One of the great vagaries of pop music is the role of the producer. What exactly does he do? I think it varies from recording to recording; sometimes he might be a mere cheerleader, and other times he’s writing and recording the bulk of the material.

I’ll often hear a band’s recording and marvel at the quality of playing. This is especially true for younger bands. And I find myself wondering whether some or all of it was played either by the producer, or musicians brought in by the producer.

But how would this process come about? I would think the band would be offended if they were denied the ability to play on the record which bears their name. It’s possible the producer may make a concerted effort to get a take, and when it becomes clear that it will be an impossibility, he simply screams, “Jesus Christ, you stupid fucking fuck! I’ll just recorded myself!” (I was once a fly in a wall for the recording session for a major label band and noticed the producer becoming visibly agitated with the inability of the guitar player to play his parts.)

I suspect another technique is something like the following. The producer records two or three takes with a member of the band, then says something like, “Okay, that’s great stuff, Jim. Why you take the rest of the day off? I’m just going to stick around and do some filing.” He then, of course, records the parts in a professional manner. The next day, the musician comes in, listens to the tracks he “recorded” and says, “Wow, it sounds even better than I remember.” This is possible because most rock musicians are narcissistic, drug addled morons.

This reminds me of a bit of rock guitarist lore. Towards the end of Ace Frehley’s career in KISS, the guitarist was often so drunk that he couldn’t record his parts. The band brought in session guitarist Bob Kulick* to record lead guitar parts. At one point after a recording session Bob ran into an inebriated Ace in the hallway. Ace asked, “How’d I sound?” Bob replied, “Never better.”

*Bob’s brother, guitarist Bruce Kulick, would ultimately become an official member of KISS.

I’ve been doing some work on an uptempo TV Theme style musical composition in the style of 80s composer Mike Post. As a result I’ve been listening to a lot of old TV themes from that era. I have to say, many of these tunes, especially by Post, are just fabby.

One interesting bit of trivia I picked up: Did you know the quite famous “lite metal” theme for “Magnum P.I.” was not the first theme used? Here’s the original with a completely different flavor.

The first funky part ain’t so bad, but then it gets into that gay light jazz. Let’s wash our brain with the ultimate, much cooler theme.

Here’s one I’d almost forgotten about – the theme to the classic 80s action drama “The Equalizer.” Interesting how the main melody doesn’t appear until halfway into the piece.

Here’s another blast from the past: Riptide! Note the Beach Boys homage.

Here’s I’ve always loved: “Simon and Simon” which I now realize was set in San Diego.

I may have mentioned recently that I feel like my musical ear has really improved over the past couple years. I’m not referring to some vague ability to hear catchy melodies – I mean my ability to recognize discrepancies in pitch and rhythm has gotten better. I think a lot of this comes from the many hours I spent critically listening to rough versions of the songs on my new cd; it was like boot camp for my ear. As a result of this improvement I feel like I’m much more attuned to hearing various pitch and tempo flaws in music.

I’ve also become better at recognizing flaws in people. I often say to someone, “You’re ugly… please immediately leave my sight,” or “Your voice has a whiney, nasally quality that is most unpleasant. If you killed yourself right now using the traditional Japanese Hari Kiri method, no one would miss you.”

But that’s neither here nor there. It’s interesting to think of pitch and tempo discrimination as a skill, like shooting hoops or understanding algebra. It can be learned, but I suspect certain people have natural talents e.g. more complex development in the areas of their brain devoted to these kinds of discriminations. (Interesting, young Chinese music students have a much greater propensity towards perfect pitch than Westerners; this is presumably because Chinese babies are, after birth, challenged with the Chinese language which is very tonal (e.g. meaning is derived from the tone of voice the speaker uses, not just the words.)

I’m tempted to say that anyone under the age of 30 should not be taken seriously as a musician because they don’t have the ability to really tell when they are “off.” But many of these musicians are guided by more learned ears, and some kids just do have natural talent. Additionally most audiences don’t have a very defined sense of pitch or rhythm and can thus be easily fooled.

This is pretty crazy – an armless Chinese kid can play the piano (quite well) with his toes. Skip to around 2 minutes 10 seconds for the playing to begin.

I’ve been thinking about an interesting subtext to the previous post about Aaron Freeman putting the kibosh on his band Ween. One quote from the linked story is this:

“It’s time to move on,” Freeman told Rolling Stone from his home in New Jersey. “I’m retiring Gene Ween.”

I get the sense that Freeman felt trapped by not just the band and the music, but by this character, this Gene Ween. This sense of entrapment is likely related to the onstage breakdown Freeman had a while back (though substance abuse also had a role.)

Part of the charm of Ween, especially in the early years, was that they didn’t take themselves very seriously. This attitude was quite at odds with the predominant philosophy of the then ruling grunge scene, a scene famous for its navel gazing and self hatred (it ended when Kurt Cobain blew his head off.) Grunge was furtively politically correct, whereas Ween had a song which cheerfully sang the words “AIDS…. H.I.V.” against a backdrop of children’s music. Ween were like the anti-grunge.

But I get the sense that as Freeman got older, the “we don’t give a shit” attitude that powered the band started to take its toll. I think now he wants to give a shit, or at least be taken seriously. And it makes sense – Ween really did evolve into a great, formidable band* – but that was never recognized by critics and probably even a lot of fans. They remained a novelty band until the end. I can see why Freeman would want out.

* Additionally, I’ve always felt a lot of Freeman’s lyrics were more self revealing than many of the tortured artists of the grunge years and beyond. As an example, here’s one of my faves of their’s… “Baby Bitch.”

Aaron Freeman of one of my favorite bands – Ween – has ended the band. Basically he’s understandably burnt out on the whole thing after 25 years.

It’s worth clicking the link to a see a picture of Freeman – perhaps the most unflattering photo of a celebrity I’ve ever seen. He looks like some kind of mutant hillbilly cannibal.

Here’s a new instrumental song about traveling throughout the universe in my space-van.
Life on Other Planets by Wil Forbis