Some Good Years was recorded using a drum machine by Bob and Mary Jo, and Cecil Duke. The song was complete except for two things … we brought it to Oceanside Studio and John put the drums on and finally at Studio 56 in Hollywood, Susan, Paul, and John were added to the backgrounds.

We had gone through two other bass players before Robby. We knew the search was over at the first rehearsal with Robby when he pulled out a sunburst Rickenbacker bass. From that very first day we have never had to tell Robby what to play … he was extremely intuitive as to what would work on these songs.

Peter Holsapple, who I (Bob) remember thinking had a very cool name when I met him, was brilliant in the studio. The way he could adapt a mandolin to this music was really amazing.

Vicki Peterson appears courtesy of old times (and not because she was a member of our favorite “girl” band, The Bangles … although it doesn’t hurt to have famous people sing on your recordings). Vicki and her sister, Debbi, used to come to our shows when we were playing the “club” scene in L.A. back when they were cutting their teeth in the world of rock ‘n roll themselves. She lends a great voice to Under The Gun.

Doug Sax is a very positive person, full of life and energy. His comments during the [original] mastering session were uplifting (i.e., “This I like, This I like!”, “You’ve got voices, melodies, good lyrics!”). His extremely “up” attitude transferred into his work … Global sounded the best when it left his hands.

Rumbo Recorders in Canoga Park was a great studio. It had a pool table, basketball court, great lounge and kitchen, great equipment and great people … Rumbo was owned by The Captain and Tenille were very supportive of our endeavor.

We also recorded Christmastime (which took 11 years to write) at Rumbo … it was during a heat wave in August. We decorated the entire studio with Christmas lights, a Christmas tree, presents and children … the whole works … turned up the air conditioning and it was a great day. Christmastime was originally slated to be on Global.

The engineer on She Said To Me was Booker T. Jones, III. Booker T. is the son of Booker T. of Booker T and the MG’s fame (Time is Tight – one of the best instrumental hits ever).

Berton Averre was someone Boz brought in and what a great guitarist. Burton played lead with the Knack (M.M.M.My Sharona).

John Stamos is a friend of John’s. He came down to Rumbo one day and we knew he was coming to play congas on Cross That Line. So John walks into tons of fans and kids and he handled it all great … and his conga playing was excellent. You can really hear John’s conga part in the instrumental section of Cross That Line.

The Global sessions shut down before the horns could be recorded on I Be Low.

Three songs didn’t make the cut and were not on the 1998 release of Global: Free Fall, Shine and Maybe It’s You. Paul’s the lead vocalist on Free Fall (a rare co-write by Bob and Barry). Shine was also sung by Paul and Maybe It’s You is another Bob lead vocal. These songs are included on the digital and CD Omnivore Recordings 2024 re-release of Global.

At one point we were going to call ourselves The Orphans since our parents had died and release Global under that name.

Jim (Bob’s brother-in-law) spent over a year trying to convince Bob to release Global. He was inspired by the writings of Napoleon Hill (The Science of Personal Achievement) and Brian Tracy (The Psychology of Achievement) and was convinced this should happen. He designed the CD cover, thought of the names Global and our 1998 record company, Robin Records, and in essence was the inspiration behind the whole thing.

I (Bob) was overdubbing a synthesizer part on Far Away. Just Boz and I were in the booth and I was going to have a big boomy bottomy synthesizer line double the guitar line of the intro and just before the instrumental. Susan walks into the booth waving her hands saying “Absolutely not! No way! That can’t go there!”. Boz and I just looked at each other and went on to something else. We never did record the part.

There’s a wave crashing on to the shore in Some Good Years.

We always hoped that Bonnie Raitt would overdub slide guitar on Cross That Line. Actually, at one point, we wanted to have Bonnie Raitt record Cross That Line.

John and Paul’s vocal responses in the choruses of I Be Low remind us of Ricky Ricardo and Fred Mertz for some reason (you can almost hear Ricky singing “Oh so, so low”).

Far Away was written in less than an hour as I (Bob) stood staring out my front door at an unusual L.A. thunder, lightening and rain storm.