The Producers

The past few years as a rock 'n' roll listener I have become intrigued by producers. Names like Bob Ezrin, Glyn Johns, and Chris Thomas pop up all over my music collection in all kinds of places. Like Ezrin - he's on everything from a band called Detroit (a Mitch Ryder vehicle), to Kiss to the Jayhawks. Thomas is on Roxy Music, the Sex Pistols, Pete Townshend, and INXS. The (not always held here) theory of rock star as poet/mystic/genius (take yer pick) tends to diminish the role of producers, unless the musicians commit the unforgivable sin of Not Writing Their Own Material; then the producer is seen as the genius puppetmaster behind the board. And questions arise, such as "What would the Replacements' Tim with its mostly great songs have sounded like if it had had a competent producing job?" (Never send a Ramone to do a man's job.)

I was surfing last night and came across a 2001 interview with Tom Werman, mostly famous here at 3400 Harriet for producing Cheap Trick studio albums two, three, and four. Their first album was produced by Jack Douglas of Aerosmith-producing fame, but in the words of Dave Marsh (in The Rolling Stone Record Guide - red edition) it was Werman who "understood them perfectly: his settings and the clarity with which the songs were recorded have some of the edge Glyn Johns gives the Who."

The first part of the interview deals with his putting together the music for the movie Rock Star, but the best stuff is in the interview that follows. A great quote: "I always said Cheap Trick wanted to be The Beatles, and I wanted them to be The Who. So it was a good combination. We were a good combination."