"playon" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 02 Oct 2004 06:20:35 GMT, "Paul Stamler"
wrote:

Joe Boyd.
John Simon [he produced "The Band", an album whose sound was copied
wholesale for several years].

It's a great record, but who copied it at that time? I don't recall
many other records sounding like that in the 70s... no compression, no
studio reverb, etc.

From about 1969 through about 1971, there was a whole rash of records trying
to imitate The Band in many respects, including vocal intonation (which
usually sounded silly) and recording technique (which didn't). I remember
reading an interview with Fairport Convention's engineer where he said that
on their albums from that period he was always wanting to sneak a little EW
or reverb onto, say, a drum track, and "I was always having Levon Helm
thrown back at me." Some of the Pub-Rock bands in England recorded that way
for a while too. Not necessarily without compression, but with little reverb
and EQ. I remember some Brinsley Schwarz records that sounded very
un-messed-with. By about 1972 people had resumed their former habits.

Peace,
Paul

Well, maybe Mickie Most should be included for the
"cut-every-song-in-3-minutes" style and the "an album-
is-an-afterthought-to-the-singles" approach. He
Produced many a hit single in the 60's using good
arrangers like John Paul Jones.

Maybe not the most artistically satisfying method,
but he did get a Producer of the Year Grammy in 1964
and he was one of the 500 richest men in
England.

Not bad for a guy who started out as a singing waiter.
Might be a nice contrast to some other approaches
too. (And hey, you did mention something about wanting the class to be "good
for the money"... )

Will Miho
NY Music & TV Audio Guy
Off the Morning Show! & sleepin' In... / Fox News
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits

Well, maybe Mickie Most should be included for the
"cut-every-song-in-3-minutes" style and the "an album-
is-an-afterthought-to-the-singles" approach. He
Produced many a hit single in the 60's using good
arrangers like John Paul Jones.

Maybe not the most artistically satisfying method,
but he did get a Producer of the Year Grammy in 1964
and he was one of the 500 richest men in
England.

Not bad for a guy who started out as a singing waiter.
Might be a nice contrast to some other approaches
too. (And hey, you did mention something about wanting the class to be "good
for the money"... )

Will Miho
NY Music & TV Audio Guy
Off the Morning Show! & sleepin' In... / Fox News
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits

You know, I think it's also important to talk about Mitch Miller. He did
some good things and some really bad things, and you can argue that he did
more than anyone else to keep rock music down, but he certainly made a
very significant impact on pop music even if it wasn't necessarily a good one.
--scott

"He invented the Greatest Hits album, putting together a Johnny Mathis
package which cost the company nothing and is still selling today.
...... But Miller had too much power and not enough taste. At Mercury
he had been involved with the Charlie Parker With Strings album, which
was let down by Jimmy Carroll's banal arrangements;

At Columbia Frank Sinatra had a minor hit with 'Goodnight Irene' '50
accompanied by a chorus directed by Miller, whose loud stiffness was
the antithesis of what the song was about; Harry James said he left
Columbia because Miller wanted him to record stuff like 'Ghost Riders
In The Sky'. Sinatra blamed Miller unfairly for the slump in his
career during those years.

A great many musicians blamed Miller for degrading popular music with
his whooping French horns (on Guy Mitchell's pseudo-folksongs) and
cheapening Clooney's records with an amplified harpsichord, and mainly
for his choice of material. He would do anything to grab the
listener's attention; he once put bagpipes on a Dinah Shore release,
and disc jockeys took the record off and broke it over the air. A few
years later when Sinatra was making classic albums at Capitol which
are still selling today, Miller was having hits with witless junk like
'Yellow Rose Of Texas', a 19th-century campfire song with incessant
snare drums, the sort of thing that Stan Freberg gleefully satirized.

Miller was one of the first to take advantage of tape recording to
make vocalists sing along with previously recorded backing, which a
good singer hated to do; on one such occasion he came down from the
booth to dance around in front of Jo Stafford to get her in the mood.
(She told him to get back in the booth where he belonged.)

At a recording session in London '71 the producer tried to put Tony
Bennett into a vocalist's booth separated from the orchestra; Bennett
said, 'I never sang in a box in my life. Mitch Miller invented that
gag and I could never go along with it. Just put me out front next to
the piano; that'll feel more like a real performance.'

