Making a Monster Part 7: The Beverage Guy Speaks...Don't Change a Thing

Continued from a previous post...

Slow it down? What a crappy idea... slowing it down will kill it I thought. A song like this is supposed to move along at a good clip. It is garagy and fun the way it is. If anything, this was a classic example of over playing and over analyzing. Sometimes the more times you play something, the less objective you are about what you are hearing.

This happens a lot with The Reverse Engineers as well. From time to time during the recording of Max Q, we had to take a step back. After about 4 hours of hearing the same song, you start to get burned out, and nothing sounds good. When this happens, I always try to move onto something else. Usually, everything is a lot clearer when you come back to it a day or 2 later.

As you can imagine, since *69 was my favorite new song off of Monster, I was having trouble containing myself. Up until this point, I was very careful not to stick out... not to get in the way. However, at this surreal moment, where Michael Stipe and his producer were discussing a song that was none of my business, my love of music as an REM listener overcame my desire to keep quiet.

"I think it sounds great just the way it is.", I said.

There was silence in the room. The moment seemed to last for quite a while... much longer than it really was. The quiet was deafening, with just the trickle of the coffee machine in the background.

Then my mouth opened again, "I have been listening to it all day, and this is my favorite song on the album. I wouldn't change a thing if I were you."

Scott Litt looked at me... his face barely able to contain his disgust. He was probably thinking "Who the hell is this guy... what makes this gopher think he knows anything about music...". At least that is what I imagined he must be thinking. Michael Stipe just smiled and looked down at the floor for a second.

Then they started talking again about approaches to take. They made their way back into the studio, and picked up where they left off. This time, REM played just one more take, and that was it. They moved onto another song shortly afterward. Their last take of *69 sounded just like the last 20 or so... fast and rocking. The band didn't change a thing. When I listen to the song now, it sounds almost identical to the way it did when I heard it live during the recording sessions. Perhaps in some way, I had left my mark on music history. Maybe if I hadn't spoken up, well meaning producers might have destroyed a cool piece of music with some random misguided experimentation, hoping to find the magic switch.

I stayed in the hall for the rest of the evening. I was pretty sure that I would get fired or something. I was told that I shouldn't get in the way, and telling the producer what to do definitely wasn't in my job description. Perhaps my outstanding gopher skills saved my ass. I was getting pretty good at my job. Peter Buck always had YooHoo in glass bottles, and my supply of Coke (in little small glass bottles of course) had been consistent. Lunch arrived hot, and the beer was cold. Perhaps I would get to stick around.

That's all for now. Check back soon for the next installment of "Making a Monster" called "REM's Sergeant Pepper...". I will try to post more often in the coming days. We have been really busy, and I have been doing some traveling, so thanks for your patience with my slack blog habits.

Oh, and when you get a chance, stop by and listen to some sound clips for our new CD, Max Q at http://www.theReverseEngineers.com. If you want to hear what we sound like, here is a clip: Sunshine with the Shade wma | mp3

Charles Cote
Bassist -- The Reverse Engineers