Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site druri.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!ihnp4!drutx!druri!dht
From: dht@druri.UUCP (Davis Tucker)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Knocking Steve Lillywhite (fashionable)
Message-ID: <1008@druri.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Nov-84 12:49:19 EST
Article-I.D.: druri.1008
Posted: Wed Nov 28 12:49:19 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Nov-84 04:42:34 EST
References: <518@utcsrgv.UUCP> <1229@dciem.UUCP>, <521@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver
Lines: 33

Oh ye of little faith! Lest we forget or new-wave history (since it 
seems so many of us have forgotten everything else...), be reminded
that Steve Lillywhite is the Muhammad Ali, the Sergio Leone, the
Marlon Brando, the Gary Hart of producers. Back in the Dark Ages,
Lillywhite was the guy scrabbling and sweating for bands who barely
knew how to *play*, much less record. Just because he's been so
prolific over the years is no reason to knock him. Lillywhite *has*
produced albums that sound totally different from what you'd
expect, but the bands that come to him now do so because they
specifically want the "Lillywhite Sound" - so the fault rests with
them, not with the producer.

No other producer could have captured the "Big Country" sound. No
other producer could have polished U2 for the studio without taking
the raw edge off. No other producer could have taken a semi-techno-pop
band like Simple Minds (no "The") and made one of the *finest* albums
of the '80s in "Sparkle In The Rain", while still retaining that
particular quality that makes them special. Lillywhite is the
producer primarily responsible for the massive improvement in the
quality of drum tracks over the past four or five years, and for that
alone he should be held up for admiration - nobody prior really
cared a whole lot ("Just give him more mikes - stick him in a booth -
and give him a damn metronome!").

Davis Tucker
AT&T Information Systems
Denver, CO

P.S. - Simple Minds are without question the best band of the '80s (by
that I mean their first album date), and "Sparkle In The Rain" is just
a sign of their progression - whoever produces their next album, it's
bound to be fantastic. Let's just hope Eno (god bless him) doesn't pull
a "Remain In Light" on 'em.