Jimmy Miller AllMusicGuide Discography / Creditshttp://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47319DD49A87520E8BB0C65F68652DE39F670DAB73F08657A92961E65913E65CA46F68BA5DBB677AB7BB0FD2EA45D43D2CBE453FBD6623F2DFC93&sql=11:kv6wtra9kl2x~T4LOCOMOTIVE GThttp://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47319DD49A87520E89B2C45F6A672FE19D650DA971F28455A92B63E45913E65CA46F68BA5DBB674AB7BAFE02CA45A099FC3E455FCD6673F2DED93&sql=10:30msa9wgb23gReview
by Joe Viglione
Much of the immediate post-
Rolling Stones work by producer
Jimmy Miller was embraced by ABC Records, which gave
Miller a lucrative deal to sign talent and release records, and it was clear he had a free hand. Albums by
Genya Ravan,
Henry Gross,
B.B. King,
Bobby Whitlock, and others at least had an outlet, but as one colleague put it, "Jimmy had already run the hundred yard dash...and won." It's a true rock & roll tragedy that a genius producer didn't have the ambition to infuse the intuitive elements he put into
Spooky Tooth and
Traffic into these grooves for Locomotiv G T, thus there are highs and lows on this outing by a unique Hungarian rock quartet.
Jack Bruce shows up on harp on "She's Just 14," and the songwriting of
Tamas Barta,
Anna Adamis, and
Gabor Presser is sometimes very good. "Rock Yourself" and "Confession" are standouts on side one, as are "Waiting for You" and "Serenade to a Love (If I Had One)" on side two. But there is a void here, and the void seems to be
Miller's mind perhaps on other things. The album feels like co-producer/engineer
Andy Johns is in control, as it has more of his homogenized approach than
Jimmy Miller's clever rhythms and variety of sounds.
Miller adds his percussion to some of the tracks, but not to the level that dripped lots of frosting on "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Honky Tonk Women," "Loving Cup," and other delights. That's the biggest problem with Locomotiv G T -- there is no standout hit to draw an audience in, and
Miller certainly knew better than to leave an album somewhat naked. "She's Just 14" is a nice bluesy raver, and
Bruce's harp is fun, though the really awful packaging probably went a long way to sending this directly to the bargain bins. A silver train inside what looks like foil graces the cover, with a single unrevealing photo of the band on the back. Drummer
Joe Laux did go on to become an engineer of note, including work with
Michael Jackson,
Dionne Warwick,
the Average White Band, and others, while the recording also provides evidence as to how wide
Jimmy Miller's scope was. Like
the Savage Rose, this band hailed from Europe, while
Kracker was a
Santana-influenced band from Cuba or South America. He even discovered American
Doug Fieger, who later went on to form
the Knack. The major flaw is that Jimmy Miller Productions didn't seek out hit tunes to launch all these artists, and despite some impressive songwriting skills on Locomotiv G T, there are too many klunkers, like "Won't You Dance With Me" and "Back Home," which offset the good tunes and are about as exciting as the dreadful album art. Uneven, it plays like it's unfinished.
HENRY GROSS
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by Joe Viglione
A compact 35 minutes of music produced and engineered by the man who did one of those tasks for
the Rolling Stones (it was the engineering), the late
Joe Zagarino oversaw this disc for
Jimmy Miller's production deal with ABC Records. Despite putting out artistic recordings by
Genya Ravan,
B.B. King,
Bobby Whitlock, and others,
Mr. Miller's m.i.a. status with the mega-deal he got from ABC was -- to quote a
Grace Slick album title, "conspicuous in its (his) absence." This is Henry Gross without the assistance of
Cashman & West, in the pre-"Shannon" days, which gives a concise picture of the singer/songwriter prior to his flirting with fame. This recording also gives evidence by virtue of his absence that
Jimmy Miller was a genius of record production. His 1971 work on the
Sailor's Delight album by
Doug Fieger's
Sky had him influencing and contributing to a great-sounding record by a then-unknown commodity. As
Fieger would hit with "My Sharona" years later, Henry Gross too would get some chart action. But not here.
Joe Zagarino's production work is crystal clear, but there are none of the percussive sounds or backing vocals with depth that would make a
Jimmy Miller record jump out at you while it was jumping out of the radio. Gross' material is adequate, falling somewhere between
Dan Fogelberg and
Livingston Taylor, folksy music with the pop edge drummer
Jim Keltner provides. "My Sunshine" and "Loving You-Loving Me" are nice enough, while "Joe" is a song of deep affection. "Morning Star" is a little more ambiguous with the "I had one too many lovers and I let the best one go" line. The former lead guitarist with
Sha Na Na is in an introspective
Jim Croce mood here, but where
Livingston Taylor's "Sunshine" hit this same year, 1972, "My Sunshine" and the other "sun" song, "Loving You-Loving Me," really feel like the producer is holding back. It sounds like an engineer is crafting the recording without the intangibles a great rock & roll mind brings to the table.
