In the end, they brought in drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie to accompany Wachtel on guitar and Zevon on vocals and piano (he plays the distinctive barrelhouse hook). Zevon rejected regular rhythm section men Russ Kunkel and Bob Glaub because he thought their playing was “too cute” for this particular song. They tried numerous configurations of backing musicians. Wachtel, who had played on albums by The Rolling Stones, Randy Newman and Linda Ronstadt, described it as “the hardest song to get down in the studio I’ve ever worked on”. Recording Werewolves Of London was a difficult process.
“Otherwise, that song never would have gone anywhere,” Marinell added. Crystal grabbed a steno pad from her bag and transcribed their words. “You think it’s so great, why don’t you write it down?” Marinell remembered saying. When they were finished, Zevon’s wife, Crystal, told them she loved it. Inspired by Wachtel’s opening, Zevon and Marinell spent the next 15 minutes rattling off lyrics for the rest of the song, using the way Wachtel mimicked a wailing wolf as the key part of the howling chorus. Lee Ho Fook, a restaurant in London’s Gerrard Street, closed in 2008, four years after Werewolves Of London won a BBC vote for the Greatest Opening Song Line. The opening verse that came off the top of Wachtel’s head was memorable: “I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand/Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain/He was looking for a place called Lee Ho Fook/Gonna get a big dish of chow mein.”
I just spit out that whole first verse,” Wachtel recalled. I had just gotten back from England, so I had all these lyrics in my head. Zevon asked Marinell to start playing a lick he had been strumming earlier.
0 kommentar(er)
