Original subtitles

[ U2's "Pride" plays ]

LANOIS: I never thought of myself as a record producer.

Somebody else named me that.

I was just a guy who was making records

and was good at helping people.

♪ One man come in the name of love ♪

♪ One man come and go ♪

LANOIS: When you're at the front end of a medium,

you get this adrenaline rush,

or you think, "Oh, my goodness, I think we've touched

on something here that's never been heard before."

[ David Bowie's "Fame" plays ]

♪ Fame ♪

♪ Makes a man take things over ♪

NARRATOR: When it comes to making a hit record,

one of the biggest mysteries is the role of the producer.

IOVINE: I've heard of Phil Spector.

I heard of Andrew Loog Oldham.

I heard of Jimmy Miller with the Stones.

I didn't know what they did.

♪ Fame, fame ♪

PERRY: When I would see old footage of George Martin,

I knew that guy was the important guy to watch.

Nobody wants his autograph, but he's the guy in charge.

♪ Fame ♪

ENO: Producers were people who understood how recording worked.

They were the people who said,

"Here's this whole new set of possibilities.

We're gonna find out what they can do."

♪ Fame, fame, fame, fame ♪

RZA: The digital wave of music

gave us a whole orchestra of instrumentation

in front of our hands.

[ Johnny Cash's "One" plays ]

NARRATOR: But technical skill is only part of the job.

The real challenge is to bring out the best in a performer.

♪ Is it getting better? ♪

♪ Or do you feel the same? ♪

JONES: There's a connection you have to make in producing,

and it's got to be love and respect.

♪ You've got someone to blame ♪

WAS: I think the most important thing a producer can do

is to create a vibe of safety in the room,

like, it's okay to go out on a limb.

♪ In the night ♪

♪ One life ♪

WAS: That it's cool to go to a very vulnerable space

where, if it doesn't work right, it could be embarrassing.

♪ Carry each other ♪

Don't be afraid to fail.

[ Music ends ]

[ Guitar strumming ]

HARRISON: What key is it in? What key is it in?

McCARTNEY: It'll be in F for you.

SPECTOR: Here we go. Just one more time.

FRANKLIN: Right after I say, "Are you sure?"

♪ Da da da ♪

‐Yeah. ‐MAN: Oh.

WILSON: Hal, here's how I want to do it.

Takes like this.

BOWIE: All right. It's fun time. Fun time.

MAN #1: Here we go.

MAN #2: Rolling. I thought we had a different title.

MAN #3: Seventeen, take one.

MAN #4: This will be a keeper, I think.

[ Laughs ]

Here we go.

One time, everybody, please.

[ The Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up" plays ]

WAS: My first meeting with the Rolling Stones

was I ended up on a sofa with Mick Jagger sitting here

and Keith sitting here,

and they were both talking at the same time.

♪ If you start me up ♪

♪ If you start me up, I'll never stop ♪

WAS: Mick was suggesting things

that a producer could do for the Stones,

and Keith was telling me why he didn't need a producer.

And Keith said, "You sure you want to be the meat

in this sandwich?"

[ Laughs ]

HARRIES: The producer has got to be able to say

to somebody like Mick Jagger, "Can you just do that again?"

He should have tact. He should have diplomacy.

He should know how to handle an artist.

Even if it means saying that song's not as good as that one.

This melody needs to be better.

And it's hard, man, 'cause it's very intimate, you know?

Very, very intimate.

And you're going straight from your heart,

and you're saying, "We're not there yet."

Or, "That's perfect. Perfect take. One more time."

[ Laughs ]

JAM: Plenty of great songs have gotten lost in bad production,

so you have to appreciate when you have those pairings

of a Michael Jackson and a Quincy Jones,

when you have a great songwriter and a great producer.

EPWORTH: The two of you together are making music

completely from scratch,

and it's your job to try and help find the right sounds

that makes everybody's hair stand on end.

[ Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" plays ]

It might take many weeks of just sitting and playing

with nothing happening.

And then one day, something happens.

[ Crowd cheering ]

♪ She's a good girl ♪

♪ Loves her mama ♪

♪ Loves Jesus ♪

♪ And America too ♪

I sat down and played a lick, like...

♪ Dunh, dunh ♪

♪ Dunh, dunh, dunh ♪

♪ Dunh, dunh, dunh ♪

And Jeff Lynne,

who's one of the greatest record makers ever, I think,

went, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Don't put that bit on the end there."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Just go...

♪ Dunh, dunh ♪

♪ Dunh, dunh, dunh ♪

... and start the phrase again,

but don't put that other bit in."

And I hadn't even really thought it was a song, you know?

But he was excited by it.

♪ She's a good girl ♪

♪ Loves her mama ♪

The first two verses were ad‐libbed.

You know, "She's a good girl, loves her mama,

loves Jesus and America too."

I was just kind of trying to make Jeff smile.

He goes..."free falling."

That's all he said, you know?