Such unmusical innovations in favour of the technology were the
beginning of a lot of trashy recordings, but it was Miller's job to
make money for the label, and Columbia in those years had a higher
hits-to- releases ratio than any other; it wasn't Miller but
broadcasters who saw to it that the hits of the early '50s were noisy
jolly junk, because they fitted neatly between the advertising
jingles. In fact Miller made a speech at a disc jockey convention '58
accusing them of abandoning their programming to children; they gave
him a standing ovation, but the Storz broadcasting chain, sponsoring
the convention, then banned Columbia records just as payola was
becoming big business.

To give Miller credit, he was an honest man; he could make deals with
songwriters etc because he always kept his word and never took a piece
of a song, and he never paid anybody to play a record.

As the rock'n'roll era began he passed on Buddy Holly, and bid for
Elvis Presley '55 but would not meet Tom Parker's price. He did not
join the ignorant chorus who wanted to censor rock'n'roll (saying on
one occasion 'You can't call any music immoral') but he disliked the
direction the business was taking, though he had unwittingly prepared
the ground for it......

He effectively abdicated to conduct singalongs on TV; Sing Along With
Mitch '58 with a male chorus was a no. 1 album for eight weeks,
followed by 20 more in four years, nearly all top ten LPs. This was
all very well, but had no influence on anything, while the singles
charts were taken over by the trashy likes of Fabian and Frankie
Avalon, selling as many records for cynical independents as Miller had
done in his prime. Columbia's market share slipped until the Clive
Davis era of the late '60s."

http://www.musicweb.uk.net/encyclopaedia/m/M194.HTM

You know, I think it's also important to talk about Mitch Miller. He did
some good things and some really bad things, and you can argue that he did
more than anyone else to keep rock music down, but he certainly made a
very significant impact on pop music even if it wasn't necessarily a good one.
--scott

"He invented the Greatest Hits album, putting together a Johnny Mathis
package which cost the company nothing and is still selling today.
...... But Miller had too much power and not enough taste. At Mercury
he had been involved with the Charlie Parker With Strings album, which
was let down by Jimmy Carroll's banal arrangements;

At Columbia Frank Sinatra had a minor hit with 'Goodnight Irene' '50
accompanied by a chorus directed by Miller, whose loud stiffness was
the antithesis of what the song was about; Harry James said he left
Columbia because Miller wanted him to record stuff like 'Ghost Riders
In The Sky'. Sinatra blamed Miller unfairly for the slump in his
career during those years.

A great many musicians blamed Miller for degrading popular music with
his whooping French horns (on Guy Mitchell's pseudo-folksongs) and
cheapening Clooney's records with an amplified harpsichord, and mainly
for his choice of material. He would do anything to grab the
listener's attention; he once put bagpipes on a Dinah Shore release,
and disc jockeys took the record off and broke it over the air. A few
years later when Sinatra was making classic albums at Capitol which
are still selling today, Miller was having hits with witless junk like
'Yellow Rose Of Texas', a 19th-century campfire song with incessant
snare drums, the sort of thing that Stan Freberg gleefully satirized.

Miller was one of the first to take advantage of tape recording to
make vocalists sing along with previously recorded backing, which a
good singer hated to do; on one such occasion he came down from the
booth to dance around in front of Jo Stafford to get her in the mood.
(She told him to get back in the booth where he belonged.)

At a recording session in London '71 the producer tried to put Tony
Bennett into a vocalist's booth separated from the orchestra; Bennett
said, 'I never sang in a box in my life. Mitch Miller invented that
gag and I could never go along with it. Just put me out front next to
the piano; that'll feel more like a real performance.'

Such unmusical innovations in favour of the technology were the
beginning of a lot of trashy recordings, but it was Miller's job to
make money for the label, and Columbia in those years had a higher
hits-to- releases ratio than any other; it wasn't Miller but
broadcasters who saw to it that the hits of the early '50s were noisy
jolly junk, because they fitted neatly between the advertising
jingles. In fact Miller made a speech at a disc jockey convention '58
accusing them of abandoning their programming to children; they gave
him a standing ovation, but the Storz broadcasting chain, sponsoring
the convention, then banned Columbia records just as payola was
becoming big business.

