David Foster "Off the Record" Documentary on Netflix . . .

. . . anybody else seen this?

Honestly, I never had much use for David Foster. The guy is the Willy Wonka of adult pop - everything he touches is some kind of gossamer confection - sweet, tasty, overproduced and ultimately forgettable. And yeah, he took the horns out of Chicago (they're still pissed) and turned Peter Cetera into the Grand Poo Bah of Housewife Rock.

However, I never really had an idea of the extent of the guy's musical talent. Guy is beyond perfect pitch - he might have the most advanced ear in modern music. And he'll be happy to tell you how talented he is - "humility" isn't found in his vocabulary .

And boy does he have faults . . . and to his credit he'll tell you all about them. That said, I found the documentary really interesting, if a bit fawning. He's a brilliant guy and its amazing how many careers he launched and resuscitated. I just happen to have zero interest in those particular careers. Josh Groban and Celine Dion give me headaches after repeat listenings. But DF launched them both in the US.

 

Love him or hate him, he's been near as a producer, writer, or sideman almost every big act at Top 40 or A/C since the later seventies to the new millennium. Even acts like Hall & Oates & Earth Wind & Fire have used him repeatedly.

I watched this and found it enjoyable but while he was there from the first english album with Celine, he didn't actually land any hits on her until her third one with The Power Of Love. He was certainly key in her huge explosion that followed in 96-97 but his initial work was proficient yet not why she had initial chart success. He admitted he was in a dry spell during that period, churning out product for folks like Neil Diamond but not landing hits. Natalie Cole's "Unforgettable" was the start of that comeback trail for him.

As for Chicago debate, he covered this more in his memoir a few years back. During those two comeback albums with Cetera, he had to contend with Peter during playbacks wanting the horns mixed down or out and then the rest of the band coming in and wanting them back up high in the mix. He sided with Cetera and Warners who wanted hits so while the rest of the act was somewhat marginalized, they certainly ran right back to him after Peter's firing to keep doing that style of material then did variations on that theme with other producers clear through 1991 so that can't be all Foster's fault.

 

Yeah, that was my takeaway on the whole Chicago imbroglio. Lamm, Loughnane and Pankow weren't happy with the direction Foster foisted on them . . . but they loved cashing the checks that Foster helped deliver.

 

I saw this on Netflix last week, and thought that it was very good.

I was surprised to see Peter Cetera being interview separately from some of his Chicago bandmates though.

 

Enjoyed it as well.

Man..what an Ego! (I might be the same way though, if I had all those Grammy awards sittin on my baby grand)

 

Peter Cetera hasn’t been seen with his ex-bandmates for forever. That Chicago doc on Netflix is really terrific, with every band member in it, except Peter. What a shame. When I saw Chicago two years ago in concert, the singer who did a Peter’s parts was great...they never mentioned Cetera’s name once.

I will watch this David Foster show, because I’m a good Canadian.

 

It's still a shame what happened though.

 

If you have Amazon Prime, "The Terry Kath Experience" is I think better than the "official" Chicago documentary. It follows Kath's daughter as she tracks down her Dad's bandmates and associates to get a better idea of who was. Along the way, you get a real understanding of the band and how it worked.

I never really appreciated that Kath was a MONSTER guitar player - maybe the best in rock. Fascinating band with about 30 layers to it.

 

This documentary is just okay.

I wish more of this documentary covered the music, and stories about producing or working with artists. Those parts were interesting, and give you insight into the creative and business side of making music.

I wanted less of this documentary to cover Foster's personal life. I appreciated that they didn't try to hide his ego, selfishness and flaws. But Foster's personal life is not any more interesting than the story of a private equity fund guy. That is not a bad thing about him. His life is not some awful dramatic story of drug addiction and prison time. But his personal life is just not a very compelling story for a documentary.

I did find interesting how much of the movie is Foster ruminating about how many summers he has left in life, how he wants to enjoy the rest of his days, and doesn't want to slave away in "submarines" (as he calls windowless recording studios). Yet he's working on Broadway shows, putting himself in situations outside his element (being in New York City and working collaboratively), because his ego is so big that he really, really wants that Tony award for an EGOT (have an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony).

