>>PREVIEW
KEN SCOTT
Sunday, June 17
Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall (Rozsa Centre, U of C)
In the chronicles of sound, Ken Scott can and should be considered a legend. Starting at the ripe old age of 16, he first worked in the tape library at Abbey Road studios before cutting his teeth as an engineer for such acts as Procul Harum, Pink Floyd and, well, The Beatles. Soon enough, Scott was bumped up to the position of producer, and after making a move to London’s illustrious Trident studios, began working with a list of artists that includes Elton John, George Harrison and Harry Nilsson. In 1979, he was even awarded a Clio award for his work on the commercial jingle "I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke." Can’t beat the real thing.But nonetheless, it is Scott’s work with another British musician that he is perhaps best known for. As the producer of Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars and Aladdin Sane, he helped shape the sound of what many consider to be David Bowie’s best string of albums. Scott produced Pin-Ups as well, but outside of its famous sleeve, that’s an album most Bowie fans would be better off forgetting about.On June 17, the soft-spoken soundman will be swinging by the University of Calgary’s Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall with his audio-visual presentation "Me & Mr. Jones." The event will include a brief look into his early career, before going into depth on Scott’s time with David Jones (a.k.a. David Bowie) and his hand in the making of a superstar. In a friendly conversation over the phone, Scott explained his efforts making Ziggy a reality. "For me it’s always a team effort and I was a part of that team," he says. "I just feel in that respect, I played an essential part – allowing Bowie the freedom to envision the way he wanted it to turn out, not giving him any restrictions, and being able to put it all together. That was his thing back then. He became whatever he was singing about."I have been told by people that it changed their way of listening, but I just did it the way I wanted at that point, and if it was different from everyone else I had no idea. We were all putting ideas into the melting pot."Scott is quick to sing the praises of Bowie, but also of the late Mick Ronson, the lead guitarist of The Spiders who cranked up songs like "Suffragette City" and "Moonage Daydream" with his flamboyant freak-outs. However, Ronson is also responsible for the arrangement of Hunky Dory's classic "Changes," as well as many other tracks, and worked with Bowie as the co-producer of Lou Reed's Transformer."Mick was an amazing guitarist, an amazing arranger and a really great guy. I don’t feel that he got enough credit for what he did back then. David was wonderful, and is so talented. Vocals were generally one take, and he knew how to put the songs across exactly how he wanted it put across. There were occasions when he’d do a take and I would hear things wrong with it, or Ronno would hear things wrong with it. But when we’d play it back it made more sense, it just wasn’t what we expected. David knew what he was doing."
Scott is coming to Calgary thanks to the interests of the Audities Foundation, a local non-profit organization working to maintain musical instruments and associated documentation. This will be only the second time he has presented "Me & Mr. Jones," following an appearance in Los Angeles in January. President and founder David Kean explains further. "We have a similar mission, basically trying to preserve the history of popular culture as it applies to music. It’s rather embarrassing how many of the songs on my iPod were produced by Ken Scott. But anytime we get a chance to do something that advances the Audities mission, furthering information through a talk or a lecture, we go for it.
"On the surface, the presentation is a very interesting and well informed glimpse into the other guy in the pop-music and rock ’n’ roll recording process," Kean continues. "You have an artist and you have a label, but who translates the artist’s ideas and music to the medium? That’s Ken’s job. Producers and engineers are kind of the unsung heroes of the music business. They have a very unique and precious insight into that process. It’s not something you get to hear about very often." Besides his stories, one of the most illuminating sections of Scott’s presentation will surely be the multi-tracks – George Harrison and Bowie songs broken down so that each individual instrument can be heard, and then explained in detail how they reached their final form."I felt that just myself onstage would be boring, so I put together this audio-visual thing to hopefully make it more interesting," says Scott. "I want to put across some stories of what it used to be like, and also instill in some of the modern musicians and producers that come some of the things that made it so great back then and are lacking today." Scott also shares his feelings on modern production and the current state of music. FYI, he now likes The Scissor Sisters and The Killers."There are some really good productions coming out, but sound I think sucks," he says. "There are just too many choices. A lot of acts these days, because they’ve got so many tracks with Pro-Tools recording software and that kind of thing, will just throw on a recording anyway, even if they’re not happy with it, and just ‘fix it’ later."
Scott is still passionate about sound and sharing his stories and experiences with the audio community. But will he ever produce or engineer an artist or album again? "I’ve always worked on gut reactions," Scott says. "So if there’s something I hear that I like, I will happily get involved." |
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