New Monday 46
Happy Monday.
The year winds down, a new one starts.
Former US President Jimmy Carter has died. He is the longest-lived American President—he was a few months past 100 years old when he passed. Mr Carter was, more than anything else, a humanitarian who tried to make the world better for those less fortunate, and he tried to do that on all levels, from local (he built houses for Habitat For Humanity, like actually swinging the hammer) to remaining involved in global affairs as a negotiator and unofficial ambassador of the US. He was also a prolific author, and won three Grammy Awards out of ten nominations in the Best Spoken Word Album category. Not a bad life for a kid from a peanut farm in Georgia who once was involved in stopping a nuclear reactor meltdown by being lowered into its radioactive core.
Another person died recently, who was nominated seven times for a Grammy but never won, which is crazy considering Richard Perry’s career.
Richard Perry
Richard Perry died at 82 of Parkinson's Disease. Mr. Perry was a super producer. In his heyday, the 70s, his name was on everything, and his name had hit cachet to it.
Perry was a musical prodigy from New York City who migrated out to the West Coast in the mid 60s and started his career producing Captain Beefheart’s 'Safe as Milk', a strange psychedelic blues album, and the novelty hit 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips' for Tiny Tim. Tiny Tim was a surprise hit, Beefheart was a critical success, and Perry’s was on its way.
A Partial Discography: Carly Simon (yes, he produced 'You’re So Vain' and supposedly it took 100 takes to nail it), Harry Nilsson, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Leo Sayer, Ringo — including a session with John, George, and Ringo playing together — Donna Summer, The Pointer Sisters, Neil Diamond, Julio Iglesias, Ray Charles, Rod Stewart, live albums for Ella Fitzgerald.
We put together a playlist of Richard Perry things here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe6ZCJT_4KPlYNTQVwJUhdrnMyWho9N4Q
Perry could not only play virtually everything, he could arrange and knew how to put deals together. He ran record labels, did A&R work, and got involved with Broadway musicals and films. He was never lowered into a nuclear reactor core with a screwdriver, but he did produce one of the most interesting and sadly unremembered bands perhaps of all times, the excellent, ass-kicking Fanny.
Fanny
Perry didn’t only do pop records, he produced the first three albums by Fanny.
Fanny was an all-girl rock band that played their own instruments, a rarity in 1970. Perry found them, signed them to Reprise Records and produced their first three albums. Damn. Fanny really rocked. Sisters June and Jane Millington (guitar and bass, respectively) grew up as rich in the Philippines, moved to California in the early 60s and by 1965 were dropping out of college to concentrate on music. By the time Perry found them, they’d added a killer drummer, Alice de Buhr, and keyboardist Nickey Barkley.
Fanny hit the top 40 in 1971 with Charity Ball but they didn’t have a career commensurate with their abilities. The world, I suppose, wasn’t ready for a band that could throw it down like The Faces but had the harmonies of The Shirelles. Fanny’s real impact was inspirational, and groups like The Runaways, the Bangles and the GoGos count Fanny as a prime influence. In an era where record labels wanted girls dressed in skirts, and backed up by studio musicians, Fanny did their own thing in bell-bottoms with harmonies that sounded like The Beatles or Badfinger. Here’s a Fanny playlist. There’s a lot of great stuff here.
A Blast from the Past
Here’s a 1984 interview with Richard Perry from the long-defunct Recording/Engineer/Producer magazine. Scroll down to page 38 to read. There’s a pullout section on his engineer, John Arrias, that’s more tech-oriented. But ya know what, forget the interviews and just look at the TONS of ads for EVERYTHING: consoles, mics, tape processors, studios—it’s really a fun glimpse at the industry just as MIDI and digital technology were becoming nascent.
Enough of the past, and into a weird future as the industry continues to shift, Ai continues to grow like a creature spawned from radioactive waste, and we all try to find our footing and our place in it. There’s always re-invention this time of year.
Next week I’ll post up the last bit of writing on setting levels and put that entire set of ideas together.
Happy New Year to you from Dan and I. We have a bunch of things planned and we will be FULL OF SURPRISES this year! But one thing that won’t ever change is how much we appreciate all of you.
Warm regards,
Luke
