# Famous albums that were home recorded. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 4, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761 "2008-06-04T15:05:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/1 "2008-06-04T15:05:13Z")
Springsteen’s Nebraska was one. Any others? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/2 "2008-06-04T15:08:31Z")
[Whatever and Ever, Amen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whatever_and_ever_amen). ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/3 "2008-06-04T15:11:07Z")
Not exactly home-recorded, but _The Texas Campfire Tapes_ by **Michelle Shocked** used pretty rudimentary equipment and you can hear crickets, etc. in the background… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/4 "2008-06-04T15:18:13Z")
Much of the **Let it Be** Album was recorded at “Apple Studios,” which was located in the basement of the apartment of one of the group. In addition, Paul McCartney recorded much of **McCartney** at home. **[Emitt Rhodes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emitt_Rhodes)** recorded his (excellent) album at his home – and played all the instruments. ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/5 "2008-06-04T15:19:30Z")
_Music From Big Pink_, the Band. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/6 "2008-06-04T15:27:00Z")
Most of **Exile On Main Street** was recorded at a house in France that was being rented by Keith Richard’s at the time. A great book on the sessions came out last year or so. **Blues for Allah** was recorded at Bob Weir’s house (they hadn’t even finished building the studio when the sessions started. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/7 "2008-06-04T15:34:11Z")
Boston’s first album. Maybe the second; don’t know. “The Basement Tapes” Les Paul did a lot at his home, probably most of his and Mary Ford’s output. He had Mary sing some stuff in the bathroom. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/8 "2008-06-04T15:36:18Z")
IIRC, Side 4 of Todd Rundgren’s **Something/Anything?** was recorded in his living room. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/9 "2008-06-04T15:53:36Z")
**Relayer** by Yes was recorded at bassist Chris Squire’s house. ---
**Author:** ![DfrntBreign](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@DfrntBreign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DfrntBreign)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/10 "2008-06-04T17:47:38Z")
first two I thought of: **461 Ocean Blvd.** - Eric Clapton **Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs** - Derek and the Dominos ETA - Didn’t Beck record his debut at home? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/11 "2008-06-04T18:10:15Z")
Not exactly at home, but Jackson Browne’s “Running On Empty” was recorded on the bus, in hotel rooms, and live on stage. It’s an amazing album. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/12 "2008-06-04T18:11:06Z")
Most of **Jethro Tull** ’s “modern era” releases (post 1990-ish) have been done in Ian Anderson’s home studio. **Van Halen** ’s Hagar-era stuff has been recorded at Eddie’s home studio. **Led Zeppelin** recorded all of their albums in an auto-body shop through a telephone receiver held up to a cassette deck recorder (I kid, I kid 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/13 "2008-06-04T19:26:14Z")
Nine Inch Nails’ **The Downward Spiral** was recorded at the house where Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson family. I’ve never listened to it and don’t know how “famous” it qualifies as being. Trent Reznor rented the place for the purpose and lived there for the duration of production. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/14 "2008-06-04T19:30:44Z")
The White Stripes dabble in home recording, being a “Garage Band” and all. From Wikipedia article: [The White Stripes - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Stripes) > [@](#): > > Their second release, De Stijl (2000), was named after the De Stijl (The Style) Dutch art movement, which they cited as a source for the approach to their musical image. De Stijl art is on the album cover. The work was recorded on an 8-track analog tape in Jack’s living room; he subsequently said that he would never again employ that method because of the many interruptions which were encountered. > [@](#): > > …Get Behind Me Satan, was recorded in Jack White’s Detroit home and released in > North America on June 7, 2005 and has garnered critical acclaim. These albums sound great BTW. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/15 "2008-06-04T19:34:05Z")
[David Gray’s _White Ladder_](http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_david_gray/) ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/16 "2008-06-04T20:33:59Z")
[QUOTE=Shoeless] IIRC, Side 4 of Todd Rundgren’s **Something/Anything?** was recorded in his living room. [/QUOTE] Pretty much every Todd album after S/A has been recorded in some sort home studio except “Second Wind”. His most recent, “Liars” was recorded entirely to a Macintosh laptop with a single USB microphone. He’s working on another one in a studio he’s just built in his home in Hawaii (that he also designed and may reportedly be featured in an issue of “Architectural Digest”). All of Kate Bush’s albums after “The Dreaming” have been recorded in her various home studios. Every issue of “Mix” magazine has news of major studios closing. “Home” recording is becoming the standard rather than the exception. Excellent quality equipment has become cheap. The main reason to use a professional studio these days is to record strings and drums. Do all your tracks at home, bring in your Pro Tools hard disk, record your drums, get a mix at home and then bring in the rough mix and raw tracks to a mastering facility to finish it. The days of rock bands spending months in a major studio are long gone. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/17 "2008-06-04T21:30:08Z")
Depends on what you mean by “home recorded” - sure \*\*Exile \*\* and \*\*Layla \*\* were recorded in home settings, but with battle-tested, highly respected producers working with the bands the whole time. They basically had a full-on studio in the home. That is the same with \*\*Blood Sugar Sex Magic \*\* by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who recorded in a house set up for the purpose with Rick Rubin… Now, if by “home recording,” you mean something recorded by someone at their home (or in a studio) but with little/no engineering or producing experience or help, well, that’s different. Indie records are all about no-frills, DIY recording - most get recorded that way…Pavement’s \*\*Slanted and Enchanted \*\*has a lot of stories about its recording (e.g., the drummer Gary not knowing the songs so he wore headphones and added fills when Malkmus barked out “fill!” into the headphones while the track was playing, etc.). Oh, and \*\*Face Value \*\* was recorded in demo form by **Phil Collins** , just try give a feel for the songs so he could get a separate recording deal from Genesis, but his label decided to more or less use his demos (they might’ve re-recorded some of the songs, but with the same basic production as the demo’s… ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/18 "2008-06-04T21:37:47Z")
[QUOTE=gaffa] All of Kate Bush’s albums after “The Dreaming” have been recorded in her various home studios. [/QUOTE] Beat me to it! The most famous one of those recorded at home (famous being relative, since she’s famous everywhere except in the US) is _Hounds of Love_. Of course it’s one thing for a rich artist, and Kate is VERY rich, to record an album in a custom-built home studio with state-of-the-art equipment, and quite another to record a phenomenal (and phenomenal-_sounding_) record at home with equipment cobbled together on a shoestring budget. With the exception of some drums by Jerry Marotta, the entierty of [this album](http://wretchawry.com/happy/samples/manyworlds/) was recorded at home, with all of the beyond-awesome vocals being recorded in the bathroom, because she liked the acoustics. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/19 "2008-06-04T22:00:58Z")
[QUOTE=Krokodil] Nine Inch Nails’ **The Downward Spiral** was recorded at the house where Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson family. I’ve never listened to it and don’t know how “famous” it qualifies as being. [/QUOTE] Considering that it debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 and went on to sell over four million copies, I’d have to say “very.” [Also:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downward_spiral) > [@](#): > > The album was ranked at number 25 in Spin’s “100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005”, Spin also ranked it 11th on their "Top 90 Albums of the 90’s ". Blender named it the 80th Greatest American Album. It was ranked #488 in the book The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time by Martin Popoff. In 2001 Q named The Downward Spiral as one of the 50 Heaviest Albums Of All Time.[12] In 2003, the album was ranked number 200 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. [13] ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761/20 "2008-06-05T02:14:15Z")
Dave Gilmour records on his houseboat, _Astoria_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-albums-that-were-home-recorded/451761.md?page=2)