Overview

The inside story of Record Plant studios - the real 'Hotel California' - that reveals how the greatest music of the seventies was recorded and why the artists checked out but rarely left. In the 1970s, Record Plant Studios was ground zero for the largest boom in record production in music history. With complexes in New York, Los Angeles and Sausalito, and a fleet of remote recording trucks, Record Plant was everywhere there was music. In 1976 alone, the studio produced three number-one albums: Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life, the Eagles' Hotel California and Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. Written by two veteran music journalists, this engrossing book tells the incredible story of the evolution of Record Plant Studios tape by tape. Starting on the westside of New York in 1968 with the recording of Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, Record Plant expanded to LA, where Stevie Wonder produced his greatest hits, and then to Sausalito where Sly Stone, Bob Marley and Fleetwood Mac encamped; John Lennon made New York his post-Beatles home, and the Eagles conceived Hotel California while working in LA. Each location showcased the founders' proven formula of combining state-of-the-art audio, fantasy bedrooms and group jacuzzis, with sex, drugs and celebrity jams. Largely based on the memoirs and archives of studio co-founder Chris Stone, and supplemented by interviews with over 100 studio employees, music producers and recording artists, this is the untold story, in all its brazen glory, of the recording of classic rock'n'roll as told by the insiders who gladly toiled behind the locked doors of the most prolific recording factory of all time.

Full Product Details

9780500028698

Table of Contents

Reviews

Absolutely the best rock history book I've ever read, and I've read them all.--Bobby Owsinski, best-selling author, educator and recording engineer An entertaining dive into a wild musical world. . . . Music journalists Porter and Goggin take us behind the scenes where the sounds were created, sliced, and diced. . . . Sex and drugs were inevitably part of the package, with cocaine piled atop amplifiers. . . . There are wild tales of [John] Lennon locking horns with Phil Spector in L.A. [. . .] and a DEA raid in Sausalito aimed at busting Sly Stone. . . .With firsthand accounts from many of the players, it's a cautionary tale.-- ""Kirkus Reviews"" Cool book. I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in studio history. I got an advance copy last week and reading it was like reliving those crazy times.--Jack Douglas, producer/engineer John Lennon, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick Martin Porter and David Goggin's Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant Studios traces the extraordinary history of one of the music industry's most vaunted and influential institutions. During its heyday in the 1970s and beyond, the Record Plant served as the innovative hub for one landmark album after another. In this thoroughgoing and highly entertaining book, Porter and Goggin provide readers with a guided tour of the studios, along with unforgettable stories about the producers, engineers, and artists who made the Record Plant hum.--Kenneth Womack, author of ""Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans""

