Jimmy Miller
Searching for the Groove
by J.P. Gelinas
(December 2007)
"One thing that producers and engineers tend to have in common is their
undeniable love of music, and it is the highs they experience in the
recording studio--those exhilarating moments when the blending of
artistic effort, musical material, and technical input produce great
results." --Richard Buskin, from the introduction to Inside Tracks (Avon Books 1999)
Who was Jimmy Miller? Even if you don't recognize Jimmy Miller's name,
chances are that you've heard his work as a producer on many classic
rock tracks over the years. His studio production on such classic rock
albums as Mr. Fantasy, Let It Bleed, Blind Faith and Exile on Main Street
illustrates that he was one of a handful of individuals, including Phil
Spector and George Martin, who defined the sound of sixties and
seventies rock & roll.
Miller was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1942, and his early roots were
in show business. His father, Bill, was an entertainment director in
Las Vegas and was responsible for booking Elvis Presley's memorable
return to live performances at the International Hotel in 1969. Miller's
earliest musical experience consisted of performing with local bands as
a drummer. In an interview with Richard Buskin, Miller described his
developing musical career: "Around '63, '64, I went on the road as a
singer and got a recording contract with Columbia, and when I went into
the studio I realized that that was what interested me most. So, I soon
started writing songs with a young arranger friend of mine and cutting
demos of other artists performing our material."
In the early sixties, it was standard practice for fledgling songwriters
and producers, such as Miller, to create their recordings independently
and then attempt to lease the songs to a major label for distribution.
One such song Miller produced, "Incense" by the Angelos, came to the
attention of British record label impresario Chris Blackwell, who was in
the States looking for suitable material to release in England.
Blackwell, impressed with Miller's production work, released the song to
great success in the UK in 1965. Shortly thereafter, Blackwell, who was
having difficulty establishing the Spencer Davis Group (which featured
the young Steve Winwood) in the United States, hired Miller to work with
the band.
When Jimmy Miller arrived in England, his first task was to remix the
Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin." The song, now a rock classic,
had been recorded and released in the UK, but Blackwell felt it needed
something more to have a chance at making the charts in the States.
Listening to the song today, one hears the magic of Jimmy Miller's
production technique: a driving bass line reinforced with the slap of a
drum hit, cascading percussion throughout the track, and a beefed-up
chorus of voices (some provided by members of Winwood's next band,
Traffic). The song was a big hit in America, and the band quickly
followed up this success with "I'm a Man," which echoes a lot of the
production elements in "Gimme Some Lovin." It's interesting to note that
Miller's friendship with Steve Winwood had developed to the point that
Miller was credited as a co-writer of "I'm a Man." This sort of
involvement would become commonplace throughout Miller's career--he
often participated in the recording studio not only as a producer but
also as a musician. After "I'm a Man," Winwood left the Spencer Davis
Group to form Traffic and asked Miller to come on board as the producer
of their first album, Mr. Fantasy.
It's important to understand the musical climate that existed in the
fall of 1967, when the album was recorded. The record's ambiance is one
of mystical sweetness and druggy references that reflect the halcyon
days of the "Summer of Love," which had just ended. Songs like "Dear
Mr. Fantasy," "Heaven Is in Your Mind," "Paper Sun," "Smiling Phases,"
and "Coloured Rain" captured the psychedelic fever of the day. Miller
performed as a percussionist on many of the tracks, and on the jazz
instrumental "Giving to You" he speaks the line "You know where I'm at,
but I mean jazz."
Mr. Fantasy was one of the first projects at Olympic Studios, one
of the first independent recording studios in London at the time. This
studio would function as a creative workplace for Miller over the next
several years. Phil Brown, one of the original engineers at Olympic,
states in an interview at prosoundweb.com that "the kind of producers I
worked with originally were people like Jimmy Miller who were producers
who set up a situation and controlled things but they were vibe
merchants. Jimmy Miller was this incredible kind of energy and drive and
force. He made the session feel like you wanted to be there and make
music. But he wasn't a hands-on producer. There was more of an overall
control, a bit of a vibe." In the book Inside Tracks, Miller
explains his view of the producer's and engineer's roles: "As a producer
I pretty much let the engineer get the sound together, and I might add
my own suggestions if there's a particular sound I'm after or if there's
something that I would like to change." Statements like this give
credence to the theory that Miller's genius lay in listening to the band
and musically participating in the session as opposed to working the
mixing board.
In a 2003 interview at mixonline.com, Eddie Kramer, the engineer on Dear Mr. Fantasy
(later to become Jimi Hendrix's producer), gives a clear picture of
what it was like to watch Jimmy Miller at work in the studio: "Jimmy
Miller was my mentor. He just had the most amazing ability to take a
group of musicians, rehearse them, get them in the studio and get them
so excited about what they were doing and make it all seem so much fun
that I realized that this is the way that records should be
produced. He was just a terrific catalyst. He had a great sense of
humor. And he was unstoppable in the sense that his energy level was always up. He really, really dug the music; he was always so into the band: ‘How can I get you guys to feel this track the way I'm feeling it?' He would sing parts. He was like a master of ceremonies."
Kramer goes on to describe the session that produced the song "Dear Mr.
Fantasy": "We had the band set up on a riser at one end of the studio,
which is a big room--maybe 65, 70 feet long by about 45 wide with about a
30-foot ceiling. They were set up as if they were onstage and I
recorded them live, straight to 4-track. I can remember with such
clarity the time when we were actually cutting ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy': We
were in the middle of a take and there's a part where the tempo
changes--it jumps--and I look around and Jimmy Miller's not in the
control room. The next thing I see out of the corner of my eye is Jimmy
hauling ass across the room, running full tilt. He jumps up on the
riser, picks up a pair of maracas and gets them to double the tempo!
