Life after Lange (pronounced Lane) - Part 2

Hopefully after part 1 I was able to convince you to dust off your dusty records and your junior high and high school yearbooks.  For the younger generation I at least hope I was able to convince you that there was a time when big-haired Brits and Aussies in school uniforms ruled the earth.

Moving into the next stage of the Lange phenomenon, I want to look less at some multi-album dominance, and just peek at some of the one-offs that Mutt took on during the 80's and beyond.

Again, any great producer would look at what Mutt did with with Def Leppard and AC/DC and call it a huge success, and certainly the record labels had the same thought!  Thus why he was brought in to produce several other big acts at the time, and to no surprise created massive successes.

We can rev it up again with Foreigner, who worked with Mutt on 1981's Foreigner 4.  Having the songwriting reigns purely with Lou Graham and Mike Jones for the first time, and bringing in session players to complete the act (including a young Thomas Dolby), 4 delivered 3 top 10 singles, and made #1 on the Billboard album chart.  Urgent, Juke Box Hero and Waiting for a Girl Like You put the band into the headlining arena rock category with Journey, Styx, and R.E.O. Speedwagon.  Interestingly, the bands 2nd studio album Double Vision DID sell more copies (certified 7x platinum vs 4's 6x platinum), but two singles reached the top 10 from that album (Hot Blooded, and the title track).  So although 4 didn't quite have the sales dominance, it created a culture and massive world tour backing.  Did I mention Mutt also received a Grammy nomination for producer of the year?

Moving right along, the mid-80's continued to be successful for Mutt and any band he put his producing hands on.

With The Cars, Mutt produced Heartbeat City.  Spawning two top ten singles (You Might Think, Drive) and two top twenty singles (Magic, Hello Again).  Of course, to be noted here is the fact that this album came at the peak of the MTV dominance of cable television, and the band took full advantage of this by creating original and quirky videos for each of these songs.

The album itself reached #3 on Billboards album charts.

With Loverboy he was brought in to try and seal the wound with the departure of Mike Reno and guitarist/producer Tom Dean by writing a title track for Lovin' Every Minute of It.  The track reached the top 10 status, and was the only highlight of an otherwise mediocre album (not produced by Mutt).

Then (just to mix it up) Mutt made the jump into the pop/R&B world to work with Billy Ocean, producing the hit single with perhaps the worst name ever for a hit single, "Get Out of My Dreams, Get into my Car".

Soon after Mutt teamed with Bryan Adams to create his smash-hit "Everything I Do, I Do it For You" written for Robin Hood-Prince of Thieves. Remember that one?  Sorry.  But as painful as it is to almost all members of the male sex, this song was a huge hit, and the movie did extremely well despite Kevin Costner.

OK, so point being, this is one of THE best producers/hit-makers of our time.  This is a known fact to music geeks, but hopefully now a better known fact for most who just think that a hit single is sheer luck and great teeth (that's 50% of it).  

The latter part of Mutts career spirals into a path of country-pop, Shania Twain gossip mag articles and seclusion.  So I'm not going to go there.  But I'm hopeful that he continues to produce, and that he'll find a way to again redefine himself within the world of rock. Nickelback's 2008 release, Dark Horse, had Mutt once again working in rock.  However it seems that the combination here led to an attempt to get the band to continue on their familiar thread of big ballads and rock/country riffs, only this time with Mutt adding some of the elements that made his earlier rock album such a huge success.  Certainly the album SOUNDS good, but it doesn't have the charisma and pure delight of his work in the 80's.

Regardless, I'm impressed with this career, and impressed that he's been able to redefine, reestablish and influence a generation of bands and producers.

Life after Lange (pronounced Lane) - Part 1

After literally working on this blog for 3 days, I realized that I need to really settle down with my blog self-editorial.  It's NOT a term paper!

It was when I admitted this to a few people that they came up with the brilliant idea of writing this in chapters (thanks guys, you know who you are), so here is Chapter 1.

I was inspired to write this blog by an amazing conversation I had a few days ago with a freelance composer that I'm lucky to be working with at the moment.

As often happens between people who are music geeks at heart, the conversation quickly turned from the project at hand to what bands we listened to early in our careers, and what has happened to them since!

One of the first things that popped up was Def Leppard.  But not just any Def Leppard, but their ground-breaking and arguably career-making album Pyromania.  Which was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange.  Of course, being such music geeks, that led to a short conversation about Mutt himself, and what he's done to become one of the biggest rock producers in the history of the genre.

Growing up in Germany, and influenced mostly by country artists, and was able to produce some of the biggest rock albums of the late 70's and 80's before returning to his roots (after marrying Shania Twain) in the 90's.

What I want to get into though is a fascinating thread that I was noticing, which is that so many of the bands I grew up with hit their pinnacle while being produced by Mutt.  But then were never able to reach that same point again.

Not that they all faded completely after that (though some did) but there was a distinct line, or decline, of quality and of pure hit-making sound.

As an example, we can take our first look into this phenomena with Def Leppard, who Mutt started working with on their second studio album, High and Dry.  Not a big chartbuster album, but it DID define their sound, and established them as a band of note not only in their native U.K., but also in the U.S.  This fact then led to his work on third studio album, Pyromania.  

There is no arguing that this was their true U.S breakthrough album, and resulted in three top 40 singles and sold over 10 million copies worldwide.  The torture he put the band through during these sessions is very well known(thanks VH1 for that), but the result was extraordinary.  

That in itself was an amazing upward arc, but was nothing compared to the success of their next album, Hysteria, which sold 20 million copies worldwide, and spawned seven hit singles.  This time, Mutt came in a few months into the project to produce after they had initially hired and then immediately fired Jim Steinman.  

