Question For Ken Scott re: SUPERTRAMP "Crime Of The Century"

Mr Scott,

Just playing one of my favourite albums of all time, Crime of The Century, on vinyl. I guess I always heard this sound but just noticed it for some reason now....is that a Theramin on Hide In Your Shell playing those ghostly sounds during the bridge? The "well let me show you the nearest signpost..etc"....part?

Thanks, and thanks for helping make such a great album.

 

Thanks for your thanks. I enjoyed almost every minute of making it.

Actually it's a musical saw. We got the player to just play around without any track after we'd got the take and it was amazing. Talk about eerie. I wish I knew what happened to that tape.

Cheers.

 

That's one of your finest moments, Ken. Great record.

 

This was one of those records that was ahead of its time production/engineering-wise. The pianos and drums are so crisp and punchy. Brilliant job Ken!

I have some questions to add if you don't mind. Where both Rhodes and Wurlitzers used on the album? I heard that on some albums the Wurly was run through a Roland Jazz Chorus amp and miked. Was it on this record or run through pedals?

I love Supertramp. Is Crime or any other Supertramp album available in surround on SACD or DVD?

Musical saw eh? That just made my day. This place is awesome.

 

Firstly, thanks to all of you for your kind words.

Next, with regard to keyboards, it was all primarily Bechstein and Wurlitzer. We certainly used a minimal amount of Hammond and maybe a very little Rhodes. I'm really not sure on that one. The Wurlitzer was almost always DI'ed.

With regard to SACD or DVD, I really don't know. After doing Ziggy in 5.1 I contacted 'Tramps manager about the possibility of doing "Crime" in 5.1 and was told that it was already in the works and that it would be, to use an old Brit expression, "money for old rope". I will not give an explanation of that expression, maybe one of the other Brit members of this forum would care to jump in.

Anyway, I've checked every now and again on Amazon and the like, to no avail, and so I suppose it never actually saw the light of day. Such a shame. What a PERFECT record for surroundsound. Oh well.

Cheers.

 

As mentioned on previous threads those two albums are on my all time favorite list. I'm happy to say I own both original vinyls (Supertramp is a white label promo). I also have the Mobile Fidelity vinyl pressings as well, the Mobile Fidelity Gold CD of Supertramp, two anniversary discs of Ziggy and the SACD 5.1 mix. Great Job to say the least.
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Yet another 5.1 sitting in a can (or on a hard drive) somewhere. I'd buy it.

 

I'm not British but I can save some people the effort of looking it up like I did.

This from rootsweb.com:

Money for old rope

This saying originates from the days of public hangings. It was a perquisite of the hangman to keep the rope used to hang his 'customer'. The rope, however, was popular with the macabre crowds, so the hangman used to cut the rope up and sell it.

 

I must say that that really doesn't put it across the way it's generally meant.

Cheers.

 

There are many artists and musicians who don't hold their own classics in high regard. Consensus is they feel it was a good record "for the time" and that's it. Literally a "thing of the past". I, personally, think Mick Jagger is full of wet snot when he says "Exile was a good record but not one of [our] best". I guess it's ok to be humble, but a lot of really brilliant artists don't always have the comfort fans do about these opinions?

Supertramp, like many groups, pulled off a solid product, a concept or "sound" that ended up being "brilliant" either by critics or fans. Some late-comers pick up Crime and get the same reaction long fans got. They finally listen to "School" and "Rudy" or the title track and they get the real reason Supertramp was brilliant. Musically and lyrically they had great original ideas. Very tight band. Daring, confident.

Ken was instrumental to really keeping that album tight. Tender and dynamic places in that record really make my neck hairs stand up.

 

Yup. It's a timeless album. I loved in in the '70s, I love it now. And from a production standpoint, it's just fantastic. It's warm and detailed, a beautiful sounding recording.

Kwad

 

Thanks Ken. Crime (along with Revolver and Are You Experienced), is an album I can never get tired of.

 

It is a perfect album (at least as perfect as they get) - just wonderful. Thank you, Ken!

 

Dead on! One part that kills me is the dramatic build up in Rudy, after the sax (or clarinet?) solo, as the guitar is playing those little wah wah chords, and then it busts into the big "all thru your life" part. The music almost gives a sense of feeling of being on a train.

 

Did you ever see them in concert? Rudy starts at a train station and ends at a train station and it flies in between. Simply....awesome!!!!

 

Yes! Breakfast In Canada tour (That's what they called it ). Stunning show!

 

BTW, the Speakers Corner version sounds great and is still widely available.

 

"Hide In Your Shell" is one of my two favourite Supertramp songs (the other being "Soapbox Opera"). The first time I listened to it, I just knew that sax line was going to come in there at the end. Only occasionally do I get that kind of feeling during a song I've never heard before. Another example is the short, low guitar motif leading into the wind-up of "Mr. Hurst" by Last Party.

 

Yea! Was at one of the Paris concert's that comprized the Paris album. Awesome concert.

 

Yeah I agree. Also, perhaps the best joint band member efforts on this album. Rarely do you hear the two of them trading lead vocals on each other's songs like that.

Hey, here's a question (don't want to go over my quota haha) but the sound effects (children playing) in School... from a sound effects collection for film or recorded by Ken or the band? Always curious about that sort of thing. The scream right before "after school is over" is kind of chilling.

Wow, not to harp on a sore subject but to have COTS in 5.1 done by Ken would be amazing. Let's all sign a petition! Haha.

 

That's the one I think has a rare Rhodes part in it (whereas Dreamer is a Wurly). Great song I agree.

 

Ken, I read in a post on a different forum from five years ago that to get a certain drum sound on the title track a cinder block tunnel was built and the drum mic'd from the far end of the tunnel. True? Any more to this story or other anecdotes from the making of the album you'd care to share? Supertramp was the first rock concert I saw - Montreal, '79.

 

I've always thought the expression "money for old rope" meant "easy money" - a guaranteed earner.

"Crime of the Century" was very popular among the pot smoking crowd when I was in my early twenties. Progressive music that was a lot tighter than usual, didn't wander aimlessly, but some trippy, metaphysical concepts that made it interesting for the heads. "Crisis, What Crisis" was along the same lines - and then they lost the spark, and became a pop band.

 

I understand that it's usually used in a dismissive way. I read an interview where Elvis Costello described the computer job he had before he made his first album as "money for old rope" and that he was able to write most of his first album on the job. So, "easy money".

So I'd take it to mean that Supertramps' manager thought that the 5.1 mix would be no big deal and that they didn't need someone of Ken's calibre to do the job!

I'm a big fan of the Ziggy 5.1 mix, so I'm particularly disappointed to hear about Crime of the Century. Never mind, the stereo mix is awesome. I think I lived on that album for about a year in the mid-seventies!