Tony Berg talks Don't Tell a Soul
Sept 30, 2017 2:30:29 GMT -5
The Muggler, bside, and 1 more like this
Post by con on Sept 30, 2017 2:30:29 GMT -5
From the latest issue of Tape Op:
I just watched Color Me Obsessed: A Film About The Replacements the other day. You started Don't Tell a Soul, but it went south?
It went farther than south, it went subterranean. It was a complicated thing. I guess they had been trying to find a producer for this new collection of songs that Paul [Westerberg] had written, and it hadn't gone well. I got a call from Michael Hill at Warner Bros asking me if I would talk to Westerberg. We communicated, and he said, "Why don't you send me a list of songs you think were great that were unheralded." Which I thought was a very Westerberg idea. So I wrote a list of 20 and said, "Look, I think these are songs that were significant. I hope you like it. If you don't you can go fuck yourself." That's what I wrote, thinking that was the right way to communicate with Paul.
I got a call the next day, "Come to New York and meet the band." I flew to New York, and I met in their manager's office. We had a conversation that was hysterical. At one point, Paul pulled my boot off my foot, poured a beer in it, lifted it up in the air, said, "You're our man," and drank the beer from my shoe! So I thought, "Okay, this will be fun." Then we began pre-production at Bearsville Studios. They were in a big hurry to make this record., and I was in the middle of making a Charlie Sexton album with Bob Clearmountain [Tape Op #84] at Bearsville. Seven days opened up in the middle of Charlie's record, and they immediately flew out. We did a crash course in pre-production. Paul let me in, which I imagine he hadn't done before. He let me re-harmonize, suggest counterpoint, and talk to him about lyrics. I could see that band wasn't totally comfortable with that. I think I was a little too forceful.
In any event, we started the record, and, without being too specific, the band was a bit of a mess. Destroyed the studio. Destroyed the rented instruments they had. Destroyed the housing that they were living in at Bearsville. But we got a lot down, some of which was great and some of which was not. Then we recorded a song for a Disney compilation record that was being put together, and we did "Cruella De Vil." [from One Hundred and One Dalmations]. Paul chose to change some of the lyrics, including a line that I'll never forget, which was, "And I'll fuck you in the face, Cruella De Vil."
Clearly that was not going to be on any Disney record, so a few weeks later I found myself in Minnesota to re-record the song at Paisley Park Studios. Beforehand we met at a bar, which was their hangout. It was very tense. Finally I turned to Tommy [Stinson], whom I've since come to really love. I said to him, "Are you deliberately sabotaging this record?" He looked at me, and he said, "Yes. You're too young to produce this record." I got up, left, and I flew home.
Eight months later my phone rang, and it was Paul. He said, "I was driving in my car with my wife today, and a song came on the radio. I turned to my wife and I said, 'That is what The Replacements' record is supposed to sound like.' The DJ came on afterward and said, 'That's a new song by the debut artist Michael Penn.'" Paul said, "Oops!" It was a rough experience, but I really appreciated that phone call. He's a serious songwriter, and a serious contributor. It meant a lot to me.
How much of that album, and how much of your work, stayed on that? Matt Wallace ended up picking it up after that.
He started from scratch, but all the arrangements are the arrangements that we'd come up with at Bearsville. That's what we did. But you know what, if they felt I wasn't the right guy at the right time, then they were right. That album did very well for them. They subsequently released a couple songs we did on a compilation record [All for Nothing/Nothing for All], including what I thought was the best song from that whole batch, "Portland," that is quite brilliant.
I just watched Color Me Obsessed: A Film About The Replacements the other day. You started Don't Tell a Soul, but it went south?
It went farther than south, it went subterranean. It was a complicated thing. I guess they had been trying to find a producer for this new collection of songs that Paul [Westerberg] had written, and it hadn't gone well. I got a call from Michael Hill at Warner Bros asking me if I would talk to Westerberg. We communicated, and he said, "Why don't you send me a list of songs you think were great that were unheralded." Which I thought was a very Westerberg idea. So I wrote a list of 20 and said, "Look, I think these are songs that were significant. I hope you like it. If you don't you can go fuck yourself." That's what I wrote, thinking that was the right way to communicate with Paul.
I got a call the next day, "Come to New York and meet the band." I flew to New York, and I met in their manager's office. We had a conversation that was hysterical. At one point, Paul pulled my boot off my foot, poured a beer in it, lifted it up in the air, said, "You're our man," and drank the beer from my shoe! So I thought, "Okay, this will be fun." Then we began pre-production at Bearsville Studios. They were in a big hurry to make this record., and I was in the middle of making a Charlie Sexton album with Bob Clearmountain [Tape Op #84] at Bearsville. Seven days opened up in the middle of Charlie's record, and they immediately flew out. We did a crash course in pre-production. Paul let me in, which I imagine he hadn't done before. He let me re-harmonize, suggest counterpoint, and talk to him about lyrics. I could see that band wasn't totally comfortable with that. I think I was a little too forceful.
In any event, we started the record, and, without being too specific, the band was a bit of a mess. Destroyed the studio. Destroyed the rented instruments they had. Destroyed the housing that they were living in at Bearsville. But we got a lot down, some of which was great and some of which was not. Then we recorded a song for a Disney compilation record that was being put together, and we did "Cruella De Vil." [from One Hundred and One Dalmations]. Paul chose to change some of the lyrics, including a line that I'll never forget, which was, "And I'll fuck you in the face, Cruella De Vil."
Clearly that was not going to be on any Disney record, so a few weeks later I found myself in Minnesota to re-record the song at Paisley Park Studios. Beforehand we met at a bar, which was their hangout. It was very tense. Finally I turned to Tommy [Stinson], whom I've since come to really love. I said to him, "Are you deliberately sabotaging this record?" He looked at me, and he said, "Yes. You're too young to produce this record." I got up, left, and I flew home.
Eight months later my phone rang, and it was Paul. He said, "I was driving in my car with my wife today, and a song came on the radio. I turned to my wife and I said, 'That is what The Replacements' record is supposed to sound like.' The DJ came on afterward and said, 'That's a new song by the debut artist Michael Penn.'" Paul said, "Oops!" It was a rough experience, but I really appreciated that phone call. He's a serious songwriter, and a serious contributor. It meant a lot to me.
How much of that album, and how much of your work, stayed on that? Matt Wallace ended up picking it up after that.
He started from scratch, but all the arrangements are the arrangements that we'd come up with at Bearsville. That's what we did. But you know what, if they felt I wasn't the right guy at the right time, then they were right. That album did very well for them. They subsequently released a couple songs we did on a compilation record [All for Nothing/Nothing for All], including what I thought was the best song from that whole batch, "Portland," that is quite brilliant.
