Ask Richard!!!

Gray · Post by **Gray** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:48 am

Hi Richard

Please can you:

i) Point me in the direction of a John Burgess Production.
ii) Help with info on mixing an orchestral recording.

Thanks

Rmoore · Post by **Rmoore** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:06 am

Over the last few months I have reviewed every album Matt made (What happens to these reviews is up in the air at present! - and John if your reading this i'll get those albums back to you shortly!) but through that process and listening to them in Chronological order you can tell how the quality of Matt's albums drops when JB takes over.

John Burgess produced everything by Matt after 1972 and the odd thing prior to that.

Not all of his productions were sloppy but mistakes that George Martin would catch slipped through the net.

The Other Side of the Stars and The Long and Winding Road albums are examples of this and don't get me started on the "If I Never Sing Another Song" album. He must have known the arrangements would not stand the test of time! Some of the material he chose for Matt was not exactly top quality either

To Matt's credit he never gave a song less than 100%

However to give JB credit he did produce two of Matt's greatest recordings

"We're Gonna Change The World" and "If I Never Sing Another Song"

The orchestral question will take a darn sight longer for me to write so bear with me and i'll post something later.

Richard

john · Post by **john** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:43 pm

No hurry for the records Richard.

Marian · Post by **Marian** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:49 pm

Richard, I believe our new member Sandra, sent you some reel to reel tapes she found in her attic recently.
Are you allowed to tell us, have you found anything that might be of interest?
Marian

Rmoore · Post by **Rmoore** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:47 pm

Nothing gets past you does it Marian! (and hello Sandra if your reading this!)

I am presently in the midst of a fairly hefty project so haven't given an awful lot of time to the tapes as yet.

They date from around 1967 through to 1976 ish

There is a mixture of TV & radio recordings but I haven't looked any further than that yet.

Quality wise the TV material is quite rough as it's recorded via a microphone from a TV Speaker - Sometimes this can be clean up quite well but we'll have to wait and see. The radio material (Mostly interviews) is better though. The biggest obsticle is getting the tapes to play properly. The 1970's tapes suffer from what is called Sticky Tape syndrome.

To put it simply in the 1970's tape manufacturers started using a different lubricant in there tape stock. This was fine for a while until they noticed that over a period of time the oxide on the tape would start to flake off once it came into contact with any moisture. This has started to affect these tapes so there are a little more tricky to copy - but not impossible.

I'm not sure there is anything spectacular that the estate hasn't got already but there might be significant upgrades to some of the radio interviews.

Watch this space.

In the mean time if anybody else out there happens to have something hidden away do please let us know - be it audio, video or still photograph. we should be able to say pretty quickly if it is rare or not.

Richard

Marian · Post by **Marian** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 4:00 pm

Thank you Richard. It will be interesting to hear how you get on with this project as it progresses.
I originally spotted a message from Sandra mentioning the tapes on the 'other' Matt Monro website, so I have known about the tapes from the beginning, and I guided her here of course.

Marian

keithgood838 · Post by **keithgood838** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 4:12 pm

Hi Richard
Somewhere among my musical possessions
I have a cassette recording I made of a BBC
radio memorial tribute to Matt. However, I doubt
whether it has any rarity value.
I love reading the technical wizardry that informs
your posts although, perhaps bizarrely, I confess
that it sails uncomprehendedly over my head.
Keith

Gray · Post by **Gray** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 9:38 pm

Richard

Many thanks for taking the time to write.
Interesting how you mention that Matt's material was chosen for him.
Can you offer an example of Mr Burgess' sloppy work please!?
What exactly are you referring to?

Gray · Post by **Gray** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 9:42 pm

One more thing to point out, Richard that I find fascinating, I always thought of Matt's 1970's albums as being 'a child of the time' as regards their sound.

You seem to be alluding that this may be more down to the individual producing the lp - or is it a bit of both?

Rmoore · Post by **Rmoore** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 10:40 pm

Yes most definitely the producer is to blame for those "Child of our Time" sounding albums. If I Never Sing being the worst in those terms

The original title of the record producer was Artist and Repertoire Manager, then Recording Manager.

Producers are in charge not only of the repertoire but booking studios, musicians, arrangers etc. Then at the session they were in charge of quality control.

Different producers have different levels of choosing material some allow lots more input from the artists, but quite simply there just isn't time for a singer to go looking for songs whilst on the road.