♪ Now I'm free ♪

♪ I'm free fallin' ♪

♪ Yeah, I'm free ♪

♪ I'm free fallin' ♪

JOHN: That's the whole point of having someone

that will sit in the booth,

hearing something that you might play

that you would just discard.

And he'll say, "Hang on a minute.

That was really good. Go back to that."

ST. VINCENT: Ultimately, what being a producer is

is having a point of view.

It's easy to make sound.

Really, anybody can make sound.

But not everybody can make music.

[ Up‐tempo rock music plays ]

Well, hello and welcome to the cradle of rock 'n' roll.

GURALNICK: Sam Phillips was three days short of 27

when he opened the doors to the Memphis Recording Service.

He started the label Sun three years later.

KING: So many earlier producers, like Sam Phillips,

they're basically operating in an A&R capacity,

looking for promising talent, bringing them into the studio,

and crafting a unique sound for them.

GURALNICK: From Sam Phillips' point of view,

if you weren't doing something different,

you weren't doing anything.

He was looking for individualism in the extreme, as he would say.

PHILLIPS: When I wanted to open up my recording studio,

I didn't tell too many people about what I had in mind

because I didn't know whether I'd be able to pull it off.

I didn't have enough money to buy the equipment that I wanted,

and I didn't know whether I could pay the rent.

But I knew that I was gonna get me some black folks

in that studio one way or the other.

I recorded Roscoe Gordon, BB King,

the Howlin' Wolf, Little Junior Parker.

[ Music continues ]

STUART: Memphis in the mid‐'50s was a black cat's town.

It was about soul.

Nashville didn't rock. Memphis did.

BECK: Sam Phillips was so smitten

with the sound of black music and black blues,

but he knew that he'd need a white guy to put it out there.

And he found a guy called Elvis Presley.

PRESLEY: ♪ Evening shadows make me blue ♪

♪ When each weary day is through ♪

With Elvis, I knew when he walked in the door, baby.

If anybody can do this,

I believe this is the person who can do it.

♪ My happiness ♪

GURALNICK: There was something he heard in this kid,

something that was unique about him.

JORGENSEN: But as the session begins,

Elvis starts singing all these country songs and pop standards.

And Sam realizes, "Hey, this is not gonna work."

He has a wonderful voice, but it's so insecure.

♪ Just as long as I'm with you ♪

♪ My happiness ♪

PHILLIPS: So I went in and talked to him and said, "Hey.

We still are not where I believe we should be,

and I think we all agree on this."

And so I turned around, went back in the control room,

and the next thing I know,

Elvis cut out on "That's All Right Mama."

[ Up‐tempo introduction plays ]

♪ Well, that's all right, Mama ♪

♪ That's all right for you ♪

♪ That's all right now, Mama ♪

♪ Just any way you do ♪

♪ That's all right ♪

PHILLIPS: And, man, the minute I heard that thing,

I said, "Lord, hey, if we aren't gonna make it on that, honey,

there was nothing I could do ever."

[ Music continues ]

KING: I used to hear Elvis,

and they would be singing and playing, and they sounded good,

but they was playing white music.

"That's all right, Mama. That's all right for you."

When he did that, I said, "Oh, wait a minute."

[ Laughs ] "This is all right."

How do you categorize "That's All Right"?

It's just a magic moment,

and it's truly original in that it doesn't sound

like anything else in the marketplace.

♪ I'm leaving town, baby ♪

♪ I'm leaving town for sure ♪

♪ Well, then you won't be bothered ♪

♪ With me hanging 'round your door ♪

♪ But that's all right ♪

♪ That's all right ♪

♪ That's all right now, Mama ♪

♪ Any way you do ♪

JORGENSEN: To Sam Phillips, it was always about freeing ‐‐

freeing the soul of his singers.

Most of these people who came to him ‐‐

like Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins,

Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison ‐‐

they all shared this enormous insecurity.

His magic was to pull it out

of whatever it was that they had inside.

♪ I believe you're doing me wrong, and now I know ♪

♪ I believe you're doing me wrong, and now I know ♪

GURALNICK: The qualities Sam Phillips first saw in him,

he continued to show till the end of his career.

♪ Well ♪

♪ I said shake, rattle, and roll ♪

♪ I said shake, rattle, and roll ♪

♪ I said shake, rattle, and roll ♪

♪ I said shake, rattle, and roll ♪

PHILLIPS: When you know that you have been able

to give these people the inspiration

to display their God‐given talent and to be proud of it...

...I think that is the essence of Sun Records.

♪ I don't care if I die ♪

♪ I said flip, flop, and fly ♪

♪ I don't care if I die ♪

♪ I won't ever leave ♪

♪ Don't ever say goodbye ♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

We formally present The Beatles!

[ Cheers and applause, mid‐tempo introduction plays ]

GEORGE MARTIN: I didn't realize when I signed the Beatles

that they'd already been to every record company

in the country and they'd been turned down

by every record company in the country.

♪ Some other guy now ♪

♪ Has taken my love away from me ♪

♪ Some other guy now ♪

STARR: When we first met George,

we loved him because he took a chance on us.

No one else would take a chance.

