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Revision as of 07:23, 5 December 2007 by SST1 (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Shel Talmy (born August 11, 1941 in Chicago, Illinois, United States) is an American record producer best
known for his work in 1960s London with The Who and The Kinks.
Record producer, songwriter, arranger
An American who became the first independent record producer in England, Shel Talmy has been praised for his
innovative, influential recording techniques, his abilities as an arranger, his versatility, and his extensive
credits. His career has spanned more than 40 years, from the early 1960s to the present. During the 1960s Talmy
worked with seminal English rock bands like the Kinks, the Who, Manfred Mann and the Creation, fashioning a sound
in the studio that captured the power and energy of their live performances.
Talmy is credited with developing several groundbreaking production techniques, such as adding extra microphones
on guitars and drums, using compression to get fat, heavy guitar sounds, and for being among the first to record
guitar feedback. He is also known for his production work with artists who played softer, acoustic-based
material, such as folk/rock/jazz quintet the Pentangle and pop duo Chad and Jeremy. Many of the records that
Talmy arranged and produced were international hits, such as "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks, "My Generation" by
the Who, and "Friday on My Mind" by the Easybeats. Talmy also worked with a number of other artists who created
quality music but did not attain wide recognition, at the time, such as the Creation, who have now attained "cult
band" status.
Talmy wrote or arranged a number of songs, and also played guitar or percussion on some of his productions.
He was among the first "music supervisors", before the title existed, the first done for the horror film Scream
and Scream Again (1970).
He was the founder of Planet Records, a company that released music by the Creation and other English artists in
the mid-1960s, and also held several non-musical occupations.
He is the writer of several mystery novels, and owned a book publishing company, Talmy-Franklin Books, that had
several best sellers before Talmy sold his share of the company.
Talmy was born in Chicago, and from an early age he was interested both in music--early rock, rhythm and blues,
folk music, and country music--and technology. At 13 Talmy appeared regularly on the popular NBC television show
Quiz Kids, a question-and-answer program out of Chicago. He told Chris Ambrose of Tokion, "What it did for me was
that I absolutely knew that this was the business I wanted to be in."
He became a recording engineer at Conway Studios in Los Angeles for owner/engineer Phil Yeend, who trained Talmy
on three-track recording equipment, and three days after starting at Conway, Talmy had his first production
assignment, the record "Falling Star" by Debbie Sharon. At Conway he worked with artists like Gary Paxton, with
surf bands like the Castells and the Marketts, and R&B pioneers, Rene Hall and Bumps Blackwell.
Talmy and Yeend often experimented with production techniques. They played with separation and recording levels
and built baffles and platforms covered with carpet, using them to isolate vocals and instruments.
In an interview with Terri Stone in Music Producers, Talmy recalled that Yeend "would let me do whatever I wanted
after our regular sessions were over, so I used to work out miking techniques for how to make drums sound better
or guitars sound better .... There really weren't many precedents, so we were all doing it for the first time
together. It was all totally new."
Independent in England
In 1962 Talmy went to England, and Nick (a.k.a. Nik) Venet, a good friend and producer at Capitol Records, gave
him a stack of his new acetates to take along with him and use if he could, as his "own".
After arriving, Talmy went to Decca Records and landed a job as a record producer. In a meeting with Decca head
Dick Rowe, he passed off two of Venet's singles--the Beach Boys' "Surfin' Safari" and Lou Rawls' "Music in the
Air"--as his productions. After hearing the recordings, Rowe hired him on the spot.
Talmy asked for and received an agreement as an independent producer, one who got both royalties and a retainer.
Rowe gave Talmy a contract with Decca, with a clause that would allow him to work as a free agent. This contract
was the first of its kind in England.
Talmy began working with Decca's pop performers. When he was paired with an Irish harmonica trio, the Bachelors,
Talmy--a big fan of close harmony singing--decided to teach them how to sing in parts. After six weeks of
rehearsals in Talmy's apartment, the Bachelors cut a country song, "Charmaine," in 15 minutes, and the song
became Talmy's first hit single.
One afternoon in 1963 Talmy was in a London music publishing office when Robert Wace, the manager of a group
called the Ravens, came in with a demo tape of the band. Impressed with the group's potential, Talmy agreed to
find a record deal for the band, who changed their name to the Kinks. He brought the Kinks into the studio, and
their second single, "You Really Got Me," became a landmark recording. Talmy worked with lead singer,
songwriter/rhythm guitarist Ray Davies, and his brother, Dave, the lead guitarist on the track, that had a much
fuller (and louder) bass and drum sound than most British records of the time.
According to Jon Savage, author of the Kinks official biography, "What Shel Talmy and the Kinks did with this
particular record was to concoct the perfect medium for expression of the adolescent white aggression that has
been at the heart of white popular music. ... 'You Really Got Me' is that rare thing: a record that cuts popular
music in half."
Talmy had many more hits with the group, including All Day and All of the Night", "Tired of Waiting for You",
"Dedicated Follower of Fashion", "Sunny Afternoon", and "Waterloo Sunset".
