Rick Rubin: Producer of the Year

If you've been reading MKinMotion.com for a while now, you will know that I have a fascination with the role a record producer plays in the creation of music. I've written posts about T-Bone Burnett, Daniel Lanois, George Martin, and the title producer Rick Rubin. While Rubin won the Grammy for Producer of the Year, he also produced the Dixie Chicks album that won in several categories. He produced Stadium Arcadium, Johnny Cash's American V: A Thousand Highways, Neil Diamond's 12 Songs and a track on Justin Timberlake's album. Shakira performed at the Grammy's too , and her album has production credits from Rick Rubin.
The track record speaks for itself with such albums as Tom Petty's Wildflowers, The Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik, LL Cool J's Radio, The Beastie Boys' License to Ill, and Run DMC's Raising Hell. Along with this year's Grammy attention, Rubin is a pretty solid lock to produce the next U2 album. 2007 will also see a new Rubin produced Metallica album and the final Johnny Cash set of American recordings.
His ability to take artists as diverse as Justin Timberlake, The Dixie Chicks and Red Hot Chili Peppers and improve the sound of the elements of their music has been well documented, but is not more recognized by the industry than ever.

Obligatory Super Bowl Recap Post

As the title suggests, I feel a little obligated to reference the Super Bowl. After all, it's the self described greatest event in American culture. I'm very happy with the result. The conditions of the game favored offense and Indianapolis out executed the Bears offense easily. Why do poor conditions give an advantage to the offense you might ask? When the ground is slick and vision is impaired, the advantage goes to the team that knows where to go and what the play calls for. The defense is forced to chase and react. When the opening kick off was returned for a touchdown, I thought out loud, this is just like Ohio State. The results were similar. It was the first time in 41 games that it has rained on the Super Bowl. I admire Peyton Manning, I have since his rookie year, and I'm happy for him to get that monkey off his back. While his advertising mojo will likely only increase, don't expect the haters to stop hating. Speaking of advertising, I'm not going to play armchair creative director and critique the ads, as I have no professional advertising experience...which apparently doesn't keep the rest of the non-professional advertising world from sharing their non-professional opinions. If you want perspective from professionals, I suggest catching up with American Copywriter and their post Super Bowl podcast.
Prince's halftime show was a highlight for me. And while my dream of a 15 minute rendition of Purple Rain would have been even more amazing than what we got, I like that he did his thing and also mixed in the covers of "...Watchtower" and "Best of You." And I did get the poetic "Purple Rain" to close out the set.

I've always had tremendous respect for Prince as a songwriter, guitarist and performer. He showcased his guitar playing last night and it led me to a great idea. I think Rick Rubin ought to contact Prince and make a rock album. Think Blood Sugar Sex Magik with Prince's songwriting and guitar...tell me I'm wrong, but Prince would be huge again if he released a rock album, and Rick Rubin is the guy to strip it down and yet keep it true to Prince. I know, I'm pretty brilliant.