Genya Ravan rightfully felt slighted when
Jimmy Miller only produced two of the tracks on her
They Love Me They Love Me Not album, but
Zagarino and
Jim Price did a commendable job on that recording. It may not have had the hand of the master in its entirety, but that project was cohesive, where Henry Gross is merely innocently pleasant. The artist borrows heavily from those who came before, no doubt part of playing all those covers in
Sha Na Na, as
George Harrison acoustics soak through the rhythms of "Joe." "Close My Eyes" is the hardest rocker, with the feel of a band Gross would open up for in the future,
Aerosmith, while "Prayer for All" sounds like the artist was listening to
John Lennon's "Julia." The album cover has a nice textured feel, and there is an insert with the lyrics, but the country-rock of "You'll Be Mine," despite the fine players, just can't get over the bar. With
Sneaky Pete,
Jim Keltner, and
Spooner Oldham in on the festivities, the promise went unfulfilled. It's a good artifact and gets a passing grade. Nice background music.
Releases
Year
Type
Label
Catalog #
1969
LP
ABC
747
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BILLY FALCON on MCA 1980
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by Joe Viglione
This 1980 album by singer/songwriter Billy Falcon plays a lot like early
John Cougar Mellencamp -- material that isn't quite there yet -- significant only because it is a rare album from this time period by the legendary
Jimmy Miller. Three years before
Johnny Thunders'
In Cold Blood would see the light of day, this album sounds more like
Miller discovery
Joey Stec than the lead guitarist from
the New York Dolls. "Mozambiques, Mozambiques" rips "Rip This Joint" from
Exile on Main St., but doesn't have the musicianship of
the Rolling Stones or the chemistry when
Jimmy Miller recorded that legendary album in the south of France. Falcon Around, however, was recorded in Olympic Studios in London, where
the Stones had much success. It just really never gets off the ground because Billy Falcon's talent is nowhere near that of
the Rolling Stones, or many other acts recorded by their former producer.
Charles Koppelman, who would reshape the '80s with his SBK company, and
Miller's manager,
George Greif, who also managed
Jose Feliciano and
the New Christy Minstrels, were heavily involved, and with the big boys behind him, it is interesting how this effort by Falcon didn't have a cover or a song from someone's publishing catalog or anything that resembles the all important break-through hit. "Not Goin' Down is appealing in its own way -- a very nice album track, but the vocal over does it, despite rather elegant musical production by
Jimmy Miller. The waves the producer was making with
Motorhead and
the Plasmatics was in heavy metal and punk circles, but this is an interesting look at a project of his that didn't gain much notoriety, and fills in forgotten spaces on his amazing resume. Having seen
Jimmy Miller at work, it is hard to picture him accepting a tune like "Businessman's Lunch" unless the artist was adamant about it.
Miller had tremendous ears and would only tell his acts once if he disagreed -- after that, you were on your own. There is none of the magic here that he put into so many records, from
Traffic to
Spooky Tooth and
Blind Faith, making this one of the albums which sound like he was there in the room, but not giving much input. The tricks with the echo are far from
Miller's cohesive style and the material is shockingly weak to be endorsed by a heavyweight publisher like
Charlie Koppelman. "Holdin' On" closes out the album, and it is a decent hook as well as performance, following nondescript compositions like "Reaction," "Rocks in His Head," and the completely awful "I Don't Know Nothin'," which will rank as one of the worst efforts in
Jimmy Miller's illustrious career. This is another one of those albums you need to own for posterity, but need not play.
DOUG FIEGER SKYhttp://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47319DD49A87520E89B2C45F6A672FE19D650DA971F28455A92B63E45913E65CA46F68BA5DBB674AB7BAFE02CA45A099FCBEE5CFCDF6C3E349D8EDB&sql=10:dx6ftr89kl3xReview
by Joe Viglione
The second album by
the Knack's
Doug Fieger was produced by
Jimmy Miller with
Andy Johns, eight years before producer
Mike Chapman would unleash "My Sharona" on the world.
