Читать книгу Sonic Boom: The Impact of Led Zeppelin. Volume 1 - Break & Enter - Frank Reddon - Страница 21

Led Zeppelin recorded its self-titled debut album Led Zeppelin at Olympic Studios in Barnes, England during September/October 1968. Mr. George Chkiantz was a highly sought-after and respected sound engineer and tape operator during that time. Although Mr. Chkiantz did not work on the Led Zeppelin LP, he did work on subsequent Led Zeppelin albums, including: Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin III, the untitled fourth Led Zeppelin LP and Houses of the Holy, among other Led Zeppelin projects.

Mr. Chkiantz is an extremely knowledgeable sound engineer who graciously agreed to be interviewed in January 1998. He offers insightful recollections on several subjects relative to Led Zeppelin’s recording of the Led Zeppelin LP. He also offers his impressions and analysis regarding the subject of the bootleg CDs that have surfaced, documenting some of the material from the initial Led Zeppelin recording activities at Olympic Studios in 1968.

REDDON: Where was the Led Zeppelin album recorded at Olympic Studios?

CHKIANTZ:

Led Zeppelin recorded much of its first LP in Studio # 1. It was a 60’ x 40’ x 30’ room on the first floor that used to be a cinema. This room could very comfortably hold a 70-piece orchestra and a 30-piece choir. The studio interior was polished wood and hessian (dyed yellow wood). A window approximately 18’ long was located in the middle of the 40’ length of the wall. There was a vocal booth on one side of the 18’ window. The former projection room of the cinema was converted into a portion of the control room.

REDDON: How did you first become acquainted with Jimmy Page?

CHKIANTZ:

I knew Jimmy from his guitar session days at Olympic. What I remember about Jimmy is that he was a really nice bloke who was quite interesting. He would talk to a guy I worked with at length about infrared photography. Page was into that a lot and was always pleasant to chat with whenever our paths crossed. I’d help him carry his amp and gear into the studio and get him set up for his sessions on many occasions.

His reputation as an outstanding session man was well deserved. If you could get Page to play on one of your sessions, you were considered to be very fortunate because he was in demand. He was one of the top session musicians in England during this time period.

REDDON: Were you also familiar with John Paul Jones through his session work?

CHKIANTZ:

Yes. Zeppelin’s bass player, John Paul Jones, was even more sought after than Page. Jones was the best bass player in the business for session work and had musical arranging skills to top it all off. When I heard Page was forming a new group that included John Paul Jones, I thought such a merging of these musicians would hold great promise.

REDDON:

What type of recording equipment was used at Olympic Studios in 1968, to record Led Zeppelin’s first album?

CHKIANTZ:

The 24’ x 8’ x 8’ channel recording console used to record Zeppelin’s first record, Led Zeppelin, in Studio # 1 and other artists’ projects was fantastic. It was a real “Olympic Studios Home Brew”! It was just so easy to work with and very versatile. When that console was finally replaced years later, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to shed a tear over it. That console helped preserve the music of so many great artists who recorded at Olympic through the years; among them, Led Zeppelin.

REDDON:

You mentioned that you didn’t work on Led Zeppelin but you were around when they were doing it. What were your impressions of what Led Zeppelin was trying to achieve at Olympic Studios with the band’s recording of the Led Zeppelin LP?

CHKIANTZ:

Yes, that’s correct. I didn’t work on the first Zeppelin LP but I do remember being around when they did it. I’d stick my head in the studio while they were working on it every now and again. What impressed me most about Page and this new band of his -- and I remember thinking this to myself, as I walked down the hall one day – was that what they were attempting to do was very, very harsh.

The sound of the guitar was cruel and metallic. I didn’t particularly care for it, initially. I’d never really heard that degree of all-out guitar attack before, even though I was in the business. I knew the musicianship in this band was excellent but I wasn’t sure what they were striving to achieve with such an aggressive sound. The way things worked out, Page certainly knew exactly what direction he wanted to go, with that first album.

REDDON:

One of the objectives of my research is to illustrate Led Zeppelin’s musical evolution over the first six months of the band’s existence. Sonic Boom: The Impact of Led Zeppelin. Volume 3 – The Tape Kept A-Rollin’ examines exclusively the bootleg releases that surfaced from material recorded at Olympic Studios in September/October of 1968.

These bootleg releases are: the Olympic Gold CD, the Babe I’m Gonna Leave You session CD. As well, the Strange Tales From The Road boxed CD set, which includes some sessions that Led Zeppelin did with American singer, PJ Proby, are examined. These recordings surfaced in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They have served as a benchmark to study the start of Led Zeppelin’s musical evolution. Were you aware that the CDs I just mentioned, which contain material recorded in September/October 1968 somehow escaped from Olympic Studios and were bootlegged?

CHKIANTZ:

As for the bootleg CDs you mentioned that surfaced in the early 1990s, containing some of Led Zeppelin’s studio sessions for the first album in 1968? I’m completely surprised! At the time those sessions were being recorded, we were all just doing our jobs, working with artists like Led Zeppelin at Olympic. Who would have thought these rough takes would be of such interest, so many years later?

I suppose it’s possible that, when Olympic Studios was sold to Virgin Records in the early 1990s, these recordings may have been somehow lost or stolen in the transitional shuffle. There was a time period during reconstruction when someone could have happened upon these Zeppelin rehearsal takes because they were likely still in storage in the archives.

When an artist recorded reels of tape, the procedure at Olympic Studios was generally as follows. A slew of takes was recorded and then the best ones were selected to make the master. The “multiple take tapes” used for compiling the master tape were then put back in storage downstairs, in the studio archives. We were constantly bringing reels of tape up and downstairs for this purpose. After we re-recorded the desired takes for the masters upstairs, we returned the multiple take reels of tape to the archives again, downstairs. That was that.

I’m completely amazed that someone got their hands on this stuff and put it out on the bootleg market in 1992. It seems very odd to me that the routine work we did at Olympic in 1968, would be of such intrigue to so many people, so many years later. Back in those days, we never dreamed such a thing would ever happen!

REDDON: Thanks very much, Mr. Chkiantz, for your interesting insights.

CHKIANTZ: All the best to you, Frank.