With a name like that, you come from Liverpool ‐‐

not a chance in hell.

[ Music continues ]

GEORGE MARTIN: I think it was a gut feeling I had about them.

I think it was their charisma.

Does the continuous living and working together

impose any temperamental stress upon you?

You know, we all have been mates for quite a long time,

so we don't get on each other's nerves as much as we could.

‐Get off! ‐[ Grunts ]

[ Laughs ]

We're quite friendly.

Yeah. So I see. [ Chuckles ]

[ Music continues ]

GEORGE MARTIN: When I first met them,

The Beatles knew nothing about a recording studio.

Their experience had been performing in front of people

at the Cavern and in Hamburg and that kind of thing.

LENNON: George had done no rock 'n' roll when we met him,

and we'd never been in the studio.

So we did a lot of learning together.

GEORGE MARTIN: I think The Beatles would have made it

as great musicians whether I was there or not.

I think the fact that I was there helped out.

I think they probably got there more quickly.

♪ Last night I said these words to my girl ♪

♪ I know you never even try, girl ♪

‐♪ Come on ♪ ‐♪ Come on ♪

‐♪ Come on ♪ ‐♪ Come on ♪

‐♪ Come on ♪ ‐♪ Come on ♪

‐♪ Come on ♪ ‐♪ Come on ♪

♪ Please please me, oh, yeah, like I please you ♪

[ Girls screaming ]

GODRICH: What happens

with George Martin's work with The Beatles

is that he added himself into the picture.

He was an arranger. He was a musician.

He had some technical knowledge that he could use

to augment what they were doing

and took control of the overall sonic picture.

VISCONTI: I kept seeing George Martin's name

on the records.

And when I saw a picture of him, I thought, "My God.

He's about twice their age," you know?

He looked like he was a director in a bank, you know?

He had a suit and tie all the time.

His hair was swept back.

It was like "Wow. These people work together.

That's crazy."

RUBIN: He was older and wiser,

and he brought a deep musicality.

They had it intuitively, and he had it intellectually.

So he could help them execute ideas

that a less skilled producer could not do.

[ Cheers and applause ]

GEORGE MARTIN: It wasn't until a couple of years later

that they started doing more sophisticated songwriting.

And they wrote most touching material.

MAN: What key is it in? What key is it in?

McCARTNEY: It'll be in F for you.

♪ Yesterday ♪

[ Guitar strums ]

I'm in G. But it'll be in F.

It goes...E minor to A seventh to D minor.

Ready.

MAN: Here we go.

GEORGE MARTIN: When Paul first wrote "Yesterday,"

he came to me and said, "Have you heard this one before?

Because I dreamt about it last night,

and I'm sure in my subconscious I'm pinching it from someone."

I said, "No. I'm sure it's an original piece of music.

Stick to it. It's great."

McCARTNEY: Okay, man.

[ Mid‐tempo introduction plays ]

♪ Yesterday ♪

♪ All my troubles seemed so far away ♪

♪ Now it looks as though they're here to stay ♪

GEORGE MARTIN: He said, "What do you think?"

I said, "Well, there's nothing we can do to put on top of this

that's gonna make it more beautiful

except perhaps some strings."

♪ There's a shadow hanging over me ♪

GILES MARTIN: With my dad being the posh bloke in the studio

as the classically trained musician,

there was an initial reluctance from Paul

to have a string quartet on "Yesterday."

McCARTNEY: I was always frightened of classical music,

and I never wanted to listen to it because it was Beethoven

and Tchaikovsky and sort of big words like that ‐‐

and Schoenberg.

And I always thought, you know, it's high class, that.

It's very highbrow.

GEORGE MARTIN: I was rehearsing musicians

when he walked into the studio,

and he saw the score that I had written.

And he came up to me and said, "What's this?"

I said, "It's all the music that the musicians are playing.

He said, "You haven't got my name on it."

I said, "I'm sorry.

Here's a pencil. Put your name on it."

So he wrote on it, "'Yesterday' by Paul McCartney, John Lennon,"

looked at me ‐‐ "George Martin, Esquire,"

and then giggled and put down "and Mozart."

♪ Yesterday ♪

♪ Love was such an easy game to play ♪

♪ Now I need a place to hide away ♪

♪ Oh, I believe in yesterday ♪

GEORGE MARTIN: "Yesterday" showed Paul

how a string quartet could be quite effective

on a really good song.

And then he came to me with "Eleanor Rigby,"

which cried out for strings ‐‐

not the smooth, legato stuff of "Yesterday,"

but something that was very biting,

very rhythmic, very edgy.

[ Dramatic string music playing ]

It suggested to me the stuff that Bernard Herrmann

had been writing for "Psycho," for example.

[ Music continues ]

GILES MARTIN: "Eleanor Rigby" is the first time

that The Beatles weren't playing any instruments

on one of their records.

It is just a string octet.

The octet was recorded onto four‐track.

On track one here...

[ Violins play ]

... we have the first violins.

[ Music continues ]

And here are the second violins.

[ Music continues ]

You can hear bleed

'cause they're all in the same room together.

