Producer Dallas Austin discusses Stevie, but what happened to their tracks?

[GoldDustOrphan]

This has probably been addressed at some point, but I'm still playing catch-up.

Producer Dallas Austin, who wrote & produced many big hits for pop stars such as TLC, Madonna, Boyz II Men, Joss Stone, and many more, collaborated with Stevie and I was wondering if anyone knows what came of their studio efforts.

I do know that Stevie said she wanted to work with Austin after hearing TLC's hit song Unpretty.

This is from a March 1, 2000 interview with Dallas Austin:


"Or say like Stevie Nicks, who I'm working on now, she has been such a great songwriter, period. The thing that has made her Stevie Nicks is pouring out her feelings to people. So, that's something that I can't go in and damage, in a sense, because that's what made her career. So I'll take your idea of a song, and I'll produce it and make it where people can get it, and I'll arrange it and make it where they can understand it-as close as possible without taking away the essence of what you do and what you display in it.

"It's funny, in working with Stevie Nicks, I asked her, "So do you want me to fly your guys' vocals, or do you guys sing them down?" And she was like, "Fly 'em ?" She was like, "No, we just go in there, all three of us at once, and we'll sing 'em all the way down, and go in and do the other parts. And we'll stack 'em at that point, or something." And I said, "Oh, that's cool." And they was like, "But you guys fly them down?" and I was like, "Yeah, we take eight bars in and move those through the song, and that takes us five minutes. They've been recording and performing since '78. I've been learning. I was eight years old trying to figure it out. So just the difference in my technique and her technique, or Fleetwood Mac's technique, is really interesting, and it's working really great."

Come on VivFox, I just know that tricked your way into that studio as a Dominos delivery person, and while they dove into the cheesy bread and Fresca, you walked out backwards with master recordings in pizza box and probably one of Stevie's abyssinian throw pillows or decorative beaded tappes. If not, someone else must have because the plan is fool-proof.

[LukeA]

This has probably been addressed at some point, but I'm still playing catch-up.

Producer Dallas Austin, who wrote & produced many big hits for pop stars such as TLC, Madonna, Boyz II Men, Joss Stone, and many more, collaborated with Stevie and I was wondering if anyone knows what came of their studio efforts.

I do know that Stevie said she wanted to work with Austin after hearing TLC's hit song Unpretty.

This is from a March 1, 2000 interview with Dallas Austin:


Austin (along with cohort Rodney Jerkins) worked on mixes of "Bombay Sapphires" & "That Made Me Stronger", along with a still yet-to-be-leaked recording of "Space Needle".

At some point in early summer 2000, they left the project for some reason. I heard rumors at the time that it was drug related (on Dallas' part)

[Phoenix]

I've always wondered this myself, cause it could have been cool. I adore Trouble in Shangrila though. Didnt she say that after dueting with Natalie manes that the album took on a diferent direction? Id want to know if she still has tracks produced by him that are unrealeased, and just sitting around somewhere.

[GoldDustOrphan]

Thank you so much for the info. He worked on Space Needle? I think I only have the 7:47 minute demo. I would love to hear his version, which probably sounds just like No Scrubs.

In regard to their parting, I'd venture to guess that Dallas Austin's approach was too over-produced and popish or he pissed her off with his smart mouth. He's very disrespectful toward female singers.

Last year, he was either drunk or high during an on-camera interview and coined the phrase "f***ing for tracks," in regard to female singers he had worked with, stating that they would specifically go after the hot producers and "f***" them for the best tracks. Then, he named Joss Stone and Christina Aquilera. He kept repeating "Joss Stone be f***ing for tracks, all these bitches be f****ing for tracks." Bitch, bitch, bitch. Totally classless. (I'd like to see him say that stuff with Ann & Nancy, Joan Jett, Pat Benatar and Debbie Harry in room.)
He sort of apologized after Perez Hilton, and many others, wouldn't let it die.
Joss Stone was only 19 years old at the time.
The video is on youtube. Dallas hasn't conceived any big hits for a while, unless I'm mistaken.

[HejiraNYC]

Thank you so much for the info. He worked on Space Needle? I think I only have the 7:47 minute demo. I would love to hear his version, which probably sounds just like No Scrubs.



