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Post by soonerorlater on Dec 10, 2019 10:59:27 GMT
Here's a really interesting interview with Mack: Reinhold MackIt's largely about working with Freddie Mercury and Queen but there's an interesting snippet about ELO: As well as his work for Queen, Mack also produced some of the best-selling albums of the 20th Century with Electric Light Orchestra. “That was entirely different from my time with Queen,” says Mack. “With ELO founder Jeff Lynne, it was just work, work, work, work. All the time. From 11am to one in the morning. He had a very British personality, that thing where the person you think you know when you come in to work doesn’t even acknowledge you are here and was miserable. By midnight, after many pints of beer, he will be sitting on your lap and telling you how brilliant you are. The next day, same thing. Grumpy old man comes in and, after a day of work and pints, Jeff is on your lap again.”
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Post by tightrope on Dec 10, 2019 20:42:48 GMT
What a jackass.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2019 6:28:19 GMT
Indeed! Although, I imagine Jeff drinks a lot less these days, so I'm sure he's improved this side of his personality.
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Post by Timeblue on Dec 11, 2019 9:30:59 GMT
It's that self centred personality that's made him the great man and also the stubborn old goat too.....
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Post by elophile on Dec 11, 2019 14:07:01 GMT
By midnight, after many pints of beer, he will be sitting on your lap and telling you how brilliant you are. The next day, same thing. Grumpy old man comes in and, after a day of work and pints, Jeff is on your lap again.” I think it's kind of hilarious really!
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Post by coathanger on Dec 11, 2019 16:03:45 GMT
Why? Reinhold Mack's met him and worked with him and is giving his opinion based on experience. The vast majority of us haven't so aren't really in a position to confirm or deny his view. There are plenty of other people in the music industry who have worked also with Jeff Lynne and they'll all have differing views no doubt. Talented people are often a pain in the arse to work with/for. Goes with the territory a lot of the time
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2019 19:14:45 GMT
Here's a really interesting interview with Mack: Reinhold MackIt's largely about working with Freddie Mercury and Queen but there's an interesting snippet about ELO: As well as his work for Queen, Mack also produced some of the best-selling albums of the 20th Century with Electric Light Orchestra. “That was entirely different from my time with Queen,” says Mack. “With ELO founder Jeff Lynne, it was just work, work, work, work. All the time. From 11am to one in the morning. He had a very British personality, that thing where the person you think you know when you come in to work doesn’t even acknowledge you are here and was miserable. By midnight, after many pints of beer, he will be sitting on your lap and telling you how brilliant you are. The next day, same thing. Grumpy old man comes in and, after a day of work and pints, Jeff is on your lap again.” OMFG!!! Mack is Bluebird!!!
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Post by tightrope on Dec 11, 2019 21:42:02 GMT
Why? Reinhold Mack's met him and worked with him and is giving his opinion based on experience. The vast majority of us haven't so aren't really in a position to confirm or deny his view. There are plenty of other people in the music industry who have worked also with Jeff Lynne and they'll all have differing views no doubt. Talented people are often a pain in the arse to work with/for. Goes with the territory a lot of the time I took everything he said as being an embellishment. Produced ELO really? Jeff on his lap like a dog? Maybe he was just being flippant.
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Post by StrangeMagic on Dec 14, 2019 0:25:28 GMT
I read the same quote in an interview with Mack years ago. I don't know if the writer of this article found the quote in his research or if Mack repeated it in the present...
Anyway, I feel like it was an embellishment as well.
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iknowa
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Post by iknowa on Dec 14, 2019 8:46:40 GMT
Mack, through the eyes of German, describes Jeff as a typical Englishman. That reminds me of Inspector Morse or Lewis who is capable but sometimes confound his colleagues. But no wonder for me. It was written in the linernotes of my country in '70s that he is "paranoia". There were rarely seen his interviews, and I totally thought he is a grumpy genius that's why I adored him. I'm surprised at his friendliness these years.