VISCONTI: Oh, my gosh.

I played that over and over and over and over again.

It was just so smart.

George Martin obviously knew his stuff,

and he knew how to put it on a Beatles record.

That's the trick.

[ "Eleanor Rigby" continues ]

For the first time you're hearing a string octet

and you're tapping your foot.

George Martin made strings cool, you know?

He used strings in a way that was so innovative,

I don't think anyone had thought of before.

In that way, The Beatles educated all of us.

♪ Ah, look at all the lonely people ♪

♪ Ah, look at all the lonely people ♪

♪ Eleanor Rigby... ♪

Until then, I thought, "I can be a rock star.

I want to be a rock star. I want to be onstage.

I want to have the girls screaming at me.

I want all that stuff. I want a limo, everything."

But now I wanted to be George Martin.

That was more important.

To be in the studio, to do that kind of stuff,

to be able to experiment that way

and to make great works of art that only exist on tape.

That's very important.

It's a very different art from performing live.

That's what I wanted to be ‐‐ I wanted to be George Martin.

♪ All the lonely people ♪

♪ Do they all belong? ♪

TITELMAN: George Martin ‐‐ His influence was so mighty,

But he wasn't there to put his stamp on it.

Someone like a Phil Spector ‐‐ He was the opposite of that.

I don't know if he said it himself,

but, you know, he was the artist on the record.

[ "Be My Baby" plays ]

♪ The night we met ♪

♪ I knew I needed you so ♪

VISCONTI: The enormous orchestra he got on "Be My Baby" ‐‐

There was nothing before Phil Spector

that was ever done on such a level

except maybe a symphonic recording ‐‐

you know, Beethoven's 9th or something like that.

Boom, boom‐boom, bang. Boom, boom‐boom, bang.

Those are huge, big, noisy, rock 'n' roll ‐‐

♪ Be my, be my little baby ♪

‐♪ Be my darling ♪ ‐♪ Be my, be my baby ♪

♪ Be my baby now ♪

♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, oh, oh ♪

GRANATA: What one really hears in Phil Spector's work

is the possibility of production.

He had a unique way of building the sound of his recordings.

It's now known as the Wall of Sound.

IOVINE: He was the first rock‐star producer.

And if you wanted to be a record producer,

he was somebody you had to study or just know a lot about.

[ Applause ]

♪ To know, know, know him ♪

♪ Is to love, love, love him ♪

STANLEY: It's easy to forget how young Phil Spector was

when he started.

The Teddy Bears was his first band.

And it was just him and his schoolmates,

the three of them doing this very mournful harmony record.

♪ Is to love, love, love him ♪

TITELMAN: My older sister's boyfriend

was the other guy in the Teddy Bears.

They'd rehearse in my living room,

so I heard "Wonderful Lovable You"

and "Don't You Worry My Little Pet"

and "To Know Him Is To Love Him."

♪ Love, love, love him ♪

TITELMAN: It's a magical little teen record.

That was the first record he ever made.

He emerged fully formed.

♪ And I do ♪

[ Up‐tempo music plays ]

STANLEY: Right from the beginning,

Phil Spector was into the sound of records

and not just songwriting.

And he was very ambitious.

He started his own record label.

And at that point, what you think of

as the Phil Spector Wall of Sound really starts.

MEDLEY: ♪ You never close your eyes anymore ♪

♪ When I kiss your lips ♪

♪ And there's no tenderness... ♪

STANLEY: When you're a teenager,

your emotions are really heightened.

Phil Spector's records really encapsulated that.

You listen to something like

"You've Lost That Loving Feeling,"

and it sounds like the end of the world

more than the end of a love affair.

It's incredible.

♪ But, baby ♪

♪ Baby, I know it ♪

♪ You've lost that lovin' feeling ♪

♪ Whoa, that lovin' feeling ♪

♪ You've lost that lovin' feeling ♪

♪ Now it's gone, gone, gone ♪

♪ Whoa, oh, oh, oh ♪

Phil Spector used three keyboard players, two drummers...

MAN: ...three bass players, three organ players...

MAN: ...five keyboard players, three guitar players...

MAN: ... three woodwinds, three saxes.

MAN: ... the Los Angeles Choir...

He was like, "How can I make these four tracks sound bigger?

Well, I'll hire double the musicians

and have them play exactly the same thing at the same time."

WATERS: Phil Spector intuitively understood

that a rock‐'n'‐roll ensemble or a pop group

is no different than an orchestra.

There's absolutely a reason

why you have 16 or 18 or 20 first violins in an orchestra.

It's because one violin sounds like shit, you know?

If you get ‐‐ And even eight sound crappy.

But when they're all playing together,

suddenly it homogenizes,

and it creates that extraordinary sound.

♪ Bring back that lovin' feeling ♪

♪ Whoa, that lovin' feeling ♪

HUFF: After the track was laid and you go in the control room

and you could listen to the playback,

you couldn't believe what you was hearing.

You didn't even believe that you just played that,

to listen to the track,

the way he just stacked those sounds together.

