“Two of his right-hand fingers were bleeding afterwards”: Tony Visconti on Pete Townshend’s one-take David Bowie Heathen session
David Bowie producer Tony Visconti has shared new behind-the-scenes stories from the making of Heathen, including a blistering one-take guitar performance from Pete Townshend that left the Who legend with bleeding fingers.
In a new interview with Spin, Visconti revisits the 2002 record, his first full-album collaboration with Bowie since 1980, and the musicians who contributed to its sessions.
READ MORE: Guitarist from Canadian pop punk band loses two fingers in construction accident
“As for working side-by-side in the studio, we both played many instruments, and I was singing backing vocals with him since the earliest albums,” Visconti says of his time with Bowie. “He was impatient. If we wanted a guitar part, we didn’t want to phone for a player and wait until that guitarist was free. David and I shared guitar duties frequently. We were a two-man band.”
Occasionally, outside musicians were brought in. One such cameo was Pete Townshend, whose appearance on Heathen happened largely by chance.
“Townshend dropped in for a visit when we were recording in Philip Glass’s studio, Looking Glass. They had a long chat, and I could see camaraderie between old friends,” the producer recalls. Before long, Bowie invited him to pick up a guitar.
“David asked him to play. He did, but we asked him to play a bit more aggressively, and he said, ‘Oh, do you mean Townshend Windmill Chords?’ He nailed it in one take. Two of his right-hand fingers were bleeding afterwards,” says Visconti.
Another contributor to the album was Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, who played acoustic guitar on Bowie’s cover of Neil Young’s I’ve Been Waiting for You.
“The Grohl story is interesting,” Visconti says. “He played acoustic guitar, remotely from California, and sent us a file. His drumming would’ve been better, but that didn’t happen.”
The session also came with a price tag Visconti still finds hard to believe.
“Afterwards he sent David an invoice for $10,000. Sure, he was on top of his game, but that was ludicrous,” the producer says. “I don’t know if David actually paid him that much.”
The post “Two of his right-hand fingers were bleeding afterwards”: Tony Visconti on Pete Townshend’s one-take David Bowie Heathen session appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
