Expressions to avoid in a recording studio

When Steely Dan reformed in the 1990s, their website was an extension of Fagen and Becker's sardonic humour. This list appeared on their site, together with things like '36 Rules for Bands'. Anyone who has been in a band, or in a studio, should get a laugh or two out of this.

EXPRESSIONS TO AVOID
During A Recording Session

1.     Ready, Freddie (pronounced red-eye fred-eye) 

2.     Bingo, gringo 

3.     Uno, Bruno 

4.     The phones sound O.K. but I need more of myself 

5.     We won't need a click 

6.     I like what you're trying to do but not the way you're doing it 

7.     An excellent first attempt 

8.     Was that the sound you had on the demo? 
9.     Make the click louder 

10. That was a pretty good take for this time of night 

11. If you want the tempo any brighter than that, we better wait for a sunny day 
12. No dynamics? We're playing as loud as we can 

13. I think that's a pretty good sounding take for what were getting paid.. 
14. That was great, let's do it again 

15. Is that about as tight as you boys want to get it? 

16. Is it possible the click is speeding up? 

17. I'm at the point where I'm making dumb mistakes - before I was making much smarter mistakes 

18. So many drummers, so little time 

19. Why don't we do the double first and the lead will be easier to get once we've got the double 

20. I never had this problem when I was being produced by Lenny and Russ 

21. We got some things, we need some things 

22. Fabulous 

23. Punch in at the section 

24. You can't make ice cream out of shit 

25. You can't polish a turd 

26. Just let your spirit soar 

27. My spirit's already sore from the last thirty takes... 

28. Close 

29. Less is more 

30. Less is Paul 

31. Less is Brown 

32. Less is less 

33. That's the way I've been playing it all along 

34. I just wish I could get a whole band that sounds as good as I do 

35. This will be a great opportunity for me to show off my chop 

36. Let's hear the bass, if you can call it that 

37. Does your amp have an underdrive channel? 

38. You can erase that one, I remember exactly what I played 

39. We'll catch that in the mix 

40. You guys can fix that in Soundtools, right?

41. I brought my kid along, he's never been in a recording studio before 

42. My girlfriend sings great background vocals

43. I know a great drummer 

44. You guys want to try some heroin? 

45. Your girlfriend's been in the bathroom a long time 

46. Please, man, stay away from my faxes, okay?

47. I'm not going to be any more dishonest with you than I am with Donald 

48. I'd like a little more of a live feeling on this tune. 

49. I also play eleven other instruments 

50. Sorry I'm late, I just got through with my blood test (or CAT scan) 

51. That vocal's not a keeper is it? 

52. That's how I wrote it but that's not how I like to play it 

53. I can't think of any improvements that won't make it worse 

54. That ground loop is a trademark thing for me 

55. That's the new old comp from today - I want to hear the new old comp from last Tuesday 

56. That reverb would sound a lot better if it were coming out of a piece of MY GEAR

57. How bout we get rid of these 3M machines and get ourselves a frozen yogurt machine 

58. Skunk called, he's on his way down 

59. The frozen yogurt machine is broken 

60. When was the last time we worked together? Tonight.

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS

The Heyday of the NME

There's a been a lot of talk this week about the closure of the NME's print edition - the end of an era and all that. In his Guardian obituary for the music paper, Alex Petridis reckoned the NME had umpteen “golden eras” which he said usually had less to do with the quality of the writing "than whether or not you were 17 or 18 when you were reading it".|

That's true-ish, but really, the legend of the NME as the cool, trend-setting weekly bible for music fans, was formed in the first half of the 1970s, which was really a hangover from the late 60s. It was a wild and often chaotic paper in those days, informed by the underground press vibe of Oz and IT, that had spawned some of the NME's own writers including Charles Shaar Murray and Nick Kent.

It was the first break with the formal traditions of music writing, passed down through the jazz age in the 50s and the still formal and respectful pop journalism of the 60s. The more anarchic style of the NME's new brand of hacks made star names out of maverick characters like CSM, Nick Kent, Mick Farren and Ian MacDonald.

They were given as much space as they wanted and used the opportunity to write think pieces about relatively obscure artists. Kent's long elegy to Nick Drake soon after the singer's death, was a landmark in UK rock journalism, influenced no doubt by the kind of intelligent analysis they had seen in Rolling Stone.