Matt of course would have suggested a lot of material but George Martin and John Burgess would have brought a large amount of material into the pot too.

Michele may know more about just how much this affected Matt, but I can't see songs like Ready Steady Go and Sunday Kind Of Woman being high on his list of preferences and it's telling that these songs didn't make it into his live act (as far as i'm aware).

As for sloppy productions there are minor vocal imperfections on Other Side of the Stars and Long and Winding Road that should not have slipped through the net and I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore has a glaringly trumpet mistake and Matt's vocal is drenched in reverb!

I haven't forgotten about the orchestral question by the way, I am thinking on - I don't want to sound too complicated!

paul jh · Post by **paul jh** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 12:08 am

I love most of the songs on the "Child of our Time" albums. But the 1970s were my decade, whereas you were quite young boys, Richard and Gray.

My point is that the 70s are in my blood and perhaps I have a greater appreciation of the arrangements.

And it's not appropriate to compare them to the 1960s recordings, which were a different period completely. All the good singers recorded these kind of songs in the 1970s with that type of arrangement. Yet Matt brings something special to his vocals in that period, and the arrangements fit perfectly with the 1970s and still sound good to me.

I would give the following songs a rating of 10, meaning absolutely perfect in every respect:

from The Other Side of the Stars (with a fab cover):
For All We Know (in my top 10)
Let Me Sing and I'm Happy (likely in my top 20)
Be My Love
Chattanooga Choo Choo
I Love You Because
You're Sensational (almost in my top 10, just beautiful)
I admit that I don't care for Over The Rainbow (no opening verse, the best part of that song) and What A Wonderful World, but that's probably because I'm sick of the Louis Armstrong version.

from The Long and Winding Road (another fab cover):
Did It Happen (must be one of Mickie's favourites because it made the sensational Through The Years compilation)
I Close My Eyes and Count To Ten
The Long and Winding Road

from If I Never Sing Another Song:
If I Never Sing Another Love Song
When I Child Is Born (yes, I love the arrangement)
Mary's Boy Child (again, a great arrangement)

Richard: Back to For All We Know, are you telling us that Matt Monro was the one who came up with the idea to improvise the first word ("For") and not still with the original melody. This is just brilliant and it excites me every time I hear it.

Gray · Post by **Gray** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 7:51 am

Richard

Wonderful answers, honest and direct.
Thanks ever so much for replying, I am learning a lot about the 'background' of a recording which is a black hole for me.

Jeff, thanks very much for your posting too.
Really, really interesting too.

Rmoore · Post by **Rmoore** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 4:35 pm

I can't really be specific about what was and what wasn't Matt's idea. Only those who worked on the original sessions will know this, I can only speak in general terms

As I say, most of the vocal arrangements would be down to Matt, but sometimes arrangers would specify exactly what they wanted - in this case only Colin Keys would be able to answer that question.

Don't get me wrong there are still some great recordings on the 70's albums, but they just don't work as a whole for me and there is some weaker material - particularly on the Long and Winding Road.

The arrangements are not open to question here (On Stars and Winding road at least) - but the production techniques.

But it's all a mater of taste - I for one hate all the disco like arrangements on Another Song and think the Christmas Songs disco/reggae are awful - (Matt Vocals on all of these however are perfect)

I personally think that Matt's Parlophone and Capitol albums have aged far better - in the same way classic Sinatra and Cole etc still sound fresh today.

paul jh · Post by **paul jh** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 4:58 pm

I played I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore this morning to hear the trumpet mistake. I think it occurs in the interlude at 1:35. It's pretty bad, and the producer and recording engineer should have fixed that. I guess it may not be that noticeable as the interlude is so garden variety that by that point one's attention is far removed from the recording. And the mix seems all wrong when Matt returns. The band is much too loud.

paul jh · Post by **paul jh** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 5:38 pm

Richard: Have you had any time or success in doing a new mix of Singin' In The Rain -- to remove the percussion and brass from the swing section? I want to hear this song as a down tempo ballad. Perhaps your buddies at the BBC could write a new string arrangement for the BBC Concert Orchestra to record under the MM vocal --- when the swing section starts.

I know you don't have any time to do this, but I thought I'd ask again.

It would be nice to have some those 1970s arrangements redone to make them more up-to-date.