I can't even conceive of a place or a lifestyle like that happening now. And as crazy as I remember the Record Plant and the lifestyle that went along with it, the matter-of-fact, uninflated writing shows that it was even crazier than that.--Ed Freeman, Producer/Arranger, ""American Pie,"" Don McLean; ""Weather Report,"" Weather Report; ""Oakland Zone,"" Tower of Power; ""Carly Simon,"" Carly Simon These are the stories behind the records. The people who made them and how they made them . . . This particular book has not been written before. We've got books listing all the sessions, but exactly what went down inside the buildings . . . To go into the studio back in the day . . . There was a magic, your skin tingled . . . And that feeling is captured in this book.--Bob Lefsetz, ""The Lefsetz Letter"" (6/2/2025 12:00:00 AM) There are many famous names that pop up in this lively tale that, between the carousing, also shows how difficult running a recording studio (or studios) can be.--Gillian Gaar ""Goldmine"" Wow! There's no stopping once you start with this thing! I spent a big part of my life at the Record Plants in Los Angeles, NYC and Sausalito, so it was good fun reading this account of those days! Gary Kellgren was a brilliant engineer and very close friend. He, of course, created Record Plant and the rest is history. Great job, David and Marty!!--Jim Keltner, drummer for John Lennon, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and others Gary Kellgren was the first audio engineer I ever worked with, on Goffin and King demos. He was great then and got even greater once at the Record Plant. He was one of the best engineers there ever was and a great cat. He is missed by everyone who knew him. A real rock 'n' roller!--Danny ""Kootch"" Kortchmar, guitarist for Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Graham Nash, Steve Perry, and others A colorful chronicle of the first 13 years of the Record Plant recording studio... Stitching together meticulous research, interviews with industry insiders and engineers, and ephemera (including album covers, studio posters, and even invitations to Record Plant parties), the authors provide an exuberant account of a chaotic studio culture that fed some of the artists' worst impulses while creating some of the 1970s' most memorable music... Rock fans will find this irresistible.-- ""Publishers Weekly"" Although it's a bizarre tale, it was a pleasure to skim back over those crazy days...--Al Kooper, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame songwriter, record producer, and musician Absolutely the best rock history book I've ever read, and I've read them all.--Bobby Owsinski, best-selling author, educator and recording engineer An entertaining dive into a wild musical world. . . . Music journalists Porter and Goggin take us behind the scenes where the sounds were created, sliced, and diced. . . . Sex and drugs were inevitably part of the package, with cocaine piled atop amplifiers. . . . There are wild tales of [John] Lennon locking horns with Phil Spector in L.A. [. . .] and a DEA raid in Sausalito aimed at busting Sly Stone. . . .With firsthand accounts from many of the players, it's a cautionary tale.-- ""Kirkus Reviews"" Cool book. I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in studio history. I got an advance copy last week and reading it was like reliving those crazy times.--Jack Douglas, producer/engineer John Lennon, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick Buzz Me In brings classic rock history to vibrant life... If you go through your record collection, you're bound to find more than a few LPs recorded by the Record Plant, and the stories of how they came to be are positively fascinating.-- ""The Pitch"" (6/16/2025 12:00:00 AM) Without the Record Plant, chances are your record collection would sound very different. Buzz Me In gets into all the drama and legendary music that came out of the New York/California studios in the Seventies, with cameos from Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, and more.-- ""Rolling Stone"" The full story of the famed studio [featuring] tales of inspired performances, visionary engineering, needlessly destroyed equipment, pranks, drugs, government surveillance, fights, romance, sex and drugs. Yes, drugs are listed twice... Meticulously put together by Porter and Goggin... Buzz Me In provides the full picture of all that happened within the walls of each of the Record Plant's studios.-- ""Mix Magazine"" (6/1/2025 12:00:00 AM) Martin Porter and David Goggin have captured the unique and inimitable vibe of the Record Plant in all its manifestations, along with the spirit of the times in which Chris Stone and Gary Kellgren invented the modern recording studio. These groundbreaking studios and the madcap professionals within were indispensable to the creation of the soundtrack to our lives, and Buzz Me In beautifully translates the sounds of popular music's high-water mark into words. A remarkable story of music, musicians, and America.--Christopher Walsh (senior writer, ""East Hampton Star""; musician) The inside story of Record Plant Studios... In '76, three number one albums were produced there: Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life, The Eagles' Hotel California, and Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. The authors take us through it all, play-by-play.-- ""Music Connection"" (4/29/2025 12:00:00 AM) Buzz Me In is a story about three studios where I've spent thousands of hours making dozens of hit records. They remain three of my very favorite ""happy places"" thanks to Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone's genius. A deep, and at times hilarious, read. (Check out [the section on] ""Walk This Way."")--Bill Szymczyk, producer, the Eagles, Joe Walsh, J. Geils Band, B.B. King Martin Porter and David Goggin's Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant Studios traces the extraordinary history of one of the music industry's most vaunted and influential institutions. During its heyday in the 1970s and beyond, the Record Plant served as the innovative hub for one landmark album after another. In this thoroughgoing and highly entertaining book, Porter and Goggin provide readers with a guided tour of the studios, along with unforgettable stories about the producers, engineers, and artists who made the Record Plant hum.--Kenneth Womack, author of ""Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans""