And he knew what he was doing.

LIPUMA: So he had this huge hit with the Righteous Brothers,

and then he followed it up not that much later

with "River Deep Mountain High."

SPECTOR. Okay. Here we go. From the top.

MAN: Take 3.

One. Two. One, two, three.

[ Mid‐tempo introduction plays ]

SPECTOR: Jack, you don't have

a more substantial tambourine out there, do you?

Take 11.

BLAINE: It wasn't just once in a while

that we'd do 29, 30, 31 takes on a song.

And maybe he would go back to take 4.

But that's the way it was with Phil.

MAN: Take 15.

♪ Do I love you? ♪

♪ My, oh, my ♪

♪ Yeah, river deep, mountain high ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

SPECTOR: Hold it, hold it, hold it.

It was a little fast. You were ahead.

He abused the technology. He abused the musicians.

TURNER: The day that we did the session,

the room was full of people.

Eons of musicians.

And he was a little bitty something out there, screaming,

"I want this!" You know?

I mean, he's very persistent in what he wants.

And the result is fantastic,

but he's a very, very, very strong personality

to sort of work for.

I wouldn't say he's easy at all. [ Laughs ]

[ "River Deep Mountain High" plays

♪ When I was a little girl ♪

♪ I had a ragdoll ♪

And I don't know who gave that title, Wall of Sound,

but it was a brilliant title.

And they just put it on everything.

DION: Every rock 'n' roller or any serious recordmaker

wanted to grab on to a bit of that sound.

♪ And do I love you? ♪

♪ My, oh, my ♪

♪ Yeah, river deep, mountain high ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

A lot of people don't want to credit Phil

because he's too crazy, he had too much of a reputation.

But from my point of view,

I was working with Phil Spector, man.

I knew it was gonna be good.

[ Mid‐tempo introduction plays ]

♪ Up at 8:00, you can't be late ♪

♪ For Matthew and son, he won't wait ♪

[ Horns play ]

STEVENS: I was actually making very, very brassy,

very fully arranged pop records

back in the early '60s or late '60s.

[ Music continues ]

♪ Matthew and son, the work's never done ♪

♪ There's always something new ♪

I wanted to have a hit.

But most of the times, I was not in control of my songs.

♪ ...never, ever through ♪

And everybody was writing these notes for me,

and they were recording them.

I was always rather intimidated by the studio.

And there's all these, like, engineers, and they all knew

what the buttons meant and where the wires were going.

I couldn't understand what that was.

It was a spaceship.

[ Music continues ]

And I didn't quite recognize my music when it came out.

I just wanted to get shod of the record industry

being, you know, the boss of everybody

and telling everybody what to do.

And I wanted to get control of my sound.

[ Introduction to "Father and Son" plays ]

♪ It's not time to make a change ♪

♪ Just relax, take it easy ♪

♪ You're still young ♪

♪ That's your fault ♪

♪ There's so much you have to know ♪

♪ Find a girl, settle down ♪

♪ If you want, you can marry ♪

♪ Look at me ♪

♪ I am old, but I'm happy ♪

And so you'll hear from my first records

to my later records, there's a change.

And the big change was when I said, "You know what?

My little demos on my little Grundig tape recorder

sound better than what I finally ended up with.

All that brass and all those strings."

♪ Think of everything you've got ♪

♪ For you will still be here tomorrow ♪

♪ But your dreams may not ♪

♪ How can I try to explain? ♪

♪ 'Cause when I do, he turns away again ♪

♪ It's always been the same, same old story ♪

And so when we finally started making those records ‐‐

you know, "Tea for the Tillerman" ‐‐

it was stripping everything down.

And I looked for a new producer who could capture

that raw kind of song that was within me

in the purest way without interfering.

♪ All the times that I've cried ♪

♪ Keeping all the things I knew inside ♪

♪ It's hard ♪

♪ But it's harder to ignore it ♪

♪ If they were right, I'd agree ♪

♪ But it's them they know, not me ♪

♪ Now there's a way ♪

♪ And I know that I have to go away ♪

♪ I know I have to go ♪

[ Music continues ]

ASHER: The essence of the singer/songwriter movement,

one of its tenets was,

you were trying to really make sure the song told a story.

And that's why we tried to keep it simple,

was because the songs and the lyrics

were among the most important stars on the record.

[ "California" plays ]

Joni's always made her own records.

She has a very clear idea of what she wants.

Joni is an inventor.

You know, she invents guitar tunings

the way she invents songs.

[ Music continues ]

And I don't think producing her is realistically possible.

♪ Sitting in a park in Paris, France ♪

♪ Reading the news, and it's all bad ♪

♪ They won't give peace a chance ♪

♪ That was just a dream some of us had ♪

♪ Still a lot of lands to see ♪

♪ But I wouldn't want to stay here ♪

♪ It's too old and cold and settled in its ways here ♪

♪ Oh, but California ♪

♪ California, I'm coming home ♪

♪ I'm gonna see the folks I dig ♪

♪ I'll even kiss a sunset pig ♪

♪ California, when I get home ♪

MITCHELL: Most of the men at that time

were very resistant to taking instruction from a woman.