 

He gets a pass from me due to Bozs Look What You... early in Fosters career. Really great song that I can put on repeat
Boz is a treasure and with Foster they struck gold. Literally

 

Oh, I couldn’t agree more. A very sad state of affairs.

 

There was way too much about the talk about his personal life.

 

Watching it now. This dude is such a prick, I’m loving it.

 

I enjoyed the documentary a lot, but agree it's a bit too hagiographic. It's highly curated, even down to the carefully revealed flaws designed to dimensionalize his personality. Not that I think he or the documentary are fake at all; it's all just very carefully crafted to match the image he's comfortable with and wants to convey.

As @Turnaround said, I would have enjoyed more focus on the music - there was a lot of "and then I came in and wrote a big hit for them and they went on to have an amazing career" without digging much deeper than that, and the artist interviews weren't much more illuminating. I'm sure there's a wealth of interesting background - he's certainly had an amazing career working with an immense number of incredibly prominent and talented artists.

I went to see him live earlier this year (Late last year? Time has no meaning anymore...), and he was incredibly entertaining and put on a great show, bringing out mostly lesser known but amazingly talented singers to perform his hits. The show was being recorded for Netflix or PBS or similar, so it's probably available already - depending on what survived the edit, he did tell more interesting stories about a few songs/artists.

 

I think He is a major Dbag. I read his autobiography and not one word about the two Tubes albums He produced, way too much about Michael Buble and Celine Dion. Yuck!!

 

"This title currently isn't available in Canada"

 

I’m sure he’s enjoying being married to Katharine McPhee.

I’ll have to check the doc out. Sometimes a big ego can be entertaining. His Grammys certainly bear out his talent.

 

To leave out any mention is inexcusable. The Completion Backwards Principle is a brilliant masterpiece.

 

Watched this last night. Foster's made some records/music I truly love, but the bulk of his catalog doesn't ring that way for me. There were some very key works in his early career that weren't mentioned at all. His album with Jay P. Morgan deserved it's own segment, as it 1) is a masterpiece & 2) as a first production it is comparable to records he produced years later. Morgan rose beyond the occasion & Foster was skilled enough to harness everything she had in a way that made her seem like she was the top player. In many ways she was, being the name on the album, but Foster brought all the album's elements together while Morgan moved throughout with ease & confidence, something she no doubt felt comfortable doing because of Foster. Another early work of his that I wish he commented on is his work with Peter Allen on Allen's album Bicoastal. Love this album, but unlike Morgan's album, Allen simply seems plugged into a contemporary update of his sound, and Foster seems to have the upper hand while Allen is along for the ride. A great album, but these differences between these albums are palatable upon listening to each. I feel like this could have been touched on in the film because by the time he worked with Allen his formula had been established & it was being used to potentially break a non-commercial artist commercially.

I really didn't need to hear Katherine McPhee talk about her emotional challenges with her husband, but by that point of the film my bladder was quite full & it made a perfect opportunity to empty it. I thought it was odd they mentioned the embarrassing reality show he did for Fox at all. It was kind of an attempt to turn his stepsons in to the next big reality tools but failed miserably. And while he talked about his success as a performer in Asia, he neglected to mention his few failed attempts to break his Asian proteges into the American market.

 

I think he's been feted enough already in his homeland, don't you?

 

Based on the documentary, David Foster is great at 2 things:

1. Producing hit records; and

2. Producing daughters that look like supermodels.

 

They should get off Peter about this too, since after Cetera left they used Foster again

 

I won't watch...his ego takes up too much of the screen.

 

I hate his music. It's formulaic, "shimmering love plea at the bridge" garbage. I like his writing on "After the Love is Gone" and his piano playing on "Here You Come Again." But that's it. He's also an egomaniac. Which was was in the process of ruining a (eventually great) Tubes album until Todd Rundgren butted heads with him... and he took a hike. And I don't know if he really did Chicago a favor with his productions. Instead of finding somebody like Kath again. They just realized they couldn't live without making "Baby, What Kind of Man Would I Be?" until the cows came home. Great legacy there.

 

Found that out last night, too, thanks!