Standing On Top

Chapter 8a

Intemperance and their manager, Pauline Kingsley, now knew why National Records management had been so lackadaisical about the submission date for new songs for the next album. It hadn't been out of any concern for the health and well-being of the band or its members, nor had it been because they thought the band would produce better if they had a nice vacation prior to the composition process. No, National had kept nicely in character when they'd pushed the submission deadline back to November. It's In The Book was still high on the top ten list of album sales. Radio stations across the country, as well as in Europe, Australia, and Japan were still playing almost every song on the album multiple times a day. Even the deep cuts that had never been intended for radio play were being spun by disc jockeys and enjoyed by the listening audience. In short, Book had turned into the best-selling album that National had put out in more than a decade and, as a result, they didn't want to hamstring it by introducing any new Intemperance material too soon. As such, they'd decided long before sharing their strategy with the band itself that they were not going to release a new Intemperance album in the coming year. In effect, they'd bowed out of the 1988 option period and had instead decided to focus on a new project for the band.

"We're going to put out a live album early next year," Crow told them in a meeting one morning.

"A live album?" Pauline asked.

"You bet your ass," Crow said. "We've got almost sixteen hours worth of live tracks recorded in Detroit over the past three tours. We're going to compile them into a double live album and package it with a small photo book of band tour photos. The album will wholesale for eleven dollars and retail for sixteen. At the same time, we'll release a concert video that's also compiled of the video shoots we've done at the Detroit shows. This video will wholesale for six dollars and retail for nineteen."

The band had been suspicious about this idea at first — they were automatically suspicious of everything National came up with — but eventually they warmed to it, especially after National officially rejected the new album option for this year and relieved them of the legal obligation to submit new material by mid-November. All figured it was probably for the best anyway. The profit potential of such an album was hard to ignore. At a retail rate of sixteen dollars per album, that meant the band would receive $2.88 for each one sold — and such an album would probably sell three to four million at the very least. That did not include the video sales either. The band received eighteen percent royalties on all videos sold in their name. The money, however, was not the main reason why the band quickly embraced the idea of taking a year off from new material. The harmony that had once existed between them at jam sessions no longer seemed to be as harmonious as it once had.

The band had gotten together a few times to try to hash out some songs for the next album and these sessions had inevitably erupted into arguments over the material in question. Jake didn't like many of the new songs Matt was trying to introduce because they were too hard-core and most utilized a modification of the heavy palm-muted chords technique he was experimenting with. Matt didn't like most of Jake's new songs because they were too soft or too bluesy and a few of them did not have enough strong lead guitar for his taste. Nerdly wasn't fond of much of anything the two of them came up with, writing all of it off as too musically simplistic and bland. Nerdly wanted more complexity, more tempo changes, more four-part harmony backing up Jake's lead vocals, more different styles of music so that when he mixed it he could be challenged by the compositions. Nerdly longed to put together a musical masterpiece that would be remembered for hundreds of years after his death. And then there was Charlie. He was just strange, always worrying about tapeworms and bacterium and wiping off his bass guitar every time he had to go to the bathroom or turn up his amplifier. Coop, the only one without strong opinions, was just frustrated with the lack of progress and spent much of these sessions sitting behind his drum set smoking cigarettes and rolling his eyes.

"What the hell is happening to you guys?" Pauline had asked after three such sessions in which they'd only agreed to start working on a single song — Jake's She Cut Me Loose, the song he'd written about his failed relationship with Rachel. "Both you and Matt are telling me you've come up with nine to ten songs apiece for the next album and all you're doing is arguing about them?"

"I think we've grown too big for our condoms," Jake had replied.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"It's like this," he said. "Matt and I are the ones who compose the lyrics and basic musical melody of our tunes. Nerdly is the one with the best ideas about how to fine-tune those basic tunes into the end product that shows up on the albums. Sure, the other two throw in suggestions on minor points, but Nerdly is the one who has the best ear for mixing the various instruments together in a way that gives us our unique sound."

