The Recording Of Crime Of The Century
By David Mendenhall
It wouldn't happen these days, record companies simply do not wait around for a group's 3rd album to be successful, but that is exactly what A&M Record's did before Supertramp finally broke through with their stellar release of "Crime Of The Century."
Before Crime was released, the band had suffered through two poorly selling LP's and had lost all of their members except the two core members of Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, most importantly however, they had also lost their millionaire backer Stanley August Miesegaes (If only he had waited! - The group did however do a noble gesture by dedicating "Crime" to him on the back cover utilizing his initials - To Sam.)
Roger and Rick then slowly and surely added the needed members one at a time, first aboard was Dougie Thomson from Scotland, then Bob Siebenberg from the United States, and lastly John Anthony Helliwell from England. The group then decided to get a legitimate manager by the name of Dave Margereson who they poached from the UK division of A&M. Dave and his wife Cass would eventually manage Supertramp straight to the top. It was Dave who suggested that the group work on new material at a cottage named Southcombe just like the group Traffic had recently done at a farm nearby. It would also be Dave that suggested that the band should work with producer Ken Scott.
Producer Ken Scott was indeed available much to the delight of Supertramp's sound man Russel Pope. Pope thought that Scott would be a excellent fit for the group as he was very impressed with his work on David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" and even more so with the job he performed on Bowie's "Hunky Dory"
Several weeks into the project Jerry Moss, the "M" of A&M came by the cottage to hear what was recorded at the time and was completely blown away from what he had heard. It was Jerry Moss who gave Ken and the group, the actual funds and needed time to get the album to fruition.
Producer Scott utilized various sound effects, problem was there were no easy ways to get the sounds he wanted during these pre-sampling times. For instance on the song "School" a portable tape recorder was utilized at a school where Scott's three daughters attended. Roger then found the parts on the tape that would actually work and put them into the song. The same technique would be used for "Rudy," Roger and John set up the recorder at a train station somewhere in London, and if you listen closely to the recording you can hear the train stopping at Didcot close to where Roger is from as well as Swindon, the place where Rick is from.
When it came to "Dreamer" the group was not able to capture what Roger had done on his demo tape. The answer they came up with is they put the demo tape on a reel and played to that until they finally nailed it to their satisfaction. On the haunting "Hide In Your Shell" a guy was brought in to play a Musical Saw, and on the last song of side one "Asylum" there is the sound of a cuckoo clock at the very end, but since it was the last track, many record players at that time had automatic tone arm's that would lift up off the record before it even got to it much to the chagrin of everyone involved.
One impressive noise they came up with is on the title track of "Crime Of The Century " namely that of a gong that was hit by Bob on a piece of sheet metal and immersed into a fish tank to make a eerie pitch change that sounded absolutely incredible half way through the song.
In all, the recording of "Crime Of The Century" took six month's and was so expensive that the group was told that it would have to sell 750,000 copies just to recoup A&M's investment.
When released, "Crime Of The Century" immediately gathered immediate acclaim and success. The group was also getting wary of the fact that many people mistakingly referred the album as a concept album which it really wasn't, the song's just fit together incredibly well much like a complete picture. "Dreamer" was released as a single in the UK, while it's flip side "Bloody Well Right" was released in the U.S. Incidentally in England, the word "Bloody" was actually treated as some sort of swear word. The Initial vinyl copies of "Crime" were actually released by the classical division via CBS who had A&M's distribution deal. The deal utilized better vinyl and manufacturing techniques. The result of that was absolutely phenomenal, most stereo stores would play "Crime" in their stores to actually test their stereo system's worth. Even John Bonham, drummer of Led Zeppelin was a fan, and would invite people over to hear the album at his home often at noise crushing volume.
in Canada, at the A&M 1975 Convention, the album was played no less than ten times in a row. A&M Canada President Gerry Lacoursiere and his staff worked the album tirelessly and received solid FM radio support in key markets, as well as in store play. The group's first Canadian appearance was before 6,000 rabid fan's packed into the University of Montreal where there was a near riot because the group performed the album as a whole piece and did not do an encore.
Success at Massey Hall in Toronto was next, as the group continued to crack Canadian markets throughout the country. In the U.S. However, word of mouth was much slower as many handbill's and even ticket's were handed out in some of the slower markets. The album only climbed to #36 and took it's time to reach gold and then platinum status. On the plus side, the first U.S. Tour ended in Santa Monica and it was a complete sell out.
At the end of the year the album that became a masterpiece in every sense of the word was nominated for a Grammy as Best Engineered Album Of The Year, narrowly losing to McCartney's "Band On The Run" LP. Supertramp were now a force to be reckoned with, and were well indeed on their way!
(Many Thanks to Ken Scott & his book entitled "Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust" available on Alfred.)