Unusual recording

koneguitarist

Thinking of all the great songs that have been done with various techniques like Elvis at Sun with just one mic for whole band, and Beatles sgt pepper linking up 4tracks and bouncing tracks etc. 

That I got to remember and old track by Jackson Browne called "nuthin but time" off the Running on empty album. He was recording the whole time, hotel rooms, on stage but as with song above actually on the tour bus, and you can hear the road noise and gear changes, great vibe to song. 

http://youtu.be/VoBACfnp0RI song starts about 3:40, love it when he tells the other guitarist to do some chuck berry.

What are your unusual recordings?

mudslide73

I like "The Universal" by The Small Faces where Marriott recorded the basic track in his garden then the band was added later. Black Country Woman on LZs Physical Graffiti is done the same way but all live iirc.

xSkarloey

I love that Small Faces track too. 

In a similar vein you've got Street Fightin Man where the original tape recorder guitar demo is kept as a main track to give the song a great feel. 

Anything recorded in non-traditional studios with a mobile recording studio, e.g. a lot of the mid 70's Zep tracks, Exile on Main Street recorded in the basement of a Cote D'Azur mansion. It's not just the vibe to this stuff, it's the slightly different ambience they've got from the rooms they were recorded in. 

One of my favourite guitarists is Vini Reilly of the Durutti Column, and a lot of his stuff has been recorded in his home on portastudios, but still using top notch equipment like samplers etc, which gives a lot of it a very spontaneous,  immediate  and personal feel. 

On a different tack, I've always had a soft spot for the Glyn Johns version of The Beatles' "Get Back", which totally captures the rough and ready feel of what they were trying to do there and the loose atmosphere of recording in their offices, on rooftops etc. 

And if I could ever magic up a recording that I don't think exists of something spontaneous, it'd be of saxophonist Sonny Rollins practicing by himself when he used to go up on the Brooklyn Bridge in the late 50's/ early 60s.