Tom Petty - 100 Takes To Record a Song:

Robert Herndon said:
Like David Lee Roth said, "If you can't do it in 3 takes, you can't do it..."

faroutmagazine.co.uk

‘Refugee’: The Tom Petty song that took "forever" to record

Tom Petty liked to get things done efficiently, but one song from 'Damn the Torpedoes' took an incredibly long time to get right.
faroutmagazine.co.uk faroutmagazine.co.uk
Click to expand...
I don't think that 100 takes is unusual to record an original song.
Especially if he wanted to pick the very best take.

When I ran the board in a commercial or radio station, or even a private studio, we used to do takes unlimited. Nobody really counted; we were just doing it until we get what we wanted.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
I don't think that 100 takes is unusual to record an original song.
Especially if he wanted to pick the very best take.

When I ran the board in a commercial or radio station, or even a private studio, we used to do takes unlimited. Nobody really counted; we were just doing it until we get what we wanted.
Click to expand...

He'd go broke if he was on a commercial studio's payroll.

Most of what we do is three takes or less....or you'll be looking for a job.
 
Robert Herndon said:
Like David Lee Roth said, "If you can't do it in 3 takes, you can't do it..."

faroutmagazine.co.uk

‘Refugee’: The Tom Petty song that took "forever" to record

Tom Petty liked to get things done efficiently, but one song from 'Damn the Torpedoes' took an incredibly long time to get right.
faroutmagazine.co.uk faroutmagazine.co.uk
Click to expand...

Sure but I would take that one song over Van Halen's entire catalog. In fact, that entire album (Damn The Torpedoes) is pretty damn close to perfection, so who cares how many takes to get it right.

Robert Herndon said:
Most of what we do is three takes or less....or you'll be looking for a job.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, that probably sums up a lot of the problems with modern mass-market music. No wonder the most interesting things these days seem to be recorded in people's bedrooms.
 
There's a whole documentary about the making of that album, Damn the Torpedoes. I don't remember the whole story so I won't try to summarize, but it was a big deal and they needed it to be perfect. It's well worth the watch if you can find it.
 
Last edited:
gball said:
Sure but I would take that one song over Van Halen's entire catalog. In fact, that entire album (Damn The Torpedoes) is pretty damn close to perfection, so who cares how many takes to get it right.



Unfortunately, that probably sums up a lot of the problems with modern mass-market music. No wonder the most interesting things these days seem to be recorded in people's bedrooms.
Click to expand...

I was never a huge VH fan, but i cringe every time we are asked to do a Tom Petty song. Can't really say why, it's just not anything interesting to me.

I'm grateful to be employed in this industry. Im still working for the studio, but a lot of it is remote now.

They sent me an Edge XTI-29904 with Cubase Pro 11 and ILok and ran all the new CAT cables and got me up and running to do work from home.

My open minded, team player approach keeps me in demand more than my guitar skills.
 
Last edited:
Robert Herndon said:
I was never a huge VH fan, but i cringe every time we are asked to do a Tom Petty song. Can't really say why, it's just not anything interesting to me.

I'm grateful to be employed in this industry. Im still working for the studio, but a lot of it is remote now.

They sent me an Edge XTI-29904 with Cubase Pro 11 and ILok and ran all the new CAT cables and got me up and running to do work from home.

My open minded, team player approach keeps me in demand more than my guitar skills.
Click to expand...
We do a cover of "Free Fallin'" in our set. To amuse ourselves sometimes it turns into "Tree Fallin'", or even more amusing to me "Free Ballin'". Most of the time nobody even notices.
 
StrumerJoe said:
We do a cover of "Free Fallin'" in our set. To amuse ourselves sometimes it turns into "Tree Fallin'", or even more amusing to me "Free Ballin'". Most of the time nobody even notices.
Click to expand...
Only Petty tune I know/do is “Into The Great Wide Open.” Learned it on acoustic. Pretty much how I still play it.

PS: I’ve probably played 100 times and still make mistakes. :rolf:
 
Robert Herndon said:
He'd go broke if he was on a commercial studio's payroll.

Most of what we do is three takes or less....or you'll be looking for a job.
Click to expand...
Sometimes I just start something on the recorder, and make it into a song using the recorder as part of the process....
No, they don't go broke I'm on salary.
But I never pay much attention to how long it takes, and nobody seems to care.
People who are obsessed with faster faster faster irritate me.
 
gball said:
All I know is that if it requires even 200 takes to record a song as great as this then that's just fine:

Click to expand...

Well, I listened a few times...first te ever, and I'm just not seeing the greatness....???

The production is good, but not phenomenal.

Is it the message that you identify with???
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top