So there Edwards is in the one room the Studio uses for recording just about everything. He's rail thin, dressed all in black, with a black baseball cap tucked close over his eyes, which close as he leans back to open up his diaphragm and let out a crisp vocal that sounds surprisingly young and pure despite his 63 years.
He and Begley go through each of the three verses one at a time, recording four or five takes for each verse. What a pro. I'm not sure how you even tell the difference between the takes, but these guys know right off the bat if a note is missed.
"Eh," Edwards will say, and kind of grumble to himself.
"Did I hear an 'eh' there?" Begley will respond.
"I'm literally learning the song here," Edwards says. He recorded the chorus part at least five weeks ago. He has to make notes to himself about what the lyrics actually are. But you could never tell.
Listening back, later, he notes a bad chord in one of the acoustic guitar tracks as he elicits opinion from Begley, even me. It's crazy to hear that Edwards basically just lets Begley pick the best track, but you get the idea Edwards would never let anything go by he didn't absolutely endorse.
"We've become so educated, with our ears, in this digital age," Edwards says. But I can't help thinking he's always known a bad note when he hears it.