Then the downturn...

Now it must be said that Mutt DID executive produce their next album, Adrenalize, which was less successful than either of the previous albums.  However it must ALSO be said that the album was actually produced by Mike Shipley and Def Leppard, and that Steve Clark died in the midst of recording.  But after this, though Def Leppard has produced five more albums, but none have come close to the commercial success of the previous Mutt entries.

Now, all this being said, I'm truly a big fan of Def Leppard, as I am of the next band that has fallen into the Mutt Lange paradigm to a certain degree, which is AC/DC.

By producing Highway to Hell, Mutt put together arguably his first really huge rock success.  Despite the fact that they were already a force in Australia, they didn't find commercial success in the U.S. until the release of this album.  Unfortunately AC/DC's original lead singer, Bon Scott, died of alcohol abuse shortly after the release.  This actually led to what I think could be Mutt's biggest accomplishment, which is the mega-hit, 1980's Back in Black.  

The combination of a brand new singer in Brian Johnson, and the emotional state of the band after losing Scott could have been the downfall of any group. Instead, Back in Black has become one of the biggest rock albums of all time, selling an estimated 45 million copies, and making it the best-selling album ever released by a band.

But, getting BACK to our original idea, what happened after that?  

AC/DC absolutely stayed in the mainstream of popular hard rock, but not until 1990's The Razor's Edge did they have another true commercial success, and even then, for comparison, it sold 5 million copies.  Now AC/DC is STILL rocking, and has another big success with Black Ice, released in 2008 along with another major world tour.  But, Back in Black it is not.

So far are you with me?  Two things have made themselves extremely apparent.  

Good news, you work with Mutt and your career will take on a completely new level.

Bad news, after that it's almost impossible to replicate that success, AND one of your band members will probably die.

Stay tuned for Part 2...

Advertising 2.0.4.8.1/2

Running a music company who specializes in advertising and commercial work can be a very challenging yet rewarding endeavor!

Want to thank the Onion for realizing the implications of that nasty mute button for those of us that spend our days and nights creating music and sound for our clients.  Of course, it is the Onion, and of course I myself even have to admit to the frantic seeking of the remote for certain commercials.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/advertising_firm_unveils?utm_source=a-section

Just in time for spring, Van Halen!

I was driving the other day and listening to the Deep Tracks station on XM (40 for those remotely interested) and I heard a song from VH that I hadn't heard in years: 

"Somebody Get me a Doctor" off of Van Halen II.

Instantly I was taken back to driving around in my 77 Ford Grenada blasting that album while enjoying the very FIRST hints of Spring and Summer in New England.  Seems like that time of year wasn't really there until I could hear the opening riff of "You're No Good".

Now, to make one thing very clear, I was not reveling over this season change as an early follower of VH (this album came out in 1979, when I was 6), I was simply a late devotee that was magnetized by how these four guys could make so much sound, and make it sound so FUN.

Obviously a lot has changed since then with the band, and the world.  They have replaced Dave with Sammy, replaced Sammy with Gary, only to go back to Dave.  And of course they decided now that Eddie's son Wolfgang is of age, it was time to replace Michael Anthony as well.

In all that time, some truly brilliant, and some less-than-brilliant tracks have been written and a LOT of drama has occurred, but to me the true essence of who this band is (was) as a talent and as an entity can best be found in the first two albums (arguably to be considered as one long album).  

Of course it's all completely subjective, but I can't think of a single band that captures the sound and energy of southern California circa late 1970's.  Between Eddie's groundbreaking guitar work, Alex's slamming drum mix, Michael Anthony's signature harmonies, and Dave's squeal, there is just an overall sense of "Good times" with everything they wrote.  Not to mention some of the most influential, infectious guitar riffs and hooks since Led Zeppelin.

As we're all craving the Spring and Summer (at least in my part of the world) I don't think you can go wrong not just playing, but truly listening to early Van Halen and I find it hard to believe you won't find yourself smiling just a little bit, and be convinced that the sun just became a few degrees warmer.

Music!

It's a simple word, but so very powerful. 

Today is opening day in baseball.  To many the first "real" day of spring.  It just so happens that it's the first day of me making my return to the music business.

To be specific, being a creative resource and musical/sonic alliance for worldwide clients from my studio here in New York City.

As that is the case, I have created this blog not just to throw a bunch of random ideas down and talk about how the kids are doing at sports (that'll be another blog "2Kids4sports6Tylenol"), but rather my thoughts and discoveries within and around the universe of music.

I've realized as I've made a small name for myself creating music for commercials with my previous musical employer (the powerful Singing Serpent) that I definitely have a reputation for certain types of music.  Prog rock, 80's pop, new wave, jazz...

And let's be honest, it's all true.  Few people can spout rare prog rock facts as I can.

Peter Gabriel in essence doing the very first "stage dive" and breaking his leg in the process.

Pink Floyd playing a show so loud near a small river in the UK that fish started floating to the surface, dead.

Therefore, I'm making this a journey for me to not only revisit some of those genres and share some knowledge, but more importantly to investigate and explore new genres, styles, periods and movements.  That way not only am I expanding my own palate, but also hopefully imparting new knowledge on to the 2 or 3 people who decide to actually read this blog.

If you are reading this and therefore have figured out my amazing knack for saying so little with so many words, there is much more to come my friends.  Rather than opening the long-awaited bakery-movie paraphernalia combo in SoHo called "Go Ahead, Make my Danish", I will soon be officially announcing the web site, brand, and overall awesomeness of my new music company.

BlackBoard3

So, stay tuned you lost surf-rider, if you find your way through the wormhole back to my blog again, you may just learn a thing or three about Herbie Hancock, Van Halen, or Dixie Dregs.