For this Page Place it's back to New York City and the site where Jimmy and Led Zeppelin recorded numerous times from 1970-1976, Jimi Hendrix's own Electric Lady Studios.
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| Electric Lady Studios |
The studio was originally a nightclub that Jimi Hendrix and his manager Michael Jeffrey originally intended on refurbishing and opening themselves, however they both decided that the space would be better suited as a recording studio, after seeing the recording bill for Jimi's album "Electric Ladyland". The studio itself took twice as long to build as was originally intended due to permit delays and flooding and a loan from Warner Brothers records was the only thing that saved the whole project from being scuttled.
The space was designed by architect John Storyk with guidance directly from Jimi Hendrix on what he wanted. Jim Marron was brought in to supervise construction and run the studio upon completion. Electric Lady was designed to be a place of relaxation with psychedelic paintings by Lance Jost and couches throughout. However, it was also as a state of the art recording environment to lay down tracks for whenever Jimi felt struck by inspiration.
Hendrix was only able to record in his studio for four weeks in his lifetime, mostly while construction was still going on. An opening party was held on August 26th, 1970, Jimi recorded in the studio for the last time the next night, laying down a track subsequently titled "Slow Blues". The following day he boarded a flight for England to play at the Isle of Wight Festival. Three weeks later, he was dead.
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| Jimi Hendrix recoding at Electric Lady |
Pretty much every major successful rock and roll act has made their way to Electric Lady at some point, from the Rolling Stones to John Lennon, from David Bowie to AC/DC, from Guns and Roses to Van Halen.
Led Zeppelin of course recorded and did mixing work at the studio numerous times in their career. The first time was to work on their song "Gallows Pole" off their third album in 1970. The group returned to Electric Lady in 1972 to work on their album "Houses of the Holy" working primarily in studio A. During these session the band mixed the songs "Over the Hills and Far Away" "D'yer Mak'er" and "Dancing Days". The song "Houses of the Holy" from these sessions would appear on the groups double album "Physical Graffiti". The group mixed their entire live album "The Song Remains the Same" at the studio between 1973 and 1975.
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| Jimmy Page at Electric Lady (Eddie Kramer is in the foreground) |
I visited the studio on a trip to New York City in 2008. I took a cab from my hotel and after winding around Greenwich Village for a while, was finally able to spot the place. All that is there to identify it is a large glass pane window with the words "Electric Lady Studios" emblazoned on the front. Feeling bold, I opened the door and went inside only to be confronted by another more solid looking door which I knocked on. Suddenly a voice broke the silence on an intercom over my head, "Can I help you?", "Yes," I responded, "I was wondering if I could take a tour of the studio." "I'm sorry," the voice dryly retorted, "We don't do tours." Feeling a little despondent I took a picture and left. Subsequently I tried to call around to possibly get a tour, but to this day...no dice. Either way it was really cool, and if you are New York City, I recommend that you stop by and see this place for yourselves.
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| Electric Lady Studios |
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