"Okay," she said. "It sounds like a system that's been working well ever since the D Street West days. So what's the problem now?"

"The problem now is that we've all grown — musically if not emotionally — and we've grown in different directions. We've all developed our own ideas about what we should be doing and those ideas tend not to jibe with each other. Nerdly is into mixing and utilizing the best new techniques of blending the music together. He wants to be a fucking maestro who turns us into a mixture of Boston and Pink Floyd with all the overdubs, synthesized voice and guitar tracks, and unnecessary tempo changes. Matt, on the other hand, is edging more towards the hard-core heavy metal sound, complete with palm-muted chords or approximations of them, a pounding back-beat, and two heavily distorted guitars on every track. He wants no overdubs of any kind and he's starting to push for Nerdly's piano to be more of a backing track instead of one of the main instruments. And then there's me. I'm not blameless in all of this either. Most of the songs I've composed for this next album are heavy on the acoustic guitar tracks and the piano and not as heavy on the harsh, crunching lead guitar. I'm starting to favor more of a blues approach to the lead guitar instead of the classic loud, overriding electric distortion. I'm also in favor of using Charlie's bass guitar as more than just a means to set the beat. The guy is one of the best bass players I've ever heard. He can do things with his instrument that Darren can only dream about. As long as he's in the band I think we should take advantage of that."

"Can't you guys come together with your three points of view and combine them into something?" she asked. "It would seem that is the logical conclusion."

"And hopefully that's what we'll do," Jake agreed. "We've only had a few sessions now. We'll get a list together by the deadline. We always do."

Most likely they would have, had they been allowed to continue. Now, however, with the new album on hold in favor of a live album, the band found something else to argue about. This argument, however, was not with each other, at least not at first. It was with their oldest and most formidable enemy — Crow and the rest of National's production team.

National had the right to put together either a live album or a Greatest Hits album at any time during the duration of their ownership of the rights to the Intemperance collection of songs. The band could have argued until blue in the face, could have screamed and threatened lawsuits, but the language of their contract was quite clear on this issue. National owned the rights to all tunes recorded by Intemperance, including live tracks, for twenty-five years beyond the expiration of the contract itself and they could do with them what they wished. The same contract, however, gave the band the right to oversee the development and production of any album bearing the Intemperance name, including the right to decide which tracks went on the album (subject to veto by National management), what order they went on, and how the final mix of the tunes in question were done. These were rights that Jake, Matt, and especially Nerdly insisted upon utilizing for the live album.

Crow had tried to talk them out of it, of course. "Look, guys," he said. "Just keep enjoying your vacation. We've already given you the standard advance money for the live project so your bank accounts are back to overfull again. Travel, ride your dirt bikes, go fishing, fly your airplanes, run your restaurants. In short, enjoy yourselves. The live tracks are already recorded and only have to be mixed. We don't really need any of you in the studio for any of this — at least not until the final mix when we might have to do some overdubs on some of the weaker tracks."

"Overdubs on a live album?" Matt asked, fuming. "Don't even fucking think of it!"

"You think I'm going to allow some National Records technician to mix a live album?" Nerdly asked. "I will be there for every session."

"Me too," Jake said. "There's no way in hell we're going to let you throw something together with our name on it without consulting with us. We'll come up with the track list and give approval for all tunes put on the album."

As much as the band was stuck consenting to the production of the live album in the first place, National was similarly stuck with allowing the band to exert their control over that production. It was, after all, in their contract. So instead of enjoying themselves with travel, meaningless fornication, gross intoxication, and every other excess the members of Intemperance were so famous for, the three core members were now showing up at nine o'clock sharp five mornings every week and working in the studio usually until six in the evening — sometimes later. Every week, it seemed, there was a fresh clash between the band and their management over the vision for the album in question.

