914 Sound Studios
Encyclopedia
914 Sound Studios was a recording studio
in Blauvelt, New York
during the 1970s. Some of the artists who recorded tracks and albums in the studio were Bruce Springsteen
, Dusty Springfield
, Ramones
, Janis Ian
, Blood, Sweat & Tears
and Melanie
. It was named after telephone area code 914
which had, until the year 2000, served as the area code for Rockland County
where the studio was located.
and 10 minutes up north from the state border with New Jersey
. Arthur later explained its genesis: “I was living in Valley Cottage, New York which is down Route 303
from Blauvelt, back in 1971, and I thought it would be a great idea to have a workshop where artists and producers could hang out for a week at a time, relax and build a record at affordable rates. New York City by-the-hour pricing was already getting expensive, and I envisioned a place where artists like Janis, Dusty Springfield and, later, Bruce would be able to roost for a while and create an album. We built a football field behind the studio and the great Blauvelt Diner was within walking distance. Bruce loved that place!"
Bruce Springsteen
began recording at 914 Sound Studios once he signed his first record deal, with Columbia Records
in 1972. Manager and producer
Mike Appel
chose
it in order to economize in using the $25,000 advance they had been given; he saw it as "a top-notch facility" that allowed "high quality at reasonable rates" due to its out-of-the-way location. Recordings made at the studio during 1972 would make their way onto Springsteen's debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
and would also be used as demos for Appel's publishing company, Laurel Canyon Music Publishing. Some of these demos would later appearance as radio-only releases ("The Fever
") or on his late 1990s Tracks box set, or on innumerable bootleg recording
s. All of Springsteen's second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, was recording at 914 Sound in 1973; still short on money, some members of Springsteen's E Street Band
slept in a tent in back of the studio rather than rent a hotel room or drive back and forth to the Jersey Shore
. The membership of the band even changed temporarily due to the studio; Louis Lahav, the studio's resident sound engineer, provided the link whereby violinist and vocalist Suki Lahav
became an E Streeter for six months.
The first song for Springsteen's next album, the classic "Born to Run
", was also recorded at 914 Sound in 1974. A New Jersey fan and a personal friend of Springsteen at the time, Barry Rebo (who later became the chairman of Emerging Pictures
, a national network of digital cinema
theaters), used his black-and-white Super-8 film camera to record Springsteen at the 914 Sound Studio. Springsteen labored there for months, between playing club dates, over the four-and-a-half minutes of "Born to Run". Then new producer and future Springsteen manager Jon Landau
entered the scene; he described 914 Sound as a "beat-up old funky studio" where, among other things, the piano, which was at the core of the songs, would not stay in tune. Landau also felt that the studio owners had not invested in the most up-to-date equipment and that the sound of the studio was dull. So among the changes he made was to move recording of the remainder of the Born to Run
album to The Record Plant in New York City.
Dusty Springfield
recorded the songs for her intended-to-be 1974 album Longing
at the studio, with Brooks Arthur producing, but for various reasons the album was abandoned. The Ramones recorded tracks in 1975 at the studio for an alleged 1975 East Berlin
EP
, Judy's In The Basement - The 914 Sessions. Janis Ian
teamed up with Brooks Arthur for three albums recorded at 914 Sound, including 1975's number-one Between the Lines, containing her glorious teenage-self-pity hit "At Seventeen
". Between the Lines was the final project at 914 that Arthur worked on.
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
in Blauvelt, New York
Blauvelt, New York
Blauvelt is a hamlet , formerly known as Greenbush and then Blauveltville, in the Town of Orangetown Rockland County, New York, United States located north of Tappan; east of Nauraushaun and Pearl River; south of Central Nyack and west of Orangeburg...
during the 1970s. Some of the artists who recorded tracks and albums in the studio were Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
, Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
, Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian is an American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction author. Ian first entered the folk music scene while still a teenager in the mid-sixties; most active musically in that decade and the 1970s, she has continued recording into the 21st century...
, Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears is an American music group, originally formed in 1967 in New York City. Since its beginnings in 1967, the band has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a multitude of musical styles...
and Melanie
Melanie Safka
Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk is an American singer-songwriter. Known professionally as simply Melanie, she is best known for her hits "Brand New Key", "Ruby Tuesday" and "Lay Down ".-Early career:...
. It was named after telephone area code 914
Area code 914
Area code 914 is a telephone area code within New York state. 914's boundaries are the same as Westchester County. It was one of the original area codes established in October 1947....
which had, until the year 2000, served as the area code for Rockland County
Rockland County, New York
Rockland County is a suburban county 15 miles to the northwest of Manhattan and part of the New York City Metropolitan Area, in the U.S. state of New York. It is the southernmost county in New York west of the Hudson River, and the smallest county in New York outside of New York City. The...
where the studio was located.
History
914 Sound Studios was created by Brooks Arthur (Brooklyn-born Arnold Brodsky), a well-known sound engineer at the time, who lived in Rockland County. The 914 Studios was 45 minutes upstate from New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and 10 minutes up north from the state border with New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. Arthur later explained its genesis: “I was living in Valley Cottage, New York which is down Route 303
New York State Route 303
New York State Route 303 is a north–south state highway in eastern Rockland County, New York, in the United States. It begins at the New Jersey state line in the hamlet of Tappan and ends later at an intersection with U.S. Route 9W in Clarkstown...
from Blauvelt, back in 1971, and I thought it would be a great idea to have a workshop where artists and producers could hang out for a week at a time, relax and build a record at affordable rates. New York City by-the-hour pricing was already getting expensive, and I envisioned a place where artists like Janis, Dusty Springfield and, later, Bruce would be able to roost for a while and create an album. We built a football field behind the studio and the great Blauvelt Diner was within walking distance. Bruce loved that place!"
