This was the first album, recorded in the summer of 1971. It was Gerald Pearson's idea, and he became the record label. He had recently made the acquaintance of Lex de Azevedo, fresh from working as a producer for Capitol Records (he produced Mrs. Miller! Yikes!), now free-lancing, and fiddling with an idea for a musical called "Saturday's Warrior."

The rhythm tracks were all recorded on one 12-hour day at Independent Recorders in Studio City, California, the vocals on one evening, the mix on one afternoon. When I drove out of Gerald's driveway in Provo to head for the sessions, he yelled,

"Twenty hours!" We had a limited budget. I think it wound up taking twenty-six.

I played rhythm acoustic guitar.

Lex played the piano.

The amazing lead guitar was played by a wizard named Mike Deasy, who looked like he might as soon steal your motorcycle as look at you, but was really a born-again Christian who was astounded and instantly loyal from the moment I began the session with prayer. His stratocaster was hand carved with a depiction of Calvary. He played that strat, a telecaster, a Martin D-28 (as did I), a Guild (I think) 12-string, a Gibson J-50 strung with all high strings, and an all-metal dobro. Watching him play resulted in the only actual progress I've made as a guitar player since that day.

The bass was played by Dan Mark, except for the title song, which was played by a friend of the drummer, who we let go because he played well but couldn't read music. When Dan Mark arrived on a moment's notice and asked why he wasn't called first, Lex told him the first bass player was a friend of mine. When Dan asked me why he wasn't called first, I told him that the first bass player was a friend of Lex's.

The harpsichord and Hammond B-3 organ were played by John Poole.

The harmonica was played by Ben Benay.

The drummer was a skinny long-haired kid named Dave Kemper, who also served as second engineer. He played well, but I got the idea that he was hired mainly because he hung around the studio a lot. The next time I saw him was thirty-one years later, playing behind Bob Dylan, for whom he is the regular drummer.

Ron Malo engineered.

Ray Morales designed the cover. Mike Palmer took the pictures on the front and inside. I took the one on the back, in South Australia.