To give Miller credit, he was an honest man; he could make deals with
songwriters etc because he always kept his word and never took a piece
of a song, and he never paid anybody to play a record.

As the rock'n'roll era began he passed on Buddy Holly, and bid for
Elvis Presley '55 but would not meet Tom Parker's price. He did not
join the ignorant chorus who wanted to censor rock'n'roll (saying on
one occasion 'You can't call any music immoral') but he disliked the
direction the business was taking, though he had unwittingly prepared
the ground for it......

He effectively abdicated to conduct singalongs on TV; Sing Along With
Mitch '58 with a male chorus was a no. 1 album for eight weeks,
followed by 20 more in four years, nearly all top ten LPs. This was
all very well, but had no influence on anything, while the singles
charts were taken over by the trashy likes of Fabian and Frankie
Avalon, selling as many records for cynical independents as Miller had
done in his prime. Columbia's market share slipped until the Clive
Davis era of the late '60s."

http://www.musicweb.uk.net/encyclopaedia/m/M194.HTM

Johnston West wrote:
A great many musicians blamed Miller for degrading popular music with
his whooping French horns (on Guy Mitchell's pseudo-folksongs) and
cheapening Clooney's records with an amplified harpsichord, and mainly
for his choice of material.

If you ever get a chance to listen to any of the duets between Clooney
and Marlene Deitrich in that era, they are worth it just for amusement
value. The close-miked harpsichord in "Too Old" actually works pretty
well... it's hard to cheapen that material any more anyway.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Johnston West wrote:
A great many musicians blamed Miller for degrading popular music with
his whooping French horns (on Guy Mitchell's pseudo-folksongs) and
cheapening Clooney's records with an amplified harpsichord, and mainly
for his choice of material.

If you ever get a chance to listen to any of the duets between Clooney
and Marlene Deitrich in that era, they are worth it just for amusement
value. The close-miked harpsichord in "Too Old" actually works pretty
well... it's hard to cheapen that material any more anyway.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

In article writes:

A great many musicians blamed Miller for degrading popular music with
his whooping French horns (on Guy Mitchell's pseudo-folksongs) and
cheapening Clooney's records with an amplified harpsichord, and mainly
for his choice of material. He would do anything to grab the
listener's attention

Isn't that just what a producer (or in fact everyone involved in
commercial music production) is supposed to do?

; he once put bagpipes on a Dinah Shore release,
and disc jockeys took the record off and broke it over the air.

That certainly grabbed people's attention, and I'll bet it made some
sales. Good for him (both of them).

Miller was one of the first to take advantage of tape recording to
make vocalists sing along with previously recorded backing, which a
good singer hated to do; on one such occasion he came down from the
booth to dance around in front of Jo Stafford to get her in the mood.
(She told him to get back in the booth where he belonged.)

Yet this is the way records are made today, sometimes even with
dancing producers. Don't forget the Lava Lamps and incense too. Of
course it helps to know the artist and do things that will encourage a
good performance.

Such unmusical innovations in favour of the technology were the
beginning of a lot of trashy recordings, but it was Miller's job to
make money for the label

Exactly. And once his techniques got the rough edges taken off, they
became the way records were made.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

In article writes:

A great many musicians blamed Miller for degrading popular music with
his whooping French horns (on Guy Mitchell's pseudo-folksongs) and
cheapening Clooney's records with an amplified harpsichord, and mainly
for his choice of material. He would do anything to grab the
listener's attention

Isn't that just what a producer (or in fact everyone involved in
commercial music production) is supposed to do?

; he once put bagpipes on a Dinah Shore release,
and disc jockeys took the record off and broke it over the air.

That certainly grabbed people's attention, and I'll bet it made some
sales. Good for him (both of them).

Miller was one of the first to take advantage of tape recording to
make vocalists sing along with previously recorded backing, which a
good singer hated to do; on one such occasion he came down from the
booth to dance around in front of Jo Stafford to get her in the mood.
(She told him to get back in the booth where he belonged.)

Yet this is the way records are made today, sometimes even with
dancing producers. Don't forget the Lava Lamps and incense too. Of
course it helps to know the artist and do things that will encourage a
good performance.

Such unmusical innovations in favour of the technology were the
beginning of a lot of trashy recordings, but it was Miller's job to
make money for the label

Exactly. And once his techniques got the rough edges taken off, they
became the way records were made.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

he once put bagpipes on a Dinah Shore release, BRBR

Now that's my kind of producer. What's not to like?

