TWO VERY DIFFERENT GUYS
Saw two movies back to back on the Sundance channel last night. Went from hating musicians to loving them all over again.
The first is called "Dig!", a documentary about two bands-the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and the relationships between their members-mostly between their respective singer/songwriters, Courtney Taylor and Anton Newcombe. In short, the Dandys deserve their success and Anton from the Massacre is about the biggest asshole you could ever hope to meet.
He stalks his "friends" in the Dandy's, physically and emotionally attacks bandmates on and offstage, kicks a fan in the head at a show, alienates managers, record company people, family, and everyone else he comes in contact with, and generally acts like the spoiled, irresponsible, selfish, childlike, egomanical fucked up junkie he is.
Contrast him with the subject of the next film, "The Language of Music"-legendary engineer/producer Tom Dowd, who made records with Aretha, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Cream, Clapton, Derek and the Dominoes, Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, Booker T. and the MG's, Ornette Coleman, Sam & Dave, the Coasters, the Drifters, Ben E. King, Coltrane, Wilson Pickett, Tribe Called Quest, Mingus, Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, Primal Scream, Dusty Springfield, Rob Stewart, and some others you might have heard of. He taught a man named Phil Ramone how to be a record producer. He had legendary ears, but the first thing everybody says about him is what a good guy he was.
The artists interviewed talk with great love, respect, and thanks for a man who brought out the best in those around him, who made artists comfortable, and who was as great a listener (which is what all audio engineers are supposed to be, after all) as ever lived. He died in 2002, and until his death he still talked regularly to many of the musicians he'd worked with.
Hard to believe he and the loser from Brian Jonestown were supposed to be about the same thing-music.
3 Comments:
That's an amzing list of artists for one person to have worked with. I've never heard of Rob Stewart however. Did he work with Bill Beck and John Wood?
What a list of artists! I've never heard of Rob Stewart however. Is he that guy who worked with Bill Beck and John Wood?
Very interesting post... I will keep an eye out for a replay of these films, but you zero in on some very interesting topics: the role of a producer, role of an engineer, and the role of a producer/engineer.
I have been in control rooms with oggers and assholes and with agents of positivity and heard good results from both extremes. I think the approach you take differs from act to act. Some acts severely need a kick in the ass to bring the best out of them and others need only to have the producer unlock the studio door for them and disappear. I always enjoy hearing about any perspective to this dance.
My belief is that in our small studio world we have to be prepared to take on the role of porducer/engineer as a default unless otherwise expressly asked to be engineer. Often times this is fettered out within the first hour of the act showing up at your studio and being able to gauge their level of studio experience and expertise.
The biggests challenges are when you get a someone who THINKS he knows how it all works and asks you to assume an engineer only role. For these guys I'll take there money and make sure the clock is watched so that the session runs only as long as what the amount paid to me covers.
Chris you've had extensive experience with so many acts that you could certainly write an entertaining book chronicaling them all. I'd buy a copy of it in a second.
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