"THIS IS BAT MAN. THIS IS BAT MAN ONE."
I AM A 9-SONG DIGIPAK CD.
I INCLUDE "STEVE PEPPER", "CREAM", "ALL MY HEART AND ALL MY LIFE", AND LOTS MORE.
I AM AVAILABLE FOR $10 (POSTPAID!) AT GRASSHOPPER RECORDS (link on left).
"BLUEBERRY PANCAKES" WAS ALMOST ON ME.
if you add BAT MAN as a friend, but not BILL, the request will be ignored, as it will be assumed that software made the request.
songs on BAT MAN:
CREAM
THE SPIDER
BIG FOOT
CHINESE
STEVE PEPPER
ALL MY HEART AND ALL MY LIFE
BAD CLOTHES
THE DEVIL
CRIME
the recording of BAT MAN
how to record with Bill Gage has always been an interesting challenge.
the first album was recorded in an empty house, Bill first supplying song titles, then singing each song while the instrumentalists figured out what to play, and finally a few takes recorded 'live'.
for BILL's next sessions, we tried the opposite approach: record backing tracks for Bill to sing over.
terry reid of Set cassettes requested a BILL song for 'produce', an anthology of songs about fruits and vegetables, and after talking with Bill about it we decided to record a song called "BLUEBERRY PANCAKES". daren, paul and i threw together a chaotic-industrial-cartoon-nightmare backing track (for forgotten reasons this seemed the obvious thing to do). i also brought out "ALL MY HEART" (as it was then known), which i previously had played for paul (who immediately made up the beautiful guitar part).
i brought the songs to Bill mixed down on a 4-track, and he sang 2 takes of each song (tho i somehow missed a take where he announced "I AM A PANCAKE MAN!"), and BLUEBERRY PANCAKES was eventually given a final mix with vocals (with a lot of mixing help from Daren). the mix of HEART wasn't good enough to use, but Bill's vocals, and the overall method of working with him, seemed successful.
so a new set of recordings was planned. a busy paul opted out (but lent us the equipment to record with), and another friend (and BILL fan) jessica kirton was invited for the sessions.
the idea was to give Bill a variety of styles to sing over.
CREAM: we started with a 'pop dance' number using a chord progression from eric. daren played half the drum samples live-to-tape (bang, bang! with his fingers), and jessica came up with a gary numan-style keyboard part.
THE SPIDER: daren showed us some drum riffs he had been experimenting with, and using one he and eric put most of what would become THE SPIDER together.
BIG FOOT: we picked another daren riff (with an effect) and named it 'public enemy' as it reminded us of the band. eric put a wire-style choppy guitar on, and we all figured out the bass 'woom-woom' together.
CHINESE: for the next song i wanted to try an opposite approach, which meant no drums. we thought we'd try an ambient landscape, so we built a track around the sounds of rain, and daren on toy piano.
STEVE PEPPER: finally, we really wanted to give Bill some metal, and after getting a beat with enough 'thud' to it, i recorded a progression lifted from black sabbath's 'sweet leaf'.
at the end of two days, we had these working titles:
1. POP DANCE
2. JAZZ, a.k.a. THE JAZZY ONE
3. PUBLIC ENEMY
4. AMBIENT
5. METAL
guests were recorded next, including john maceachern of space humpin' 1999 on 'ultimate metal solo', and kids who lived downstairs singing a cambodian song about a child that has been bad.
finally we got Bill to paul's studio in boston-- really his living room, which we crowded into to watch Bill do his thing. we had been discussing cream's reunion for the rock 'n' roll hall of fame, and Bill picked up on that, naming the first song "CREAM" (altho the main themes were his aching heart and his aching shoes, and ended with an extended outro that began "A MAN, A WIG, A SUIT, AND MAKEUP, AND JESUS'S HEART IS CREEPING ALONG"). Bill was happy to be recording again.
we had figured Bill could sing multiple takes, and we would stitch together the best parts, but on "THE SPIDER" and several other BAT MAN songs Bill delivered first takes that pretty much defined the song.
BIG FOOT was another first take, and a scary one. "I AM A DEAD MAN!" "I AM DEAD MEAT! DEAD MEEAT!!" at the close Bill imitated a rooster (echoing a lead guitar that was later erased), declared "GOOD-BYE CREEPY TIME" and thanked everyone, including some folks that weren't there such as Nikki the cat.
the 'ambient' song barely had any lyric beyond the whisper "CHINESE". we had used the idea of a 'japanese garden' when we recorded the original track, so we were all roughly in the same neighborhood.
finally we were ready for the metal song. maybe Bill was a bit tired by this point (he is a trooper and always wants to do more), but on this, the one song we knew Bill could excell at, it just wouldn't come together. Bill sang something gentle, and when I suggested he 'go crazy' on a take he sang "GO CRAZY!" thru most of it.
later on, when preparing to mix the whole record, Bill re-sang (and re-named) "ALL MY HEART AND ALL MY LIFE", and having noticed his aversion to headphones (and love of singing with a BAND instead of a recording), I gave him a mic to hold while he faced the speakers… and bam, STEVE PEPPER was done.
in the mixing sessions i finally added something to THE SPIDER: a windbreaker (one of those big whirly plastic flutes), playing it as a didgeridoo, and i also replaced the crummy lead guitar on BIG FOOT with an electric bass played with a violin bow. later, when mastering the record, some analog synth was added to both CREAM and STEVE PEPPER.
--john (Bill's brother)
after Bill sang each song that first vocal session, eric asked him 'what is the name of that song?', and when the day was done: 'what is the name of the whole record?'.
eric was very careful:
eric: "bigfoot", is that one word or two?
Bill: TWO.
eric: and "batman", is that one word or two?
Bill looked at eric as tho he just couldn't believe he had to say it: TWO!
i asked Bill who steve pepper was and he suggested he might be a spy. a few years later i asked him again and he admitted that STEVE PEPPER was, in fact, himself.
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