The Producer

For several years I have searched bookstores, magazine racks, the internet, TV, music reviews, album liner notes, and have listened for word-of-mouth on any information I could find on producing music. Of course my initial interest in making music involved the singer of the songs that I heard as a kid on the radio. As early as age ten, I quickly learned to see patterns with my favorite artists; there was always a common denominator between many of them. First, the names of certain musicians continually surfaced on the recordings, and I noticed that several of the same recording studios were being used. Then, I began to see certain songwriters surface who penned songs for my favorite performers. It dawned on me, sometime during my high school days, that there were particular persons at the helm of these great records, bringing consistent success to the artists I followed. These persons, I soon learned, were called producers.

Successful producers have a hand in overseeing each piece in the music production process. The producers' resultant product is many times as "signature" as the artist's voice, playing style or song. What would the Beatles be without George Martin; the Sixties' "Wall of Sound" without Phil Spector; Michael Jackson without Quincy Jones, or Jimi Hendix without Eddie Kramer? And where would the careers of many of the iconic Nashville singers from the golden era of country music be without Owen Bradley? Who would dare overlook the musicians who helped craft the sounds like the Funk Brothers of Motown, the Wrecking Crew of Los Angeles, Booker T & the MG's of Stax Records in Memphis, and the the "A-Team" of session players who helped define the "Nashville Sound?"

The process of producing involves varying degrees of knowing music, how recording equipment works and how to craft songs. Producers are also responsible for hiring certain musicians, singers and engineers that are brought into specifically chosen studios. It's also common that some producers aren't musicians at all! The best of them usually are, though, and are involved in every aspect of the process. Many play intermediary between the artist and the record company. Sometimes they even arrange and chart the songs for the session--even engineer and mix. There is a bit of psychology involved in recording as they are to bring out the best performances in the players and singers. I have never heard of a sinner shamed into heaven, and neither have I heard of a singer or musician shamed into a good performance. It takes a delicate balance of all of these skills to be a successful producer.

I have read several books on producing music that I highly recommend (some of these are memoirs, but contain wonderful golden nuggets of insight into their craft). These include: Q: Quincy Jones On Producing, co-written with Bill Gibson; Hit Man by David Foster; Making Records: The Scenes Behind the Music by Phil Ramone; Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards by Al Kooper; Behind the Glass-Top Producers Tell How They Craft the Hits, Volumes 1 & 2 by Howard Massey; Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey; the hilarious, spicy and irreverent look at the making of a rock recording called, The Daily Adventures of Mixerman by (the name was changed to protect the innocent...) Mixerman; How Nashville Became Music City, U.S.A.: 50 Years of Music Row by Michael Kosser, just to name a few.

I ran into a PBS special the other night featuring producer David Foster. This was a second helping of the "Hit Man" and his friends, the first installment airing a few years ago. There on the Vegas stage were performers who weren't shy about giving Foster credit for the huge part he played in the making of their recording careers. There behind him in the band were some of the legendary musicians with whom he crafted many hits: J. R. Robinson on the drums, Nathan East on bass, and Dean Parks on guitar.

Producers these days are forced to do almost every aspect of the recording process themselves, many times spending hours alone in front of a computer screen--long after the singers and musicians have gone--editing, comping, tuning, cleaning tracks and getting everything just like it needs to be. The economy has forced many of the big studios to close, and the home-based studio makes better financial sense to all involved. Even as the world of music has changed, and the economics have forced the industry to reinvent itself, the producer still plays a very important roll in the making of the music that is the soundtrack to our lives.