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Older Articles |
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| The Purple Gang And The Case of Stolen Time |
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The following is an article that I wrote of my experience recording a CD with Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) Bill Pilipchuk and Rich Nelson (both of Bitter Sweet Alley) and me on bass (a.k.a. Chris Blaise). It was produced by Rik Emmett (Triumph) and recorded at his Toronto studio in 1987.
The included MP3 file is one of 4 songs that were done for a 6 song EP that never was released. - Chris Badynee.
The Purple Gang And The Case of Stolen Timeor The Rik Emmett Incident
by Chris Badynee
edited by Mitch Phillips
We were driving to Toronto, talking about our private indulgences. After careful thought, drawing mental lines under the pro's and cons of what I actually desired compared to what I attempted to portray, I'll finally divulged that I love Yoko Ono songs. In fact, I wore out my Canadian re-issued vinyl of John & Yoko's "Two Virgins". Armed with that information, my bandmates all became car-seat critics.
It was July of 1988. The temperature was 104 and I was traveling from Detroit to Toronto with "The Purple Gang", consisting of Billy Pilipchuk, Rich Nelson, Chad Smith and myself. For almost two years prior, I had stalked Bill and Rich of Bitter Sweet Alley. Now I was in a van with them, driving five hours to spend a week recording with Rik Emmett of Triumph fame at his studio called Metalworks.
Billy drove a station wagon with some woman. I don’t remember what her name was or why she was there but she was pleasant, pretty, and usually spoke of "making it". I was oblivious to all the show biz talk. It wasn't that I gave up on the dream, it's just that I consided music an end in itself. This trip meant a lot to me, but if nothing else, it meant some much needed escape from the tedium of the window factory where I worked at the time.
We got to the motel and met with Rik Emmett's studio partner. He told us to get a good nights' sleep because Rik wanted to meet us at 8:00am sharp. It was an odd time for a rock star, I thought, but we were there by 7:30 the next morning.
Rik was already drinking coffee and apparently quite upset. His studio had been used everyday for a few months by a few different artists and someone stole his Yamaha RX-17 drum machine.
"Jeeeeze," Rik cursed like a choirboy. "I had five songs in the middle of writing and I don't know if I’ll be able to capture them again." Too polite to carry on further, he resigned himself to the loss and said, "Ok guys, lets get to work."
It was a little early for rock & roll. I looked for a coffee machine, searched the cupboards as if they were my own and found a can of "Canada's Favorite." It was dark brown and smelled like coffee and that's all I needed. I made a whole pot.
Rik had each of our six songs charted out in double spaced form with the chords above the lyrics. He had also written notes in red with arrows pointing back and yellow highlighter all over the pages. Surely, this was a cat with a little too much time on his hands. "What did we get ourselves into?" I thought.
Rik was a very business-like producer. He had us go over the verses and changed a few chords from major to minor to suspended and diminished. Most of his ideas were cool. Some didn't really change anything, but it was obvious that he put a lot of time into our project and I was impressed with the attention he gave us. I also wondered who was paying for all of this. I wasn't going to give up a dime, but I followed through with the daily morning meetings and rehearsed all afternoon til 6:00pm for three days in a row. The fourth day was to be similar to a day off. It was Sunday and Rik had us meet him at 9:00am to work on the songs until noon. The rest of the day was ours to enjoy.
After three days of re-writing our songs, he took us into the recording section of the studio to show us around. He was proud of his place and talked about the Canadian government contract that he acquired to produce commercials for television and radio. He was doing quite well, and his million-dollar studio showed it.
There was an engineer there working on somebody's final mix and he was about to burn it to a CD. Now remember, this was 1988; the CD burner was as big as my washing machine. It didn't have many dials or buttons; 3 VU meters, 3 dials, and square back-lit buttons numbered 1 through 8. The engineer tapped one of the white buttons and the disk holder opened slowly, like the arm of a robot.
"Ooooooh!" we all gasped like children watching a fireworks display. He tapped a few more buttons and told us that we'd have to leave the room.
"This is like having your X-Ray taken at the dentist." Rik joked as we peered through the control room window.
After about 5 minutes we returned to the room, amazed as the engineer opened the machine and showed us the finished disc. We passed it around as if it were a sacred relic. On the way out of the studio, we spoke of the future and what other technological miracles it might hold.
We asked Rik for directions to a restaurant in the direction of downtown Toronto and the four of us climbed into the van and drove another hour and finally stopped at a Big Boy. The van only had a driver’s seat and a passenger seat and Rich drove it with a suspended license. After we ate, we drove downtown to Younge Street around five in the afternoon. The place was jammed with people.
We didn't have much money so we parked and walked through the shops to interact with the street musicians and artists.
Chad could strike up a conversation with anybody. Soon he was talking and laughing with three or four people, asking directions to non-existent places, and everybody he talked to tried to help him get there.
After walking about a mile, we returned to the van. Traffic was impossible at this time of day and we were stuck at red lights, waiting for about the third time when Chad suddenly jumped out of the van. He ran into the middle of the intersection, bent over and DROPPED HIS PANTS giving full view of his moon in broad daylight. He laffed like a madman and ran in a quick circle causing MORE traffic to stop and honk their horns.
When Chad jumped back into the van we were all crazed with laughter, shouting at everyone, whoooping and hollering all the way down Younge street until my throat was sore. The side door was wide open as our driver sped onto the highway. I don't remember who was driving, it must have been Billy because I remember Rich complaining about not having his drivers license. We went back to the same Big Boy Restaurant, loud and obnoxious and carrying on like Americans are apt to do abroad.
After that day, the rest of the recording adventure became troublesome. The songs became different than written and I felt as though I was hired help working for free. The session ended after 3 more days of re-writing and re-recording. It totally sucked, in my opinion.
Our project didn't sell to a label and Rik’s partner wanted four thousand dollars to pay for the studio time. We stupidly signed a contract that made each of us personally responsible for the studio bill unless the project was sold to a record label. After receiving many threatening letters from a Canadian Law office, I received a court summons to appear in Canada, but I ignored it.
The following year, Rik Emmett phoned Chad Smith to join Rik's solo band and tour the world. Chad phoned us to tell us that he turned Rik down because of this OTHER band that he recently joined. I was puzzled.
Chad's father had sent him to Los Angeles to go to The Drum Institute. There, he answered a want-ad to audition for an "established band with a record deal." Their names were Anthony and Flea and they immediately invited Chad to join The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The rest, as they say, is history.
I don't know if Rik Emmett ever got paid for those sessions, but I haven't crossed the Ambassador Bridge ever since.
Listen to My Life Of Crime by The Purple Gang - circa 1988
Visit Chris Badynee's Modern Eccentric Bass Website
See Rich Nelson's artwork at www.RichNelson.com
Witness Chad's Good Fortune @ www.RedHotChiliPeppers.com
Find out more about The Purple Gang on MotorCityRock.com
Visit the site where it all went down: Metalworks
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