They were very pompous, overlording.

I thought, "If I have to subordinate myself

to this, you know, person, it'll kill my love of music."

So I had to put in my contract

that I never had to have a producer.

♪ And I might have stayed on with him there ♪

♪ But my heart cried out for you ♪

QUESTLOVE: Geniuses, they're stubborn

and they're hell‐bent on executing their vision

the way that they see fit.

♪ Oh, make me feel good, rock‐'n'‐roll band ♪

♪ I'm your biggest fan ♪

♪ California, I'm coming home ♪

QUESTLOVE: You know, talent is one thing,

but you have to have the drive and the will

to make people see your vision.

[ Introduction to "Everyday People" plays ]

♪ Sometimes I'm right, and I can be wrong ♪

♪ My own beliefs are in my song ♪

♪ The butcher, the banker, the drummer, and then ♪

♪ Makes no difference what group I'm in ♪

♪ I am everyday people ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

Just as the rise of female singer/songwriters in the 1970s

meant that people like Joni Mitchell

were able to produce their own vision of who they were

in the recording studio,

you also have the rise of African‐American artists

who start to empower themselves

and start to use the recording studio in a way

that's incredibly creative and very different than the past.

People like Stevie Wonder,

Marvin Gaye, and Curtis Mayfield,

and particularly, I think, Sly from Sly and the Family Stone.

These artists became the producers themselves.

♪ We got to live together ♪

♪ I am no better and neither are you ♪

♪ We are the same whatever we do ♪

He was taking a stand politically, musically.

He was his own boss.

You couldn't think of anyone

telling Sly what to do in the studio.

♪ I am everyday people ♪

I can talk about Sly and the Family Stone

for a very long time.

Okay. Play it.

[ Vocalizing ]

[ Mid‐tempo introduction plays ]

Sly Stone brought in a song craftsmanship to funk

that wasn't there.

He put his own spin on it,

and out came something really unique and bold and just fresh.

[ Music continues ]

QUESTLOVE: Because of the ongoing conflicts

between Sly and his Family Stone,

he wound up doing his fifth record,

"There's a Riot Goin' On," by himself.

[ "Family Affair" playing ]

♪ It's a family affair ♪

♪ It's a family affair ♪

WANG: Sly Stone was such a huge musical experimenter.

He would try playing with things

that most other people hadn't thought about.

QUESTLOVE: He did it at, like ‐‐ Now we'd call it a home studio.

That's Sly playing bass, Sly playing guitar,

Sly playing keyboards.

Of course he's programming ‐‐ drum programming on there,

which is like... early kind of hip‐hop.

Some uptight producer would go, "No, I don't want that.

That doesn't sound like real drums."

That was the point.

It didn't, but it was something funkier.

[ Music continues ]

QUESTLOVE: What he did in 1971 will be the gold standard

for how musicians will create their music 10 years later.

[ Run‐DMC's "Hard Times" plays ]

The significance of the black musician,

songwriter, singer, producer, whatever ‐‐

To me it all boils down

to communicating the lives we live.

♪ Unemployment at a record high ♪

♪ People coming, people going, people born to die ♪

♪ Don't ask me because I don't know why ♪

‐♪ But it's like that ♪ ‐♪ What? ♪

♪ And that's the way it is ♪

♪ Huh, huh, huh, huh ♪

BOYD: It's a generation of people

who don't have access to musical instruments...

Scratch it out. Scratch ‐‐ Scratch it ‐‐ Scratch it.

... who don't have musical training.

They're using music to create new music.

We took what was available and created hip‐hop.

♪ ... why you search ♪

♪ Take the train to the plane ♪

♪ Drive to school or the church ♪

‐♪ It's like that ♪ ‐♪ And that's the way it is ♪

KING: With hip‐hop, the role of the producer changes completely.

You have producers sampling and using drum machines.

HADLEY: The best producers, they have this ability

to create a signature tapestry

that makes all of these bits and pieces

actually sound like an original composition.

[ Siren wails ]

You are now about to witness the strength

of street knowledge.

[ Introduction to "Straight Outta Compton" plays ]

♪ Straight outta Compton ♪

♪ Crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube ♪

♪ From the gang called Niggaz Wit' Attitudes ♪

KING: In the early 1990s,

Dr. Dre basically put West Coast hip‐hop on the map.

He was notorious for having this sound

that was unlike anything else.

♪ But when I come back, boy ♪

♪ I'm coming straight outta Compton ♪

Gangsta rap, that music took on a life of its own,

and it gave the West Coast and L. A. scene its own voice.

[ "Express Yourself" plays ]

STEWART: I remember the shift

when NWA and Dre came into the scene.

Sonically, it was polished.

But at the same time,

it was like this super hard West Coast sound.

