Stevie and Rick Rubin
 

I bought the new Neil Diamond record over the weekend, and it's great.
Anyway, ever since I heard of Diamond's pairing with producer Rick Rubin, I've been thinking about how wonderful it would be if Stevie recorded with Rubin. And it's not such a stretch, really. On the Diamond record, Rubin uses several musicians Stevie's worked with in the past (including Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench).
More important, I think Stevie's at a point in her career where she could actually meet Rubin's exacting standards. Much of her recent songwriting shows a new maturity and earthiness that would suit Rubin's stripped-down approach well. Examples: Fall From Grace, Destiny Rules, Say You Will.
Oh, how I would love to hear Stevie get back to the basics! I believe the results would be truly magnificent. :nod: Anyone agree?

I've been saying this for years. Rubin has produced Tom Petty's last three albums and of course there's his work with Johnny Cash. But I don't think Stevie would go for the stripped down sound myself. I think she likes a lot of production.

Those songs you mentioned are very produced though. Rubin's approach would be v. different if he went the Cash/Diamond route with them. They may be completely different songs. What do you mean by Rubin's "exacting standards" btw? Rubin's work has been very eclectic from Slayer to the Beastie Boys.

Bingo. I can't imagine her going for a sparse sound, she's all about the bells & whistles, sometimes to the detriment of the actual songs. It would be interesting and a nice change, but I doubt it would ever happen, especially since I don't think we'll ever get a new record from her.

I don't think we will either. But you never know she may be convinced to do one song with Rubin for a soundtrack or something. I can't imagine her commiting to a whole album though, especially one with a sparse, stripped down sound. The Petty connection might persuade her to do one song, which would be cool. (Hey, I can dream, can't I?)

I agree... I don't see it happening either.... a new Mac album is if-y.. I see a new Lindsey Buckingham album if anything.

ciao!
Ash
x

Yeah, I agree it could take some doing to get Stevie interested in this approach. She does seem to like epic production.

I was just saying that those songs are tightly written and wouldn't need lots of bells and whistles to sound good.

Diamond writes in his liner notes that Rubin kept making him go back and revise songs, write new ones, throw mediocre ones out, etc. I think Stevie has shown a new discipline in her songwriting of late and that she could handle such demands -- though it certainly wouldn't be the cushy treatment she's used to!

Oh, and I do think we'll see another album from her eventually -- though it could be a good long wait. I agree with others that we'll probably see another Mac album first.

Homegirl tore Liddy Buck a new areshole over his suggestion for "Thrown Down." I can only imagine the chaos that would ensue if a producer for her solo record told her to go write new stuff, revise her songs, and get rid of the mediocre crap.

Statues would collapse. Buildings would fall down. Clouds would gather. The sun would retreat. The ground would shake. Fire would shoot out of her coke-ravaged nose. Every copy of Street Angel would spontaneously combust in bargain bins nationwide.

LOL... Can you imagine Rubin's response to "It's the poet that I am"?
Yeah, this all would require some ego-swallowing on La Nicks' part. But she might be less combative with someone other than Buckingham.

Ah okay, I get you now. But I agree with Josh, I can't imagine she would appreciate that approach at all! :laugh:

But remember, it's Lindsey we're talking about here. Of course, she's going to get defensive if he tries to tell her how to change her lyrics.

She's mentioned before that Henley continually told her what was good and what wasn't good in "Leather & Lace," and what needed to be dropped and what needed to be improved.
We've also heard that Jimmy Iovine would do the same thing with her.
Even as recently as 'Trouble In Shangri-La,' she mentioned that John Shanks wanted to drop many of the verses in "Fall From Grace," and even though she brought in the cavalry to back up her argument (Sheryl Crow, et al), she and Shanks obviously reached a compromise, because many of the lyrics from the demo version are not to be found on the album version, and some of the other lines are reworked.

So... I think she CAN be persuaded to change/alter/re-work a song... but is far less likely to agree to doing it, or to be willing to compromise, if the person suggesting those changes happens to be Lindsey. Rightly or wrongly.

Oh look, fighting with Lindsey is like foreplay for the two of them. They LIVE for it.

I really hope it would happen. And maybe trying with one song, she would discover that a stripped down sound isn't the evil.

Romy

Stevie needs to strip down, I guess.

The stripped-down approach worked really well on "It's Only Love" on the last album.

I was just going to say that, too. It's actually one of my favorite songs that she's recorded. A real shame that it got lost in the middle of the album, sandwiched between stinker after stinker.

Stevie can take guidance and critcism from Lindsey she just does not like to publically acknowledge that. She always plays the hot/cold card...it is more exciting that way, in her opinion. (drama/tragedy makes great art) It has always seemed pretty obvious to me that his opinion matters a great deal to her. Yea, she can get defensive but I bet she does that with alot of people, she just never talks about it. With Lindsey, it is part of the whole schtick. The whole DR doc is part of their schtick. (sp?). How much of it was 'really' about the music?:rolleyes:

Not much, I guess. It's pretty amazing that the style of playing -- that highly rhythmic picking on "Red Rover" & "Say Goodbye" & others -- that Lindsey was so excited about & using so frequently wasn't even discussed at all in a 90-minute documentary on the making of the album.

Maybe that part is on the cutting room floor . . . .

