NOWHERE MAN

This track was one of a number of demos that Karen recorded in Joe Osborn's garage studio in 1967. Not too long after Joe and his family moved to the Nashville area in late 1974, all of their possessions (save Joe's prized 1959 Jazz Bass prototype, given to him by Leo Fender), were lost in a fire that destroyed the Osborn home. All the 4-track tapes, except one given to me, perished as well. As a result, the few copies of this track extant are mono acetate reference discs. We had one denoised, and transferred it to the 48-track, leaving me 47 tracks with which to play. Of course, I didn't need that many, but did get to complete the rest of the arrangement I visualized years ago. For as much as I appreciate the Beatle's original of this song, I still feel it makes a great ballad: Karen's alto is particularly resonant on it. I just wasn't happy with my original intro, so in 1999 I rearranged and recut it. As the original piano on the demo was a spinet and locked into the mono mix, engineer John Hendrickson had the unenviable task of making the beautifully recorded concert grand sound a fraction of its size. I then tailored the strings to cover the bar where the two pianos overlap. With the string chart completed, along with oboe and harmonica, I found myself in the peculiar situation of mixing the additions into an already mixed mono demo. As Karen's lead is not on a track of its own, we had to exercise more caution than usual in making sure not one word was lost in the mix.

 

 

 

 
Last Updated June 4, 2008
May 2004  © Richard Carpenter

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