LIVING WITH WAR and 100 Voices
(Or maybe 103 but who’s counting)
One hundred voices. That is what Neil said to me over the phone.
Not twenty voices overdubbed five times.
Not fifty voices doubled.
One hundred individual voices singing.
All walks of life, all ages, shapes, and kinds. And most important, he wanted every one of them to believe in the message.
And he wanted to record it all in one day, four days from then.
Of course, I didn’t start getting nervous until long after I said yes.
Back story. My best friend of a million years, Niko Bolas, is the courageous and mad soul who said to Neil, “Let’s call Darrell.” I have never thanked Niko enough. That call from Neil changed my entire creative life for the better.
The day before the session, I met Neil and Niko at Capitol recording studios. We went through every song, building parts, chasing ideas. I scribbled pages and pages of notes and recorded little bits and pieces, anything to trigger my memory for the session.
The next morning, Neil, Niko, and 100 of the best singers in the recording world stood in front of us in Studio A. My friend Jenny, a songwriter and photographer, was there too. A couple of the photos here are hers.
Remember who was in that room that day. The best of the best. Among them, without question their voices and their souls cut deep into the lacquer On at least a couple of thousand hit records, And here I was, hoping to hand them something new. A note, a melody, a hook to sing. Any one of them could have done what I was doing, and done it better. But every heart in that room collaborated with ours and poured themselves into Neil’s songs.
I remember working on the track, Lookin’ for a Leader. Everyone was singing full out. The harmonies were there. The tone was there. The pocket they sat in was there. It was awesome. So we went after the attitude of it. Pulling the volume back. Adding accents on certain syllables. Keeping the fire but adding air.
It was crazy. Neil had it filmed. It lives somewhere on his site. That was one of the moments that turned to magic for me. The trust every one of them handed us.
We were hitting our twelfth hour or so of recording, Neil would know for sure. We had finished what we thought was the last song. Then Neil stepped out of the control booth and asked everyone for one last thing. Sing America the Beautiful. A cappella.
All those gifted artists, adding their love to the record. Arms outstretched. Using the last ounce of voice they had to remind us why we were there with Neil. That America belonged to everyone in that room, and to everyone outside it. That moment was unforgettable.
And it made me weep.
Living with War was timeless then. It is timeless now.
Thank you, Thank You, Thank You
Darrell Brown