Fieger's "Don't Want Nobody" has all the elements that
Miller put into his
Stones hits and
Traffic classic album cuts -- piano and flute supplement the folk guitar and vocal, giving the singer an enviable platform. The album is a solid representation of
Fieger's song compositions and pre-
Knack efforts; "Let It Lie Low" is a nice bit of pop/rock that foretells what was to come, a happy-go-lucky drumbeat by
Robby Stawinski exploding when
the Rolling Stones' horn section of
Bobby Keys and
Jim Price kicks in. Young
Fieger's letter to producer
Miller not only landed him the two albums on RCA, it enabled the group to get the great players here, like guitarist
John Uribe and
the Stones' pianist
Ian Stewart, continuing the tradition of the stellar guests who showed up for Sky's first album. "Taking the Long Way Home" definitely sounds like an American version of
Traffic, with conga drums that help the transition from this song to the piano ballad "Come Back." Again,
the Stones' horns come in to add a touch of class, creating a nice bed for the powerful song-title chorus to emphasize
Feiger's slinky vocal. This track is outstanding, and should have been a staple on 1971 FM radio.
Miller was quite busy in the early '70s with
Locomotiv GT,
the Savage Rose,
the Rolling Stones,
Delaney & Bonnie,
George Harrison, and
Ginger Baker's Air Force, among others. Sailor's Delight, with its beautiful red sunrise/sunset cover, is a lost gem from the major producer at the peak of his powers as well as from his discovery
Fieger, who went on to create the hit of the summer of 1979, "My Sharona." Inside these grooves are melodies and performances that verify
Miller's genius; "Tooly" has an island feel while
John Coury's "Sing for Me" comes off like the serious side of
Tommy James. "Sing for Me," "Come Back," and "Low Down" from this disc would be perfect Sky contributions for the inevitable
Jimmy Miller production box set. As entertaining as it is historical, Sailor's Delight is creative work from the master producer and the musicians he believed in enough to sign. How many "name" producers on a hot streak would gamble on an unknown singer, with validation coming years later as the singer went on to worldwide fame?
THE SAVAGE ROSEHere are three reviews of THE SAVAGE ROSE by Joe Viglione,
only Refugee was produced by Miller
"In The Plain"
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Drenched in red, with a plain black and white cover photo of the band, Refugee had the distinction of being produced by the late, great
Jimmy Miller and his protégé, the late
Joe Zagarino, engineer from
Exile on Main Street. This was a most prolific time for the legendary producer, Refugee having been released around the time of
Sticky Fingers by
the Rolling Stones, two albums by
the Knack's
Doug Fieger after
Miller discovered
Fieger and his band,
Sky, signing them to RCA (where this album found distribution), and perhaps the most important parallel for Savage Rose, a release date for Refugee close to that of
Delaney & Bonnie on Tour With Eric Clapton, considered by many one of
Jimmy Miller's most significant recordings. Vocalist
Anisette has a voice that is right from that
Bonnie Bramlett/
Genya Ravan/
Ruby Starr blues rasp mold, and that
Jimmy Miller was making records with
Ravan and
Bramlett at this time might be a reason why Refugee is an artistic triumph, the virtually unknown-in-America singer having the opportunity to make a record with a man who truly understood how to put the blues onto vinyl. "Walking in the Line" has a hook dressed up with a mixture of gospel and rock; the double-keyboard sound of Savage Rose makes for a sound not unlike
Genya Ravan fronting
Traffic. Netherlands product
the Shocking Blue had great diction on their hit, "Venus," as did the Swedish
Abba on "Waterloo."
Anisette shows great mastery of the English language here, tearing the words apart with her heart on "Ballad of Gale," the ending straight out of "Let It Bleed," with
Miller or
Zagarino or both using their
Rolling Stones ideas to good effect. They especially work on the stronger material: the song about a small cafe called "Granny's Grave," the title track with its unique "oh welcomed be/The Refugee," and the aforementioned "Walking in the Line." For a band with so many albums, Refugee gives
Anders Koppel,
Thomas Koppel, and crew a nice place in the history books, a solid outing with driving sound, smart lyrics (check out the opening track, "Revival Day"), and the hands of one of the greats putting everything into place -- doing so at the peak of his powers. A nice gem in the
Jimmy Miller collection and evidence that Savage Rose was a band of substance.
GINGER BAKER'S AIR FORCE 2(Jimmy Miller produced Air Force 1, Ginger produced this disc)
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Denny Laine took "Go Now," a
Larry Banks/
Milton Bennett tune originally cut by
Bessie Banks and
the Jelly Beans, and made it his own with
the Moody Blues. That Ginger Baker's Airforce has
Laine cover
the Drifter's "I Don't Want to Go on Without You" is very clever, and a hint that this band was very serious about making a go of it. The
Bert Berns/
Jerry Wexler composition might have been a bit too soulful for Top 40, while
Graham Bond's rendition of
Roebuck Staple's "Let Me Ride" is beyond soul, it's rock-gospel and genuinely great. Here Ginger Baker is far more restrained than he was in
Cream, and fans of his former supergroups seeing this Airforce album with its childishly psychedelic cover probably had no idea what was inside.