The first battle had come over the name of the album. National was pushing for something along the lines of Let The Darkness Descend or Falling Between The Cracks (making reference, of course, to the infamous coke from the butt crack session that had taken place during their first tour). Nerdly had come up with the title: Thrills Alive, making reference to Intemperance's most popular live song — The Thrill Of Doing Business. Although both Jake and Matt had thought Nerdly's idea a good one they did not wish to put any emphasis on one particular song. After a drunken, stoned session at Jake's house one night they had come up with what would become the actual title: Intemperance — In Action. Nerdly, upon hearing it, had quickly agreed (although he still liked his idea better).

"In Action?" Crow had complained when told about it. "That's boring! I'd be more inclined to go with Bill's idea than that."

"And we'd be forced to go along with you if it were you making the final decision," Jake said in return. "But you're not. We've already made up our minds, Crow. In Action it's going to be."

From there the arguments had spread to what the album cover itself was going to look like. National favored some sort of satanic imagery, of course, while the band wanted nothing more than a wide angle shot of them on stage and performing. That led to the issue of just who should be seen in the onstage picture. Should they use a shot where Darren was playing bass or one where Charlie was playing? National didn't really give a shit either way since their satanic imagery had been shot down, but all five members of the band had strong feelings about this particular subject. Matt and Coop both insisted that Darren's picture be on the cover shot.

"Darren is the real bass player for this band," Matt argued. "No offense, Charlie, but we hired you as a replacement while Darren is recovering from the fuckin' botulism. You'll get credit on the tracks you played on and you'll get your share of the royalties from the album, but you don't get to be on the front."

Jake and Nerdly both disagreed with this logic. "We already know we're going to use the tracks recorded on the last tour for most of the basic tunes," Jake said. "Those were the recordings with the best sound quality because they were using newer equipment. Charlie is playing on those tracks, not Darren. His picture is the one that belongs on the album cover."

"Then we'll just have to use the older tracks for the basic tunes," Matt said.

"I apologize, Matt," Nerdly cut in at this point, "but I must strenuously disagree with that idea. The older tracks are palatable and can be mixed into something of LP quality, but they are inferior to the latest tracks from the Book tour. I was personally able to set the levels on those tracks and they are pristine."

The argument started to get quite heated before Charlie himself stepped in. "Dudes," he told them. "I don't care if Darren's on the front of the cover or not. Put him on there. I know I'm just the replacement. I'm happy enough that I'm even involved in this at all. I was about to jump off a building before you guys let me in the band. Why should I care if my picture is on the front or not?"

Jake tried to keep arguing on Charlie's behalf even though Charlie himself was in favor of the Darren shot. It seemed a matter of honesty and principle. If Charlie was the one who had played bass on the majority of the album's tracks, he should be the one to be featured on the cover. In the end, however, Nerdly took the side of Charlie, Matt, and Coop, not because he thought they were right but because he knew that this was ultimately a stupid thing to be arguing about. Jake was left standing alone on the issue and was forced to give in.

The next argument — and the major one — had to do with the track list itself. There was room for ninety-six minutes worth of recording material on the double album. Everyone agreed that all of Intemperance's major hits — those that had breeched the top ten list and those that had received extensive airplay — should be featured. This was a total of sixteen songs which, when mixed, would account for sixty-eight of those minutes. That left twenty-eight minutes that needed to be filled. Everyone had their own idea of what should be put into those twenty-eight minutes.

National wanted to simply fill the time in by putting another six tunes from the first four albums, leaning particularly heavy on the deep cuts from It's In The Book. Since those deep cuts were still receiving airplay it seemed, to them anyway, the most logical and easiest course of action.

Nerdly, on the other hand, was in favor of filling some of the time with Jake's between song banter — which had been recorded along with the music — and then adding two or three new studio cuts to the end of the album. He was the only one who liked that particular idea and National out and out forbid it the moment it was suggested.

Matt wanted to fill up a good portion of this time by putting in the various solos that had been performed as part of the live act. Mixed in with the recordings were more than seventy-five minutes worth of guitar solos, piano solos, drum solos, and even a bass solo from the last tour. If they were interspersed throughout the album they could eat up ten to twelve minutes of that twenty-eight and give those that had never been to an Intemperance show before some sort of sense of what they were missing.

