On the Couch - #131 - MEX in conversation with Greg Cutler

Greg has kindly given me this, in the room, story of that famous recording - Yes, Greg did ALL the work ;-)  The story begins sometime in late 1978 early 1979.  Patric Van Blerk, who was on a sabbatical from the music industry at the time, had shown a great interest in the newly formed trio of Joy. He was at the time planning his re-entry into the music business after the demise of the Satbel record company and troubles at the newly formed Jo’burg records.  He had re-established his connection with his old song writing partner Fransua Roos after years of being estranged from him and had written a new batch of songs. He was looking for a new breed of artists to form the core of his then emerging label Café Society, named after the very successful café Casablanca on Rocky Street.  Two of the new batch of songs were “Paradise Road” and “Ain’t Gonna Stop ‘Til I Get to the Top”.  Linda Bernhardt and myself were invited to Patric’s house in Orange Grove on several occasions to discuss the potential of his involvement with Joy and Spirits Rejoice. Fransua Roos was present at one of these meetings and played for us, on the piano, an unfinished version of Paradise Road and Ain’t Gonna Stop. We were both blown away by the songs and from there on forward we knew they were going to be very powerful and perfect for Joy.  It was decided that the recordings would be done as a collaboration with Fransua Roos arranging the tracks in conjunction with Spirits Rejoice. Spirits Rejoice were using a spare room at Satbel Studios for their band rehearsals.  We arranged for Fransua to join them along with Joy in the rehearsal room to start the rehearsals in preparation for the recordings. This was a magic rehearsal session. Fransua played the songs a couple of times to introduce the band and the girls to the song, Patric had more or less completed the lyrics and after about a couple of hours the arrangements had come together, the girls had worked out their parts and it was sounding amazing.  Felicia had mastered the tone and delivery that Fransua wanted for the verses, Anneline had delivered the power going into the choruses and Thoko had the warm low harmonies that were so much the sound of Joy.  The phenomenal bass line was a natural for Sipho Gumede and the subtlety of the drums/percussion was a result of the amazing techniques of Gilbert Mathews on the drums.  Everyone was so high after these rehearsals, we knew this was going to be a big hit and couldn’t wait to get into studio to record. Unfortunately there were some complications that would hold up the recording. Patric was still in the process of concluding his label deal with Matt Mann of RPM records and there were questions about where we would be able to record our tracks. We were holding out for the recording to be done at Satbel Studios as they had the most advanced 24 track recording studio in South Africa at the time. The issues were resolved in the fullness of time and we started to record at Satbel studios.  The rhythm section we used for the backing tracks with consisted of Gilbert Mathews on drums, Sipho Gumede on bass, Paul Peterson on guitar, Fransua Roos on grand piano and Mervyn Africa on Fender Rhodes.  The backing track was laid within one or two takes along with two or three other backing tracks. We then proceeded to add the vocals. We were very fussy with the vocals and probably spent more than a day doing this, in fact I think we came back to some parts two or three times as the orchestration developed.  Fransua then went away to write the parts for the string section. The string section took a long time to record as Fransua had not held back on the complexity of the arrangement and the string players found some of the parts tricky to deliver, especially the cello parts on the intro’s and turnarounds.  Once we had completed the string section overdubs we all started to have visions of this being the perfect kitchen sink production. Fransua then went away again and scored parts for French Horns and Harp, he had also had some thoughts about the choir arrangements that were delivered by Joy themselves.  All in all it was sounding big, the voices and orchestration were perfect. The feel of the song was inspiring and the last piece of the puzzle was the solo. With such a huge arrangement it was going to need something very special.  We tried lots of different solos – a burning alto sax, wall of sound guitar and several tenor sax solos – none of them worked for us. We almost settled for a solo than none of us were convinced was the best we could get. I then had an idea, I spoke with Duke Makasi – who had already had one attempt at the solo that didn’t quite work. I asked if he could deliver a solo without being given any ideas of where to take it, just play it and be himself. He said he would but he would like just me and him alone in the studio. We did it one lunchtime during a break I was having recording Harari.  I put the track on, Duke played it once – job done. After all the agonising Duke had delivered exactly what the track needed. I hadn’t told Patric or Fransua what I was doing. The next time we came into the studio to work on the track I played it with the new solo, I wish I had a camera to record the smiles on their faces when they heard it, the final piece of the jigsaw had fallen into place.  The remix went so well, the track almost mixed itself. It was simply a case of letting the dynamics take control. Fransua’s arrangements had been well thought out which made the remix a lot easier.  You can hear the subtlety of the backing track, you can feel the growl of the cello’s and the soaring violin arrangements that interlink the verses. The French Horns that interplay with the power of Anneline’s vocal on the choruses when she sings “the sky is blazing” and the harp that leads out of the solo into the key change. The way that Felicia’s delicate voice makes Anneline sound twice as powerful on the choruses. After living with this recording for over 40 years now, I don’t think there is anything I would change. It really was a statement of its time and I feel proud to have been involved.  Patric will be the one who can complete the story after the album was finished.  This is the song - Do listen  Paradise Road