This Is "My Generation"
Peter Townshend, the guitarist for the mod band High Numbers, liked "You Really Got Me" so much that he wrote a
similar number, "I Can't Explain," so that Talmy would produce his group. When the song was played over the
telephone to Talmy, he agreed to hear the band. Now called the Who, the group bowled Talmy over with their
exciting stage act. He signed the Who to his production company, got them a contract with Decca in America and
with their subsidiary Brunswick in Britain, and financed recordings that he modeled on their live performance.
The intentional feedback on the band's second single, "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere," caused Decca executives to send
back the recording, thinking that they had received a faulty pressing.
Talmy and the Who created a historic recording, with the group's third release, "My Generation." An explosive
youth anthem that contained the line "Hope I die before I get old," the song featured Townshend on guitar, John
Entwistle on bass, Roger Daltrey on vocals, and Keith Moon on drums. Entertainment Weekly called "My Generation"
the "quintessential rock single."
Talmy produced other notable singles for the Who before producing their first album, My Generation, a collection
of original songs and R&B covers. However, tensions arose between Talmy and one of the band's managers, Kit
Lambert, who felt that the producer was having too much influence with the group. Lambert "fired" Talmy, but
Talmy sued for breach of contract and won as his council pointed out that Talmy had paid for the sessions, gotten
the band their deal and had only produced hits.
Talmy owned the tapes, but a re-release was held up for years because of the ongoing dispute. This prevented a
proper re-release of the LP until 2002, when the dispute was finally settled in Talmy's favor. My Generation was
remixed by Talmy and issued on compact disc with bonus tracks. In his book Before I Get Old, Dave Marsh commented
that the records that Talmy made with the Who "are technically among the best that the group ever did, and they
have a distinct, original sound."
"Making Time"--and Taking Some Off
Talmy continued to work with other distinguished British performers throughout the 1960s, including
singer/songwriter David Bowie. He also produced "Friday on My Mind" for the Easybeats, an Australian band that
had relocated to England. Writing in the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Colin Larkin described the song as "one
of the all-time great beat group singles of the 60s." Bowie later covered "Friday on My Mind" on his album
Pin-Ups. Talmy has said that he did some of his most essential work with the Creation. A mod/psychedelic band
that often used pop-art imagery, they were well-known as the creators of "Making Time," a song that appeared on
the soundtrack to Wes Anderson's film Rushmore (1998).
In 2003 a tribute to Talmy was aired on the radio program Little Steven's Underground Garage.
Talmy is married and lives in Los Angeles, acts as a lable consultant and does an occasional production. He's an
active member of the Triple Nine (high IQ) Society.
Selected discography Producer
(The Kinks) "You Really Got Me"/"It's Alright," Pye (U.K.), Reprise (U.S.), 1964.
(The Kinks) The Kinks, Pye, 1964, as You Really Got Me, Reprise, 1964.
(The Kinks) Kinks-Size, Reprise, 1965.
(The Kinks) Kinda Kinks, Pye (U.K), 1965, Reprise (U.S.), 1965.
(The Kinks) The Kinks Kontroversy, Pye (U.K.), 1965, Reprise (U.S.), 1966.
(The Kinks) Kinkdom, Reprise (U.S.), 1965.
(The Who) "I Can't Explain"/"Bald-Headed Woman," Brunswick (U.K.), Decca (U.S.), 1965.
(The Who) "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere"/"Daddy Rolling Stone," Brunswick (U.K.), 1965, Decca (U.S.), 1965.
(The Who) "My Generation"/"Shout and Shimmy," Brunswick (U.K.), 1965, Decca (U.S.), 1965.
(The Who) My Generation, Brunswick (U.K.), 1965, as The Who Sings My Generation, Decca (U.S.), 1965; reissued
with remixes and bonus tracks, MCA, 2002.
(The Kinks) Face to Face, Pye (U.K.), 1966, Reprise (U.S.), 1966.
(The Who) "Substitute"/"Circles"/"Instant Party," Reaction (U. K.), 1966, Atco (U.S.), 1966.
(The Creation) "Making Time"/"Try and Stop Me," Planet Records (U.K.), 1966.
(The Creation) "Painter Man"/"Biff Bang Pow," Planet Records (U.K.), 1966.
(The Easybeats) "Friday on My Mind"/"Made My Bed, Gonna Lie in It," United Artists, 1966.
(The Kinks) Something Else by the Kinks, Pye (U.K.), 1967, Reprise (U.S.), 1968.
(The Easybeats) Good Friday, United Artists, 1967.
(The Pentangle) Sweet Child, Transatlantic (U.K.), 1968, Reprise (U.S.), 1968.
(The Pentangle) Basket of Light, Transatlantic (U.K.), 1969, Reprise (U.S.), 1969.
(Nancy Boy) Promosexual, Equator (U.K.), 1995.
(Nancy Boy) Nancy Boy, Elektra/Sire, 1996.
(Various Artists) The Best of Planet Records, RPM (U.K.), 2000.
Selected writings
Whadda We Do Now, Butch?, Pan Books Ltd., 1978.
Hunter Killer, Pan Books Ltd., 1981.
The Web, Dell, 1981.