Albums recorded in "unusual" locations....

John Martyn's "One World" was recorded at the home of Chris Blackwell, owner of Island Records.

Much of it was recorded outdoors, most especially "Small Hours", recorded in the small hours. One can hear the geese in the flooded gravel pit.

Phil Brown, the engineer, explains the challenges here:

Another World - The Official John Martyn Website

 

Cowboy Junkies' The Trinity Sessions was recorded in Holy Trinity Church in Toronto, a church historic enough that a premier shopping centre was built around it, instead of the building being torn down.

 

The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails was recorded at 10050 Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills-- where the Manson Family committed the murder of Sharon Tate and her guests.

 

Peter Frampton's Lp Frampton.
The album took three weeks to write. In October 1974, Frampton recorded at Clearwell Castle in Gloucestershire, with Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio parked outside.

 

Ben Vaughan - Rambler 65

Recorded in a 1965 Rambler.

Ben Vaughn - Rambler 65

 

Heron, recorded in a field next to the river Thames, it's sublime.

 

Madrigals of the Night by Ulver was supposedly recorded in a forest at night, although it sounds like it was recorded in a tin can.

 

From the Caves of the Iron Mountain - Tony Levin, Jerry Martotta and Steve Gorn

It's a binaural recording done at Widow Jane Mine in the Catskill Mountains. It was recently put on Bandcamp along with other Tony Levin related albums.

 

Almost every album is recorded on a laptop now. Bet a few album makers bring it to the toilet. The era of the toilet album is upon us.

 

Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV

From wikipedia Stars of CCTV - Wikipedia

 

This was recorded in Yoko's womb:

 

No, it's not. Sublime has no album titled "Heron" in their discography!

 

Michelle Shocked's debut album The Texas Campfire Tapes was recorded in a field outside the Kerrville Folk Festival on a Sony Walkman. Just Michelle and her acoustic guitar, accompanied only by a chorus of crickets and an occasional passing car.

 

Roger Payne's Songs of the Humpback Whale was recorded underwater.
Dozens of field recordings (Alan Lomax, etc.) were recorded literally in fields, and also on back porches, in prison work yards, and more.

 

Some songs on Wings' "Back to the Egg" were recorded at Lympne Castle, Kent - but not the whole album

 

Derek Bailey's Music & Dance was recorded in a glass-ceilinged, abandoned forge in Paris. "Several minutes into the first track, a heavy rainstorm erupts, creating a low roar that briefly threatens to overwhelm the music. Bailey, with his classic English ability to take things in stride, simply uses the sound as material to work with and accompanies the downpour with aplomb. When the leaking roof causes a small fusillade of water drops, these too are incorporated into the fabric of the piece, and quite beautifully. In fact, on occasion Bailey sits out entirely, allowing the rain splatters, the dancer's movements and the passing car engine to fully inhabit the sound space." (from an Allmusic review by Brian Olewnick)

 

That is disgusting.

 

John Mellecamp's 2010 album, No Better Than This, was recorded at 3 different locations for historical reasons (2 of them not being a studio) and to give it an authentic feel:

1. The First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia (Oldest Black Church in North America dating back to 1775)
2. Room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas where Robert Johnson first recorded in 1936

The third location was at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

Also, the entire album was produced and captured by T Bone Burnett with Mellecnamp and his band playing live using a 55 year-old Ampex tape recorder and just one vintage microphone.

 

Bad company’s straight shooter in Clearwater castle

 

While I was working on Downward Spiral, I was living in the house where Sharon Tate was killed. Then one day I met her sister. It was a random thing, just a brief encounter. And she said: "Are you exploiting my sister's death by living in her house?" For the first time the whole thing kind of slapped me in the face. I said, "No, it's just sort of my own interest in American folklore. I'm in this place where a weird part of history occurred." I guess it never really struck me before, but it did then. She lost her sister from a senseless, ignorant situation that I don't want to support. When she was talking to me, I realized for the first time, "What if it was my sister?" I thought, "**** Charlie Manson." I don't want to be looked at as a guy who supports serial-killer ********.[9]

Wiki

 

Carly Simon's album Christmas Is Almost Here was recorded in a hotel room. To be exact, Room 139 of The Peninsula Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA, in January 2002.

 

Much of Humble Pie's Eat It album was recorded at Steve Marriott's home studio. The studio was not good acoustically,
resulting in a lousy sounding album.

 

Of the 10 songs on Jackson Browne's Running on Empty ...

5 1/2 were recorded on stage
2 1/2 were recorded in hotel rooms
1 was recorded in a backstage rehearsal room
1 was recorded on the tour bus ("Nothing But Time")

 

The "studio" tracks on Elvis Presley's last two albums, From Elvis Presley Boulevard and Moody Blue, were recorded in the Jungle Room at Graceland.