(RUBIN): "Um, I'm not really feeling the whole happy vibe in that song you wrote about Hurricane Katrina. Do you think we can bring it down a notch or two?"

(NICKS): "Well, you wouldn't have told Bob Dylan to bring 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' down a notch or two, would you?"

Well it was necessary, the explanation got lost between Stevie's and Lindsey's shouts. ;)

Romy

it's not all that far fetched and I think it's fair to say Stevie has already talked to Rick. Right now, he's producing a rock album for the Dixie Chicks.
Apparently it sounds a lot like a great Tom Petty record with elements of
Gram Parsons thrown in here and there.
It would be a perfect sound for Stevie.

Remember Tom Petty's "Wildflowers"?

I think a Rubin-Nicks pairing could be very interesting, but not with a stripped-down American Recordings/12 Songs approach. Not for a whole album, anyway. Maybe do half the songs stripped-down, and the other half more in the vein of the harder rock projects Rubin has worked on. Or something Beastie Boys-ish... ?

I don't know a lot about Rubin, but if I think about the projects he has produced, there isn't anything in his c.v. that leads me to believe he'd care to work with Nicks.

No, me neither, I meant to mention that as well. Rick Rubin has worked with a great many artists, but somehow he just doesn't strike me as a Stevie fan. But you never know. Given his track record, I wouldn't have thought he'd be a Neil Diamond fan either.

Rubin would be the perfect match for a new buckingham-nicks album. Partially stripped down. partially rockin' hard.

But everybody knows she'll probably work with Sheryl Crow again & John Shanks again (if he's still employed at her label) & Chris Lord Algae ad nauseum ad infinitum ad astrum (or is the dative "astra"?).

She had several chances in the past to work with bitchin', somewhat raw producers -- Bill Bottrell, Don Was, & the rap guy from Shangri-La, etc. And all she did was scrap the recordings from all of them.

Diss, you are a Laff Riot! tell me tho: why do you think we wont get any more albums out of her? do you know something we dont? (and by "we", I mean me, the uninformed and clueless)

When did she record anything with Bill Bottrell and Don Was???

I agree that she would never do anything "stripped down," as much as I'd love to hear something like that. She thinks of herself as a big, flashy rock star and she likes big, overdone productions. Unfortunately for us.

This has nothing to do with Stevie, but I'm wondering...

I'm totally curious to hear this Neil Diamond album, but I heard Sony put some kind of spyware in it, so loading it onto your computer is risky. Then I heard they've discontinued the spyware. Do all copies of the Neil Diamond album have this **** on it? It's the only thing that has stopped me cold from buying this.

Don Was produced "Somebody Stand By Me," as well as Stevie & Ringo Starr's cover of Nilsson's "Lay Down Your Arms."
As far as I know, those were the only times they worked together... though I would have loved to have seen them record an album together.

Bill Bottrell was rumoured as being on board to produce 'Street Angel,' but I don't know if it was ever anything more than just a rumour. That might have been an interesting pairing, too.

Personally, I'm quite fond of John Shanks' production work on 'TISL'... but that's a very un-hip opinion around here, so what do I know? :o

Actually after Buckingham and Iovine I think Shanks probably understood best what to do with her.I don't think anyone could have salvaged too much out of the Street Angel period though .She was just too far gone.If she doesn't have some kind of creative Renaissance and begin writing some good new material I'm not sure that we'll be seeing another album though.

Sony has recalled all of the CDs released with that rootkit spyware program. If you order the Neil Diamond album from Amazon now, you should get an evil-free copy.

Stevie did a duet with Ringo Starr?? Where can I hear this?

I don't mind it. I also like Sheryl Crow's work on the album, but to hear some people talk around here, she's some kind of succubous bent on sucking out Stevie's soul. :laugh:

Yay!! I'm off to order a copy. I think just to be safe, though, I'm not going to rip it to my computer. That's probably exactly the reaction Sony wants.

Bastids.

I don't think you have to worry about it, especially if you order from Amazon. I know that Amazon recalled the CDs they sold with the rootkit malware, so any new ones they send out now should be clean.

:lol: :lol: :lol: No. That's an Opel. I think the dative is "champra".

**** or no ****: buy the diamond-album. I could't wait and bought the import. Masterpiece.

'Lay Down Your Arms' is on a various artists tribute to Harry Nilsson called For the Love Of Harry - Everybody Sings Nilsson. Other artists on the album include Randy Newman, Joe Ely, Marshall Crenshaw, Richard Barone, Jimmy Webb, Peter Wolf (formerly of the J. Geils Band), John Cowan (formerly of New Grass Revival), Adrian Belew, Brian Wilson, Ron Sexsmith, Fred Schneider (of B'52-s) and more, and I definitely recommend it.

Now where can I find that other song that Don Was produced for her, 'Somebody Stand By Me' ?

It's on the Enchanted box set, and the soundtrack for Boys on the Side.

Who did Everybody's Talkin?

Well, I don't know if it is, but what I don't like about John Shanks productions is that when he uses acoustic guitars, they sound like their strings are made of tin. This way they sound cold and harsh instead of warm and soothing.

I think Rick Rubin is a good choice for her - maybe there will be some Heartbreakers guesting on the record.

'Somebody Stand By Me'? From which disc is that?