The central storyline of Kent's 1975 three-part series on Brian Wilson, 'The Last Beach Movie', was the collapse of the Beach Boys' 'Smile' project. It was the first time most of us had heard any details about the album Wilson was forced to abort in 1967 and Kent's detailed account was rightly acclaimed.

This was also a time when the market was clearly divided between pop and rock, albums and singles, US and UK - two very distinct music markets in those days. America was still a foreign land in those pre-cheap transatlantic travel days. The NME writers schooled us ordinary folk in the different music coming out of New York, Detroit, LA and San Francisco.

Meanwhile, the thinking freak's rock critic, Ian MacDonald, a Cambridge drop-out, was writing feature length pieces about Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan and Sparks - expanding our consciousness and daring us to go along for the ride. Ian Mac was the guy that turned me on to all these artists and more.






















It wasn't all ground-breaking though; much of the rest of the NME was throwaway - entertaining that Thursday when it hit the streets but not meant to last. Nonetheless it was a reflection of the time. Rock had yet to become an 'industry'. The lunatics were still running the asylum. The Lone Groover, Tony Benyon's stoned cartoon character, was emblematic of the long-haired freak scene, a hangover from the sixties that persisted until the advent of punk. The NME's album reviews were often wildly funny, but often dismissive - and downright wrong - about albums and artists whose work is now justly revered. From Bowie to Joni to Marley and even the early punk scene - there are individual examples where the NME's writers didn't get it right.

But collectively they had great taste, as the 1974 Top 100 albums demonstrates. Every single one of those 100 albums remains a classic, which I suppose goes to support the idea that the period up to 1975 was the classic era for rock and roll.

No doubting that things changed from '77 onwards, and if truth be told, the NME's writers were as blindsided by the new wave as any of the other music mags. For a time though, in the first half of that decade, they created the lasting legend of the NME. The rebelliousness was now led by the musicians themselves, and arguably that's just another form of PR. But the legend of an NME full of edgy, exciting music writing allowed it to remain in business way beyond any of the other music papers of the time. Melody Maker and Sounds went the way of the dinosaurs. Smash Hits was wildly successful for 20 years but was closed in 2006. It's a wonder the NME lasted as long as it did.

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS 

The many sides of Walter Becker

Having just contributed to a podcast in memory of Steely Dan's Walter Becker, who passed away this week, I've compiled some examples of his work that casual listeners and readers may not be so familiar with.

The partnership between Becker and Donald Fagen was such that it is often difficult to know where an idea has stemmed from. They were so well-matched in terms of intellect and musical knowledge, they were in the habit of finishing each other's sentences. Nonetheless, it is fairly well accepted that Becker, with his rather more chequered background, contributed the darker, more surreal ideas to The Dan's music.

And there were plenty of them. The new identity fixer in Sign In Stranger; the 'man of science' mixing up his psychedelics in Kid Charlemagne; the ode to "the Cuervo Gold, the fine Colombian" in Hey Nineteen and perhaps most personal of all, Any World (That I'm Welcome To).

-------------------------------------

"Whenever I recorded with Walter and Donald, right before the engineer pushed the red button, Walt would shimmy over to me and in a stage whisper, would say: 

“Just play the blues Elliott… just play the blues”.

- Elliott Randall, session guitarist on Steely Dan's albums 

and most famous for his soloing on Reelin' In The Years

--------------------------------------

We don't know too much about Becker's early years, apart from the fact his parents separated, but we do know he had his demons and, as Fagen noted, his "habits". The song 'Time Out Of Mind' from Gaucho would have been very close to home at that point in his life. The heroin halted his friendship with Fagen at the end of the 1970s and Becker retreated to Hawaii to recover from his addiction.

He re-emerged in the 80s handling production for the band China Crisis (the story of how he was attracted to the British band because he'd misheard their name as Vagina Crisis seems fitting somehow). He produced their album 'Flaunt The Imperfection', which contains the track 'You Did Cut Me', released as a single in 1985. It could easily be a Steely Dan song.