♪ I'm dropping flavor ♪

♪ My behavior is hereditary ♪

♪ But my technique is very necessary ♪

♪ Blame it on Ice Cube ♪

♪ Because he said it gets funky ♪

♪ When you got a subject and a predicate ♪

STEWART: And you felt Dre's presence

as one of the greatest hip‐hop producers of all time,

if not the greatest.

‐♪ Don't be another sequel ♪ ‐♪ Express yourself ♪

♪ Do it ♪

IOVINE: When we started Interscope,

I didn't know anything about running a business,

and I knew even less about hip‐hop.

So this fella John McClain, who was an A&R guy,

brought this tape in and said, "We have to sign these guys."

I said, "Who is he?" He goes, "It's Dr. Dre.

It's his solo record. He used to be in NWA."

I said, "Okay, I don't really know a lot about it,

but play it for me."

♪ One, two, three, and to the four ♪

♪ Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre is at the door ♪

♪ Ready to make an entrance, so back on up ♪

♪ 'Cause you know we're 'bout to rip shit up ♪

♪ Give me the microphone first so I can bust like a bubble ♪

♪ Compton and Long Beach together ♪

♪ Now you know you in trouble ♪

♪ Ain't nothing but a G thang, baby ♪

♪ Two loc'ed out niggas, so we're crazy ♪

IOVINE: And I didn't know a lot about it.

I didn't understand the music, but I understood the sound.

♪ Dre, creep to the mike like a phantom ♪

♪ Well, I'm peepin' and I'm creepin' and I'm creepin' ♪

IOVINE: So Dre comes in.

I said, "Dre, who recorded this record?

He said, "I did."

I said, "No, not who produced it.

Who engineered it? He said, "I did."

I said, "Wow. This guy's onto something."

♪ With a producer who can rap and control the maestro ♪

♪ At the same time with the dope rhyme that I kick ♪

♪ You know and I know, I flow some old funky shit ♪

DR. DRE: Everybody has to have their own sound.

That's what makes it different, you know?

And I'm a perfectionist.

'Cause no matter how hard you work in the studio,

no matter what you do,

you don't know if people are gonna dig it.

♪ It's like this ♪

♪ And who gives a fuck about those? ♪

It's very easy to make a hip‐hop record.

It's not easy to make a good hip‐hop record.

IOVINE: When Dre came in with "The Chronic,"

he was using live musicians and recording it very sparse.

RZA: He was finding samples that we all overlooked,

pulling from funk and G‐funk.

You know, you listen to the sample on "G Thang" ‐‐

♪ Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo ♪

♪ It's like this and like that and like this and, uh ♪

♪ It's like that and like this and like that and, uh ♪

He's hearing things

that the average ear will never encounter in a song.

And then when he hears it, he'll pull it out.

He will pull it out.

[ Music continues ]

QUESTLOVE: I'll admit something to you.

I was one of the initial naysayers

of Dr. Dre's "The Chronic."

It was like everything I didn't want hip‐hop to be.

It was clean, louder, bigger.

I wanted my hip‐hop dirty.

This DIY approach, this very low‐budget,

lo‐fi approach to making music ‐‐

That's what I felt hip‐hop should and always be.

♪ Creeping down the back street on D's ♪

It took me 10 years

to really understand where Dr. Dre was going.

And now that I make records,

now I understand why this album is so important.

RZA: What he did for hip‐hop and for sampling

is that he proved that you can make a record

of the highest quality as a hip‐hop producer.

♪ When they hear me beating up the street ♪

♪ "Is it Dre? Is it Dre?" ♪

♪ That's what they say ♪

ROSEN: People kind of scorned hip‐hop producers

for not being real musicians.

‐♪ With all the niggas sayin' ♪ ‐♪ Swing down... ♪

Today, playing around with sampling technology,

it's become completely accepted.

This is the way that most people make records.

RZA: The digital wave of music

gave us a whole orchestra of instrumentation

in front of our hands, you know what I mean?

That's one of the greatest things we could have.

If Mozart had this, imagine.

DR. LUKE: The ability to re‐record something 10 times,

comp it, the ability to have so many tracks

where you can sort of do crazy layers, you know,

more than Phil Spector did.

You can have 300 tracks on something now.

You can set up in your room

and just have a microphone and your laptop,

and you can make something that's formidable and dope

and that rocks.

Like, you can.

That's just where the technology is.

But all technology does is provide you with paints.

A producer is somebody who can take the color and make it.

You didn't have to have a drop.

I just felt like it was staying exciting, and then...

RUBIN: I think everyone benefits from having a producer

just because it really helps having sort of an impartial jury

to make sense of it all.

But there's no right or wrong way to do this.

It's like any way you find the inspiration works.

"Jam" means "record."

"Def" is short for "definitive."

Definitely the best records you could buy today.

♪ Brass monkey ♪

♪ That funky monkey ♪

HOROVITZ: When we first met Rick Rubin,

I didn't know anything about production.

I didn't think about production. I didn't know it even existed.

Rick definitely was into that.

Luckily, he was good at it. You know what I mean?

He could've sucked, and that would've been the end of it ‐‐

for all of us.

