Hidden Heroes of Music

[Dusty Substance]

The latest issue of Sight & Sound has a list of the 100 Hidden Heroes of Cinema - make-up artists, cinematographers, editors, costume designers. Those men and women who have been hugely important in shaping the history of cinema but have been overlooked and aren't generally well known.

It got me thinking who the hidden heroes of music might be. The arrangers, songwriters, producers, session musicians, technicians and cover designers who aren't well known to most people.

Who would you nominate as a hidden hero of music?

I'll start with someone who I''m sure most Cabbers are familiar with but is still pretty unknown by the general public - Session drummer extraordinaire Bernard "Pretty" Purdie.

A man who drummed on many influential soul, jazz and funk records in the 60s and 70s. He played on Nina Simone's Nina Sings The Blues,  Miles' Get Up With It, The Last Poets' Delights of The Garden, It's A Man's World by James Brown, Gil Scott Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised and hundreds more.

Here's the great man teaching a tutorial on the legendary Purdie Shuffle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1j1_aeK6WA.

[willbo]

in classic metal, Bob Daisley who was the main lyricist and large creative force behind Ozzy's classic 80s solo albums (and has spent the rest of his life since then suing Ozzy for recognition/royalties)

[rue the polywhirl]

Gota Yashiki - programmed all the drum beats on Simply Red's Stars album which became 12x platinum, went on to be their live drummer for a short while and later got credited as Groove Activator on Alanis Morrisett's Jagged Little Pill album but probably responsible for a lot more beats besides that.

[phantom_power]

Would Conny Plank count? Very influential, involved in loads of great albums. Most people have never heard of him

[sevendaughters]

I wasn't really familiar with Rod Temperton until a few years ago, and I bet a lot of 'hardcore' Wacko fans couldn't pick him out of a lineup.

[thecuriousorange]

Rolling Stones founding keyboardist Ian Stewart, who played live and on the albums right up until the eighties. He wasn't allowed to be a proper member or appear in any photos as he didn't have the right look.

[mobias]

Musician turned producer Tom Newman. It was his idea build the UK's first residential recoding studio so befriended Richard Branson, who he knew had some money, with the sole purpose of buying a large almost derelict manor house in Oxfordshire. Branson duly did buy it and Tom Newman set about doing it up and building a recording studio there. It was Tom who saw the potential in a smelly teenage hippie called Mike Oldfield and his demo tapes of an instrumental album he wanted to make. It was Tom that produced, mixed and engineered that album. It was also Tom who persuaded Richard Branson to release it under their own record label. Soon after that Virgin records was born and the rest is history. But it was all thanks to Tom Newman.

[Kankurette]

Carol Kaye, the 'Beach Girl'.

[SpiderChrist]

Klaus Voorman.

[non capisco]

Rolling Stones founding keyboardist Ian Stewart, who played live and on the albums right up until the eighties. He wasn't allowed to be a proper member or appear in any photos as he didn't have the right look.

From a band that included Bill Wyman that has to hurt.

[DrGreggles]

Ken from Bros, obviously.
He was VERY well hidden at the end.

[Egyptian Feast]

Rogério Duprat, who wrote arrangements for the main tropicália artists - Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Zé and Os Mutantes and others. If his name appears on the sleeve of an album, it'll be worth listening to.

[Better Midlands]

Hugo Nicolson, Andrew Weatherall's engineer in the early days - bear in mind Weatherall had no studio experience back then so Nicolson did everything for him.

Screamadelica was a project that was put together over around six months. Andrew Weatherall and I had been working together for a while doing remixes of bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Jah Wobble, when we were asked to go and do one for the scream, we then did another and another, soon I realized that we were making an album.

I remember remixing come together, it was one of the mixes that the band came down to, mind you I didn't see much of them, they had decided to have a party in the living room... so I got going on with the mix. Andy would pop his head round the corner every now and again and give me the nod of approval. Eventually got it finished and they all came in for a listen.

Another track I remember was "Don't fight it feel it". Andy and I had been working on that for about a day and a half, and we both decided we hadn't really liked what we'd done. so we had about four hours left to think of something. So I decided to gate the drums and guitars to a rhythm of a song I'd heard earlier that week. Found a bit of the bands bass, turned it backwards. Then Andy said "we need a whistle" so I found a crappy whistle sound on the Korg M1 and played what turned out to be the main hook of the song.

After the album was done the band asked me to join the group, which I did and spent the next year and a half on the road with them. There where definitely some fun parts...

[markburgle]

Rolling Stones founding keyboardist Ian Stewart, who played live and on the albums right up until the eighties. He wasn't allowed to be a proper member or appear in any photos as he didn't have the right look.

He was fascinating. One of the only people who could get away with calling the band cunts, and they loved him for it. He refused to play minor chords - when one came along he would lift his hands in protest

[buzby]

George 'Porky' Peckham, of 'A Porky Prime Cut'. Learned his trade at Apple after a career in Merseybeat bands (where he became friends with McCartney) and went on to become one of the most in-demand vinyl mastering engineers in the business.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpidqcG7sSo&t

[phantom_power]

Due to his involvement in the post-punk scene I think I used to think that the Porky from Porky's Prime Cuts was Phil Jupitas, who went by Porky the Poet in his early days

[steveh]

Would include Anne Dudley for the sheer number of tracks she's arranged.

