Glyn Johns
Encyclopedia
Glyn Johns is a musician
, recording engineer and record producer
.
, The Beatles
, The Easybeats
, The Band
, The Rolling Stones
, The Who
, Led Zeppelin
, Eagles, Eric Clapton
, The Clash
, The Steve Miller Band, Small Faces, Spooky Tooth
, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
, Blue Öyster Cult
, Linda Ronstadt
, Emmylou Harris
, Midnight Oil
, New Model Army
, Belly
, Joe Satriani
, Ronnie Lane
, Rod Stewart
with Faces, Joan Armatrading
, Buckacre
, Gallagher and Lyle
, Georgie Fame
, Family
, Helen Watson, Fairport Convention
, Humble Pie
and many others.
In the 1960s, while associated with the rock band The Presidents
, Johns began working as a recording studio
engineer at IBC Studios
, Portland Place
, London
and was able to take the band in during weekends and try his skills at production and recording. The Presidents was his first true production work and some of the original tracks are available to hear and record at the Sound Bite Page on The President's web site www.the-presidents.org.uk. In 1969, Johns was called upon to rescue the troublesome Get Back sessions for The Beatles
. Johns compiled several versions of the album, which were all rejected by the band, before the project was eventually turned over to producer Phil Spector
. Spector's version became the released album, which was retitled Let It Be.
Johns' subsequent work on the first three albums by the Eagles was fundamental in establishing the group's sound and style.
In 1971, he recorded and mixed The Who
's Who's Next
, one of the most celebrated rock albums of all time. He is also credited as associate producer. His influence on the Faces' 1972 album, A Nod's As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse, which he co-produced with the band, can be gauged from the message that follows the credits: 'Thank you Glyn, you made all the difference.'
He mixed a 5.1 SACD
version of the classic Eric Clapton
album Slowhand
at Sphere Studios.
As of 2011, Johns is currently working with Ryan Adams
on his latest studio album.
and the older brother of Andy Johns
, both accomplished producers in their own right. Ethan has worked with acts such as Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne
and Kings of Leon
, while Andy has worked with acts such as The Rolling Stones
, Led Zeppelin
and Jimi Hendrix
, either on his own or under the tutelage of Eddie Kramer
.
Eric Clapton - Slowhand - Producer
, it is said that the fictitious band Stillwater declined to use Johns as their producer for their new album.
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, recording engineer and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
.
Career
He has worked with such artists as Bob DylanBob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, The Easybeats
The Easybeats
The Easybeats were an Australian rock and roll band. They formed in Sydney in late 1964 and broke up at the end of 1969. They are regarded as the greatest Australian pop band of the 1960s, and were the first Australian rock and roll act to score an international pop hit with their 1966 single...
, The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
, The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, Eagles, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
, The Steve Miller Band, Small Faces, Spooky Tooth
Spooky Tooth
Spooky Tooth are an English rock band principally active, with intermittent breakups, between 1967 to 1974. In recent years, the band has been reconstituted at various points, and continues to perform occasionally.-Career:...
, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Ozark Mountain Daredevils
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils are a Southern rock/country rock band formed in 1972 in Springfield, Missouri, USA. They are most widely known for their singles "If You Wanna Get To Heaven" in 1974 and "Jackie Blue" in 1975....
, Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult, often abbreviated BÖC, is an American rock band, most of whose members first came together in Long Island, NY in 1967 as the band Soft White Underbelly...
, Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
, Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
, Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil , were an Australian rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie...
, New Model Army
New Model Army (band)
New Model Army are an English rock band, who were formed in Bradford, West Yorkshire in 1980. They have been variously classified by Allmusic as post-punk and alternative rock.-Overview:...
, Belly
Belly (band)
Belly was an alternative rock band formed in 1991 by former Throwing Muses members Tanya Donelly and Fred Abong. The band was based in Boston, Massachusetts, though all of the original members grew up in Newport, Rhode Island. The band consisted of Donelly on lead vocals and guitar, Abong on bass,...
, Joe Satriani
Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
, Ronnie Lane
Ronnie Lane
Ronald Frederick "Ronnie" Lane was an English musician, songwriter, and producer who is best known as the bass guitarist and founding member of two prominent English rock and roll bands; the Small Faces where he was nicknamed "Plonk", – and, after losing the band's frontman, Faces, with two new...
, Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
with Faces, Joan Armatrading
Joan Armatrading
Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, MBE is a British singer, songwriter and guitarist. Armatrading is a three-time Grammy Award-nominee and has been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist...
, Buckacre
Buckacre
Buckacre was an American rock band from the Illinois River Valley, operating in the mid 1970s. Group members included the guitarist/vocalist Les Lockridge, drummer Dick Verucci, guitarist/violinist/vocalist Alan Thacker, bassist/vocalist Dick Hally and guitarist/steel guitarist/vocalist Darrel Data...
, Gallagher and Lyle
Gallagher and Lyle
Gallagher and Lyle was the Scottish pairing of singer-songwriters Benny Gallagher and Graham Lyle.-Career:They joined forces in 1959, initially as members of the local Largs based band, The Bluefrets. They began writing original material for the band and also wrote "Mr Heartbreak's Here Instead"...
, Georgie Fame
Georgie Fame
Georgie Fame is a British rhythm and blues and jazz singer and keyboard player. The one-time rock and roll tour musician, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still a popular performer, often working with contemporaries such as Van Morrison and Bill Wyman.-Early life:Fame took piano lessons from the...
