Deadlines

Deadlines is the twelfth studio album by English band Strawbs. Production Signed to Arista Records by his management team, Dave Cousins was persuaded by label head Clive Davis to record a new Strawbs album. Cousins had intended "Burning For You" to be the last album by the band. Cousins management also insisted that the band work with producer Jeffrey Lesser despite the fact that Cousins felt that Lesser didn't "understand the dynamics" of the band. Spending a night out with Davis, Cousins was charmed by the label head and, despite his misgivings, returned to the studio to make the band's final album of the 1970s. Lesser insisted that guitarist/singer Dave Lambert be the lead singer for the album. Working in a studio in Dublin, Ireland in a studio owned by film composer Phillip Green. After initial recording the band and producer took the tapes to Air Studios to complete overdubbing on the 24 track tapes. Completing one day of overdubbing, the band, much to their dismay, discovered that a 4038 microphone on top of the tapes had erased a swath of the material with the drum tracks being the most notably damaged. Discouraged, the band began all over again but, according to Cousins, they failed to capture the unique flavor of those first recordings. Mixing the album at Utopia Studios, Cousins commiserated with The Clash's Joe Strummer about the lead vocal situation. The Clash were in the next studio recording "Give'em Enough Rope"It turns out that producer Sandy Pearlman was as much of a problem to work with as Lesser.