Cytat:
Marshall would have been at best an executive producer, Nikki, which usually means selecting the man who actually sits in the studio and makes the record. The executive then says, 'fine' or 'can you make that bit louder/quieter' followed by 'now, where's that line of coke?'
I have the name Gabriel Mekler in my head as being responsible for that great Etta track.
Cytat:
nikki akinjinmi wrote:
Etta has cut so many great records over the years, maybe his antics couldn't detract from her music!
You might be right. But how am I going to feel next time I see Marshall, if in the meantime somebody has drawn his attention to this stuff? So, just to be clear, he's a very entertaining and likeable man! He just doesn't have the best judgement when it comes to making records.
I've been thinking that his remix idea could have worked if he had (a) only used tracks/songs deemed not good enough to release in the first place, so nobody could have accused him of tampering with masterpieces and (b) assigned the project to some first division producers like Timbaland instead of has-been musicians who never produced records in the first place - when they made those Sugarhill rap records, the guys he brought in were just session musicians under direction from an actual producer.
I haven't heard the remixes to which you are referring, but my initial reaction would be why did they (Chess, etc) bother to do this apart from the obvious financial considerations.
Having said this, several years ago, there were those Verve Remixes of
Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, etc, and when I read about them, I did think that it was a rather pointless thing to be doing as I thought the original recordings (or the ones that have come to be played so often) sounded fine, good to me, but I must admit I did grow to like the remix (Rae & Christian remix?) of the
Dinah Washington's version of "Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't (My Baby)?" That particular track had a certain toughness that I thought was missing from the versions that I was used to hearing. At the time those Verve remixes came out - admittedly, some worked better than others, perhaps because from my memory, it was not the same remixer involved on all tracks - but I didn't want to like them. Some of them were good - in that they worked.
I remember thinking to myself how good a singer
Dinah Washington must have been - even though she wasn't really my cup of tea, a lot of the time. But then again, I suppose it's easier to pick out one thing that goes against the grain, so to speak...and perhaps I am being unfair.
I am not saying that anyone, or some people will like those Chess remixes any better. I am curious...but then again....