Jake liked this idea and then expanded upon it. If they were going to put in the solos, why not put in some of the tracks they'd done during the earlier tours, tracks that had never been released to the public in record form, that had only been played live?

There were three such songs available to them. One dated back to the D Street West days. It was called Life Of Toil and had been written by Matt, recorded on the first demo tape they'd submitted to national when they'd first signed on, but never included on any album because it was over seven minutes long. Still, it was a hard-rocking tune that featured an extended guitar, piano, and drum duel between Matt, Nerdly, and Coop just prior to the closing verse and it played so well live that they'd used it in the The Thrill Of Doing Business tour as a space filler. Thus, it had been recorded in Detroit on the night that Darren had first openly smoked marijuana before stepping onto the stage.

The other two songs had been penned by Jake. The first, Twisted Logic, was one that had gone on the original demo tape Ronald Shaver had used to sign them to that original contract, but, for one reason or another, it had always been bumped from subsequent albums. It too had been recorded in Detroit during the Thrill tour. The second was called This Life We Live. Written initially for the Balance Of Power album, it was a long, ballad-like piece about the downside of being a celebrity, about the isolation and mistrust that came with the job, about the lack of privacy.

Jake, Matt, and Nerdly had elected not to put This Life We Live on the album for several reasons. Part of it was the length of the tune. It had four verses, a bridge, several sections of quiet acoustic guitar strumming and piano keys, and an extended guitar solo. Part of it was the song had some parallels to I Found Myself Again, the road song from that album. Mostly, however, they just thought the song was just a little too mellow to fit in with the harder rocking tunes from that album, that it would be more of a contrast then an accompaniment. Still, the band all liked the tune a lot, even if it wasn't quite classic Intemperance material, so they'd included it as part of the play list for the Balance Of Power tour and it too had been recorded live during their swing through Detroit on that tour.

"Let's do it," Matt said, when the idea of including these three tracks was broached. "We'll put in the solos as stand-alone pieces, throw in a few bits of Jake's between-song banter, and then intersperse these three tunes throughout the rest of the album."

"They're all too long for singles," Jake said, "but I bet they'll pick up some decent FM airplay on the hard rock stations."

"I'd really like to get a good listen to those tapes first," said Nerdly. "Especially for Toil and Twisted. They were recorded back during the Thrill tour. They might sound like nothing but fecal matter."

"They'll sound fine," Matt said. "Once we get it mixed and adjusted they'll sound as good as studio cuts."

The next argument began when they told Crow of their plan to include the unrecorded tracks.

"No way," he said, shaking his head before they were even done verbalizing. "We can't put unreleased material on a live album."

"Why not?" Jake asked.

"You just can't," he said. "I'm cool with the solos and the between song crap — people eat that shit up — but nobody wants to hear new music on a live album. They want to hear your classic tunes played live."

"And they'll get that," Jake said. "Every last one of our standard airplay tunes will be on the album. The unrecorded tracks will be bonus material to help sell the album, particularly if they get FM airplay."

"There's no precedent for this sort of thing," Crow said.

"Actually, there is," said Jake. "Frampton put unrecorded material on his live album. So did Cheap Trick and Journey."

"They are not National Records bands," Crow said. "What if those songs became popular? We can't release them as singles because they're all over four minutes long."

"So, in other words," said Matt, "you won't make any money off of them."

"We are a business," Crow said huffily. "If we go to the trouble of putting out a product, we should make money off of it."

"You'll make money off those songs because they'll help sell the album," Jake said patiently. "If they start to play them on the radio and people like them, they'll have to buy the album in order to get copies of them. It's the same principal behind not releasing It's In The Book as a single, remember?"

"Well," Crow had to admit, "you do have a good point there."

"Besides," said Matt, "those fuckin' recordings aren't making any of us any money right now, are they? They're sittin' in some vault somewhere."

