What characterizes a "Jeff Lynne" production?

The Jeff Lynne sound? Anything that tries to mimic the late 60s Beatles sound, or Phil Spector producing George Harrison.

Lynne started ELO out of the love of the Beatles' music.

 

I really like Lynne's production on two of Dave Edmunds' 80s LPs, Information and Riff Raff. I wish Edmunds would record some flat-out rockers again.

 

Burn did some great stuff. I love his work on Chris Whitley's "Living With The Law" and The Devlins' "Drift".

 

Maybe they like that E.L.O. sound?

 

Here we go again!

 

Don't forget his greatest accomplishment: putting these three together with Bob Dylan and making THEM sound like ELO!!!

 

Disclaimer: I LOVE ELO. Still, Randy Newman said it all in 1979:

They were six fine English boys
Who knew each other in Birmingham
They bought a drum and guitar
Started a rock-roll band
And Johnny played little violin
And Bobby Joe played the big violin
The one that stands on the floor
They were all in the rock-roll band
Their first song sounded like this
Please get me a witness
Please get me a witness
Right off, they needed a name
Someone said, "How 'bout the Renegades ?"
Johnny said, "Well I don't know.
I prefer E.L.O." I love their "Mr. Blue Skies"
Almost my favorite is "Turn to Stone"
And how 'bout "Telephone Line"?
I love that E.L.O.

 

Ummmmm, where the heck did Dick Dale come from???? The King of the Surf Guitar ("listen, listen to the Keee-ing" - Darlene Love crooning about Mr. D...) - p'rhaps you've been listening to Mr. Better Shred than Dead offa the time clock??? I wish more stuff did sound like DD these days - hey, maybe Mr. Lynne can do a Dick Dale lp - the Beatles never did try the surf thang - it might be the NEXT BIG THING!!!! Squoosh ol' Double D's gold Fender guitar til it squeals, get that compressed drum sound so it stays outta the wake of Dick's reverby runs - course, the bass shouldn't be too awful deep since we're trying to Fab things up - I have gotta find a new thread....

 

Get off Bev Bevans back already

Enough!! I stood by during the whole 'worst drummer' thread, gnashing my teeth while Bev got bashed. Truth be told, it's Jeff Lynne's crummy drum sound that makes people criticize, but like poor marksmen they keep missing the target.

Even a cursory listen to 'Shazam' by The Move would lay to rest these unfounded bashings. Brilliant, astounding, remarkable drumming.

BTW--I'm a drummer. BTW #2--I think Jeff Lynne is a great writer, but his signature producer 'sound' is downright annoying.

 

For the perfect definition of Jeff Lynne's production, just listen to the song "Free Fallin'."

 

The Jeff Lynne sound is to have the snare about 3 times louder than the rest of the kit, than it would sound if the drummer was hitting the kit in front of you.
I like a good beat, but his snare is the loudest thing on the track ( FAAB , freefallin) slightly tamed on Brainwashed I think.

There's a Joe Cocker cd "Night Calls" and each track is produced by a different contributor. As soon as the snare hits on the title track , its different ( and louder) than anything else ( including Prince) on there.
So Joe Cocker becomes ELO
I love ELO too !
Cheers
John

 

Ah, an old thread of mine resurfaces! I forgot all about that one!

Yeah, that's a pretty good explanation, I think. The snare is, at least, always infinitely louder than the cymbals, which he always has mixed way in the back, it seems.

IMO, "Learning to Fly" is a better example. It has all the characteristics mentioned earlier, namely the layers and layers of those "shimmery" acoustic guitars, "heavenly" background voices, a super-clean electric guitar buried underneath the acoustics, and the snare that's three times louder than the rest of the kit

Come to think of it, though, "Free Fallin'" has pretty much all of those, too!

 

Tres amusant!

 

Daniel Lanois

Well, in Lanois' case, "production" almost always means "collaboration" - you'll see a lot of co-writing, guitar playing, etc. by Lanois on many records that he produces. Artists know this going in, though, and several have gone on to do multiple projects with him.

If you're looking for an exception to the rule (sonically, anyway), you might try checking out Fever In Fever Out by Luscious Jackson, which carries less of the usual Lanois fingerprints.

 

That was *****n hillarios. I will be sticking around for quite awhile now. !

 

Since we're talking about Jeff Lynne again here, I note Steve still didn't answer my question posed in the McCartney Venus & Mars thread, i.e., why did you "thank" Jeff Lynne for McCartney's decision not to let you use the noncompressed masters of the recording when you were doing your DCC version?

 

We all know Jeff is a 70's pop writing & producing genius. If we want modern production we listen to someone else.
Think about it, what do we expect a Jeff Lynne produced CD to sound
like , Tom Petty,George Harrison,Dave Edmunds?, not really.
We know what they will sound like. Who has more ideas in the
studio than Jeff Lynne, these artists probably let Jeff have his way.

 

And of course ironically, Jeff later made Randy sound like ELO (on one track on the Land of Dreams album). Resistance to Jeff is futile. All must be assimilated...

 

I forgot about that one! The analogy to the Borg is funny...maybe we should compile of list of the assimilated.

Just remembered "The Story of Me" from the Everly's EB 84. To paraphrase Steve H..maybe they should have called that album "Elo-B 74"!!

 

Not to mention the backing vocals.

I have heard several Shania Twain songs that sound like Def Leppard are on backing vocals!

 

yeah, really gives it that "country" feel, huh?

 

Another constant in the (modern) Jeff Lynne sound is the lead vocal. Way up front and dry as a bone.

I didn't feel that Lynne's production of the Beatles tunes was THE most appropriate, but I do not think it is horrible. The vocals & guitars sound like the Beatles. But Paul's bass should be a lead instrument - as it was in Rain, Something, Hey Bulldog, Paperback writer, etc...

But the Fabs have always been into production. They pushed Martin constantly for different sounds. As soon as they ended half the band worked with Spector. Then, in later years Harrison worked with Lynne. Even John & George's solo production attempts are Spector-lite (Material World, Mind Games).

But the "sound" of the Beatles (at least the "mature" sound of the Beatles) is locked in the deep bass & chiming guitars of Abbey Road. That album STILL sounds modern. Most melodic rock albums of today (that arent distortion driven) owe a nod to the Abbey Road sound. That's why the two recent Beatles tunes sound so out of place to me. They didn't update the Beatle sound.

I guess if I'm looking to hear the Beatle sound updated I should stick to my Elliott Smith & Jellyfish CD's.

-BZync

 

It might be that Wal bass that Paul was using...Geddy Lee used one for a while and his sound suffered....Geddy's playing Fender's now.