Producing Country. Michael Jarrett

Producing Country

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PRODUCING COUNTRY

Music:Interview

A SERIES FROM WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS

Edited by Daniel Cavicchi

Yip Harburg: Legendary Lyricist and Human Rights Activist by Harriet Hyman Alonso

Reel History:

The Lost Archive of Juma Sultan and the Aboriginal Music Society by Stephen Farina

Producing Country:

The Inside Story of the Great Recordings by Michael Jarrett

Always in Trouble:

An Oral History of ESP-Disk,’ the Most Outrageous Record Label in America by Jason Weiss

The Music/Interview series features conversations with musicians, producers, and other significant figures in the world of music, past and present. The focus is on people who have not only made good music but also have insightful and profound things to say about creativity, politics, and culture. Each Music/Interview book presents an original approach to music-making, showing music as a vehicle for inspiration, identity, comment, and engagement. The interview format provides conversations between knowledgeable insiders. By foregrounding individual voices, the series gives readers the opportunity to better appreciate the sounds and music around us, through the voices of those who have experienced music most directly.

publication of this book is funded by the

BEATRICE FOX AUERBACH FOUNDATION FUND

at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

PRODUCING COUNTRY

THE INSIDE STORY OF THE GREAT RECORDINGS

MICHAEL JARRETT

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS

Middletown, Connecticut

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS

Middletown CT 06459

www.wesleyan.edu/wespress

Manufactured in the United States of America

Typeset in Chaparral, TheSerif and Champion

by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.

Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper.

publication of this book is funded by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

Steve Cropper’s comments on Otis Redding, “Dock of the Bay,” first appeared in Michael Jarrett, “Mystery and Manners: Steve Cropper and the Sound of Stax,” The Fretboard Journal, 4 (Winter 2006): 44–59. Reprinted by permission. Portions of Tom Dowd’s comments on Dusty Springfield, Dusty in Memphis, and Willie Mitchell’s comments on Al Green appeared in Michael Jarrett, Sound Tracks: A Musical ABC, Vols. 1–3, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. Reprinted by permission. Portions of comments by several producers appeared in Michael Jarrett, “The Self-Effacing Producer: Absence Summons Presence,” in The Art of Record Production: An Introductory Reader for a New Academic Field, eds. Simon Frith and Simon Zagorski-Thomas, Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2012, pp. 129–148. Reprinted by permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Producing country : the inside story of the great recordings / [interviews by] Michael Jarrett.

pages cm. — (Music/interview)

ISBN 978-0-8195-7463-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8195-7464-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8195-7465-7 (ebook)

1. Country music—Production and direction—History. 2. Sound recording executives and producers—United States—Interviews. I. Jarrett, Michael, 1953–, interviewer.

ML3524.P76 2014

781.642′149—dc23 2013048875

5 4 3 2 1

Cover illustration: Tompall Glaser in the studio control room at Hillbilly Central, 1978. © Leonard Kamsler.

For all y’all but, mostly, for Pamela

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations xv

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction xix

Biographical Sketches xxv

OVERTURE: WHAT IS A RECORD PRODUCER? 1

1. CUTTING TRACKS: CAPTURING THE PERFORMANCE, 1927–1949 11