I listened to [Townshend's->http://www.petetownshend-whohe.blogspot.com/] Empty Glass for the first time in about 15 years tonight. I'd picked up the remastered CD something like a year ago but had never gotten to it. The record is good, better than I remembered it and probably better than I currently understand. But the thing that struck me immediately was the organization of the mixes. The first track "Rough Boys" blows right out of the old grammophone, and I was trying to put my finger on exactly what that sonic environment reminded me of. Then it occurred to me: Libertines! I'm talking mostly about the way the mixes are organized, but also about the way the aggressive, neurotic vibe of the artist is translated in a hi-fi yet ragged way. The way the vocal is presented, clear but with lots of plate verb, the band stabbing out behind fairly aggressive master compression. 

Now, I've gone on record in the past about my love of those two Libertines albums and the attendant singles. And I've maintained that a lot of the resonance of those records comes from the way the production/engineering team of Mick Jones and Bill Price caught that fantastically flawed band in mid-flight. The Libertines expressed a scrappy, ramshackle rock and roll genius that to me as a Minneapolitan was the closest thing to a British Replacements we're likely to ever see. Jones and Price, coming from two different previous generations of British rock, helped the Libertines step right into the line of Great British Bands. I also like the Babyshambles record by the way, but that's another entry in the blog.

 I suppose one of the odd consequences of surviving the rock life for a period of time is having a modern band's work remind you of the things you loved about one of your teenage influneces. In this case it also illustrates that the work of an engineer can cut through decades and be as exciting as ever.

Bill Price is one of the true unsung heroes of recording. He worked on so many landmark records, best known to many people for the classic Clash and Pretenders recordings he worked on. To me the Sex Pistols album that Price did with Chris Thomas is alone justification for sainthood. But the man has been active since the mid-60's when he was an engineer at Decca studios in Hempstead (NW London), recording the Tom Jones and Englebert Humperdinck hits my mom was humming while she changed my diapers. He was also the chief engineer/manager at Wessex studio in London, incubator of future mega-engineers like Mike Shipley and Mark Freegard. He's also worked on records by Elton John, Guns and Roses, and other people that I can't be bothered about. But the bottom line is, the man does great stuff and I identified his sound completely out of context from a record he did in 1979.

Cheers to ya, Bill Price! Looking forward to what you have coming up next.