Scott Fraser

he once put bagpipes on a Dinah Shore release, BRBR

Now that's my kind of producer. What's not to like?

Scott Fraser

"Johnston West" wrote in message
om...

A few
years later when Sinatra was making classic albums at Capitol which
are still selling today, Miller was having hits with witless junk like
'Yellow Rose Of Texas', a 19th-century campfire song with incessant
snare drums, the sort of thing that Stan Freberg gleefully satirized.

The encyclopedia from which you're quoting got that wrong, IMHO. "Yellow
Rose of Texas" was a song with some guts behind it, about the mistress of
Mexican general Santa Ana that was very popular among the soldiers fighting
the Mexican war. Supposedly, she passed on Santa Ana's battle plans to the
US forces, enabling them to win the battle of San Jacinto, although there's
a certain logistical difficulty involved that makes this claim dubious. The
witlessness wasn't in the song, but in Mitch Miller's ghastly arrangement.

Peace,
Paul

"Johnston West" wrote in message
om...

A few
years later when Sinatra was making classic albums at Capitol which
are still selling today, Miller was having hits with witless junk like
'Yellow Rose Of Texas', a 19th-century campfire song with incessant
snare drums, the sort of thing that Stan Freberg gleefully satirized.

The encyclopedia from which you're quoting got that wrong, IMHO. "Yellow
Rose of Texas" was a song with some guts behind it, about the mistress of
Mexican general Santa Ana that was very popular among the soldiers fighting
the Mexican war. Supposedly, she passed on Santa Ana's battle plans to the
US forces, enabling them to win the battle of San Jacinto, although there's
a certain logistical difficulty involved that makes this claim dubious. The
witlessness wasn't in the song, but in Mitch Miller's ghastly arrangement.

Peace,
Paul

Johnston West wrote:



A great many musicians blamed Miller for degrading popular music with
his whooping French horns (on Guy Mitchell's pseudo-folksongs) and
cheapening Clooney's records with an amplified harpsichord, and mainly
for his choice of material. He would do anything to grab the
listener's attention; he once put bagpipes on a Dinah Shore release,
and disc jockeys took the record off and broke it over the air. A few
years later when Sinatra was making classic albums at Capitol which
are still selling today, Miller was having hits with witless junk like
'Yellow Rose Of Texas', a 19th-century campfire song with incessant
snare drums, the sort of thing that Stan Freberg gleefully satirized.


Was he responsible for setting Jo Stafford's Jambalaya in sub-Saharan
Africa with the jungle drums and native war chants?


Jam-bo-layyyyyyyyy-YA!

Johnston West wrote:



A great many musicians blamed Miller for degrading popular music with
his whooping French horns (on Guy Mitchell's pseudo-folksongs) and
cheapening Clooney's records with an amplified harpsichord, and mainly
for his choice of material. He would do anything to grab the
listener's attention; he once put bagpipes on a Dinah Shore release,
and disc jockeys took the record off and broke it over the air. A few
years later when Sinatra was making classic albums at Capitol which
are still selling today, Miller was having hits with witless junk like
'Yellow Rose Of Texas', a 19th-century campfire song with incessant
snare drums, the sort of thing that Stan Freberg gleefully satirized.


Was he responsible for setting Jo Stafford's Jambalaya in sub-Saharan
Africa with the jungle drums and native war chants?


Jam-bo-layyyyyyyyy-YA!

ScotFraser wrote:

he once put bagpipes on a Dinah Shore release, BRBR

Now that's my kind of producer. What's not to like?

They used Chevrolet bagpipes.

--
ha

Paul Stamler wrote:

The witlessness wasn't in the song, but in Mitch Miller's ghastly
arrangement.

What he said; what's not to like in a song about a frontier mulatto
hooker?

--
ha

Paul Stamler wrote:

The witlessness wasn't in the song, but in Mitch Miller's ghastly
arrangement.

What he said; what's not to like in a song about a frontier mulatto
hooker?

--
ha

ScotFraser wrote:

he once put bagpipes on a Dinah Shore release, BRBR

Now that's my kind of producer. What's not to like?

They used Chevrolet bagpipes.

--
ha

This list is very pop-heavy.