♪ Come on, y'all, it's time to get nice ♪

♪ Coolin' by the lockers, gettin' kind of funky ♪

KING: Rick Rubin started Def Jam,

the massive, multimillion‐dollar enterprise,

in his dorm room at NYU.

And he went on to produce Run‐DMC,

Beastie Boys, Metallica, and Slayer.

He's produced The Red Hot Chili Peppers,

The Dixie Chicks.

He's an incredibly diverse and wide‐ranging producer.

The reason that the artists might not all fit into one genre

is it's not really the way I listen to music.

I just like good music,

and I try not to categorize it too much.

KING: In the early 1990s,

Rick Rubin started a new record label, Def American,

and he was really interested in testing himself as a producer.

RUBIN: By that time, most of the artists I had worked with

were new and young artists.

And it felt like it would be a really interesting challenge

to find a great older artist who'd been through a lot

and maybe wasn't doing their best work at the time.

And the first person I thought of was Johnny Cash.

[ Down‐tempo music playing ]

He'd been dropped by two labels.

He had already had a comeback,

and that was probably 25 years earlier.

ROSEANNE CASH: He thought people didn't care

about his work anymore.

He didn't feel the support from the label.

He was floundering a bit.

STUART: Country music would have nothing to do with him.

In the '80s, when I was in his band,

we recorded album after album after album.

And nothing happened.

JOHNNY CASH: Somebody stole all the magic,

Like in the '70s, some of the '80s,

when the magic for the music was gone.

And I was just doing it because I do it.

I was just doing it 'cause that's what I do.

And I hate that.

[ Music continues ]

RUBIN: A friend of mine set up a meeting for us.

He was playing at a dinner theater in Orange County.

It didn't feel like a place that was appropriate

for someone of his importance to be playing.

It just was sad.

JOHNNY CASH: My contract was running out

with the other record company,

and Rick Rubin came down to see me.

And I liked the way he talked.

He talked like ‐‐ He reminded me of Sam Phillips.

And I said, "What would you do with me

that everybody else has tried to do, you know, and couldn't?"

And he said, "Well, what would you like to do?

RUBIN: We always started in my living room

just with a guitar and talking about songs.

♪ Back about 18 and 25 ♪

♪ I left Tennessee very much alive ♪

And I would have him sing me songs from his childhood.

♪ ...through the Arkansas mud ♪

He played me songs they would sing on the cotton fields

when he used to pick cotton.

♪ The Tennessee stud was long and lean ♪

♪ The color of the sun and his eyes were green ♪

He really gave me a tremendous education in this lost music

that I didn't know anything about.

And I loved it.

♪ Pretty little baby on the cabin floor ♪

♪ Little hoss colt playing 'round the door ♪

From the first time that we met, we recorded everything,

just had the machine going all the time.

It becomes second nature.

People forget they're recording and just sort of be themselves.

That's the goal ‐‐ to get to that point.

[ Music slows, ends ]

That was great.

The first album we made was mostly solo acoustic.

And then it came time to do the next one, and he had

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as the backing band.

[ Introduction to "I Never Picked Cotton" plays ]

♪ I never picked cotton ♪

PETTY: Rick's idea was to set John free

and let that artist live.

♪ And my daddy died young ♪

♪ Working in a coal mine ♪

John would start to sing,

and we'd get kind of a feel for how the arrangement might go,

and then, woof ‐‐

everybody would jump onto their respective instruments.

♪ And it was fast cars and whiskey ♪

♪ Long‐legged girls and fun ♪

I mean, it was raw, and at times it wasn't musical,

but it was so real and so heartfelt

that it almost brought me to tears.

But then Rick would really try to push Johnny

to do things that he would never think of doing.

RUBIN: I played Johnny Cash the Soundgarden song "Rusty Cage,"

which is a heavy‐metal song

with Chris Cornell singing in a very high‐pitched scream.

♪ I'm gonna break my rusty cage ♪

Johnny listened to it and just shook his head,

like, "I don't really know what you're thinking.

I can't imagine myself doing that."

And then I made an acoustic demo of it.

[ Mid‐tempo introduction plays ]

PETTY: And bit by bit,

Rick guided us through the arrangement,

and there it was, you know?

♪ You wired me awake ♪

♪ And hit me with a hand of broken nails ♪

Johnny was really happy, and he said, "I love this.

This is great."

He goes, "This is gonna piss off so many people."

♪ I'm gonna break ♪

♪ I'm gonna break my ♪

♪ Gonna break my rusty cage ♪

And run.

♪ It don't hurt anymore ♪

RUBIN: A lot of the job is that of being a therapist,

of being there and really hearing the artist

and hearing what their vision is

and really setting up a place where they feel they're safe

and can be vulnerable and show themselves completely.

♪ And at last I am free ♪

ROSEANNE CASH: The infusion he gave my dad

of the old confidence and passion,

it was so powerful.

Rick was like an angel that came in saying,

"Remember, this is who you are."

I mean, it was as simple as that.

Remember.

♪ And it's wonderful now ♪

♪ I don't hurt anymore ♪