In 1989, he met up with Rickie Lee Jones and the two collaborated on her fourth album 'Flying Cowboys', which contained a lovely song 'The Horses'. Co-written with Becker, a cover version of the song by Daryl Braithwaite made No 1 in Australia.

and this song, Satellites, which shows traces of Becker's influence

Rickie Lee Jones wrote a touching tribute to Walter this week for Rolling Stone magazine. She said Steely Dan made it OK to be educated: "It was the idea that intelligent music was cool".

"I was brought up, you might say, on writing thick with imagery and subtle implication and I loved it. I loved the innuendo, the humor, the sting. The genius was as much in the part we filled in, the lines they didn't write. That was where the sticky stuff of memory made their music a part of our own personal history."

Of Becker, she wrote, "I have often said that so much of what we write seems to be prophetic. Walter lost too many people to drugs. He found too many people laying on the floor. The bed. Too many heartbreaks."

Becker and Fagen were able to move forward with their unique musical partnership in the 1990s, initially working together on Fagen's second solo album Kamakiriad, where Becker was the co-producer, and co-writer of the song Snowbound. He is listed as the bassist/guitarist on the album too.

 

In 1994, the year after the Steely Dan reunion tour, Walter produced his first solo album '11 Tracks of Whack', which was well received but not as commercially successful as his partner's solo records. Becker's sound was less polished and without the rounded melodies of The Nightfly or Kamakiriad. But it did contain some great compositions, demonstrating Becker's vivid imagination and a lyricism few could match.

"Over the hill and into the next meadow and on and on and on
In a near random universe there are still certain combinations
Picked out from all other possible ones
Which, when given some time and the just-right circumstances
Not too far from the earth or too close to the sun
They will dance and they’ll spin in the embrace of the trade winds
Playing havoc with the hearts and the upturned faces down below
Until the laws of curved spacetime, suspended without warning
Kick back in with a vengeance for the last act of the show"

from the track 'Surf and/or die'

 ----------------------------

"My inner Steely Dan geek was extremely anxious to get answers to the many questions I had since the age of 14. What guitar did you use on the solo (perhaps my favorite of his) on “Pretzel Logic”? Answer: an old Epiphone solid body. What is a “squonk”? (now, of course, you can wiki it). Who were some of the others on the legendarily large list of guitarists who took a stab at the solo to “Peg”? (He told me that Robben Ford had recorded an especially awesome solo.)"

- Drew Zingg, lead guitarist on the reunion tour, and heard to best effect on Third World Man from the 'Alive in America' album

----------------------------

Becker didn't produce his second solo album, 'Circus Money' until 2008 and many Dan fans are probably unfamiliar with it, as it received no promotion and virtually no airplay. But it has better production values than the first album and hangs together as a good collection of songs.

  

In the last 10 years, he also collaborated on a couple of albums with Madeleine Peyroux, notably on the 2009 album Bare Bones. One of the co-writes on the album is the song 'You Can't Do Me' which has an undeniable Becker stamp on it.

To round off this review of Walter Becker's musical legacy, if you want to enjoy more of the man's writing and his sense of humour, check out the stories and tour notes he wrote for the Steely Dan website. The site was set up when they first started touring again and many of the early stories are still up on the site - www.steelydan.com - here's one random example. All this stuff is made up, it's just him riffing on an idea: https://www.steelydan.com/fugue07.html

And while they took songwriting to another place, and made it OK to be intelligent in popular music, Becker and Fagen never took themselves too seriously. As here, where they cruise around New York, picking up seemingly random girls to discuss their music.

The New York Times obituary for Walter mistakenly referred the last of their classic era album as Groucho, prompting this amusing cover illustration, although I don't know who did it. 

 Not that you'd know it from that clip, but Walter was the quiet one of the two, and would have been a rather intimidating presence at times I'm sure, as the wittiest and most urbane guy in the room. But his wit and intellect added much of the spice within the complex flavours of Steely Dan. He was a one-off, and he's left a wonderful musical legacy.

Here's what his daughter had to say in memory of her dad:
http://walterbecker.com/daughters.html

RIP Walt.

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS

Further reading and listening:

Pitchfork: 8 Songs That Show Walter Becker's Brilliance

Washington Post: Walter Becker was the cynical one, hiding behind the guitar

If you're looking for a thoughtful and perhaps unusual Steely Dan playlist, may I suggest this one?

And someone has thoughtfully packaged the out-takes from the Gaucho Sessions into a 'lost' album compilation.

