The Hedonistic Hit Factory: Buzz Me In - Inside the Record Plant Studios with David Goggin and Martin Porter in Echoes Podcast.

John Diliberto, David “Mr Bonzai” Goggin, Martin Porter

I’ve got something different for you in this weeks Echoes Podcast. I’m going to talk with Martin Porter and David Goggin about their new book, Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant Studios. They look at the history of the Record Plant studios in New York, LA, and Sausalito, where many of the biggest records of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s were made. Think Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland, Aerosmith “Walk This Way” and The Eagles Hotel California, as well as records from Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith and oh yeah, John Lennon, who recorded most of his solo albums there including the last one. Martin Porter and David Goggin talked to dozens of people who worked there, from secretaries to engineers to producers, and they have all the drug-fueled, sex and crazed producer stories, as well as the tales behind classic tracks and albums.

David Goggin: We just got in touch with Ed Freeman because he helped us out on the book a lot. He produced American Pie and all. He describes when he was working at Sausalito, there was a guy who would come in every morning with a briefcase with your choice of whatever you wanted. Ed asked this mysterious guy, “what do you have?” And he says, “Well, what do you want?” And opened up the briefcase and there was every variety of pot, of uppers and downers, whatever you were looking at. It was like a little inventory case.

David Goggin and Martin Porter talk to me about The Record Plant studios which were founded by businessman Chris Stone and engineer, Gary Kellgren, who turned it into the most hedonistic hit machine of the era. The stories they could tell. And they will.