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
began recording at 914 Sound Studios once he signed his first record deal, with Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
in 1972. Manager and producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Mike Appel
Mike Appel
Mike Appel is an American music industry manager and record producer, most known for his role in both capacities early in the career of Bruce Springsteen....
chose
it in order to economize in using the $25,000 advance they had been given; he saw it as "a top-notch facility" that allowed "high quality at reasonable rates" due to its out-of-the-way location. Recordings made at the studio during 1972 would make their way onto Springsteen's debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. is the first studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released in 1973. It only sold about 25,000 copies in the first year of its release, but had significant critical impact...
and would also be used as demos for Appel's publishing company, Laurel Canyon Music Publishing. Some of these demos would later appearance as radio-only releases ("The Fever
The Fever (Bruce Springsteen song)
"The Fever" is an early Bruce Springsteen song, perhaps first written in 1971 under the title " Fever For the Girl". It was performed by Springsteen in concert beginning in March 1973...
") or on his late 1990s Tracks box set, or on innumerable bootleg recording
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
s. All of Springsteen's second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, was recording at 914 Sound in 1973; still short on money, some members of Springsteen's E Street Band
E Street Band
The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.The band has also recorded with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian...
slept in a tent in back of the studio rather than rent a hotel room or drive back and forth to the Jersey Shore
Jersey Shore
The Jersey Shore is a term used to refer to both the Atlantic coast of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the adjacent resort and residential communities. . The New Jersey State Department of Tourism considers the Shore Region, Greater Atlantic City, and the Southern Shore to be distinct, each having...
. The membership of the band even changed temporarily due to the studio; Louis Lahav, the studio's resident sound engineer, provided the link whereby violinist and vocalist Suki Lahav
Suki Lahav
Tzruya "Suki" Lahav is an Israeli violinist, vocalist, actress, lyricist, screenwriter, and novelist. Lahav was a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band from September 1974 to March 1975, then returned to Israel and found success there.-Biography:Tzruya Lahav was born and raised in Kibbutz...
became an E Streeter for six months.
The first song for Springsteen's next album, the classic "Born to Run
Born to Run (song)
"Born to Run" is a song by American singer songwriter Bruce Springsteen, and the title song of his album Born to Run.- Songwriting :Written at in Long Branch, New Jersey in early 1974, the song was Bruce Springsteen's last-ditch effort to make it big. The prior year, Springsteen had released two...
", was also recorded at 914 Sound in 1974. A New Jersey fan and a personal friend of Springsteen at the time, Barry Rebo (who later became the chairman of Emerging Pictures
Emerging Pictures
Emerging Pictures is a theatrical exhibition company, founded in 2002 by Giovanni Cozzi, Ira Deutchman and Barry Rebo. The stated mission of the company is to create a national alternative theatrical network out of independent venues such as art house theaters, museums and performing arts centers,...
, a national network of digital cinema
Digital cinema
Digital cinema refers to the use of digital technology to distribute and project motion pictures. A movie can be distributed via hard drives, optical disks or satellite and projected using a digital projector instead of a conventional film projector...
theaters), used his black-and-white Super-8 film camera to record Springsteen at the 914 Sound Studio. Springsteen labored there for months, between playing club dates, over the four-and-a-half minutes of "Born to Run". Then new producer and future Springsteen manager Jon Landau
Jon Landau
Jon Landau is an American music critic, manager and record producer, most known for his association in all three capacities with Bruce Springsteen.He is currently the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame....
entered the scene; he described 914 Sound as a "beat-up old funky studio" where, among other things, the piano, which was at the core of the songs, would not stay in tune. Landau also felt that the studio owners had not invested in the most up-to-date equipment and that the sound of the studio was dull. So among the changes he made was to move recording of the remainder of the Born to Run
Born to Run
The album's release was accompanied by a $250,000 promotional campaign by Columbia directed at both consumers and the music industry, making good use of Landau's "I saw rock 'n' roll's future—and its name is Bruce Springsteen" quote. With much publicity, Born to Run vaulted into the top 10 in its...
album to The Record Plant in New York City.
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
recorded the songs for her intended-to-be 1974 album Longing
Longing
Longing may refer to:*"Longing", an emotion characterized by a strong feeling of desire.*Longing , an unreleased 1974 album by singer Dusty Springfield*"Longing" , a song by Japanese metal band X Japan...
at the studio, with Brooks Arthur producing, but for various reasons the album was abandoned. The Ramones recorded tracks in 1975 at the studio for an alleged 1975 East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, Judy's In The Basement - The 914 Sessions. Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian is an American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction author. Ian first entered the folk music scene while still a teenager in the mid-sixties; most active musically in that decade and the 1970s, she has continued recording into the 21st century...
teamed up with Brooks Arthur for three albums recorded at 914 Sound, including 1975's number-one Between the Lines, containing her glorious teenage-self-pity hit "At Seventeen
At Seventeen
"At Seventeen" is a song by Janis Ian, released in 1975 on Between the Lines and as a single. Ian's most successful recording, the song is a commentary on adolescent cruelty, the illusion of popularity, and teenage angst, as reflected upon from the maturity of adulthood...
". Between the Lines was the final project at 914 that Arthur worked on.