ALSO ON THIS BLOG

Rickie Lee Jones and The Last Chance Texaco

Steely Dan's expressions to avoid in the recording studio 

Steely Dan interviewed in 1975 and 1977

Steely Dan's 36 rules for bands

Steely Dan interviewed in 1975, 1976 and 1977

Here are three interviews with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker from the mid 70s, when they were producing some of their most excellent music. They talk songwriting technique and what they look for in the musicians for each session. And true to form, they never take themselves too seriously. 

Click on the images to read the original articles

Starting in April 1975, at the time of the album Katy Lied, the first interview appeared in the NME and was based on a meeting in California with the writer Richard Cromelin.  Having moved to the west coast from New York, the two are clearly still adjusting to the change in lifestyle.

"It's about 10 or 15 years behind," says Fagen of suburban San Fernando Valley. "We're going to have to relocate. Our heart is still on Second Avenue, and that's what we like to write about. Our lyrics are basically experience combined with a little fantasy."

Becker explained how he and Fagen like to make each song original: "We'll set up a framework, no matter how bizarre it may be. I'll come up with an idea and he'll come up with a scenario and we'll decide what we think the song is about, and which part of the exposition of what is happening is in each verse and get a title together. And no matter how strange the idea may be, we just go along and hope that we can finish the song."

They met at Bard College, where Fagen was "the dean of the pick-up band syndrome". Turns out there were several bands at the college and Fagen was the leader of all of them. Mostly, this appears to have been because the other musicians were not at his level. "We were writing tunes where some of the chords were not triads, and you couldn't use your capo that much. It was hard to get what we wanted in those days, so it didn't come out in utter magnificence," Becker said of the duo's early collaborations.

They tell the story about how the various band members were recruited, especially Denny Dias, who at this point, in 1975, was the only remaining member from the original band. Apparently Fagen and Becker hooked up with Dias's band and "we used to chastise and abuse them," Fagen recalls. "They all quit. So there was Denny and we'd ruined his band. He had no place else to go."

They also explain how, after some initial success with Reelin' In The Years from the first album, 'Can't Buy A Thrill', the threat of obscurity loomed dangerously near. The next single, Show Biz Kids, from the second album 'Countdown To Ecstasy' was, in Fagen's words "a brutal failure". They followed it with an edited version of My Old School, which saw even less action.

The resounding commercial success of the third album 'Pretzel Logic' and the single Rikki Don't Lose That Number, was consolidated in 1974 by a world tour. But Fagen still felt that "We've more or less abandoned hope of being one of the big, important rock and roll groups. Our music is somehow a little too cheesy at times. and turns off the rock intelligentsia for the most part. And at other times it's too bizarre to be appreciated by anybody."

Becker and Fagen also talk about the sound problems during the recording of Katy Lied, that forced them to remix the album and delayed its release. They also address the question of the departure of former member Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter. Skunk, they claim, was only missing from the last album because he was on the road with The Doobie Brothers.

But it's clear they were not content to rely on the same musicians for each album, and wanted to push their session players to stretch themselves. Becker talks about how Rick Derringer was initially freaked out by what was expected of him on the track Chain Lightning. "Then he realised he needed to do something a little different from what he normally does."

click on the image to read the article

June 1976

The NME's Steve Clarke encountered Becker (then still only 26) and Fagen (28) a month after the release of 'The Royal Scam', announcing that the band was ready to tour again, including dates for Britain in 1977 (when in fact, they didn't come to the UK again until 1993!). Becker even talks about who will be in the touring band. Denny Dias is the only one who has the stamina to stay the course with The Dan, he says. "He's willing to indulge us a little more than our old compatriots," said Becker.

Both deny being difficult to work with and lead the interviewer a merry dance when he asks what some of the songs are about. Becker denies Kid Charlemagne is about a dealer, more "a man of science. Someone who makes consciousness expanding substances of the most dramatic sensational type no longer in vogue."

(Indeed, it's about Augustus Owsley Stanley, the famous king of the LSD manufacturers). 

At one point, Donald Fagen states that the lyrics on their recent albums have a bit more maturity. When Clarke suggests Steely Dan songs are intentionally obscure, Becker counters that "it seems to us that people are intentionally dumb." Fagen adds that, "You can only do so much with a song, and because we are probably more literary, we use more literary techniques."