This too, Crow had to admit, was a compelling argument. He took the proposal to Doolittle and Casting, expecting them to reject it out of hand and order him to start pressuring Jake and Matt — the true ringleaders of the band — to go along with the original plan of including deep cuts from Book. This was something he was not looking forward to because such confrontations were usually nasty, frightening, frequently unsuccessful, and always caused his ulcer to flare up. To his surprise, however, Doolittle and Casting both readily agreed to the plan.

"We don't give a shit what they put on that album as filler," Doolittle told him. "As long as the basic airplay tunes are there and the filler is legal and clear, the album will sell. The airplay tunes are what is going to sell the damn thing. Who knows? Maybe Kingsley is right and the unreleased tunes will help."

"The important thing," said Casting, "is that we get that album mixed, produced, and into the stores by late October, early November at the latest."

"For the Grammy Awards next year?" Crow asked, wondering what was so important about that. All the album could qualify for would be Best Live Album — a nothing category announced early in the show.

"That would be nice," Doolittle said. "But that's not the reason."

"It's not?"

"No," Doolittle said. "We have another little project for the boys come January."

"We do?" Crow asked.

They did. Doolittle filled Crow in on the details.

"Wow," Crow said. "That's going to be expensive. Are you sure the band is going to go along with it?"

"We'll have to make sure they go along with it," Doolittle told him. "The money-making potential is simply too great to ignore.

"When are we going to tell the band about this?" Crow wanted to know.

"We'll wait until they're well into production of In Action and then we'll spring it on them. Trust me, they won't say no."

National Records Building, Los Angeles

September 10, 1988

Matt, Jake, and Nerdly were in the main mixing room of the basement studio, headphones in their laps, their faces red, their voices loud as they discussed the issue of Matt's song Life Of Toil, which they were trying to mix for inclusion on the master recording.

"I'm telling you guys," Nerdly said, his eyes burning. "That entire recording is sub-standard. Those morons at the mixing board during the Thrill tour had no intercoursing idea what they were doing. The lead guitar tracks are too much in the high end and the piano and rhythm are too much in the low. The drums and bass are all over the place."

Jake was leaning forward, covering his eyes in frustration. So far they had mixed two songs and they had had this argument with Nerdly on both of them. Nerdly was particularly passionate in this case. Toil was the first tune from the Thrill Of Doing Business tour — the tour in which Nerdly had had no hand in the sound levels. "Look, Bill," Jake said (he was much more likely to call Nerdly by his Christian name when he was frustrated and/or pissed off at him). "I listened to those tracks just like you did. I'll give you that they're not as good as the ones you did, but they're not that bad. We can work with them."

"They're unsalvageable," Nerdly insisted. "If we go with them, the quality won't match the rest of the recording."

"Your fuckin' face is gonna be unsalvageable if you don't knock this shit off," Matt said angrily. If Jake's frustration level was approaching the red, Matt's had already gone off the chart and into the abyss.

"I don't see how threatening me with physical violence is going to rectify this dilemma," Nerdly replied. "We need a solution to this disparity of quality in the tracks."

"You know what the fuckin' solution is, you moron!" Matt yelled. "We tweak the levels until they blend! We turn down the lead guitar a little and turn up the rhythm and the piano. We turn the bass and drum tracks up or down as needed. In other words, we fuckin' mix! We do what we've been doing for the other two tunes we did. That's what mixing is, remember?"

"There is no way we could make it work at optimum reproductive quality with the material we have available to us," Nerdly insisted, getting a little pissed off himself now. "You know what we need to do, Matt. So do you, Jake. You're both just too damn traditional to do it."

"I'm gonna fuckin' kill him, Jake," Matt said. "If he suggests overdubs one more time, I'm going to stomp his fucking head into the ground."

"We have to overdub this song if you want to include it on the album," Nerdly said.

"That's it," Matt said, standing up so fast his chair rolled four feet backwards. His headphones thunked to the floor in a tangled heap. "It's time for some fucking physical violence. Prepare to bleed, Nerdly."

