Week 8 - Tuesday 4/30/1991

Recording "Special"

Author's note: we didn't have a name for the band at this point. Our current name was "Monkey Rhythm", which nobody cared for anymore. Among the names considered: "What's the New Mary Jane" and "Holy Ghost People". This version of "Special" never made it to the finished album. A complete remake was initiated on 5/14/1991.

Early in the morning, Berg lobbied for a new band name. Most of us liked "Holy Ghost People", though Urbano and I weren't too keen on it.

We worked on drum, bass and guitar sounds from 10:30 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. The lineup consisted of Urbano, myself, Winegar playing a Strat into a vintage Vox AC-15, and Gates providing a guide vocal and acoustic guitar. The 'best' take was completed at 6:15.

We had lunch with our business manager and signed a partnership form, calling our business entity "Uncle Lou's Traveling Circus of Pain". Now a legal contract binds us together.

Winegar tried different electric guitars for the rhythm part. The guitar strings on his Strat, being over one month old, were too horribly out of tune to be useful. The hollow body Rickenbacker sounded great, but it wouldn't stay in tune. My Les Paul Custom sounded too muddy. By the time Winegar was experimenting with a Telecaster, I lost interest and wandered out of the room. Wallace halted proceedings so that Winegar could put new strings on his Strat.

We were too tired by 7:30 P.M. to continue working. For kicks, Puig fed the studio's multiple phone lines into a DAT machine and recorded a private conversation or two. Winegar was eager for Puig to eavesdrop on a conversation with two of his friends, so we listened on the studio monitors as he spoke with them on the phone.