Honky Tonk Man wrote on Jul 25
th, 2010 at 5:24am:
I don't see what's so wrong with Don Was: the problem with recent albums has been the quality in songwriting... not the producer
____________________________________
Don Was is a fantastic Producer with incredible insight on recording music, it's history and song craft.
He has produced four Rolling Stones albums and they all do something completely different yet still are quality.
Now, aside from that .... if you do not like the albums he's done with The Stones please remember .... he is only 1/2 of the equation here. The Stones were satisfied with the work he's done for them so remember ....they keep hiring him back so he must be doing things as they want.
You can say ..."yeah but they need a kick in the can....someone to say no, you gotta do it this way" or "work harder ...it doesn't sound good enough to me".
If The Rolling Stones were training for a championship title fight this approach would probably be the way to go ....but they're not... they are writing/recording music. This hard balled approach doesn't work very often. In fact in a recording situation it usually ends up un-productive or with sub-par results.
One of the few instances in which this actually worked was Rubin recording Wandering Spirit with Jagger. Yes it did work that time but... like I say it's not the norm. In order to get everything out of an artist he/she must want to give you that. If someone is too hard nosed or bossy it is hard to give them all you've got. In fact, musicians find themselves holding back because of inner spite.
Something to keep in mind. If you do not like the last three or four records The Stones did (personally I was satisfied and enjoyed all of them) you can hardly put all the blame on Don Was. The Rolling Stones were there too...
A REALISTIC WAY TO LOOK AT /COMPARE IT IS:
What if your neighbor was trying impress everyone in the neighborhood and at the same time sell his house? So every single year your neighbor decides to give his house a brand new coat of paint to help him impress the neighbors and hopefully help him sell his house. and ....every year your neighbor hires his nephew to help him paint his house. Every year the two of them go to the paint shop and choose a color you completely don't care for. As well it is your opinion that the two of them do a lack luster job of actually painting the house after choosing the paint. Every year your neighbor turns you off and his house is never sold.
Now, ... would you go around blaming your neighbors nephew because your neighbor never impressed you and never ends up selling his house???
Don Was is about as much to blame as your neighbors nephew. Remember ...The Rolling Stones hire him repeatedly and seem satisfied. The Stones are responsible for at least half of the idea on how the album is to sound and/or what type of album it should be.
Again, I think he's done a great job at his part. Just because you think The Stones could do better doesn't mean you can pin all the blame on him. Blame the artist Jack. They keep hiring the dude and they are the ones performing on the record...
Don't get me wrong ... anyone knows a Producer can be a huge influence as to how a record sounds/is recorded, the flow of a record, or what the artist gives in performance and at times right down to the song writing. Everyone knows that. But it was what The Stones chose. They like it (and so did I).
Ian