Paul Griffin plays the piano solo on Sign In Stranger and also receives a writer's credit on The Fez. This came about because, according to Fagen, "He wrote the main theme". Becker disputes this, saying "I wouldn't call it the main theme. He wrote a melody that is featured. At least he says he wrote it."  They gave him a credit "in case later on some sort of scandal developed".

'Don't Take Me Alive' is very much a song of these troubled times, writes Clarke about a song that still resonates with the times today. Fagen says of the song: "In Los Angeles and through the world in general, terrorism is a way of life for a lot of people."

They feel little affinity with anything else that is going on in rock in '76, though both express a fondness for Single Bed by Fox. They also enjoy The Eagles, Phoebe Snow and Van Morrison. They say comparisons between Steely Dan and 10cc are ridiculous: "Last time here we were being compared to The Doobie Brothers."

Talking of which, former Dan back-up singer Mike McDonald, now livening up the Doobies, told Clarke that Becker and Fagen wished they were Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington. "That's essentially true," says Walter. 

 

 Click on the images to read the articles.

December 1977

Rolling Stone's Cameron Crowe writes about the second coming of Steely Dan, following the release of the stylistically different but nonetheless peerless masterwork 'Aja'.

Read the full interview here: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/the-second-coming-of-steely-dan-19771229

 

Here's an interesting interview with producer Gary Katz, about how they got Steve Gadd in to record Aja https://ultimateclassicrock.com/gary-katz-steely-dan-aja-interview-2022/?fbclid=IwAR2lW4PbW0n72qu0SjboGkM4nM40DrQ5hNNcsG8wmUC0brIjnljhe7F5P28

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL
THANKS

Also on this blog:

2-Tone and possibly my best gig ever

Queen's 1976 Free Concert in Hyde Park

Memories of the Reading Festival, 1975

Five Days of High Drama at the Isle of Wight, 1970

From Pinner to LA - Elton's Big Breakthrough, 1970

My Woodstock 50th Anniversary Diary

A Wizard, A True Star - my all-time favourite album

Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan's Artistic Peak in the 1960s

 Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns

Expressions to avoid during a recording session

When Steely Dan reformed in the 1990s, their website was an extension of Fagen and Becker's sardonic humour. This list appeared on the site, together with things like '36 Rules for Bands'. Anyone who has been in a band, or in a studio, should get a laugh or two out of this.

