Bill Payne and Paul Barrere Talk About Their 30-Year Ride
| by Blair Jackson |
Tell me a little about working with Ted Templeman. He made lots of great records in the ’70s. What was it about his personality that allowed him to work with a headstrong guy like Lowell and so many other gifted artists?
Barrere: The thing I liked about Ted is that when Billy and I went to his office before we started Time Loves a Hero, and he was the producer of the record and he had Don Landee, who was a wonderful engineer, Ted gave us a lot of freedom. He was great at rhythm sections and talking to drummers and percussionists and getting them on the same page and finding the groove fairly fast. And Don was always right there getting the great sounds on ’em. He was also full of good ideas—like I remember he suggested that on “Keeping Up With the Joneses” that we go for that Ray Charles string sound, and then Billy thought of the idea of, since we’ve got the string section there, why not put that crazy Marx Brothers ending on “Old Folks Boogie”? Ted’s a very musical cat, and he had a nice, easygoing nature. He managed to keep things going.
Payne: I would just add that Don Landee was always there to help you out and work with you. A lot of times, engineers would stake out their turf and say, “This is how it’s done.” But what was great about Don, and people like Nathaniel [Kunkel] and George Massenburg, too, is they’re willing to meet you halfway or ask you what it is you’re after and then help you get it. It doesn’t mean that what I’m looking for is necessarily the best idea, but they don’t prejudge it.
I remember one time, during a period when everybody was using the Rhodes, I really loved these certain sounds I got out of a Wurlitzer—it had an explosive quality in rehearsal that we couldn’t seem to get in the studio. But Don really listened to what I was saying, and he figured out how to add the compression I needed to get that strong, huge sound I was looking for. A lot of engineers wouldn’t take the time to do that.
You guys were working with George Massenburg before he was GEORGE MASSENBURG, revered audio guru!
Payne: [Laughs.] Well, he was already doing great stuff, though he wasn’t well known. He’d designed the parametric equalizer. I had no idea how brilliant he was, quite honestly; that came later. Paul, wouldn’t you say he’s a really easygoing guy?
Barrere: Extremely easygoing, but also kind of a prankster. He fit in really well with Little Feat, especially with some of the antics of Lowell and myself. It’s interesting—on this box set there’s the original “All That You Dream.” That was something that when we were back in Maryland [at Blue Seas Studio, where Massenburg was an engineer] doing Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, I kept trying to get Lowell to listen to the song, and he just said, “Ehhh, go away kid, you bother me!” shit, which I got a lot of from him, ’cause he was sort of like an older brother to me, since he knew me since I was a 12-year-old punk. But George [Massenburg] liked the song, and he said, “Come on in tonight and we’ll record it.” So I got Ritchie and we made a demo of the song. And then for about a year George would be in the studio whistling the hook, and finally Lowell said, “What is that?” So George played him the demo, and Lowell says, “Oh, that is a good song!” That son-of-a-bitch! [Laughs.] We ended up cutting the song eventually, and then Lowell thought he could make it into a single, and about $80,000 later, it was just about the same as the way we did it originally for the record. [Laughs.]
Reprinted with
permission from 
Magazine, February, 2001
© 2000, Intertec
Publishing, A Primedia Company All Rights Reserved
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