TOMORROW HIT TODAY
Their lavish major-label swansong, recorded with producer Jim Dickinson in Seattle and Memphis LUKIN: This is probably my favourite, probably because I wasn’t in the band for that much longer, so I didn’t have to play these songs a thousand times. ARM: This is our most expensive record. Previously whatever we didn’t use out of the budget we always got to keep, so we recorded fairly cheaply. Even in my hazy drug era one smart fiscal decision I came to was that I was gonna put money down on a house instead of just putting it into my arm. But by the time Tomorrow Hit Today came around, the deal was that whatever we didn’t use for the recording Reprise just kept. So we were like, “This is our one chance to make a ‘real’ major-label record.” We talked with our A&R guy about who would be good to record with, and he was friends with Jim Dickinson.
TURNER: Jim was a very cool, creative guy. Not afraid of some noise and chaos in the recording process. He was a great listener, loved Matt’s bass playing and really got a great rhythm foundation on the tunes. Plus, he had stories aplenty from his past.
ARM: He talked about recording with The Rolling Stones in Muscle Shoals, and being there when The Cramps recorded their early stuff, and recording Alex Chilton. All sorts of crazy stuff.
LUKIN: It was the first time we really used a ‘producer’ producer. He didn’t really seem to do much but sit around and smoke a lot!
ARM: He was very mysterious, and made subtle suggestions, tried to create a vibe. We tracked in Seattle, and then the plan was to mix it in Ardent in Memphis. But in Memphis I ended up doing pretty much all my vocals over, which was good because I think the initial pass was uninspired. We did a bunch of crazy guitar overdubs too. For one solo,
Jim took Steve over to Sun Studios, just to get the right vibe.
LUKIN: I didn’t know we were gonna get dropped, but I figured it was probably on its way. My only regret is that I didn’t quit before we were dropped – I was gonna quit anyway, and then it looked like I quit because of that!