The Smiley Smile Message Board

1. Joe Meek - Captain Weird in another world. Was a homosexual, often asking cute musicians to stay late at his apartment for, "Overdubbing purposes". Made odd-ball space music with the use of everything and the kitchen sink. Shot his landlady then himself, may have chopped a boy into pieces, smiled wrongly at an old man and was in big trouble with the law. Made his own way, outside of the establishment, worked in his home much to the shagrin of his soon to be shot landlady.

2. Phil Spector - Parents were first cousins, suffered from untreated Bi-Polar disorder. Threatened insubordinate musicians with weapons, alledgedly killed an actress, created a massive wash of sound greatly fueled by his passion. Became a reclusive genius to himself, returned to work with only a few artists in 40 years.

3. Brian Wilson - Well, you know the story there.

5. George Martin - Why George you might ask? Well George is of course of a clear and sound mind. A brilliant producer and musician himself, his nuttiness goes to working with four musically uneducated guitar twangers for a decade.  ;D

Decide.

Of those listed, easily Brian Wilson, for Smiley and Love You alone.
But really, I'd go for Tom Wilson. His letting the Velvet Underground turn up their instruments past the pain threshold, with no separation, letting the guitar-organ squall completely drown out the other instruments, distorting to pure white noise/light/heat and giving a chemical buzz/rush to the brain more effective/affective than any drug, he will always be my recording hero.
After that, Mr. Sam Phillips. Who else was nutty enough to see the potential in Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Rufus Thomas, Howlin' Wolf, Roy Orbison and Charlie Rich?

oops

oops

How about Kim Fowley?

Guy Stevens was supposed to have been off his rocker as well.

tom wilson...he was kind of a nut when he played Biff on back to the future & the gym teacher on freaks and geeks    :lol


just playing...that was a producer for Simon and Garfunkal, right?

What about reggae producer Lee Perry, he built a duck pond inside his studio and worshipped bananas at on point, hard to top that. He was also called "Nutty Professor"

Søren

Don't know if this qualifies as nutty, but Eno and his Oblique Strategy cards. Imagine getting paid to be a producer using a jazzed-up version of a Magic 8-Ball. Nice work if you can get it. If I'm not mistaken, he and Fripp would at times consult the I-Ching as well...

Early Simon & Garfunkel, right; Tom Wilson was the one who added the electric guitar, bass and drums to the all-acoustic "The Sound Of Silence" as an afterthought, making it S & G's first big hit. Wilson also produced Dylan's early electric recordings, most notably the "Bringing It All Back Home" album and the "Like A Rolling Stone" single. By the time he was put in charge of the Velvet Underground's second album, however, he had no interest in actually producing the band (maybe he thought little of VU or maybe a substance abuse problem was getting the better of him) and Reed and company had to try to produce the record themselves while Wilson reportedly partied with various women in the control room. The album sounds horrible, something Reed himself attested to later.

awesome info! thanks!

If that's horrible, sign me up for being the person who loves horribleness at the expense of anything resembling the opposite.

Wasn't Tom Wilson also involved with the Velvet's first album? I think I read somewhere that he also worked with Eric Burdon.

He was brought in to produce "Sunday Morning," which was hoped would be the big hit off the album.

Sterling Morrison said the sound of the second album is the way it is as a result of the band having no patience for the niceties of recording. Reed called this their amphetimine album, they were stoked on speed and god knows what. If they were told they couldn't do something because it was taking the needle into the red, or were asked to turn down because somebody was bleeding into somebody else's mic, they completely disregarded them. They figured, "We're the band, we know what we're doing, you're the technicians, don't come to us about what you're supposed to be doing." As I've said before, engineer Gary Kellgren got up and walked out of the studio before they began "Sister Ray." "Let me know when it's over," he said. They didn't even have anyone at the console for that! Morrison never quite forgave the insult. Imagine it, it's an album session, not a demo; you're paying the guy to give you a professional recording for something you're hoping will receive airplay and public interest, you're paying for studio time, you're paying for production costs, and the guy takes a powder because, apparently, your grand opus sucks too hard for him to have to sit through once. :lol

Andrew Loog Oldham............

I don't have a problem with minimal or raw production on an album. To my ears, both the first and third VU albums sound great despite their sonic shortcomings (Reed's preferred "Closet Mix" on the third album makes it my favorite). I had forgotten about Wilson's involvement on "Sunday Morning"; it is typical of his style and gorgeous. The production on the"White Light, White Heat" album, however, simply doesn't present that collection of songs in a very good light (pun intended, I guess); it makes things that should be dynamic sound weak. Again, just my opinion. Either way, I agree that there is no excuse for the engineer to abandon the controls during a session!

I never understood the deal with Andrew Loog Oldham. Wasn't he their manager who (with no musical background) set himself up as their producer?

Did he actually DO any production work?

What value did he add to the stones, their music or their image?

What attracted them to him to begin with?

And why did they end up so upset with him at the end (that they locked him out of the studio when recording) ?

Was he maybe just a hipster who fast-talked his way into their scene?

Was he maybe as annoying as the liner notes he wrote for Metamorphosis and More Hot Rocks?

Most Stones books I have seen are fairly mum on the dynamic between him and the stones.

Is Loog an actual name?

It's the coolest name I've ever heard.

I never understood the deal with Andrew Loog Oldham. Wasn't he their manager who (with no musical background) set himself up as their producer?

Yes

Did he actually DO any production work?

The early sessions were mainly under the engineer's control. ALO thought he was Britain's Phil Spector: some of the stuff on "Metamorphosis" shows this influence.

What value did he add to the stones, their music or their image?

A lot. He had worked with Brian Epstein in a PR capacity and he conceived of The Stones as the bad boy opposites of the (supposedly) clean-cut Beatles

What attracted them to him to begin with?

Hunger....

And why did they end up so upset with him at the end (that they locked him out of the studio when recording) ?

ALO was going quite mad (bi-polar disorder with an amphetamine addiction: bad combination). He felt he couldn't help them (the three main Stones had various drug busts in '67) especially with his own problems getting out of hand.

Was he maybe just a hipster who fast-talked his way into their scene?

To some degree, probably: they were hungry for success and so was he, though.

Was he maybe as annoying as the liner notes he wrote for Metamorphosis and More Hot Rocks?

Another hero of his was/is Anthony Burgess of "A Clockwork Orange" fame: ALO was trying to write like Burgess.

Most Stones books I have seen are fairly mum on the dynamic between him and the stones.

ALO couldn't care less if he saw Mick Jagger again.

Is Loog an actual name?

Yes: he has some Dutch ancestry. The name is Dutch
 Report to moderator    Logged