RIP Keith Olsen

[Basvarken]

Keith Olsen, producer of many great albums has died.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/keith-olsen-dead/

[uwe]

The soundtrack to the 80ies, we'll miss those massive productions ...



He sure didn't mince words:

Keith Olsen on 1987: "The arrangements are great, the drums were really great - but the guitars were totally out of tune. Sykes was going through a period of time where he wanted to have a harmonizer, wanted all the effects, and the harmonizer going up and down so everything was really wide. And Coverdale found out that he couldn't sing to it."

Martin Popoff: Did you say out of tune?

Keith Olsen: "Oh ya, really out of tune. Well there was 35 tracks...you know, when Mike Stone took the record and the first onslaught of guitars there were 30 something tracks of guitars and almost, maybe, there were one or two of the guitar tracks that were in tune. And you know it was on every track. And so I would pull, extract those two guitar tracks and then John played a few others and then later when it became impossible for John, Dann Huff had to be brought in. We redid all the vocals, cleaned up all the guitars so everything was in tune, got rid of all the effects that were out of tune."

Keith Olsen on Here I Go Again: "I really wanted an eighth note in the verse. I got John on the phone and I said John, could you just grab the guitar and come by. You can plug into the studio amps. I just need eighth notes on two verses. John responds - No Keith, I can't do that. I would need my entire backline or I would have to fly to England. And Coverdale looks at me and I'm going: It's just eighth notes! It's just jung to give a little more push forward.

Er, sorry - he needs his entire backline? I said goodbye to Sykes and hung up the phone.

So I bring Dann Huff in again - he comes in with a guitar not even in a guitar case, plugs in, hears the song once and does it perfectly."

[uwe]

Before ...



... and after Keith Olsen ...

[uwe]

Not stadium rock, but more the type of über-obscure garage rock some of our more cherished members here like, Olsen is the bassist, sounds like someone crossed The McCoys with Iron Butterfly to me  :

[westen44]

I would have been impressed with him even if playing bass on "Talk Talk" was the only thing Olsen ever did.  That Music Machine album was one of the first albums I ever bought and I still have it.  The world has suffered a great loss. 

[uwe]

He is also unreported to have shot someone. You can't say that about all producers.

[westen44]

9 classic rock albums produced by Keith Olsen.  A diverse selection. 

https://rock929rocks.com/2020/03/10/keith-olsen-produced-albums/

[uwe]

If he got his hands on something, to semi-quote a Judas Priest album ...  Syn(th) After Syn(th), even most of the bass on 1987 isn't the credited Neil Murray, but a synth ... 





Even Jon Lord's Hammond (in this case actually a church organ in a chapel near the studio) wasn't sacred:

[Dave W]

Not stadium rock, but more the type of über-obscure garage rock some of our more cherished members here like, Olsen is the bassist, sounds like someone crossed The McCoys with Iron Butterfly to me  :

Indeed.

Back then he was seen with an Eko 995 that looked huge on him. No idea if that was used on their recordings, it could have been L.A. studio musicians.

RIP.

[westen44]

What I liked about "Talk Talk" was the way Sean Bonniwell did the vocals.  David Fricke said the song appealed to male adolescents and he was right. 

[uwe]

Yup, it was menacing for the time.

[westen44]

"It speaks of a timeless problem of teenage misunderstanding": That is how singer-guitarist-songwriter Sean Bonniwell of the Music Machine described the Los Angeles band's 1966 single "Talk Talk"...

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-dark-prince-of-garage-rock-a-tribute-to-sean-bonniwell-of-the-music-machine-242477/