Authors Martin Porter and David Goggin expertly offer a magnificent array of entertaining anecdotes... Just as the studio engineers and producers captured magic on tape, this profusely illustrated and compellingly crafted book has captured it in print.-- ""BookPage (starred review)"" Revealing... tells the story of one of the US's most successful recording studios during its most decadent years [and] invites the public into a rock 'n' roll world that few have seen... Record Plant was special.-- ""BBC Culture"" A fun, fascinating read. It lets the reader peek behind the walls of the recording studio [and] gives a sense of what took place when some of the best music of all time was made.-- ""The Recoup"" (6/24/2025 12:00:00 AM) An engrossing history of what were among the world's most storied and influential recording studios and the men who founded and guided them through triumph and tragedy.-- ""The East Hampton Star"" (6/19/2025 12:00:00 AM) I can't even conceive of a place or a lifestyle like that happening now. And as crazy as I remember the Record Plant and the lifestyle that went along with it, the matter-of-fact, uninflated writing shows that it was even crazier than that.--Ed Freeman, Producer/Arranger, ""American Pie,"" Don McLean; ""Weather Report,"" Weather Report; ""Oakland Zone,"" Tower of Power; ""Carly Simon,"" Carly Simon These are the stories behind the records. The people who made them and how they made them . . . This particular book has not been written before. We've got books listing all the sessions, but exactly what went down inside the buildings . . . To go into the studio back in the day . . . There was a magic, your skin tingled . . . And that feeling is captured in this book.--Bob Lefsetz, ""The Lefsetz Letter"" (6/2/2025 12:00:00 AM) There are many famous names that pop up in this lively tale that, between the carousing, also shows how difficult running a recording studio (or studios) can be.--Gillian Gaar ""Goldmine"" Wow! There's no stopping once you start with this thing! I spent a big part of my life at the Record Plants in Los Angeles, NYC and Sausalito, so it was good fun reading this account of those days! Gary Kellgren was a brilliant engineer and very close friend. He, of course, created Record Plant and the rest is history. Great job, David and Marty!!--Jim Keltner, drummer for John Lennon, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and others Gary Kellgren was the first audio engineer I ever worked with, on Goffin and King demos. He was great then and got even greater once at the Record Plant. He was one of the best engineers there ever was and a great cat. He is missed by everyone who knew him. A real rock 'n' roller!--Danny ""Kootch"" Kortchmar, guitarist for Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Graham Nash, Steve Perry, and others A colorful chronicle of the first 13 years of the Record Plant recording studio... Stitching together meticulous research, interviews with industry insiders and engineers, and ephemera (including album covers, studio posters, and even invitations to Record Plant parties), the authors provide an exuberant account of a chaotic studio culture that fed some of the artists' worst impulses while creating some of the 1970s' most memorable music... Rock fans will find this irresistible.-- ""Publishers Weekly"" Although it's a bizarre tale, it was a pleasure to skim back over those crazy days...--Al Kooper, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame songwriter, record producer, and musician Absolutely the best rock history book I've ever read, and I've read them all.--Bobby Owsinski, best-selling author, educator and recording engineer An entertaining dive into a wild musical world. . . . Music journalists Porter and Goggin take us behind the scenes where the sounds were created, sliced, and diced. . . . Sex and drugs were inevitably part of the package, with cocaine piled atop amplifiers. . . . There are wild tales of [John] Lennon locking horns with Phil Spector in L.A. [. . .] and a DEA raid in Sausalito aimed at busting Sly Stone. . . .With firsthand accounts from many of the players, it's a cautionary tale.-- ""Kirkus Reviews"" Cool book. I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in studio history. I got an advance copy last week and reading it was like reliving those crazy times.--Jack Douglas, producer/engineer John Lennon, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick The definitive history and ultimate 'tell all' book about the recording studios known as 'The Real Hotel California...' What the book does cover extensively is how working at the Record Plant influenced not just the music recorded by those artists but also how the studio changed their personal lives... Buzz Me In is more than just an exposé of the indulgences of the record business during the 1960s and 1970s [but traces] an era that gave birth to some timeless music [in] a family of studios that changed the business of audio recording forever... A book that anyone involved in music recording and production will find fascinating.-- ""Journal of the Audio Engineering Society"" Buzz Me In brings classic rock history to vibrant life... If you go through your record collection, you're bound to find more than a few LPs recorded by the Record Plant, and the stories of how they came to be are positively fascinating.-- ""The Pitch"" (6/16/2025 12:00:00 AM) Without the Record Plant, chances are your record collection would sound very different. Buzz Me In gets into all the drama and legendary music that came out of the New York/California studios in the Seventies, with cameos from Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, and more.-- ""Rolling Stone"" The full story of the famed studio [featuring] tales of inspired performances, visionary engineering, needlessly destroyed equipment, pranks, drugs, government surveillance, fights, romance, sex and drugs. Yes, drugs are listed twice... Meticulously put together by Porter and Goggin... Buzz Me In provides the full picture of all that happened within the walls of each of the Record Plant's studios.-- ""Mix Magazine"" (6/1/2025 12:00:00 AM) Martin Porter and David Goggin have captured the unique and inimitable vibe of the Record Plant in all its manifestations, along with the spirit of the times in which Chris Stone and Gary Kellgren invented the modern recording studio. These groundbreaking studios and the madcap professionals within were indispensable to the creation of the soundtrack to our lives, and Buzz Me In beautifully translates the sounds of popular music's high-water mark into words. A remarkable story of music, musicians, and America.--Christopher Walsh (senior writer, ""East Hampton Star""; musician) The inside story of Record Plant Studios... In '76, three number one albums were produced there: Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life, The Eagles' Hotel California, and Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. The authors take us through it all, play-by-play.-- ""Music Connection"" (4/29/2025 12:00:00 AM) Buzz Me In is a story about three studios where I've spent thousands of hours making dozens of hit records. They remain three of my very favorite ""happy places"" thanks to Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone's genius. A deep, and at times hilarious, read. (Check out [the section on] ""Walk This Way."")--Bill Szymczyk, producer, the Eagles, Joe Walsh, J. Geils Band, B.B. King Martin Porter and David Goggin's Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant Studios traces the extraordinary history of one of the music industry's most vaunted and influential institutions. During its heyday in the 1970s and beyond, the Record Plant served as the innovative hub for one landmark album after another. In this thoroughgoing and highly entertaining book, Porter and Goggin provide readers with a guided tour of the studios, along with unforgettable stories about the producers, engineers, and artists who made the Record Plant hum.--Kenneth Womack, author of ""Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans""

Author Information

Martin Porter is an author, journalist and publisher who began his career as a technology writer/reporter in the mid-1970s for Rolling Stone, GQ and Premiere magazines. As editor and publisher of Pro Sound News, EQ, Guitar Player and Surround magazines, he has been one of the leading chroniclers of this golden period in music and audio technology. David Goggin, aka Mr Bonzai, is an award-winning author, photographer and music journalist. Together the authors manage the popular Record Plant Diaries Facebook page.

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