In the event you’ve been capable of take in and respect all the things that Rick Rubin has produced and launched on his American Recordings label, you in all probability have nice ears, wildly eclectic style, and a whole disregard for musical boundaries. In different phrases, you and Rick Rubin have rather a lot in frequent.
The Godfather of rap-rock
Few producers have lined fairly as a lot floor as Rubin has over time. He got here to fame as one of many savviest hip-hop producers of the 80s and one of many first to appreciate the probabilities of bringing rock and rap collectively by means of sampling. On one hand, he confirmed Run-DMC followers the attraction of a killer guitar lick (he produced their cowl of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way,” one of many first nice crossovers); on the opposite, he put Beastie Boys’ Licensed To Unwell into the dorm rooms of suburban children who thought they hated rap.
When Rubin began producing rock bands, his first two selections appeared worlds aside: Slayer’s Reign In Blood hit the extremes of thrash, whereas The Cult’s Electrical was proudly 70s-retro. But the manufacturing philosophy for each was just about the identical. The producer steps again, lets the band wail, and makes positive that the tapes catch each vocal scream and mangled guitar string.
The delivery of American Recordings
The Slayer album was really the one which inaugurated the American Recordings label, after Rubin determined he was prepared to maneuver on from Def Jam. In these days, Rubin was properly into courting controversy. Among the many early American Recordings releases had been albums by Andrew Cube Clay – whose comedic type, for higher or worse, is extra built-in into the mainstream in the present day than it was then – and Geto Boys, who on the time provided among the strongest avenue imagery that rap might ship.
But one thing totally different was brewing through the label’s first breakout group, The Black Crowes. Right here the ambitions of label and band met their match: the Crowes wished greater than to be forged as throwback Southern rock; they merely wished to be certainly one of America’s biggest rock’n’roll bands. With over 4 albums for American Recordings, beginning with 1990’s Shake Your Cash Maker, they achieved simply that. Curiously, Rick Rubin by no means produced them. Their first two albums had been performed by his protégé, George Drakoulias, who’d mastered the Rubin type of bare-bones manufacturing, placing as little area as doable between the band and listener.
The person in black
In fact, Rubin’s profession would rework dramatically as soon as he met Johnny Money. However there’s one earlier album in Rubin’s catalogue that bought much less consideration (although it spawned 4 hit singles), and it’s an album that basically crystallizes Rubin’s imaginative and prescient of a musical world that encompasses the foundations of rock, 60s folk-rock, and psychedelia, with thrash, arena-rock, and hip-hop. That may be the soundtrack to Much less Than Zero, launched on Def Jam in 1987. Each tune on it was a canopy from a distinct period, so that you had a whole lot of worlds colliding. The Bangles’ “Hazy Shade Of Winter” was a giant hit and Aerosmith’s “Rockin’ Pneumonia” wasn’t, however each are among the many sharpest-sounding tracks these bands launched within the 80s. He additionally had Slayer doing “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” and, most tellingly of all, Roy Orbison overlaying Danzig’s “Life Fades Away.” A music legend performing a modern-day tune that appears means out of character? Appears like a plan.
That was a part of the technique when Rick Rubin started working with Johnny Money, on 1994’s American Recordings – an event to reference the label’s title if there ever was one. That includes simply the person and his guitar, the album was about reminding individuals who Johnny Money actually was, stripping away the heavy manufacturing and minor songs that slowed down his 80s albums. The eyebrow-raiser of that first album was its opener, the stark homicide ballad “Delia’s Gone,” however Money had already recorded that tune within the 60s (and so had Pat Boone; we child you not). Rubin already knew that Money was as a lot an outlaw as Slayer and Geto Boys, and all it took was a no-frills album to make that time. Over the subsequent 9 years, Money and Rubin would report a staggering vary of fabric and their collaboration would embody the real-life story of Money’s closing private struggles and musical triumphs.
Stripping artists right down to the essence
Rubin carried the Money aesthetic into different initiatives, discovering music legends he admired and stripping them right down to the essence. One which fell by means of the cracks was Donovan’s Sutras, which didn’t fairly do the trick of re-establishing the Scottish balladeer commercially, however for individuals who treasured the early Donovan albums, it was a godsend. Extra profitable by far was his work with Neil Diamond and Tom Petty. Within the latter case, Rubin’s stark manufacturing was seen because the antidote to Petty’s latest studio-driven work with Jeff Lynne. However Petty wound up bringing these worlds collectively, recording Freeway Companion with Lynne.
A few of American Recordings’ buried treasures aren’t even American. The label launched among the most daring albums by UK eccentrics Julian Cope (Autogeddon) and Love And Rockets (Sizzling Journey To Heaven). It’s hardly all business, both, because the label has labored with one of many final outsider artists, Wesley Willis. It additionally launched a few albums by The Mom Hips, a terrific neo-psych band out of San Francisco.
American Recordings’ roster is all about Americana. Rubin did certainly one of his trademark makeovers on ZZ High, delivering the back-to-basics album they’d promised for many years on La Futura. Two of the most-praised Americana artists, Band Of Horses and The Avett Brothers, have been on the roster, with Rubin producing the latter. Rick Rubin is definitely a visionary, however you may additionally consider him because the sheriff of American music. He’s the one who brings all of it again alive.
