Robin Trower (Photo credit: Rob Blackham)
Robin Trower discusses his musical career and the 50th anniversary release of ‘Bridge Of Sighs’. Robin shares insights into its recording process, working with Geoff Emerick, and the inspiration behind its songs. The full interview with Jason Barnard is available here. It is an excerpt of a forthcoming podcast interview.
‘Bridge of Sighs’ has been re-released a few times but this seems to be the most definitive.
Yeah, I think they wanted to make a big deal about it because of it being 50 years.
Tell us about the background behind the period that ran up to ‘Bridge Of Sighs’, because the recording started at Olympic Studios before moving to Air.
Yes. We did two or three tracks at Olympic, and then we were lucky enough to get into Air London with Geoff Emerick engineering. So that was, that was a big deal.
You were in the classic line-up with James Dewar and Reg Isidore. You’d been playing live a lot, so you must have been well honed.
That’s right, the original lineup. Playing added a tremendous amount to ‘Bridge Of Sighs’ being the second album, where we’d done a lot of touring, especially in America. I think we’d already played a couple of them live. So that was a good thing as well, which added to the confidence.
It was an album that was hugely popular. There’s so many different styles and shades on there and accessible for the mainstream. It’s typified by ‘Lady Love’ which was a very commercially sounding track.
Yeah, a happy accident. We actually laid the original down at Olympic. I’m pretty sure it was that one and ‘Little Bit Of Sympathy’.
The title track ‘Bridge Of Sighs’ has that power trio heaviness.
Yeah, a lot to do with the way that track sounds is down to Geoff Emerick because he came up with a unique way of recording the guitar. That adds to the mystique of the sound of it. So he was instrumental in getting a bigger, bolder sound. As far as I know, he was the first guy to ever use staggered mics. In other words, he had three different mics on the guitar, each one further away. That’s what sort of created what I would call big sounds.
It was named after a racehorse, is that right?
Yeah, I was reading a paper and saw, Bridge Of Sighs to win today, was the headline. I thought, oh Bridge Of Sighs, what a great title. It stuck with me and when it came to work on the song itself, it popped back into my head.
The vocals of James on ‘Too Rolling Stoned’ must be some of the best vocals put down in a studio, surely.
Amazing. You know, so gifted, Jimmy. He was such a gifted musician and obviously had this beautiful instrument of a voice. You know, wonderful.
One of the inspirations behind ‘Too Rolling Stoned’ was James Brown.
I nicked a chord change from a James Brown track called ‘Down and Out in New York City’. It was in a film, Black Caesar. So the chorus on ‘Too Rolling Stoned’ is a pinch from the chorus on that song, just the chord sequence.
But the lyrics relate to your time in Procol Harum.
It did. It’s about the things that weren’t right, it probably applies to everybody in a band at that time. Things weren’t quite as straight as you would like.
You weren’t afraid to push the guitar work at times. ‘Day Of The Eagle’ being a great example of a fabulous guitar solo.
I was always doing what felt right to me. It was no conscious effort in the way stuff came out. It’s just purely heartfelt. Just the way it felt right, that was the way it went.
Then from this box set, the third CD is a recording of you at the Record Plant. Did listening back to it bring back any recollections?
I can’t say it did. I vaguely have a picture of my mind of playing in that studio at Record Plant with an audience but that’s as far as it goes. It’s so long ago and there’s been so many gigs. I think it was recorded or maybe it went out live as a radio show.
You’ve got live dates in the UK imminently and are going back to the US later in the year.
That’s right. We’ve started to wind up again into playing live. It takes a lot of work after so many years of not playing live. I did a video recording of ‘Joyful Sky’ with Sari Schorr and that whetted my appetite for playing live again.
Fantastic. I assume on those shows the audience will get a cross-section of material, including material from ‘Bridge of Sighs’.
Yeah, I always play ‘Bridge of Sighs’. I’d be lynched if I didn’t! But I’m doing a lot of stuff from ‘No More Worlds To Conquer’, which has never been played live. So I’m really looking forward to that.
With the pandemic you were still releasing material, but you just didn’t get a chance to go out there and play it.
That’s right. The fact that I wasn’t playing live did allow me more time for writing. I’ve already got another album in the can finished and another half finished. So I’m well ahead of the game.
Further information
Bridge Of Sighs (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
The full interview is available here. It is an excerpt of a forthcoming podcast interview.
