Perfect Producer and Artist Match...and Worst Producer Artist Match

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by wayneklein, Dec 9, 2009.

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  1. wayneklein

    wayneklein Forum Fool Thread Starter

    Why? Do you feel this way because Eno brought himself into the collaborative songwriting process?
     
  2. VH3FAN

    VH3FAN Forum Resident

    Location:
    Galt, Ca, USA
    Good:

    Rick Rubin with Run - D.M.C
    Rick Rubin with L.L. Cool J
    Marley Marl with L.L. Cool J
    Martin Birch with Iron Maiden
    Martin Birch with Black Sabbath
    Arif Mardin with Bee Gees
    Mike Chapman with Blondie
    Ron Nevison with The Babys
    Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis with New Edition

    Worst:

    Phil Spector with the Ramones
    Mike Post with Van Halen
     
  3. Millstone

    Millstone New Member

    Location:
    Port Colborne, ON
    Best:

    Steve Lillywhite and Dave Matthews Band
    Mark Trombino and Jimmy Eat World
    Gil Norton and Counting Crows

    Worst:

    Glen Ballard and Dave Matthews Band
    Mark Batson and Dave Matthews Band
    Alanis Morrissette and Alanis Morrissette
    Bob Rock and Our Lady Peace
    Bob Rock and The Tea Party
    Bob Rock and Metallica
    Rick Rubin and Red Hot Chili Peppers
    Rick Rubin and Metallica
    Rick Rubin and System of a Down
    Steve Lillywhite and Counting Crows
     
  4. SteveCooks

    SteveCooks Senior Member

    Location:
    Lyon, France
    Best match : Joy Division / Martin Hannett
    Worst match : New Order / Martin Hannett (Movement LP...)
     
  5. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Ricky Skaggs self-produces a lot of his stuff and is great at it. Les Paul & Mary Ford's classics were produced by Les and they are great.
     
  6. Mellenhead

    Mellenhead Active Member

    Location:
    Cedar Rapids, IA
    Good:

    Green Day and Rob Cavallo
    John Mellencamp and Don Gehman
     
  7. Good:

    Ron Nevison with UFO

    Bad:

    Ron Nevison with Michael Schenker Group
     
  8. You're right; it didn't work for me. But I'll argue that it didn't really work for them, either. They never really got beyond the commercial expectations and the change in their audience that the Foster-produced albums caused. When they finally made a perfectly decent Chicago album (S.O.S., which still had a nice ballad or two), the record company rejected it.

    Sometimes, a short term pop audience is not a good substitute for a loyal but smaller audience. Pearl Jam understood the wisdom of this.

    Back to Foster: any producer who takes a band that far away from what really makes the band work is not doing them a service. The Chicago bandmembers are not blameless in this.
     
  9. Billy Infinity

    Billy Infinity Beloved aunt

    Location:
    US
    Among the groups I know some history about, the perfect matches:

    Depeche Mode + Flood (1989-1994) - Flood and Alan Wilder were able to bring out the edgiest performances out of Martin Gore's strong demos
    The Cure + Dave Allen (1985-1992) - Don't know too much about D.A. except that he was co-producer on the classic run of the four great Cure albums

    And the borderline-disastrous matches:

    Depeche Mode + Ben Hillier (2005-present) - favors using great-sounding vintage synths to cover up mediocre songwriting... rather should have voiced stronger opinions on choosing the band's better songs to create records with less filler
    The Cure + Ross Robinson (2004) - primal scream therapy takes the place of the usually-memorable Robert Smith melodies
     
  10. This one surprises me a bit. I realize that he got good performances out of them, and there are some classic songs on the first three albums. But how he let Eric Clapton record with such a brittle tone. Eric's playing is fantastic, but there are some pretty bad electric guitar sounds on those albums, especially Disraeli Gears.
     
  11. Claus

    Claus Senior Member

    Location:
    Germany
    Good:
    Martin Birch / Iron Maiden, Deep Purple
    Jeff Glixman / Kansas
    Rick Rubin / Beastie Boys

    Bad:
    Michael Bradford / Deep Purple.... he produced only crap with the band.
     
  12. wayneklein

    wayneklein Forum Fool Thread Starter

    Listening to "Something Magic" by Procol Harum I thought to revive this thread:

    Worst Match: Ron and Howie Albert who had Brooker and Reid chuck half the songs they had written for the album because the duo felt it wasn't good enough.

    Best Match:

    Glyn Johns and John Hiatt-Made a couple of terrific albums together.
     
  13. Best-

    Eno & Bowie
    Steve Albini & The Pixies
    Rick Rubin & Johnny Cash
     
  14. Slokes

    Slokes Cruel But Fair

    Location:
    Greenwich, CT USA
    Best (beyond many of the worthies already named):

    Snuff Garrett/Cher - Cher had some middling songs in the 1970s, which she sang with what was fast becoming her trademark overshrill vibrato, and Garrett made incredible productions out of them. "Gypsies, Tramps And Thieves" is maybe the best production made out of a weak song, while "Half Breed" is an even worse song that has terrific radio presence thanks to Snuff.

    Max Martin/Britney Spears - Say what you will, Martin has proven lightning strikes twice with over-the-top killer productions for his chanteuse. "If You Seek Amy" is a terrible idea for a song, but it worked on radio just like "Hit Me One More Time" did a lifetime before.

    Thom Bell/Elton John - Just six songs got made, but they hold up so well today. You wish they gave it more of a chance. But no, Elton ran off instead and made a record with...

    Worst

    Pete Bellotte/Elton John - Victim Of Love is not only a bad album, it is horribly produced to what sounds like a cocaine-addled click track and the most dead-sounding synth work I think I've ever heard. This guy Bellotte had talent, too, co-producing Donna Summer's classic Bad Girls the same year.

    Mitch Miller/Frank Sinatra - Some late-period Columbia songs by Sinatra are quite brilliant, like "Bim Bam Baby" and "Why Try To Change Me Now?" but Mitch's tendency for kitsch and bad comedy send-ups nearly did in the pop maestro before his second, third, and fourth acts. Even a potentially clever idea like "Tennessee Shoe-Shine Boy" sounds cliched and trite. And I do love Mitch in his own genre, with "Yellow Rose Of Texas" and his sing-along albums I grew up with.
     
  15. Slokes

    Slokes Cruel But Fair

    Location:
    Greenwich, CT USA
    Bruce knew a thing or two about "exploring the space," that's for sure.
     
  16. music4life

    music4life Senior Member

    Location:
    South Elgin, IL
    Best-Elton John/ Gus Dudgeon

    Terrible-EltonJohn, Leon Russell / T Bone Burnette
     
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