With A Little Luck | Page 2 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Sea Belt said
Stevie Wonder really went to town with synths — not only Songs in the Key of Life but also the previous album Fulfillingness’ First Finale and (maybe later) Journey Through the Life of Plants

Yep, he really began with ’72’s “Music Of My Mind”, and 1979’s “Journey Through…” film soundtrack was arguably the farthest-out he ventured into the technological aspects of the analog synth.

As for Paul and co. recording on a boat, I’ve always loved that fact, found it awesome; and also hilariously impractical. Is it not hard to play instruments while the floor under your feet rocks from the waves? And did they not have an occasional take spoiled when some huge freighter passed by in the vicinity blowing its horn?

Sea Belt said
@vonbontee

I didn’t think of those nautical problems!  Now my imagination is getting away from me… 

  

I myself could hardly not think of it, ’cause my apartment is one mile north of a river’s edge, and I hear huge lake freighters (and other boats of all sizes) blowing their horns periodically throughout the day, every day, ten months of the year. I live on the St. Mary’s River, which connects Lake Superior with Lake Huron, and which separates Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, my own town, from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, two miles south of me. “Sault” means “rapids” in French, and the rapids of the St. Mary’s (resulting from the different depths between Superior and Huron) would be impossible for any boats to safely traverse, if not for the Soo Locks system (“soo” is how “Sault” is pronounced). The boats will blow their horns as they approach the locks, so the operators can get them ready to pass through. Wikipedia says that over 10000 boats pass through each year, so that’s about 33 vessels every day from March thru December. Measuring by weight, more freight passes through the Soo Locks yearly than in any other system of locks in the world – including the Panama Canal. It’s because of the locks in Sault Ste. Marie, as well as the Welland Canal in Southern Ontario bypassing Niagara Falls, that boats have an unobstructed water passage through all five of the Great Lakes, to the St. Lawrence Seaway, and from there to the Atlantic Ocean.

Anyways,

one misconception I had about “London Town ” was that any nautical recording was done in London, on the Thames – presumably within sight of Tower Bridge, as seen on the cover. But now I understand that the yacht recordings actually happened in the Virgin Islands…