Rest in peace | Page 13 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Article from scvnews.com (a Santa Clarita, CA TV station). Much more at the link:

Longtime Friendly Valley resident John Palladino, a pioneering Hollywood sound engineer turned Capitol Records producer/artists & repertoire exec whose sonic fingerprints are on millions of records released worldwide, died at home Dec. 20, surrounded by members of his immediate and extended family. He was 94.

[…]

Most notable are classic recordings by jazz legends such as Kid Ory, Nat “King” Cole, Frank Sinatra and Stan Kenton to gold and platinum hits by rock superstars including the Steve Miller Band, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Band, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney , The Beatles and more.

Along the way, Palladino worked with recording technology from the ancient wax discs and direct-to-disc mono acetates of the 1930s-‘40s to the magnetic tape of the late ‘40s and stereo multi-tracking of the late ‘50s-late ‘70s, all the way to the bleeding-edge early digital technology of the late ‘70s-early ‘80s.

In particular, continuing to experiment at Capitol as he had at LACC, Palladino developed methods of multi-miking and close-miking that brought the usually hard-to-hear rhythm section right into the bottom of the mix, where it belonged. He filled out the sound, and made it round.

[…]

They Called Him ‘Mr. Snips’

In addition to his sound production expertise, Palladino earned a rep as an ace tape editor, shortening album tracks for what would become hit singles, like Paul McCartney ’s gold chart-toppers “Band On The Run ” (1974) and “Silly Love Songs” (1976), and Little River Band’s “It’s A Long Way There” (Top 30, 1976) and removing profanity for AM radio play, as in editing the second half of the word “bulls**t” from the single version of Pink Floyd’s “Money” (No. 13, 1973).

Palladino was so good that his single edit of “Band On The Run ” hit No. 1 before anyone really realized it was shorter. He picked the best parts. McCartney was not asked for permission ahead of time, which was a huge gamble by label brass. But it was no big deal to Mr. Snips.

“I was up in San Francisco, producing Joy of Cooking,” Palladino said in a series of summer 2010 interviews with this reporter. “[Capitol] sent [the album track] up to me, I made the edit, and sent it back.” And continued producing his band.

At some point after “Band On The Run ” topped the charts, Palladino and McCartney met at a label event, and had a nice chat. “But he never said anything about [the sneaky edit],” Palladino said.

He also edited tracks on Capitol’s U.S. version of “Beatles Rarities” (No. 21, gold, 1980) and “The Beatles’ Movie Medley” from Capitol’s “Reel Music” album (No. 19, gold, 1982), as well as “The Beach Boys Medley” (No. 12 single, 1981).

parlance

Grr…I saw a CBC news brief on the park closing just the other night, and was OUTRAGED that the report mentioned baseball games of yore and the ’89 earthquake, yet NOT A WORD about the park’s TRUE significance!

…Oh, and I suppose it’s been replaced by some faceless corporate place with a faceless monolithic corporate name like “Citibank Centre” or “Wal-Mart Stadium” instead of something timeless and evocative. Modern life sucks!

Joe B. Mauldin, bass player for Buddy Holly and The Crickets, has passed.  R.I.P.

I just read that Gary Owens, announcer for “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” and the voice of Space Ghost, passed away. He was also the narrator of “The Perils of Penelope Pitstop,” one of my favorite childhood cartoons. What a fantastic voice. RIP.

parlance

RIP Lesley – we’ll all cry if we want to