A couple of months ago, I was reading the book ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’ by Warren Zanes about the writing and recording of Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 album ‘Nebraska’.
Famously, the stark album—which sits in Springsteen’s catalogue between mainstream breakthrough ‘The River’ and the blockbuster 1984 album ‘Born In The USA’—was recorded on a consumer grade Tascam PortaStudio 244 four-track with a pair of Shure SM57 microphones.
The book, which will is being turned into a feature film later this year, focuses on how part of the magic of the record was that Springsteen didn’t even know he was recording an album, and so approached it without the usual painstaking and obsessional attention to detail of his previous albums.
Zanes also makes an argument that the ‘Nebraska’ album kicked off the home recording revolution. Certainly in the decade that followed, cassette recorded albums turned the likes of Elliott Smith, PJ Harvey, The Mountain Goats, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Beck into legends of independent music. And more recently, digital recording technology has made it even easier for musicians to record.
One aspect that interested me about the descriptions of Springsteen’s solitary recording sessions is that he was taping using two microphones - one to record the guitar and one to capture his voice. The Boss was actually using two dynamic microphones, which is probably a little unconventional for his objectives, but the results speak for themselves. The jittery, bare-bones sound is far from the maximalist blast of his earlier E Street Band backed albums.
Recording with two mics can be a great way of capturing a performance, but it can also be tricky when it comes to mixing. If you can embrace the audio bleed, and make that part of the sound, then this can be an exciting way to record music.
Recently, I celebrated my birthday and was lucky enough to receive a Shure SM58 as a present. The SM58 is the equally legendary and more vocal sibling to the SM57 that Springsteen used on ‘Nebraska’. I decided to try some recording using this mic and a Rode NT1, which is a large-diaphragm condenser microphone. I put the Rode on my nylon-string guitar and aimed the SM58 at my face.
I had previously recorded half a dozen versions of this song, ‘Rainy Day Baby Face’ but hadn’t quite managed to capture the sound I was after. This new version, recorded with the vocals and main guitar together, is the closest I’ve got, so far. There’s a looseness to the take I used, but I think the dynamics between the vocals and the guitar work quite well. And the Shure SM58 certainly did not disappoint. Of course, I’ve used this mic many times in the past, mostly in a live context, but it’s got a great level of detail when used for recording.
Anyway, this is a song I wrote last year and recorded this week. I hope you enjoy it.
Lyrics:
On a rainy day
saw baby’s face again.
Or was it the first time?
Maybe the last time
until…
And now a sunny day
heard baby’s heart again.
It’s beating quickly
but they say that’s normal.
She looks like you.
She looks like me.
She looks like one of us
we can’t agree.
Another rainy day
felt baby kick again.
She’s getting stronger,
more powerful every day.
She looks like you.
She looks like me.
She looks like one of us
we can’t agree.
She’s just like you.
She’s just like me.
She’s just like one of us
we can’t agree.
—-
Until next week…
JCV
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