Jake quickly stood and intercepted Matt before he could make it to Nerdly's position. He didn't think Matt was actually serious about hitting him, but with Matt you could never be sure. He put his hands on Matt's shoulders and pushed him back a few feet. "Chill, Matt," he said soothingly. "This ain't gonna help."

"Sure it will," Matt said. "Just let me gouge out one eyeball and you'll see how much it helps."

"You just don't want to admit I'm right," Nerdly said, standing his ground. "You're regressing to your Neolithic base instinct in response to your internal realization of your unfathomable position."

"I am not!" Matt yelled. "And what the fuck does that mean, anyway?"

"Sit down, Matt," Jake said, propelling him backward until he practically fell into his chair. Matt didn't resist.

"You cool?" Jake asked him.

"No, not really," Matt said.

"Good," said Jake. "Just don't attack anyone, okay? You might hurt your hand."

"Okay," Matt said, nodding.

"Jake," Nerdly said. "You know I'm right, don't you? I know you're opposed to the principle of overdubbing this live album — although I don't see why — but you heard the same tracks I did. Tell him we have to redo the lead and rhythm guitar at the very least."

"You agree with that prima donna faggot, Jake and I'll gouge your fuckin' eyeballs out too!" Matt yelled. "You know I can do it! You know I let you push me back to this fuckin' chair!"

"Matt... chill," Jake said, holding up his hand to him.

"Here we go now," Nerdly said, disgusted. "This is where you agree with him just because you're afraid of him."

"Don't start that shit with me, Bill," Jake said, turning on him. "You're talking out of your ass now."

"Do you agree with him or not?" Nerdly asked.

"I agree with him," Jake said. "But not because I'm afraid of him. I agree because he's right."

"Goddamn right I'm right," Matt said.

"In your opinion," Nerdly said. "There is nothing wrong with overdubbing a live album in order to achieve optimum audio quality."

"Then why not just re-record all the fucking tracks and throw in some fake audience noises and call that live?" Matt asked. "The whole goddamn thing could be like Benny and the fucking Jets!"

"That's not the same thing," Nerdly insisted.

"That's where you're wrong, Bill," Jake said. "It is the same thing. There isn't a line there. There is no gray area in this subject. It's black and white. Recording anything new in a studio and overdubbing it onto what is supposed to be a live album is dishonest, possibly fraudulent."

"I can't accept that," Nerdly said. "Under that logic, the fact that we're even mixing these tracks is fraudulent. After all, we didn't sound like that on the stage, did we?"

"That's the stupidest argument I've ever heard you make," Jake told him. "How can you not see the distinction? We recorded all of those tracks on stage in front of an audience. There's nothing wrong with mixing them to make them sound their best. There is something wrong with re-recording any portion of a live track in a studio and passing it off as live."

"You don't understand," Nerdly started.

He didn't finish. Matt had finally had enough. "No," he interrupted. "You don't fucking understand, so I'm gonna make you understand. We will not overdub anything on any tune on this album, period!"

"Then we can't use this tune!" Nerdly insisted.

"We will use this tune!" Matt yelled. "I'm not throwing out a perfectly good tune just because you're such a fucking perfectionist that you can't work with less than immaculate material. Now you can either accept this and help us mix this fucking tune or you can get the fuck out of here and me and Jake will do the rest of the album without your ass!"

"You can't make me leave!" Nerdly said.

"Try me, motherfucker," Matt said. "Jake, are you behind me on this shit?"

"Yeah," Jake said with a sigh. "I'd hate to do it to you, Bill, but I'll be forced to back Matt on this if you don't mellow out a little and start working with us. You're not doing anything but hampering production at this point."

"And you can bet your ass that if Jake and I go to Doolittle on this, you're gonna lose," Matt said. "They'll file a fucking restraining order against your ass to keep you out of here if they have to."

"You wouldn't dare," Nerdly said. "There's no way the two of you could finish this album without me."

