recording sessions, John Simon's revelation that nearly every note in the film was replaced in post-production, the relationship between The Last Waltz and Bob Dylan's Renaldo and Clara, and the Rolling Thunder Revue's place in Dylan and The Band's shared history.
0:00 Intro: Record of the Week
0:12 Discovering "Out of the Blue" on The Last Waltz Soundtrack
1:26 The Mystery of Robbie Robertson's Solo Vocal
2:22 Who Is Actually Playing on This Track?
3:30 Why Are No Other Band Members Singing?
4:06 The No-Show Sessions at Shangri-La
4:49 Analyzing the Rhythm Section: Levon Helm and Rick Danko
6:43 Robbie Robertson or Richard Manuel? The Vocal Question
7:34 Rolling Thunder, Before the Flood, and the Band's Final Days
8:11 Bob Dylan's Contentious Rights Battle Over The Last Waltz
10:01 The Tension Between Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm
11:11 Identifying Garth Hudson's Musical Influence on the Track
13:03 The Post-Production Secret: Every Note Replaced in The Last Waltz
14:12 Outro: Final Thoughts