[Brundle-Fly]

The Zelig of rock?

Chris Spedding (born Peter Robinson, 17 June 1944) is an English musician, singer, guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and record producer. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Spedding is best known for his studio session work. By the early 1970s, he had become one of the most sought-after session guitarists in England. Spedding has played on and produced many albums and singles. He has also been a member of eleven rock bands: the Battered Ornaments, Frank Ricotti Quartet, King Mob, Mike Batt and Friends, Necessaries, Nucleus, Ricky Norton, Sharks, Trigger, and The Wombles. In May 1976, Spedding also produced the very first Sex Pistols recordings.

AllMusic has described Spedding as "one of the UK's most versatile session guitarists, [he] has had a long career on two continents that saw him tackle nearly every style of rock and roll ...".

Spedding, a long-time friend of Chrissie Hynde, was a regular concert feature artist with The Pretenders on their US tour in March/April 1980. As well as his celebrated work as a session musician, Spedding pursued a solo career, releasing his debut album Songs Without Words in 1970. Since then, he has released fourteen studio albums, and two live albums. His only solo hit was 1975's "Motor Bikin'".On his 1976 single Pogo Dancing he was backed by UK punk band The Vibrators. When further hits failed to materialise, he subsequently became better known as a session guitarist, appearing and recording with Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, Elton John, Brian Eno, Jack Bruce, Nick Mason, Art Garfunkel, Typically Tropical, Katie Melua, and Ginger Baker, amongst others. Spedding also featured extensively on the concept album Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, issued in 1978.

He played on the tracks "Not Such A Bad Boy", "So Bad" and "No Value" on Paul McCartney's Give My Regards to Broad Street released in 1984. Spedding recalls Ringo Starr, engineer Geoff Emerick and producer George Martin working on the same sessions as well as McCartney and his wife, Linda. In the same year he played on Roger Daltrey's solo album Parting Should Be Painless. Spedding was producer of the first two albums by the Canadian rockabilly band, The Razorbacks, entitled Go to Town (1988) and Live a Little (1989). In 1995, he played on Willy DeVille's Big Easy Fantasy, and later that year, on his album Loup Garou.

[shagatha crustie]

Love his tune 'Video Life,' had no idea he had such a storied session career.

[Brundle-Fly]

Love his tune 'Video Life,' had no idea he had such a storied session career.

I like the idea the session guitarist and producer of Never Mind The Bollocks was nipping off after work, possibly laying overdubs with Johnny Rotten, to put on a Womble costume for a show that evening.

[willbo]

The Arctic Monkeys front man's girlfriend who wrote some of the lyrics to Florescent adolescents

[Bongo_Christ]

Nelson Riddle, arranger for Frank Sinatra, Ella Fiztgerald, Nat King Cole, and many others. Think of the sound of classic 50s-60s swing and crooner hits, and it's basically the sound of Nelson Riddle.

[PeterCornelius]

Norman Smith - engineer on Beatles' recordings from 1962-65.

[The Culture Bunker]

Norman Smith - engineer on Beatles' recordings from 1962-65.

And played trumpet on 'Reward' by the Teardrop Explodes. But he also had a couple of sizable hit singles of his own, though.

[buzby]

Norman Smith - engineer on Beatles' recordings from 1962-65.

Also Ken Townsend, the engineer at Abbey Road who invented Artificial Double Tracking so they didn't have to sing vocals twice to thicken them (and it also developed into the tape-based Flanger).

That's three people on this thread now who made their name working with The Beatles.

[jake thunder]

All them Swedes - Denniz Pop, Max Martin etc...

[poodlefaker]

Re Chris Spedding - there's also his jazz work - with Mike Gibbs, Mike Westbrook etc.

[thecuriousorange]

The Arctic Monkeys front man's girlfriend who wrote some of the lyrics to Florescent adolescents

David Gilmour's wife wrote lyrics for The Division Bell album, but someone would have to be very generous to say that's among their best work.

I've got a better one. The wife of Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan, is co-writer of a lot of his acclaimed stuff from the eighties onward.

[pupshaw]

Also Ken Townsend, the engineer at Abbey Road who invented Artificial Double Tracking so they didn't have to sing vocals twice to thicken them (and it also developed into the tape-based Flanger).

That's three people on this thread now who made their name working with The Beatles.

Add Mike Leander to that list, he did the string arrangement for She's Leaving Home, putting himself in the crossfire between Macca and George Martin.
Then went on to give us the Glitter Sound, which for some strange reason doesn't get heard any more.
I saw a couple of his earlier productions on YouTube a while ago and he got a great sound then too

[willbo]

in 90s heavy rock/metal, I'd say Marilyn Manson guitarist "Twiggy Ramirez", who wrote the riffs/music for all his signature hits - The Beautiful People, etc. Don't get too excited though - like his frontman, he's also a sexual abuser!