Album: Radio Ethiopia
Year: 1976
Horses, of course, was produced by Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale, who found the exact balance between highlighting what Patti Smith was singing and the backing band coalescing around her. Radio Ethiopia was produced by Jack Douglas, who had just produced Aerosmith’s Rocks and was just about to produce Cheap Trick’s debut.
Now, of course, I love both Cheap Trick and Aerosmith — Rocks is one of my all-time favorite albums — Douglas wasn’t the right producer for the Patti Smith Group (as they were now called), and critics at the time slagged Radio Ethiopia for trying to hard to be commercial (which I don’t give a shit about), and how he overwhelmed Patti’s vocals in the mix (which I do).
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1433: Patti Smith Group – “Pumping (My Heart)”