Exactly. Does he mean significant COMMERCIALLY or significant MUSICALLY?
Big gap there!
"I'm beginning to suspect that your problem is the gap between
what you say and what you think you have said."
-george (paraphrased)

This list is very pop-heavy.

Exactly. Does he mean significant COMMERCIALLY or significant MUSICALLY?
Big gap there!
"I'm beginning to suspect that your problem is the gap between
what you say and what you think you have said."
-george (paraphrased)

I disagree with including Phily Soul on the list. I think Gamble &
Huff were just about the worst offenders when it comes to tacky
overproduction, clobbering songs with strings and horns when something
less cluttered would have been more tasteful. Not all their stuff is
bad, but I think their place in pop music history is overstated.

(Mikey) wrote in message . com...
Jim Klein wrote in message ...
Just so everyone is clear, the focus of the course is going to be on
producers who had an impact on how records were made, primarily on studio
technique. Les Paul is important as a pioneer in overdubbing, for example.
I'm in the process of researching some of the important breakthroughs, so
I'd appreciate it if anyone that is intimately familiar with some of this
history share that knowledge.... I am having a hard time pinpointing just
who figured out things like doubling, varispeeding (Ross Bagdazarian,
maybe?), using room mics, recording tons of background vocal tracks and then
bouncing... There are so many of these techniques that are now taken for
granted.

of late:

Trent Reznor (I hated most NIN, but do respect Reznor's work as
producer) Can't forget about Dre, either.

I wholeheartedly agree with the Templeman choice. Most of the early
'70's Warner Bros. catalog is stunning, IMO.

Philly Soul should be represented, IMO, as should Nashville in the
early 90's. 80's new wave/pop, also - the uses of synths, drum
machines, sequencers. Cool thread.

Mikey Wozniak
Nova Music Productions
This sig is haiku

I disagree with including Phily Soul on the list. I think Gamble &
Huff were just about the worst offenders when it comes to tacky
overproduction, clobbering songs with strings and horns when something
less cluttered would have been more tasteful. Not all their stuff is
bad, but I think their place in pop music history is overstated.

(Mikey) wrote in message . com...
Jim Klein wrote in message ...
Just so everyone is clear, the focus of the course is going to be on
producers who had an impact on how records were made, primarily on studio
technique. Les Paul is important as a pioneer in overdubbing, for example.
I'm in the process of researching some of the important breakthroughs, so
I'd appreciate it if anyone that is intimately familiar with some of this
history share that knowledge.... I am having a hard time pinpointing just
who figured out things like doubling, varispeeding (Ross Bagdazarian,
maybe?), using room mics, recording tons of background vocal tracks and then
bouncing... There are so many of these techniques that are now taken for
granted.

of late:

Trent Reznor (I hated most NIN, but do respect Reznor's work as
producer) Can't forget about Dre, either.

I wholeheartedly agree with the Templeman choice. Most of the early
'70's Warner Bros. catalog is stunning, IMO.

Philly Soul should be represented, IMO, as should Nashville in the
early 90's. 80's new wave/pop, also - the uses of synths, drum
machines, sequencers. Cool thread.

Mikey Wozniak
Nova Music Productions
This sig is haiku

In article writes:

What he said; what's not to like in a song about a frontier mulatto
hooker?

As soon as some moralist figured out what it was about, that would be
the end of the record. Better to water it down and jazz it up if your
job is to sell records.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

In article writes:

What he said; what's not to like in a song about a frontier mulatto
hooker?

As soon as some moralist figured out what it was about, that would be
the end of the record. Better to water it down and jazz it up if your
job is to sell records.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

"Mike Rivers" wrote in message
news:znr1096851350k@trad...

In article
writes:

What he said; what's not to like in a song about a frontier mulatto
hooker?

As soon as some moralist figured out what it was about, that would be
the end of the record. Better to water it down and jazz it up if your
job is to sell records.

There's nothing in lyrics that suggest that is there?

"Mike Rivers" wrote in message
news:znr1096851350k@trad...

In article
writes:

What he said; what's not to like in a song about a frontier mulatto
hooker?

As soon as some moralist figured out what it was about, that would be
the end of the record. Better to water it down and jazz it up if your
job is to sell records.

There's nothing in lyrics that suggest that is there?

