Indian Summer

This surreal song is about one of Ross's real-life experiences.  He
had first visited the town of Newport Beach, California, during the
busy summer season.  When he returned in the fall, he was struck by
how desolate the place had become.  This is one of my favorite Ross
songs.  I got the chance to experience Newport Beach at that time of
year not long after finishing this recording.  The feeling in Ross's
song is just right.

I got the idea for the very ambient toms from a Grateful Dead
recording.  The song is "Sunrise", sung by Donna Godchaux.  It is not
at all typical of the Dead's output.  Look for it on the Terrapin
Station album.  You won't be disappointed.  Let it play through the
rest of the album.  It's also excellent stuff.

We had to mix this over and over again because the reverb effect on
April's voice at the climax had to be just right.  In the end, I still
didn't quite feel that I nailed it but now I think either I really did
get it right, or Brian the mastering genius fixed it.  Anyway it
sounds fantastic!

The "aah" backup vocals just before the guitar solo almost didn't
happen!  April had this great idea for vocals but we were all out of
tracks and I was skeptical as to whether we could pull it off.  We
recorded a track as an experiment.  We only had the one track, so we
had to sing our parts together, which was unfortunate because my voice
was really trashed.  We also only had one pair of headphones, so we
had to share that *and* the mic.  The oval-shaped picture of me and
april on the album insert was taken (by Ross) during this process.  We
played back the track and sure enough, it sounded pathetic.

My point made, we went on to work on other parts of the song.  At some
point I said we better go back and erase that track.  Otherwise I
might accidentally let those abortive vocals play during mixdown and
I'd be miffed.  So, we went back to erase it, and as usual, listened
to it one more time first.  As fate would have it, the other
information on that track called for huge reverb, so I had this giant
plate reverb cranked on that track.  When we played back the vocals,
suddenly instead of sounding bad, it sounded like early seventies art
rock, like the band Renaissance!  Wow!  Ross and April and I looked at
each other timidly for a few seconds, trying to see who would be the
first to admit that it actually sounded good after all.  What you hear
on the album is the original experimental track, complete with my
thoroughly trashed voice, with huge amounts of plate reverb added.
Just gozta showya what reverb can do!!