To quote a well worn Jerry Garcia phrase, “What a long, strange trip it’s been”. After too long wandering the Wasteland, Old Plank has found a new home – & it’s back in Naperville! Feel free to contact me at steve_jacula@ comcast.net . The former studio on Carlyle has been considerably downsized – victim of a combination of personal and economic hard times. Maybe I should change the name to The Second Studio in honor of the Chicago appellation “The Second City”.
Now, are we all clear that “Second” refers to the second version of Chicago that was rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1871 [Mrs. O'Leary's cow, or a meteor storm as most recently posited] and NOT second as in second to some Eastern city that uses a fruit as a nickname? [While, I'm at it, it's Soldier Field, not Soldier's Field.] But I digress …
2010 is a year of starting over. Among other commitments, I promise to be more active & responsive with my Blogging.I promised some stories from the old days of OPSL, so here’s a start.
The original Old Plank Studios started in a house I was renting on what used to be a gravel road called Old Plank Road. Now, the name of a road using Plank is not at all uncommon, coming as it does from a time before asphalt & concrete when well traveled roads were made from wooden planks. The Naperville Plank Road was part of a road that lead out of Chicago heading west. For a long distance, even to this day, it closely parallels both Ogden Avenue [Rt 34] to the north and the Burlington Northern train tracks to the south.
When I first moved into “Plank” in 1977, it was sort of an Animal House college crash pad filled with former North Central College students. Over time, the various roommates wound up being musicians, so it became a music house. I started 2 bands out of that house. It was the rehearsal space for my variety cover band Soft Touch [later Class and eventually The Left]. Soft Touch had a musical alter ego – Poet, featuring keyboardist / vocalist & songwriter Steve Mullen, who co-wrote “Endless Nights”, which became a chart hit for Eddie Money. Poet recorded the original demo for that song at the now defunct Red Studios – the same studio where the Chicago Bears recorded the original Super Bowl Shuffle.
Our “Man Friday” was Phil Bonnet, for both the band and the studio that I started in the early 80s. Phil’s discography is extensive and an important story in the history of the Chicago rock music scene of the mid to late 80s. I’m proud to say that Phil cut his teeth during his years at Plank. Tho tragically no longer with us, his legacy lives on in the memories of those who knew him & the music he helped bring to life.
Phil followed me to what was called at the time Solid Sound in Hoffman Estates, where I had begun working as an apprentice & eventual independent engineer under the tutelage of Judd Sager. But, while still at Plank, Phil recorded one of the early demos for Jim Ellison’s Material Issue. I still have the invoice for that session, taped to a photo of Courtney Love performing a Material Issue song in concert. Alas, Jim decided to check out from this world. Those sessions have passed into part of the legacy of Old Plank Studios.
Next time – the Jim Ellison / The Kind connection & the story of “Loved By You”.