Now that you mention it, I could totally imagine "Space Needle" as one of those TLC-type mid-tempo pop songs with drum machines, a funk synth bassline, synth strings and strumming guitar. However, I would imagine that Dallas would have done something completely different with the chorus, which is really weak in the demo. I just wish there was some way that these sessions could be leaked!

[vivfox]

I wish this thread had been posted a few weeks ago cause then I could have provided a link to the story I read about Dallas then. Apparently he was arrested in some Arab country for bringing pot and coke in his suitcase inside that country. He was arrested and thrown in jail. If he were just a regular citizen he would still be in that jail but he used his influential American contacts and at that point they were working on getting him released.
I think it was in Dubai but I'm not sure. Also he might still be in that jail as I write this.
I too used to wonder which tracks were produced by Dallas but after getting nowhere with that info I just tossed it in the "nevermind" pile, never to be thought of again.
I'm flattered GDO that you would think I'm the man with the masters of Stevie Nicks. I despise Dominoes pizza but that prolly would've been a good ploy to get in the studio.

[Pisces Queen]

He was in jail last year and he was released after 2 months incarceration. If he was a normal person off the street he would have been given life.

[RavenOfRhiannon]

Yeah, I remember reading some interview about Bombay Sapphires and how many times it had been recorded. Something about one of the producers making it sound too dirge like. I always figured that was the Austin track.

[petep9000]

Last year, he was either drunk or high during an on-camera interview and coined the phrase "f***ing for tracks," in regard to female singers he had worked with, stating that they would specifically go after the hot producers and "f***" them for the best tracks. Then, he named Joss Stone and Christina Aquilera. He kept repeating "Joss Stone be f***ing for tracks, all these bitches be f****ing for tracks." Bitch, bitch, bitch. Totally classless.


What a piece of garbage he is. I can't imagine Aguilera doing something tacky like that for tracks. She has a sensational voice. Youtube her Grammy tribute to James Brown, 'It's a Man's, Man's...'. She blew the roof off the auditorium.

Any producer would love to work with her.

[michelej1]

This is what Stevie said in 2001:

``The whole album was going a certain way and Dallas had to move on, he can't spend a year doing an album,'' Nicks says on the telephone from her Santa Barbara, Calif. home. ``I came back to L.A. and started to do other songs with Sheryl and I realized the record was going in a completely different direction. The songs didn't fit. The songs that I did with him were very R&B and then I'm dueting with [country's] Natalie and all of a sudden this record was not making any sense at all.''
___________________________
Tulsa World, November 9, 1999

Section: ARTS

From fat to phat


Singer Stevie Nicks had recorded songs with producer Sheryl Crow for her upcoming new CD, Trouble in Shangri-La, but now Nicks may be aiming for the R&B/hip-hop kids, reports Entertainment Weekly. While in Hawaii, Nicks listened to TLC's current CD FanMail and noted how much the single "Unpretty" resembled Fleetwood Mac's lush vocal style. "I've got to get the guy who produced this to produce my next album," she reportedly said.

The guy, R&B wunderkind Dallas Austin , known for his work with TLC, Madonna and Brandy, concurs, noting how even old '70s Fleetwood Mac tunes like Nicks' "Rhiannon" and "Dreams" had an R&B groove running through them. Nicks' phat and phunky CD is due sometime in 2000. No word on whether the Crow-produced tracks will surface.

[kathy1]

i have never heard space needle.

[SpyNote]

He's rumored to have done the outtake of Bombay Sapphires that has been circulating. Stevie had a lot of trouble completing that song for some reason and ended producing it herself. I think the outtake is waaaay better. Has different lyrics too. You can hear it by clicking on the link below (scroll down, left side of the page).

[MacMan]

He's rumored to have done the outtake of Bombay Sapphires that has been circulating. Stevie had a lot of trouble completing that song for some reason and ended producing it herself. I think the outtake is waaaay better. Has different lyrics too. You can hear it by clicking on the link below (scroll down, left side of the page).

That outtake reminds me of Sting's style, or something that could have been on a Sting album - and I figured it was produced that way to entice him to sing it with her - she once said she wanted Sting to sing on the track.