2200 Bridgeway: History and Archive

A look back at the history of the Record Plant and Plant Studios, with a view to the future.

Stacked Record Plant and Plant Studios master tape boxes — Grateful Dead, CSN&Y Déjà Vu, Fleetwood Mac Rumours — with a studio log sheet and reel-to-reel tape.

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The Record Plant and Plant Studios Archive

A researched list of sessions, broadcasts, and recording events at 2200 Bridgeway — a sourced record of what was made here and who made it. Nothing like it exists anywhere else.

—Studio sessions from the opening night in 1972 through the closing in 2008, traced album by album.
—KSAN live broadcasts 1973–1978, cross-referenced with surviving tapes and FM logs.
—Artists, engineers, producers linked to the rooms and dates they worked.
—Every entry sourced — trade press, session logs, interviews, master-tape labels.

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Tribute

Clive Davis: The Man With the Golden Ear

Clive Davis (1932–2026) ran Columbia, founded Arista, and built J Records. Across six decades he shaped American popular music from the A&R chair.

Mosaic of album covers from KSAN's live broadcasts at the Record Plant, Sausalito (1973–1978).

KSAN Live at the Record Plant - Listen

From 1973 to 1978, KSAN broadcast live from the Record Plant's Sausalito sound stage. The surviving tapes are a Bay Area rock archive hiding in plain sight.

File No. 055, the Grateful Dead Records tape log for the August 1973 Wake of the Flood sessions at the Record Plant Sausalito. Primary source, recovered from the 2200 Bridgeway warehouse. Tap to read the full card. Photo courtesy of 2200studios.com.

History · Featured

Wake of the Flood: The Grateful Dead at The Record Plant

Nine days at the Record Plant that launched a revolution in independence, improvisation, and the American studio album.

Tribute

Mr. Bonzai

David Goggin (1947–2026) spent fifty years documenting the people inside the rooms where the records were made. He co-wrote Buzz Me In with Marty Porter.

Sly Stone performing on NBC's Midnight Special, 1973.

History · Featured

Sly Stone's Record Plant

Sly Stone commissioned a room at Record Plant Sausalito built to his exact specifications. Then he moved in. The room is still underneath the studio that replaced it.

Record Plant Sausalito live room — psychedelic swirl mural, staggered acoustic panels, vintage console and grand piano, a guitarist mid-take on the Persian rug.

History

Gary Kellgren: The Man Who Invented the Room

Gary Kellgren opened the Record Plant Sausalito in 1972 and threw a party. John Lennon and Yoko Ono came dressed as trees. Nobody questioned it.

Studio B control room — API console with the live room visible through the glass

Room Theory

The Sound of a Room

Tom Hidley built the rooms at 2200 Bridgeway in 1972. This is what he put inside the walls — and why it still matters.

History

Metallica at the Plant

Load, ReLoad, and the room they reshaped to get the drum sound they wanted. Metallica's stretch in Sausalito left a permanent mark on Studio A.

Journey — classic-era band promo photograph

History

Journey at the Record Plant

Neal Schon and Gregg Rolie came directly from Santana. Journey came to the Plant and never really left. This is the story of that relationship.

The Rick James conference room at 2200 Bridgeway — where Street Songs was recorded.

History · Featured

The King of Punk Funk and the Room He Lived In

Rick James drove to Sausalito in 1980 with a guitar, a bass, a drum machine, and a problem. He lived in a conference room at the Record Plant and made Street Songs. The room is still here.

Stevie Nicks, c. mid-1970s — Record Plant Sausalito era

History · Featured

She Wrote It in Ten Minutes

At the Record Plant, Stevie Nicks was in someone else's room, on someone else's bed, with a cassette player running. She wrote Dreams in ten minutes. This is what happened next.

Carlos Santana seated with a PRS guitar in the studio live room

History

Carlos Santana and the Studio He Calls Home

From the studio's first year in 1972 through the making of Supernatural, Santana kept coming back. This is why.

Studer A800 MkIII multichannel tape recorder at 2200 Bridgeway

History · Featured

The Record Plant and Plant Studios — A Chronology

From a wartime shipyard office to the studio where Dreams was written, where the government once ran the mixing board, and where the last surviving Record Plant still stands.

The carved redwood sunburst wall in Studio A at 2200 Bridgeway

A walk through 2200 Bridgeway, room by room.

Walk the rooms