Producers, Recording Engineers and Studio Wizards: POLL RESULTS

Thomas' work on Stranded is his high-water mark for me.

Pete Rock above Marley Marl?

my other two votes (apart from MM) so far are Gary Katz and Norman Whitfield. great list so far

fuck. I shouldn't post drunk.

31. Tom Wilson (124 points, 6 votes)
http://www.streamingoldies.com/content-images/SOP/TomWilson08.jpg
Credits: Bob Dylan, Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa, Simon & Garfunkel

... produced Sun Ra too!

Musicians he worked with not always too complimentary about ol' Tom tho. Accusation that his attention was apt to wander if a pretty girl walked in the room.

Sun Ra production is just that Batman thing, right...?

No, "Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra" too, I think? 1961? It was Wilson's idea to record him.

He's on the cover of "We're Only In It For the Money" too

xp Yep, Wilson produced Futuristic Sounds and Sun Song, as well as Cecil Taylor's epochal debut Jazz Advance in 1956(!)

hmm yeah the Batman thing is somebody else apparently

Cecil Taylor debut is news to me, that's pretty nuts

30. Thom Bell (131 points, 5 votes)
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/TSOP%20Thom%20Bell1a1.jpg
Credits: The Delfonics, The Stylistics, The Spinners, Billy Paul, others

Was going to vote for Thom Bell, but I had a total brainfart and left him off.

29. Martin Rushent (134 points, 7 votes)
http://media.soundonsound.com/sos/jul10/images/ClassicTracks_02.jpg
Credits: Human League, the Stranglers, the Buzzcocks

thank god Thom Bell made it. but still, TOO LOW!!

Ned posted this story on the RIP, but it's worth repeating here:

So the story goes: (as told by him) . . .New York 78/79 can’t remember. he was over there working, he went out with a mate of his to a club to see this guy called ”Grandmaster Flash”

Apparently he was doing this thing where he mixed records together live. My dad was blown away by it. He said ‘I �got home and and wanted to do something like that’. Ny 1980 he was cutting up tape together and did ”Love and Dancing” just like he saw Flash do with vinyl.

Years later, i’m working at a club in Reading as a sound man. Mr Flash was booked to play. He came down early before doors to check the turntables. I was stood with him pulling leads in and out, making sure everything working.

I turned to him and said, ”My dad’s a massive fan of yours” without lifting his head and looking at me he said ”cool”, he was not that bothered. i said ”Yeah, you inspired him to do this remix record” again. �Head down, pulling leads in and out. ”Cool man,’ he said, ‘he in a band?” ”No no, he’s a record producer”. ”Ahh, cool, what’s his names?”

”Martin Rushent”.

He stopped pulling in the leads, looked up at me and said”your dad’s Martin fucking Rushent???!!”

I told him the story about New York. He was shocked and excited to hear that he had inspired ”Love and Dancing”.

I finished telling the story and he said, very calm, ‘‘get that nigga on the phone now’‘.

They talked for about ten minuets complimenting each other. as he handed the phone back to me, he said ”cool guy, you’r a lucky kid”.

yes. i am. thanks dad. for everything.”

[fix]on the RIP thread[/fix]

NP: Delfonics comp on Spotify

xxp damn!

aw

and now, the first entry that I am genuinely ANGRY about placing so low

28. George Clinton (136 points, 4 votes, 1 #1 vote)
http://sta✧✧✧.g✧✧✧.c✧.uk/Guardian/music/gallery/2008/jun/18/festivals/PD5365✧✧✧@Funk-Musician-George--8✧✧✧.j✧✧
Credits: Parliament, Funkadelic, Fred Wesley & the Horny Horns, Brides of Funkenstein, Parlet, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, many others

http://sta✧✧✧.g✧✧✧.c✧.uk/Guardian/music/gallery/2008/jun/18/festivals/PD5365✧✧✧@Funk-Musician-George--8✧✧✧.j✧✧

goddammit

never thought of Clinton as a producer. a guru, maybe?

can't post a URL with an @ symbol in it (it also happens to be a malformed URL)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3488/5793488536_41d8460276.jpg

he is definitely a sonic architect/editor type of producer! see: Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow, Maggot Brain, Flashlight, Atomic Dog etc

27. Jimmy Page (139 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote)
http://recordingdope.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/04/18/jimmypage.jpg
Credits: Led Zeppelin

Wow, never even considered either of these guys since they're so connected to their own music.

If Page had had much of a producer discog outside Zeppelin, he would have made my ballot, but I couldn't quite go there.

I don't know from P-Funk, but RHCP's Freaky Styley is such a fun record, and sounds great.