EXPRESSIONS TO AVOID DURING A RECORDING SESSION

1.     Ready, Freddie (pronounced red-eye fred-eye)

2.     Bingo, gringo

3.     Uno, Bruno

4.     The phones sound O.K. but I need more of myself

5.     We won't need a click

6.     I like what you're trying to do but not the way you're doing it

7.     An excellent first attempt

8.     Was that the sound you had on the demo?

9.     Make the click louder

10.   That was a pretty good take for this time of night

11.   If you want the tempo any brighter than that, we better wait for a sunny day

12.   No dynamics? We're playing as loud as we can

13.   I think that's a pretty good sounding take for what were getting paid..

14.   That was great, let's do it again

15.   Is that about as tight as you boys want to get it?

16.   Is it possible the click is speeding up?

17.   I'm at the point where I'm making dumb mistakes - before I was making much smarter  mistakes

18.   So many drummers, so little time

19.  Why don't we do the double first and the lead will be easier to get once we've got the double

20.   I never had this problem when I was being produced by Lenny and Russ

21.   We got some things, we need some things

22.   Fabulous

23.   Punch in at the section

24.   You can't make ice cream out of shit

25.   You can't polish a turd

26.   Just let your spirit soar

27.   My spirit's already sore from the last thirty takes...

28.   Close

29.   Less is more

30.   Less is Paul

31.   Less is Brown

32.   Less is less

33.   That's the way I've been playing it all along

34.   I just wish I could get a whole band that sounds as good as I do

35.   This will be a great opportunity for me to show off my chop

36.   Let's hear the bass, if you can call it that

37.   Does your amp have an underdrive channel?

38.   You can erase that one, I remember exactly what I played

39.   We'll catch that in the mix

40.   You guys can fix that in Soundtools, right?

41.   I brought my kid along, he's never been in a recording studio before

42.   My girlfriend sings great background vocals

43.   I know a great drummer

44.   You guys want to try some heroin?

45.   Your girlfriend's been in the bathroom a long time

46.   Please, man, stay away from my faxes, okay?

47.   I'm not going to be any more dishonest with you than I am with Donald

48.   I'd like a little more of a live feeling on this tune.

49.   I also play eleven other instruments

50.   Sorry I'm late, I just got through with my blood test (or CAT scan)

51.   That vocal's not a keeper is it?

52.   That's how I wrote it but that's not how I like to play it

53.   I can't think of any improvements that won't make it worse

54.   That ground loop is a trademark thing for me

55.   That's the new old comp from today - I want to hear the new old comp from last Tuesday

56.   That reverb would sound a lot better if it were coming out of a piece of MY GEAR

57.   How bout we get rid of these 3M machines and get ourselves a frozen yogurt machine

58.   Skunk called, he's on his way down

59.   The frozen yogurt machine is broken

60.   When was the last time we worked together? Tonight.

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL
THANKS

While we're on the subject of behaviour in the studio, here's a glimpse of what it was like to be in the studio back in the day (early 1980s) with legendary producer Quincy Jones. My reaction in the comments section (from 2009 apparently) is: have they been at the nose candy or what?

"I Love Quincy" documentary from 1982, featuring Patti Austin 

recording the song "It's Gonna Be Special"

36 Rules For Bands - The Wit of Steely Dan

Originally posted on the Steely Dan website in the 1990s. Enjoy

 ~36 RULES FOR BANDS:~

1. Never start a trio with a married couple.

2. Your manager's not helping you. Fire him/her.

3. Before you sign a record deal, look up the word "recoupable" in the dictionary.

4. No one cares who you've opened for.

5. A string section does not make your songs sound any more "important".

6. If your band has gone through more than 4 bass players, it's time to break up.

7. When you talk on stage you are never funny.

8. If you sound like another band, don't act like you're unfamiliar with their music ("Oh does Rage Against The Machine also do rap-rock with political lyrics?")

9. Asking a crowd how they're doing is just amplified small talk. Don't do it.

10. Don't say your video's being played if it's only on the Austin Music Network.

11. When you sign to a major label, claim to have inked the best contract ever. Mention "artistic freedom" and "a guaranteed 3 record deal".

12. When you get dropped insist that it was the worst contract ever and you asked to be let go.

13.Never name a song after your band.

14. Never name your band after a song.

15. When a drummer brings in his own songs and asks to perform one of them, begin looking for a new drummer IMMEDIATELY.

16. Never enter a "battle of the bands" contest. If you do you're already a loser.

17. Learn to recognize scary word pairings: "rock opera", "white rapper", "blues jam", "swing band", "open mike", etc.

18. Drummers can take off their shirts or they can wear gloves, but not both.

19. Listen, either break it to your parents or we will; it's rock 'n' roll, not a soccer game. They've gotta stop coming to your shows.

20. It's not a "showcase". It's a gig that doesn't pay.

21. No one cares that you have a web site.

22. Getting a tattoo is like sewing platform shoes to your feet.

23. Don't hire a publicist.

24. Playing in San Marcos & Alpine doesn't mean you're on tour.

25. Don't join a cover band that plays Bush songs. In fact, don't join a cover band.

26. Although they come in different styles and colours, electric guitars all sound the same. Why do you keep changing them between songs?

27. Don't stop your set to ask that beers be brought up. That's what girlfriends/boyfriends are for.

28. If you use a smoke machine, your music sucks.

29. We can tell the difference between a professionally produced album cover and one you made with the iMac your mom got for Christmas.

30. Remember, if blues solos are so difficult, why can so many 16 year olds play them?

31. If you ever take a publicity photo, destroy it. You may never know where or when it will turn up.

32. Cut your hair, but do not shave your head.

33. Pierce your nose, but not your eyebrow.

34. Do not wear shorts onstage. Or a suit. Or a hat.

35. Rock oxymorons; "major label interest", "demo deal"," blues genius", "$500 guarantee", and "Fastball's second hit".

36. 3 things that are never coming back: a)gongs, b)headbands, and c)playing slide guitar with a beer bottle.

See also: Expressions to avoid in a recording studio
https://bangnzdrum.blogspot.com/2019/12/expressions-to-avoid-in-recording-studio.html