(Jim Klein) wrote in message . com...
Hi RAP'ers -

I'm developing the syllabus and curriculum for a course I'll be
teaching in the Spring called "Survey of Modern Production
Techniques", which will look at the evolution of modern record
production from the late 50's/early 60's up to the present day. With
two classes per week over a ten week term, I think there will be some
opportunity to look at many of the important producers and their work,
to listen and analyze what made each one important to the advancement
of the art. I'm compiling a list of important producers and records,
and I'd love to get some input from you guys. I'm trying to keep my
personal taste out of it, which is why I've included David Foster, for
example. While I'm not fond of most of his productions, I do believe
that he helped shape the sound of pop music in the late 70's and 80's
(acoustic piano doubled with Rhodes, anyone?). Anyway, I'd appreciate
any input from you guys. Eventually, I would like to weed the list
down to 20 -25 producers with 1-3 songs each, and really try to
quantify each one's contribution. Here's my list so far:

Les Paul
Jerry Wexler
George Martin
Berry Gordy
Joe Meek
Phil Spector
Brian Wilson
George Massenberg
Waronker/Titleman
George Clinton
Brian Eno
Daniel Lanois
Prince
Teddy Riley
Rick Rubin
Arif Mardin
David Foster
Mutt Lange
Bill Laswell
Trevor Horn


I have no agenda here, other than to get this right and give the kids
the best class for their money, so feel free to disagree with my
choices and offer better ones. Thanks a bunch for the help


Jim Klein
Assistant Professor, Music Industry
Drexel University


What about "The Bomb Squad"? Their production of Public Enemy's album
"It Takes A Nation Of Milions..." (among other records) was pretty
groundbreaking and influential in the world of rap/hip-hop.

(Jim Klein) wrote in message . com...
Hi RAP'ers -

I'm developing the syllabus and curriculum for a course I'll be
teaching in the Spring called "Survey of Modern Production
Techniques", which will look at the evolution of modern record
production from the late 50's/early 60's up to the present day. With
two classes per week over a ten week term, I think there will be some
opportunity to look at many of the important producers and their work,
to listen and analyze what made each one important to the advancement
of the art. I'm compiling a list of important producers and records,
and I'd love to get some input from you guys. I'm trying to keep my
personal taste out of it, which is why I've included David Foster, for
example. While I'm not fond of most of his productions, I do believe
that he helped shape the sound of pop music in the late 70's and 80's
(acoustic piano doubled with Rhodes, anyone?). Anyway, I'd appreciate
any input from you guys. Eventually, I would like to weed the list
down to 20 -25 producers with 1-3 songs each, and really try to
quantify each one's contribution. Here's my list so far:

Les Paul
Jerry Wexler
George Martin
Berry Gordy
Joe Meek
Phil Spector
Brian Wilson
George Massenberg
Waronker/Titleman
George Clinton
Brian Eno
Daniel Lanois
Prince
Teddy Riley
Rick Rubin
Arif Mardin
David Foster
Mutt Lange
Bill Laswell
Trevor Horn


I have no agenda here, other than to get this right and give the kids
the best class for their money, so feel free to disagree with my
choices and offer better ones. Thanks a bunch for the help


Jim Klein
Assistant Professor, Music Industry
Drexel University


What about "The Bomb Squad"? Their production of Public Enemy's album
"It Takes A Nation Of Milions..." (among other records) was pretty
groundbreaking and influential in the world of rap/hip-hop.

Ricky W. Hunt wrote:

"Mike Rivers" wrote...

walkinay writes:

What he said; what's not to like in a song about a frontier mulatto
hooker?

As soon as some moralist figured out what it was about, that would be
the end of the record. Better to water it down and jazz it up if your
job is to sell records.

There's nothing in lyrics that suggest that is there?

1. Not by the time Mitch Miller gets through with them.

2. Unless you know some of the history there.

--
ha

Ricky W. Hunt wrote:

"Mike Rivers" wrote...

walkinay writes:

What he said; what's not to like in a song about a frontier mulatto
hooker?

As soon as some moralist figured out what it was about, that would be
the end of the record. Better to water it down and jazz it up if your
job is to sell records.

There's nothing in lyrics that suggest that is there?

1. Not by the time Mitch Miller gets through with them.

2. Unless you know some of the history there.

--
ha