Steve and I cut this track as a duo, acoustic guitar with acoustic bass. All of the vocals and percussion tracks were overdubbed later, as was my accordian part. This basic track was cut in the big Westlake Studio D room in LA, later made famous for being where the Thriller album was recorded. For some reason, Steve and I were set up in iso rooms where we couldn't see each other, but it really didn't seem to hinder us at all. For years I have played this cheap Giannini guitar from Brazil, which I bought for $175 and used on this song.
On this day, I remember that, of all the mics in the studio, a simple SM57 sounded the best, so we used it. Steve consented to my recording him with a transducer on the head of the bass, a technique I began toying with during the recording of "There Were Signs" and still use. A touch of this signal was then mixed with his pickup and a vintage Neumann 67 tube mic in the final mix to add grit to the edge of his tone. We had a lot of fun working on this project. We drank a lot of espresso and mate. Alex Acuna came in at the very end to overdub cajon, back when the instrument was still primarily used in Peru.