, Family
Family (band)
Family were an English rock band that formed in late 1966 and disbanded in October 1973. Their style has been characterised as progressive rock, although their sound often explored other genres, incorporating elements of styles like as folk, psychedelia, acid, jazz fusion and rock and roll...
, Helen Watson, Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
, Humble Pie
Humble Pie (band)
Humble Pie was a rock band from England, finding success both in the UK and the US. They are remembered for songs such as "Black Coffee" "30 Days in the Hole", "I Don't Need No Doctor", and "Natural Born Bugie"...
and many others.
In the 1960s, while associated with the rock band The Presidents
The Presidents (band)
The Presidents were an American soul group from Washington, D.C.. The group's members were Tony Boyd, Archie Powell, and Billy Shorter. The group scored a hit in the U.S. in 1970 with the Van McCoy produced track, "5-10-15-20 ", taken from the Sussex Records album of the same name...
, Johns began working as a recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
engineer at IBC Studios
IBC Studios
The IBC Recording Studios were recording studios in 35 Portland Place, London, England. After the Second World War it was the address of the leading independent studio in London and the British Isles...
, Portland Place
Portland Place
Portland Place is a street in the Marylebone district of central London, England.-History and topography:The street was laid out by the brothers Robert and James Adam for the Duke of Portland in the late 18th century and originally ran north from the gardens of a detached mansion called Foley House...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and was able to take the band in during weekends and try his skills at production and recording. The Presidents was his first true production work and some of the original tracks are available to hear and record at the Sound Bite Page on The President's web site www.the-presidents.org.uk. In 1969, Johns was called upon to rescue the troublesome Get Back sessions for The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
. Johns compiled several versions of the album, which were all rejected by the band, before the project was eventually turned over to producer Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
. Spector's version became the released album, which was retitled Let It Be.
Johns' subsequent work on the first three albums by the Eagles was fundamental in establishing the group's sound and style.
In 1971, he recorded and mixed The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
's Who's Next
Who's Next
Who's Next is the fifth studio album by English rock band The Who, released in August 1971. The album has origins in a rock opera conceived by Pete Townshend called Lifehouse. The ambitious, complex project did not come to fruition at the time and instead, many of the songs written for the project...
, one of the most celebrated rock albums of all time. He is also credited as associate producer. His influence on the Faces' 1972 album, A Nod's As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse, which he co-produced with the band, can be gauged from the message that follows the credits: 'Thank you Glyn, you made all the difference.'
He mixed a 5.1 SACD
Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...
version of the classic Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
album Slowhand
Slowhand
Slowhand is an album by Eric Clapton, released in 1977. It contained three of his most popular singles, the bluesy "Cocaine", the ballad "Wonderful Tonight" and the country-flavoured #3 U.S. hit "Lay Down Sally", as well as other songs that became Clapton classics on their own like "The Core" and...
at Sphere Studios.
As of 2011, Johns is currently working with Ryan Adams
Ryan Adams
David Ryan Adams is an American alt-country/rock singer-songwriter, from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Initially part of the group Whiskeytown, Adams left the band and released his first solo album Heartbreaker in 2000...
on his latest studio album.
Biography
Glyn Johns is the father of Ethan JohnsEthan Johns
Ethan Johns is a record producer, engineer, mixer, musician, and songwriter who has worked with such artists such as Ryan Adams, Kings of Leon, Ray LaMontagne, Kevin Prosch, Rufus Wainwright, Howard Eliott Payne, Emmylou Harris, Crowded House, Laura Marling, Luthea Salom, and Crosby, Stills and...
and the older brother of Andy Johns
Andy Johns
Andy Johns is an engineer and producer who worked on well-known rock albums such as Led Zeppelin's IV and The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street. His sound is exemplified by Free's album Highway, which he engineered and produced....
, both accomplished producers in their own right. Ethan has worked with acts such as Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne
Ray LaMontagne
Raymond "Ray" Charles Jack LaMontagne is a Grammy-award winning American singer-songwriter. LaMontagne has released four studio albums, Trouble, Till the Sun Turns Black, Gossip in the Grain and God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise. He was born in New Hampshire and was inspired to create music after...
and Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon is an American rock band that originated in Albion, Oklahoma but formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Anthony Caleb Followill , Ivan Nathan Followill and Michael Jared Followill Kings of Leon is an American rock band that originated in Albion,...
, while Andy has worked with acts such as The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
and Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, either on his own or under the tutelage of Eddie Kramer
Eddie Kramer
Edwin H. Kramer is an audio engineer and producer who has worked with, among others, Led Zeppelin, Triumph, Kiss , Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Spooky Tooth, Peter Frampton, Curtis Mayfield, Santana, Anthrax, Carly Simon, Loudness, and Robin Trower.-1960s:Eddie...
.
Discography
Ian McLagan & The Bump Band - Never Say Never (2009) - Glyn Johns is credited As Mixer / MastererEric Clapton - Slowhand - Producer
In popular culture
In the movie Almost FamousAlmost Famous
Almost Famous is a 2000 musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and telling the fictional story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine while covering the fictitious rock band Stillwater , and his efforts to get his first cover story published...
, it is said that the fictitious band Stillwater declined to use Johns as their producer for their new album.