Wow, never even considered either of these guys since they're so connected to their own music.

personally I think the Page placement is kind of ridiculous for this reason - but Clinton is another story, not really being a musician. apart from the occasional lead vocal Clinton was more of an orchestrator, and a coordinator of a HUGE stable of musicians with a vast catalog of wildly different material. He would take hours and hours of material and edit it and shape it into a coherent form, often into very sharp, clever and groundbreaking concept albums. He was an idea guy.

and then once you get into how much Clinton's sound was copied over the years - jesus he's got one of the most influential catalogs ever

26. Willie Mitchell (140 points, 6 votes)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_U2DIQZo8uVs/S0UcBld0IVI/AAAAAAAABz8/RoMRgdGosjw/s320/up-Willie_Mitchell.jpg
Credits: Hi Records house producer (Al Green, solo, Syl Johnson, Ann Peebles, many others)

Willie Mitchell's sound is about as perfect as sounds get. music from heaven (those 70's Al Green records)

25. Tom Dowd (141 points, 6 votes)
http://www.swampland.com/img/Image/articles/tomdowd/tomdowdb&w70s2.jpg
Credits: Atlantic Records house producer (Ray Charles, The Drifters, The Coasters, Bobby Darin, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Otis Redding, many others)

GC also produced a handful of random sub-Motown singles for Detroit groups that show up on "Northern Soul" comps now and again. He was still getting his shit together then, but it's interesting to hear.

Shakey said pretty much all of this while my attention wandered in the 20 minute gap between writing and posting, but here's my take on Clinton as producer:

In Re gospodin - I'd argue "producer" is the most accurate title to describe what Clinton did with P-Funk. Of course he writes most of the lyrics too. But he doesn't play an instrument and he's not even the seventh best singer in his band - he molds other people's talents to his own creative ends. Producer as mediator/synthesist, dig?

xp that's the most impressive list of artists ever! only Darin isn't godlike.

I was only trying to rationalize Clinton's absence from my ballot.

did you just diss Bobby Darin

cuz if so wtf man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVHAQX5sSaU

OK, Dowd's where I scream "too low"! How many in the top 24 are going to have a whole freaking documentary made about how important they were as a producer?

Tom Dowd got my vote. "Many others" indeed - early Eric Clapton and Derek & the Dominos, early-'70s Rod Stewart, and too many great jazz and R&B acts. (and yes, Bobby Darin made some great records in many styles; underrated.)

Pagey really was a great producer who understood things like miking Bonzo's drum both near and far to capture the ambience of a large room and such.

Thom Bell didn't get my vote but obviously did some great work

George Clinton one of the obvious greats I felt bad not voting for; so wildly influencial as both producer and artist. I'm not really into funk, but I can still appreciate when it's done well. And has anyone else been sampled more?

Tom Wilson got a vote from me. One of many great stories involving him: the first Simon & Garfunkel album stiffed upon initial release, and the duo broke up. Wilson listened to his now-departed act's record and thought "The Sound of Silence" was a great song, but it needed to be a *rock* song, not the acoustic-guitar-only track that was on the album. So he had Bob Dylan's backup band overdub electric guitar, bass, and drums, and rereleased "The Sounds of Silence" (now pluralized to denote the additions) as a single. A few months later, it topped the charts.

And Les Paul, besides singlehandedly turning the world on to the sound of the electric guitar, invented multitracking and overdubs, for which record production as we've known it for the last half century is indebted

Dowd produced mid-'70s Rod Stewart.

Probably shoulda voted for Tom Dowd, whose portfolio is unrivaled by pretty much anyone. Instead I suspended judgement on most of the technician/engineer types. My bad.

Also, James Brown has been sampled more than all of GC's productions combined. And he damn well better place here.

recap:

50. Mutt Lange (82 points, 3 votes)
49. DJ Quik (83 points, 3 votes, 1 #1 vote)
48. Carl Craig (85 points, 3 votes, 1 #1 vote)
47. Prince Paul (86 points, 4 votes)
46. Glyn Johns (87 points, 3 votes, 1 #1 vote)
45. The Dust Brothers (88 points, 5 votes)
44. Swizz Beats (89 points, 5 votes)
43. David Briggs (91 points, 4 votes, 1 #1 vote)
42. TIE Xenomania (94 points, 4 votes) AND Gary Katz (94 points, 4 votes)
41. TIE Jimmy Miller (95 points, 4 votes, 1 #1 vote) AND Norman Whitfield (95 points, 5 votes)
40. Marley Marl (96 points, 5 votes)
39. Joe Boyd (98 points, 4 votes)
38. Todd Rundgren (101 points, 5 votes)
37. Geoff Emerick (109 points, 4 votes, 1 #1 vote)
36. John Leckie (110 points, 6 votes)
35. Prince (115 points, 5 votes)
34. Chris Thomas (117 points, 7 votes)
33. Pete Rock (118 points, 5 votes)
32. Les Paul (122 points, 4 votes, 2 #1 votes)
31. Tom Wilson (124 points, 6 votes)
30. Thom Bell (131 points, 5 votes)
29. Martin Rushent (134 points, 7 votes)
28. George Clinton (136 points, 4 votes, 1 #1 vote)
27. Jimmy Page (139 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote)
26. Willie Mitchell (140 points, 6 votes)
25. Tom Dowd (141 points, 6 votes)

JB probably has been sampled more often, but still seems to me that Clinton has a wider breadth of recordings that have been sampled, even if the total number isn't as high. But I have no official stats on this, I'm just basing it on what I've heard, which obviously can't be everything that's out there.

why did you do the ties like that