Here's an excerpt from a Library Of Congress interview with Lou Adler conducted in 2015 about the production of Tapestry. It's more philosophical than technical, but it is none-the-less fascinating.
“LOC: Did you work with her on finding her singing voice as a recording artist?
Carole’s voice was developed as far as it was going to or needed to be. She had a natural sound. She never sounded like she studied.
I remember the first review we got--it was horrible. I always remembered it, some writer out of Long Beach. He said she had a screechy voice and sang through her nose!
But [with her voice] there was nothing to develop. Technically, Hank Cicalo, our engineer, and I were always conscious to NOT do anything that would take away from her natural sound, or try to enhance it.
LOC: Did Carole’s singing voice and voice as a songwriter influence how you produced the album?
As a publisher for Carole, we would send out her demos, that were just her piano and voice, and we couldn’t get them back from the A&R men, producers or artists! They all wanted to keep them! So, I knew, when we started to record her, we had to stay as simple as you possibly can. I always wanted to make it sound like, whoever was listening to it, that it was just them listening to Carole singing and playing the piano. That was my direction for “Tapestry.”
LOC: What were those “Tapestry” recording sessions like?
Carole’s amazing. The most prepared of any artist I have ever worked with.
Before going into the studio, we went over the songs she had written or was writing, with an album of 12 in mind.
Obviously she plays piano and any other keyboards but then she also did the arrangements. She also sang on most of the backgrounds. Virtually anything I asked of her. I would say “Wouldn’t it be nice if we had...” and then we would have it! Not many artists are that complete. Joni Mitchell is. Maybe Neil Young. Total and complete.
LOC: For an album that has been one of the biggest, continuously selling in record history, I was surprised to learn that it didn’t cost much or take much time to record, did it?
I think we did the whole album for $22,000, around the time that was medium to low [cost]. We recorded three to four weeks, again, that was a medium to low amount of time. Carole’s very conscious of that. She doesn’t waste time. We were there to work. It’s not that she’s not loose enough to have a laugh with the musicians but she was right there, where we should have been.
It’s not always that way but we were both that kind of artist and producer.”
“LOC: Did you work with her on finding her singing voice as a recording artist?
Carole’s voice was developed as far as it was going to or needed to be. She had a natural sound. She never sounded like she studied.
I remember the first review we got--it was horrible. I always remembered it, some writer out of Long Beach. He said she had a screechy voice and sang through her nose!
But [with her voice] there was nothing to develop. Technically, Hank Cicalo, our engineer, and I were always conscious to NOT do anything that would take away from her natural sound, or try to enhance it.
LOC: Did Carole’s singing voice and voice as a songwriter influence how you produced the album?
As a publisher for Carole, we would send out her demos, that were just her piano and voice, and we couldn’t get them back from the A&R men, producers or artists! They all wanted to keep them! So, I knew, when we started to record her, we had to stay as simple as you possibly can. I always wanted to make it sound like, whoever was listening to it, that it was just them listening to Carole singing and playing the piano. That was my direction for “Tapestry.”
LOC: What were those “Tapestry” recording sessions like?
Carole’s amazing. The most prepared of any artist I have ever worked with.
Before going into the studio, we went over the songs she had written or was writing, with an album of 12 in mind.
Obviously she plays piano and any other keyboards but then she also did the arrangements. She also sang on most of the backgrounds. Virtually anything I asked of her. I would say “Wouldn’t it be nice if we had...” and then we would have it! Not many artists are that complete. Joni Mitchell is. Maybe Neil Young. Total and complete.
LOC: For an album that has been one of the biggest, continuously selling in record history, I was surprised to learn that it didn’t cost much or take much time to record, did it?
I think we did the whole album for $22,000, around the time that was medium to low [cost]. We recorded three to four weeks, again, that was a medium to low amount of time. Carole’s very conscious of that. She doesn’t waste time. We were there to work. It’s not that she’s not loose enough to have a laugh with the musicians but she was right there, where we should have been.
It’s not always that way but we were both that kind of artist and producer.”
