Controls
- 4 years 7 months ago
- Posts: 709
Please forgive me for this Blender-related article, but do some of you agree with the views of John Aizlewood on why certain music producers go crazy (hence the title)?
Synopsis: Phil Spector and his firearms. Brian Wilson and his sand pit. From the notoriously "sensitive" to the downright bananas, record producers have always been a bit unpredictable. But who's the king of the studio psychos? Find out with this handy Blender guide...
BRIAN WILSON
Surf-pop genius. Fruitcake
Produced The Beach Boys, the Honeys, Glen Campbell, Gary Usher, himself
The Method Tormented by the greatness of Beethoven but influenced by Phil Spector, Beach Boys leader Wilson created music nobody had ever heard within the context of a pop song. He was frequently inspired: Recording at home in Bel-Air, California, which had no echo chamber, he placed microphones in his empty swimming pool. Deaf in one ear, he mixed in mono. "He knew every instrument he wanted to hear and how he wanted to hear it," Chuck Britz, his engineer, once noted.
The Madness In 1964, Wilson had a breakdown on a flight to Houston. He then retired from touring to concentrate on songwriting and producing.
He demanded perfection -- at the time, "Good Vibrations" was the most expensive single ever recorded -- but he simply couldn't handle his gifts. A drug habit the size of the Pacific Ocean didn't help, either.
He recorded in a sand pit to establish the authentic "Beach Boys feel" on the album Smile. For a time, he refused to enter the studio, so one was brought to him. He once recorded his dogs (they used the sand pit as a toilet), and he wore a fireman's helmet after blaming himself for a conflagration that started while he was producing a song called "Fire."
While still a major producer, he worked part-time at the Radiant Radish food store in Bel-Air, often in his pajamas. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, he once spent three months in a padded cell. Two planned records -- something called the "fitness album" and one made up entirely of water sounds -- never happened.
Must-hear The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds (Capitol, 1966)
Psycho-meter 9 / 10
LEE "SCRATCH" PERRY
Invented reggae. Buried TV sets
Produced Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Congos, the Clash, himself
The Method Perry invented reggae when he created a new beat, slower than ska and rock-steady, for the Pioneers' "Long Shot" in 1967. At his Black Ark studio, he sampled before samplers existed and created sounds unlike anyone else's.
"He seemed to get 16 tracks shuffled into that four-track," said reggae star and collaborator Max Romeo.
"It was only a four-track," Perry recalled. "But I was also picking up 20 from the extraterrestrial squad. I am the dub shepherd."
The Madness Perry had long harbored eccentricities: Determined to record the authentic sound of Africa, he once miked up a palm tree; his recordings under his alter egos the Upsetter and Super Ape were strange and sinister.
In 1979, under heavy pressure from the Spanglers, a group of protection racketeers in Kingston, Jamaica, he began consuming truckloads of industrial-strength marijuana and, it was rumored, LSD and cocaine -- all washed down with rum, Tia Maria and tape head-cleaning fluid. At one point, he was spotted walking backward around the streets of Kingston, hitting the sidewalk with a hammer and muttering that Satan dwelled at Black Ark.
Perry then covered Black Ark in mystic graffiti. It later burned down. The police detained him on suspicion of arson, but he was released without being charged. Later, as a houseguest of producer Adrian Sherwood, Perry buried his host's TV set in the garden.
Must-hear Various Artists, Arkology: The Lee "Scratch" Perry Anthology (Island Jamaica, 1997)
Psycho-meter 8 / 10
JOE MEEK
Pop pioneer. Schizo murder-suicide
Produced The Tornados, the Honeycombs, Screaming Lord Sutch, Tom Jones, John Leyton
The Method Robert George "Joe" Meek worked from a tiny studio in one room over his apartment in London. He invented atmosphere -- echoes, sped-up tapes, reverb -- and used it on such records as "Telstar," the Tornados' 1963 worldwide instrumental hit.
The Madness He feared being outed as gay, particularly after he was arrested for "cottaging" in a public toilet.
After a handful of early hits, his penchant for a gimmick finished him. His violent temper drove away many of his friends, while cocaine and LSD made him supremely paranoid. He developed "nice" and "nasty" personalities, known respectively as Joe and Robert. In February 1967, after an all-night recording session, he shot his landlady and then turned the gun on himself.
