Friday, May 29, 2009

Best rock producer?

Neil McCormack has an interesting piece on the people who produce rock and roll records and CDs, especially fitting that Phil Spector is front and center on the day he's sentenced to nineteen years in prison.


"I speak to Ian Broudie of The Lightning Seeds in today's Telegraph. Broudie is a legendary post punk producer, who started out making the early classic albums for Echo & The Bunnymen and most recently discovered and developed The Coral and The Zutons. When I asked him who his own favourite producers were, he nominated a couple of familiar names, Phil Spector and George Martin, although for very different reasons.


He captured the Beatles: George Martin

"Phil Spector is the greatest ever," insisted Broudie. "Just because of the genius of going from 'Be My Baby' to 'Imagine', from massive production to no production, and they're both fantastic achievements. When I was little and I heard imagine, I remember thinking this just sounds like its gone from his mouth onto the record and you could see the room he was playing in. There was nothing between you and the piano and the voice. Whereas 'Be My Baby's got everything between you and it, it sounds like it's in this marvellous cavern with a million people. He's brilliant."

"George Martin is different. He did a fabulous job with the Beatles, and they are probably the best records ever made, but I think he basically captured the Beatles."

for the rest go here: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/neil_mccormick/blog/2009/05/28/spector__martin_the_greatest_producers_ever

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd have to nominate Gary Usher also as one of the greatest record producer. His early work with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys led to him being one of the originators of the "California Sound".

Brian O'Connor

Ed Gorman said...

I'm a big fan of Brian Wilson. I'll have to look up Usher.

Bob Levinson said...

Hi, Ed...

Gary was a great guy and a terrific producer. Respected inside the industry, but never achieved the public recognition others sought and received. Suffered a downslide of sorts after he was canned by RCA. Died much too young.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes producers get too much credit, but those named above have done some great work.

Cap'n Bob said...

I can't argue with any of this, including the comments. How about Berry Gordy? Did a lot for the Motown sound.