Laine's guitar is a tremendous contribution -- as this is
Laine in his prime, post-
Moody Blues and pre-
Wings.
Cream's "Sweet Wine" has a majesty here with the lead vocals of
Aliki Ashman accompanied by
Diane Stewart and
Catherine James. Although
Laine is listed as an "additional personnel" along with
Rick Grech,
Harold McNair,
Rocki Dzidzornu, and
Catherine James,
Laine makes three appearances. On an album with seven tracks, that's pretty significant. "Do U No Hu Yor Phrenz R?" is pretty much this version of Ginger Baker's Air Force and the music is solid on the Baker original. Horns and keyboards combine and sway to the lilting vocal -- a very expressive and well-constructed track -- leading one to think maybe Baker wasn't the madman he portrayed, or at least that there was a method to his madness. His other contribution to side one is "We Free Kings" which weaves percussion and flute with the jazzy vocals of
Ashman and
Stewart. There are solos galore by
Bud Beadle on saxes,
Steve Gregory, and
Graham Bond. The barely audible lyric sounds like something about Lady Godiva, togetherness, and happiness. Nice pyschedelic '60s sentiments, except that the '60s were over. "Humpty Dumpty had a great fall" can be clearly heard, making it obvious that this song is about the music, and the music is refreshingly intact and enormous. Baker's excess has to emerge on at least one track, and his drums are all over "Toady," of course, which is like a "Son of" "Toad" from the previous live album produced by
Jimmy Miller. Baker does the production work here, and after eight minutes and 21 seconds of "Toady"'s haunting vocal and piano,
Bond's "12 Gates of the City" concludes the disc. This material was clearly as hip as
Eric Clapton's
Layla album, just not as commercially organized or executed. There is no doubt that
Derek & the Dominoes contained a special magic elevating those performances and songs to a sacred realm, but something should be said for the honesty and purity of Ginger Baker's Air Force 2, and if it is too musical and avant garde for an audience that embraced
Clapton, it should be commended for its sense of adventure and elegance. "12 Gates of the City" is a delight, swimming with sounds from the Arabian nights and the swamps of New Orleans, a sublime and uncharted mix that sounds better years after it was recorded. A timeless, yet pretty much forgotten record which deserved more FM airplay in its day than it got.
Last Updated 1/20/06 2/2/07
THE PLASMATICS NEW HOPE FOR THE WRETCHED
NEW HOPE FOR THE WRETCHED
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takes over the production, allowing at least more of a
focus. Jimmy Miller he's not, but rather than get in
the major producer's way, which is what Swenson did on
1980's New Hope for the Wretched, he at least has the
opportunity to expand the sounds on this 1981 disc by
letting his ideas flow unobstructed by professional
help.
RARE BECK BOGERT & APPICE TUNE
JIZZ WHIZZ released in the 90's on BECKOLOGY
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With an instant, slamming opening borrowed from the
Jimi Hendrix tune, "Manic Depression" - revved up and
mutated, of course - this rare instrumental track from
the fabled Jimmy Miller sessions with Beck, Bogert &
Appice lives up to its legend. The 1973 take's got
that smooth edge Miller put on Motorhead when that
band's Overkill and Bomber albums received the
producer's midas touch six years after these sounds
made it to tape. The big difference, though -
Motorhead's "Fast" Eddie Clarke is no Jeff Beck, and
Mr. Beck's guitar prowess is absolutely on fire here.
Recorded at CBS Studios in London, the jam composition
by Jeff Beck, Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice runs four
minutes and twenty-four seconds and contains many of
the elements which made BBA such a great jazz/rock
powerhouse. With George Martin having worked on the
Blow By Blow (1975) and Wired (1976) discs, this one
cut puts Beck in the enviable position of having been
produced by the two legendary men who made some of the
greatest records by The Beatles and The Rolling
Stones. Outside of the long ending to The Stones'
"Can't You Hear Me Knocking", there are few
instrumentals recorded by Miller, a man known for
polishing and directing songs like The Move's
"Blackberry Way", Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy" and
over a hundred Jagger/Richards classics. That it took
1991s Beckology box for this epic to make its
worldwide debut speaks volumes about the industry -
great Hendrixian sounds from Beck locked up for
eighteen years deprived fans of some extraordinary
stuff. A real find for those who appreciate both Beck
and the legendary Stones' producer.
1991 Beckology Buy Now! 4:25 Epic/Legacy
DISCOGS Discography
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Jimmy+Miller
