Perkinsun Dzees

If you are a fan of Steve Lillywhite and his work in the 80's and 90's (and God knows I am) then this is must listening:

http://www.fakemustache.com/#!mohr-stories/cii6

Though Jay can be a bit of a dick (though not as much as he used to be) and his idiotic comments about Abbey Road and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" are stupefying, some interesting tidbits come out of the interview:

Lillywhite's 5 fave bands of all time:
The Beatles
The Smiths
Queen
Pink Floyd
The Who
(No U2, yay!)

Sting is one of the biggest dickheads in the music industry.

Lillywhite considers Pet Sounds to be far superior to Sgt. Pepper's (while Jay considers Pet Sounds to be a piece of shit).

Rush hates him.

Lillywhite says his proudest accomplishment was producing Big Country (specifically the song "In a Big Country" in which he actually had a part in creating).

Ky-Fi

Outside of actual musicians, Lillywhite is probably most responsible for a lot of my favorite recordings:

U2--Boy, War, October
Big Country---The Crossing, Steeltown
Simple Minds--Sparkle in the Rain
Pogues---If I Should Fall from Grace with God
Morrissey---Vauxhall and I

I know he's spoken highly of Big Country's The Crossing in the past---I do consider that album his masterpiece.

slop101

Why?

CRM114

Anything about XTC?

cdollaz

I'd never heard this before either, but this bit is on Wikipedia, regarding Grace Under Pressure:

"...Rush approached producer Steve Lillywhite to record the album. However, Lillywhite withdrew at the last minute, much to the chagrin of the band members."

atlantamoi

Thanks for posting. I just d'loaded the podcast and will listen in my car later today. I am not sure what comments he says about "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", but it dawned on me a few months ago that that could be the worst Beatles song from the 2nd half of their career. That synth is awful. Interesting comments on Big Country. Heard that song last night for the first time in a good while. I'm so sick of it that I might have turned the radio, but let it play and was amazed at how that thing was created. Sure, the drums have that stuck in the 80's thud, but it's quite a tune.

atlantamoi

I'm an hour into this podcast and am loving it! Thanks much. I'd be happy to listen to any producer talk about their experiences from an 80's perspective. Steve is engaging and funny. Even some of their mistakes made me laugh. Surprised a bit that Jay had never heard of The Chameleons with how much he knows of other artists.

Numanoid

Or Ultravox, his first?

atlantamoi

Very little about XTC or Ultravox. I'm sure this chat would have been very different if one of us were doing the interviewing. I would have loved to have known way more details about other recordings, but Jay mainly focused on U2 (especially Boy) and Rolling Stones. Jay didn't immediately recognize the XTC song Steve mentioned and had never heard of The Chameleons. None of this bothered me too much... he knew stuff about U2 and the Stones I would never have remembered (lyrics mainly).