Jimmy's Notes on "Beach House" 

January 21st, Key West
11:00 AM Nothing like a good night's sleep and a morning on the old flats of Key West. Sun and I went out. I poled around for awhile and we saw a few fish, but never even got a cast off, but who cares. It was just good to be out there. Came right from fishing to the studio and did my vocals for Beach House. That damn hydra-therapy must have worked because I nailed it in 15 minutes.

12:15 AM Tracked "Lucky Star", a song written by Roger (Guth) and Pete (Mayer) that I just thought fit this record. I put an old Fred Neil/Jerry Jeff Walker approach to the vocal and we arranged it like an old folk record. Steve Huntington gave me a 2 CD collection of Freddy's stuff and I listened to it the whole time I was in Aspen before Christmas. I think that is what attracted me to this song, but I loved the idea of doing an old folk arrangement. We finished the track, did the vocal and I over-dubbed the 12-string and then we went to lunch.

1:00 PM We're waiting for our sandwiches so we used the time to work up the arrangement for "Oysters and Pearls". Boy am I ready for that song.

3:30 PM We lunched out on the porch and watched the parade of yachts coming back from the races and checked out the big tarpon cruising the harbour in the corner. Never a dull moment at Shrimpboat Sound. We are about to start "Oysters and Pearls." This song has been speaking to me for a long time. There is no way it's not going to be freaking great, not with my band and the way we are playing now.

4:30 PM I was right. It is great! Sang the vocal live and got it in two takes. Might even get three songs in today or we might go to the bar.

January 22nd - Doing the not-so-glamorous work of assembling the list of songs and checking lyrics. Nina is coming in today and she and (Mike) Ramos will go to work on the credits. All the paperwork and and photography takes more time than the actual recording of a record. As for the album photo, I just hate doing them these days. I come from the era of bigger-than-life double gate-fold album jackets, back when they actually used to give out Grammy's for liner notes & artwork. I have a brand new digital camera, so when we were on break in Muscle Shoals the other day I climbed into a plastic playhouse that belonged to Mac's kids, did some on the spot artwork and graffiti and let the digital technology do the rest. Cameron is coming today and I thought we'd go to the local marine junk store and pick out an old telescope as a prop and do a shoot at sunset with the new moon and Venus as a backdrop. This is what you think about after all the words are written.

January 23rd
8:00 AM Survived the night with my voice intact. Going over the lyrics to the last song. Jim (Mayer) gave me this song early in the selection process and I have "'Buffettized" it. We needed a rocker to close and I think we have it in this song.

1:00 PM It took two takes to track "I Don't Know and I Don't Care." The song felt so good and the band played so good that it just fell into place. Utley put some organ on and Pete did a great guitar groove. That's about it for me. Now the not-so-fun stuff begins. Checking lyrics, doing credits and taking the damn cover shot. It sure beats working for a living. I think we have a good record going. Only sad news of the day is that Mose is not going to be able to do the piano over-dubs. However, we do have The Tams flying into New York to do "Flesh and Bone." That's going to be a hoot. I think "Beach House on the Moon" has survived as the title, although "Duck and Cover" came sneaking up on it towards the end. I have to come back next week for a final listen to my vocals. By then most of the backgrounds will be done and the horns will have arrived. Now I'm gonna take this record to the beach and give it a listen and see how it feels. That's it from recording camp. I'll soon be off to Movieland to do the revisions on the "Joe Merchant" script. A cowboy's work is never done.

January 24th
2:00 PM Back in town to hear the vocals and do a few over-dubs. After that we'll give it the bar test and the boat test and see how she sails. Horns are in and getting ready to go.

4:00 PM It still sounds great. The Tams are set to do the vocals on "Flesh and Bone" and we will record them while we are in New York next month. I invited some of the bigwigs down from Island Records to give "Beach House" a listen. They loved the record, but seem a little confused since it is the last one I'll be doing for them. Being a "free agent" with a hot record is just fine with me. Now the photo shoot awaits. Since we can't go to the moon, we'll have to come up with a place on Earth that looks like the moon.


Tentative Track List For "Beach House on the Moon"

1. I Will Play For Gumbo
2. Oysters & Pearls
3. Spending Money
4. Pacing the Cage
5. Waitin' For The Next Explosion
6. Joggin'
7. Flesh & Bone
8. Beach House on the Moon
9. Don't Drink & Dial
10. Math Suks
11. Plutonium & Beer
12. Permanent Reminder of a Temporary Feeling
13. Lucky Star
14. I Don't Know and I Don't Care