"You're wrong about that, Bill," Jake said, jumping in before Matt could. "I'll admit it probably wouldn't sound as good without you helping us, but we both know enough about mixing to pull it off. And we're not bluffing here. We'll do it if you force us. So how about we just don't go there? It'll do nothing but create a bunch of hard feelings that will never go away, and force us to release an album that's not all it should be. You're good at this mixing shit, Bill, but you need to mellow out a little and work with what we have."

Nerdly was clearly not happy about this. Being threatened with banishment by his band mates had clearly pissed him off to the highest degree. The threat and Jake's appeasement of his ego seemed to get through to him, however. He slowly unclenched his fists and un-gritted his teeth.

"All right," he said. "It's under protest, but I'll go along with you."

"The protest is noted," Jake said. "Now how about we get to work on this thing?"

They got to work. The first thing Nerdly did was get on the inter-department phone and call for Sharon Cohen. Sharon was a twenty-three year old post-graduate student from UCLA who was interning at the studio while working on her master's degree in audio engineering — a highly specialized field that dealt almost entirely with music and other sound recording. A shy, mousy, unassuming girl who favored loose, baggy clothing and who wore a pair of coke-bottle glasses, she nevertheless had quite the ear for music reproduction. She had been assigned to assist the band at the beginning of the project with things such as coffee making and sandwich fetching but Nerdly had taken her under his wing when he realized the un-tapped potential she held. It was rare that the two of them were not together when actual mixing was being done.

"Is he boning her yet?" Matt asked Jake as Nerdly got up to open the door for her.

"Not yet," Jake said. "He says he doesn't think of her that way."

"She is a bit on the homely side," Matt said. "Probably only a little better than jacking off."

"I think he's in love with her," Jake said. "You see the way he lights up whenever she's in the room?"

Matt shrugged, disinterested. After all, he'd once written a song entitled Who Needs Love? "She probably hasn't been boned much," he said. "I bet her pussy is really tight. A girl like that wouldn't take it up the ass though. Hell, she might not even swallow."

"I'm sure we'll get a full report when he takes that step," Jake said.

"If he's not too pissed off at us to fill us in," Matt said. "You think we went too far threatening him like that? I don't think I've ever seen him that pissed off before."

"Well, threatening to gouge out his eyeball might've been a bit over the edge," Jake said, "but overall, I think we did what needed to be done. Let's see how it goes."

"Yep," Matt agreed. "If nothing else, I think we at least got through to his ass this time."

They may have gotten through to him, but he was far from happy with them. As they went through the tracks of Life Of Toil one by one, making preliminary notes on what direction the adjustments needed to be made and trying to set a baseline sound level, Nerdly remained professional but aloof to his two band mates. He participated in no unnecessary conversation with them and when he did have to talk, his words were short and to the point.

His conversations with Sharon, on the other hand, were animated and in-depth as she cued up the tracks on the tape machines or jotted down levels on a note pad for him. He talked to her about some of his adventures in the studio over the past year, sharing anecdotes about how some of the clueless technicians were actually trying override a snare drum with a cymbal, or how they dared to suggest compiling a synthesizer track atop a bass rhythm in his presence. Sharon listened with wide-eyed interest that bordered on worship. Later, as the day progressed, she made mention of her plans for the upcoming High Holy Days. This led them into a long, incredibly boring discussion of the basic differences and conflicts between the Judaism faith and the various sects of Christianity.

Through this all, despite his anger at his colleagues and his obvious infatuation with the young, mousy intern, Nerdly remained true to his word and did his very best with the tracks that were presented to him. He made no more comments about how they should overdub the recording, made no more suggestions about scrapping the entire song. By the time four o'clock rolled around, they had made significant progress on the preliminaries of mixing the tune.

A knock came on the studio door. When Jake opened it he found Pauline standing there. His sister was wearing her standard business attire of a conservative, knee-length skirt, nylons, and a matching blouse and vest combo. Her hair was done up in a bun and her jewelry was both minimal and tasteful. She carried a leather briefcase in one hand.

"Hey, sis," Jake greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"Well," she said, "apparently we all have a meeting in fifteen minutes with Crow and Doolittle."