The Love Language’s Ruby Red (Merge) was supposed to be finished more than a year ago. “I can definitely overthink stuff,” says Stuart McLamb, the band’s singer, songwriter, guitarist, bassist and only full-time member. Over the next year, McLamb wound up throwing away some old songs, writing some new ones and recording the whole album all over again, bouncing between 21 musicians and four cities before he and co-producer B.J. Burton decided they were done. It was one of those times when recording was harder than writing, but now that it’s all in the past, McLamb describes himself as “genuinely happy.” McLamb will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand-new feature on the band.
McLamb: There’s so much to say about this song, but I’m particularly drawn to James Jamerson‘s bass. It’s so linear and playful but absolutely perfect. He never really does the same thing twice, but it keeps the song driving the whole time. Apparently, when they were recording the song at Hitsville, Marvin Gaye was really adamant to get Jamerson on the track, and they went searching around a bunch of bars downtown until they tracked him down. He was pretty lit up, and the story goes that he did the whole track while lying on his back. But you can tell that he’s completely inside the song. You have to get to a pretty special place to really get inside a track like that, and I think he was just wasted enough to do it effortlessly. Just the timing of the walks and the whole swing is one of mankind’s greatest achievements in my opinion.