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Post by ShardEnder on Dec 14, 2019 13:11:05 GMT
As the engineer involved with more classic period ELO sessions than anyone else, I've seen Mack suggest on quite a few previous occasions that he felt entitled to a co-producer credit, which is exactly what he got once his attention switched to working with Queen over the first half of the 1980s. Where he felt a genuine part of that group's extended family, I always get the impression that he thought Jeff in particular was quite cold, or at least that's before they'd all loosened up following a quick visit to one of the many local bierkellers...
If anything, I suspect Jeff is closer to someone who functions best in shorter bursts. From my conversations with Bill Bottrell, it seems as if Jeff could get quite a lot done in a short amount of time, as seen when he laid down the basic tracks for no less than five songs during the two-day "flying visit" to Wisseloord Studios in February 1982. On the other hand, when he did drag a session out, the result was that he'd often second guess his ideas and drive everyone around him mad by constantly redoing parts that nobody else had any issues with. This is a major reason why Secret Messages took almost a year to complete, and it also explains how Balance Of Power went from being mostly recorded in September '84 then extensively reworked over the next few months before missing a planned '85 release then finally surfacing in March the following year.
As for whether Mack deserves to be recognised as a co-producer, I'd argue that he contributed about as much to the overall creative process as Richard or Louis, yet they were clearly happy with how they were represented. Maybe this push-and-pull regarding official credits added to the tension that saw Jeff move away from recording at Musicland, or at least that was the case until late into the mixing process for Balance Of Power, when he consulted Mack once again because he didn't trust anyone else? (After the initial six-week period of recordings done at Compass Point in Nassau, Bill had to leave due to obligations elsewhere, so it wasn't as if he was technically out of the loop, but rather unavailable to help further. Besides, Jeff and Bill would later reunite on Full Moon Fever, not to mention the first Traveling Wilburys album, plus I've been told that they remained good drinking buddies long after Secret Messages. Bill even recalled being one of the earliest outsiders to hear the songs Jeff had produced for the Electric Dreams soundtrack, which were played to him in a car.)
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Post by pelo on Dec 14, 2019 19:32:51 GMT
Don't forget that Jeff Lynne is a bit of a shy guy. It happens quite often that people mistake social shyness for arrogance. Furthermore, in a recent Dutch interview, Jeff Lynne talks about the difficulty in overcoming his insecurity as a musician, something he puts down to his childhood days when his father would hardly ever say something positive about Jeff's songs. Talking about live concerts Jeff goes on to say that he kept having a recurring nightmare even after Wembley 2017: entering the stage, looking around and seeing that there's nobody there ...
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Post by BIuebird on Dec 15, 2019 16:01:11 GMT
Furthermore, in a recent Dutch interview, Jeff Lynne talks about the difficulty in overcoming his insecurity as a musician, something he puts down to his childhood days when his father would hardly ever say something positive about Jeff's songs. Talking about live concerts Jeff goes on to say that he kept having a recurring nightmare even after Wembley 2017: entering the stage, looking around and seeing that there's nobody there ... Okay, this just broke my heart a little bit... Social anxiety, and anxiety/stress in general, manifests differently from person to person as well. While some people (like me) get shaky and quiet, other people get irritable. That's not necessarily what was going on in this situation, but it could be a factor worth noting.
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Post by StrangeMagic on Dec 20, 2019 4:59:06 GMT
Don't forget that Jeff Lynne is a bit of a shy guy. It happens quite often that people mistake social shyness for arrogance. Furthermore, in a recent Dutch interview, Jeff Lynne talks about the difficulty in overcoming his insecurity as a musician, something he puts down to his childhood days when his father would hardly ever say something positive about Jeff's songs. Talking about live concerts Jeff goes on to say that he kept having a recurring nightmare even after Wembley 2017: entering the stage, looking around and seeing that there's nobody there ... I'm not saying that Jeff has social anxiety disorder. I'm not in a position to diagnose him despite my credentials. A formal evaluation would be required, and I'd decline if asked ... maybe. I will say that at least half of the patients I treated for social anxiety disorder during my career used alcohol to relax in social situations where they felt anxious.
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