![]() ![]() Tom finally asked and they were excited to be a part of the shoot. But it was January, and we were all hesitant to ask the bikers if we could take their bikes out into a foot of snow. One morning, Tom was in the mood to take some photos and he kept eyeing those beautiful bikes. ![]() They had a huge house they shared with a motorcycle gang, and we were welcome there. In those days, we had no money for hotels, so we were staying with a band we met in Cleveland once. We were on the road, playing a small club in western Massachusetts. I also recall the cover shoot for “Rides Again.” Again, no cover budget, but our road manager, Tom Wright, was a fine photographer. We had finished a track for the album that was screaming for a steel guitar part (“There I Go Again”), and we went right onto the stage to convince Rusty Young to come by the studio and play it for us! I also fondly recall cutting the track “Ashes, The Rain And I.” No drums, yet still a favorite of mine!! I contributed by lying face down on the floor between Joe and Dale. I remember recording the basic track for “The Bomber.” I also recall taking a few hours off one night to go out to a club on the Sunset Strip to hear our old guitarist, Glen Schwartz, and his band, Pacific Gas And Electric. It was a terrific atmosphere in which to create, and we did manage to get down a number of basic tracks before we had to hit the road again. The Record Plant was brand new – I don’t think anyone had used it yet, and man, was it state-of-the-art! It was the coolest studio we had ever seen, right down to the hot tub! However, deadlines loomed, and when we went to Los Angeles to begin the new album at The Record Plant, we had only “Funk #49” ready to go. By the time we began preparing for this one, we had some modest success with “Yer’ Album,” and I believe we felt some pressure to make this one GREAT! We had been touring fairly relentlessly and had not taken the necessary time to prepare an album’s worth of new material. Recording “Rides Again” was a completely different feeling from the first album. Pretty exciting at the time! All in all, a great time and an album that we knew would be really good. We made “The Bomber” into a musical suite and put our versions of “Bolero” and “Cast Your Fate To The Wind” right in the middle of it. We felt very free musically during this album and that feeling led to some really inventive playing. One of my favorite Joe acoustic tunes was “Garden Gate.” An absolute gem. During that time Joe had some beautiful acoustic songs that he had come up with, so we decided to make “Rides Again” half electric and half acoustic. Bill used to play the tunes back in the control room at ear shattering volume and we really got psyched! We even blew up the brand new playback speakers at The Record Plant in Los Angeles during the break in “The Bomber”! (Can’t take these guys anywhere!). A few days later we had “Funk #49,” “The Bomber,” and “Woman,” songs that turned into great live concert tunes. We were so busy that we didn’t have time to write many songs so we found ourselves sitting in the studio looking at each other and saying, “Here we are, now what?” I remember that the mood was good, and our producer Bill Szymczyk was willing to try anything, so we let the tape roll and started jamming. Joe was at the top of his form and was doing amazing things with his guitar. We were touring a lot at that time and we were playing really well together. I think “Rides Again” was our best album. ![]() Reissue Coordinated by ANDY MCKAIE & BETH STEMPEL Special thanks to DAVID SPERO and THE JAMES GANGĭigitally Remastered by TED JENSEN and BILL SZYMCZYK, STERLING SOUND, NEW YORK Recorded at the RECORD PLANT / EAST & WEST Strings on “Ashes, The Rain And I” arranged by JACK NITZSCHEĬover Design & Illustration: BOB LOCKHARTĮngineering: BILL SZYMCZYK, with LLYLLIANNE DUMA, MIKE STONE, STAN AGOL RUSTY YOUNG: pedal steel guitar on “There I Go Again” and appears through the courtesy of Epic Records Produced by BILL SZYMCZYK “Made To Be Played Loud”ĭALE “BUGSLEY” PETERS (bass, 6 string bass on “Ashes, The Rain And I”) To buy this album from, click here: Rides Again To download this album via iTunes, click here: ![]()
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