Must-hear Various Artists, It's Hard to Believe It: The Amazing World of Joe Meek (Razor & Tie, 1995)
PSYCHO METER: 10 / 10
PHIL SPECTOR
Teen-pop wizard. Reclusive gun nut
Produced Ike & Tina Turner, Leonard Cohen, the Ramones, the Crystals, the Beatles / John Lennon, Starsailor
The Method A songwriter, musician and producer, Spector created the famous "Wall of Sound": orchestration, echo and swirling choruses that turned ordinary tales of teenage love into orgasmic symphonies.
He founded the Philles label in New York in 1961 and had runaway success, making his first million before he was 21.
He began producing the Beatles at John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr's behest -- earning him Paul McCartney's long-term distrust. Oddly, Lennon forgave him for secretly putting violins on "Instant Karma!" despite being ordered not to.
The Madness At first, Spector was simply meticulous -- then he became obsessive. He once reportedly listened to a single note for 12 hours. In the late '60s, he became an increasingly reclusive, autocratic control freak who refused to let his ex-wife, Ronnie, drive through Los Angeles alone unless she had a life-size replica of him in the passenger's seat.
He began to carry a pistol at all times, even in the studio, and frequently fired it. After Spector shot into the roof of the Record Plant in Los Angeles, Lennon said: "If you're gonna kill me, Phil, kill me, but don't f**k with my ears -- I need them." He once forced the Ramones to record at gunpoint, and he reportedly threatened Leonard Cohen as well.
He took Cohen's tapes home each night with an armed guard, possibly hoping to repeat his experience with the tapes of Lennon's Rock & Roll, which he auctioned for $94,000. Increasingly erratic, through the '80s and '90s he worked less and less. In February 2003, he was arrested in connection with the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.
Must-hear Various Artists, Phil Spector: Back to Mono (1958-1969) (ABKCO, 1991)
Psycho-meter 10 / 10
JIM STEINMAN
Meat Loaf Svengali. Restaurant glutton
Produced Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Meat Loaf (but not Bat Out of Hell, which he wrote but didn't produce)
The Method The classically trained Steinman reportedly uses several studios at once just for remixing. Very meticulous, especially on his own songs, which offer the bombast of opera, the spirit of a Broadway musical and his own cutting sense of humor.
The Madness Equal parts megalomaniac and visionary: "Jim wants everything all the time," explained Todd Rundgren, the producer of Bat Out of Hell. Steinman tests his songs by lighting a joint and then listening to them on a brand of speaker whose entire inventory he bought just before the maker went under.
His songs are long and complex, and he showers them with choruses, effects and anything that makes them louder, longer and better. He lives his life this way, too, and has been known to order "everything" on a restaurant menu. Revels in the fact that many call him a genius.
Was last seen shouting "It's my baby! You're butchering my baby!" when asked to chop 32 seconds off Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)."
Must-hear Pandora's Box, Original Sin (EMI, 1989)
Psycho-meter 7 / 10
MICHAEL BEINHORN
Control freak. Gear geek
Produced Red Hot Chili Peppers, Korn, Soul Asylum, Soundgarden, Ozzy Osbourne, Hole
The Method Baby-faced tech nerd who helped create a new process called Ultra-Analog -- something to do with the speed of the tape, which suits the hard-rockers Beinhorn typically works with. He's a tyrant in the studio, firm about schedules and thoroughness. He is the anti-slacker.
The Madness A "method" producer -- the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis was surprised to find that Beinhorn moved to his block when they were working together. He has spent millions on nu-metal bands -- $4 million alone on Korn's doomed Untouchables.
He is obsessively perfectionist. Recording Hole's Celebrity Skin, he once spent a week tuning Melissa Auf Der Maur's bass. "I have no idea what he did with my $3.2 million," said Courtney Love afterward, "but I still like him." His pep talks are legendary. "Don't think you're here simply to make a record," he told the Peppers before they began 1989's Mother's Milk. "You're here to fight a war."
Must-hear Soundgarden, Superunknown (A&M, 1994)
Psycho-meter 3 / 10
~Ben"I am such a purist for old information on anything '70s and '80s."Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes | No
Search
Users Online