That, to me, was the most remarkable piece of production assistance I'd
ever seen. They were shocked to see him out there, exhorting them to
double the tempo. Their eyes kind of lit up. It was amazing. That was
Jimmy!"
After his success with the Spencer Davis Group and his ongoing work with
Traffic, there was a buzz in the rock & roll community about
Miller. He was beginning to get a reputation as a "feel" producer, a guy
who knew how to find the groove. During the sessions for the first
Traffic album, Mick Jagger, at the suggestion of the Rolling Stones'
recording engineer, Glyn Johns, dropped by one of the sessions to
observe Miller's work up close. Shortly thereafter, Jagger asked Miller
to produce the Rolling Stones' upcoming album, Beggar's Banquet. This album marked the beginning of a long studio collaboration between Jimmy Miller and the Stones.
At the start of 1968, the Rolling Stones were in trouble. In an effort
to keep up with the style of the current rock music scene, the band had
just released Their Satanic Majesties Request, an album heavily influenced by the psychedelic sounds of the San Francisco bands and the Beatles' recent release, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Satanic Majesties
had caused the Stones to lose touch with the heart of their own music
and their overall fan base. Needing to rehabilitate their image, they
decided to record an album based in the blues, a genre that previously
had defined the band musically.
In Inside Tracks, Miller describes the beginning of his
relationship with the Stones: "Musically they were just coming out of
their psychedelic period, which hadn't been too successful for them, and
I think that was lucky for me, because I didn't insist that they change
direction but they were ready to do so, as was evident from the new
songs that they played me. What they had written was rock and roll, yet I
subsequently received a lot of credit for getting them back on course,
so I benefited a lot from being in the right place at the right time.
There again, I think it's fair to say that being American also helped,
because--as was the case with many successful British bands during that
era--they had been raised on American records. As things turned out, it
was not always easy--they could take a long time over certain
things--but it was always a pleasure, especially when they'd eventually
hit those magic moments as they inevitably seemed to do. The first of
those just happened to be on the very first track that I produced for
them, ‘Jumpin Jack Flash.'" This song features the element that was fast
becoming a trademark of a Jimmy Miller studio production, layers of
percussion, which fill the song with energy and momentum. Excited by the
recording, the Stones scheduled it for immediate release as a single
rather than holding it back for inclusion on the album.
A remarkable blend of blues, old-style country music, and rock & roll, Beggar's Banquet
is arguably the best-produced album of 1968. Miller's studio expertise
gave added depth to many of the album's tracks. For example, he chose to
record the basic track for "Street Fighting Man" (guitar and drums) on a
cheap cassette because the song needed a raw feel to capture its
violent political leanings. "Sympathy for the Devil," with a samba-like
groove that is reinforced with layers of percussion, is a perfect blend
of dark lyrics and sensuous rhythm.
In December 1968, after finishing Beggar's Banquet, Miller worked with the Stones on Rock and Roll Circus, a television special intended to promote the new album. This project remained unreleased until 1996.
Earlier in 1968, Miller produced Traffic's second studio effort, Traffic.
His production work sparkles on the ethereal "Forty Thousand Headmen"
and what is now considered a staple jam song, "Feelin Alright." This
album would be the last time Miller worked closely with Traffic in the
studio, although he oversaw the production on Last Exit (1969), a pastiche of studio outtakes and live material, and on the live album Welcome to the Canteen
(1970), both projects instigated to fulfill the band's contractual
obligations to their record label and both largely forgettable.
In 1969, sessions began for the next Stones album, Let It Bleed.
Miller's contributions during these recording sessions were plentiful.
"Honky Tonk Women," which would be released as a single in advance of
the album and ultimately withheld from Let It Bleed, features a
brilliant opening cadence of cowbell played by Miller. "Gimme Shelter"
has an urban soul music feel bolstered by Merry Clayton's dramatic vocal
and Miller's percussion contributions. Miller's production helps
"Midnight Rambler" blend the sinister overtones of "Sympathy for the
Devil" and the Chicago blues style of the Stones' earliest records. The
album's final track, "You Can't Always Get What You Want," which can be
interpreted as an elegy for the sixties, features a celestial choir
directed by noted arranger Jack Nitzsche, keyboards and French horn by
Al Kooper, and Jimmy Miller playing the drums. Miller jumped behind the
drum kit when Charlie Watts began having trouble with the song's quirky
tempo. Miller's presence on this recording is felt in another way--many
sources claim that the "Mr. Jimmy" referred to in the lyrics is Jimmy
Miller.
Due to his work with the Stones, Miller's services as a producer became
much in demand. During 1969, he worked on a variety of projects. Among
these were the Move's magnificent single "Blackberry Way" and Spooky Two by the fledging outfit Spooky Tooth. Perhaps Miller's most significant project in 1969 was Blind Faith.
Blind Faith was one of the first bands to be called a "supergroup."
Featuring the talents of Steve Winwood (Traffic), Eric Clapton (Cream),
Ginger Baker (Cream), and Rick Grech (Family), the band evolved out of a
series of casual jam sessions held at Clapton's country estate. When
the group entered Olympic Studio, Jimmy Miller was on hand to add his
production expertise. One of his most important contributions to the Blind Faith
album occurred when he convinced the band that the track "Can't Find My
Way Home" would sound better if it was re-recorded using acoustic
rather than electric guitars; this proved to be a crucial element in
making that song shine. Sadly, Blind Faith did not survive the
tremendous audience expectations placed on it, and the band dissolved
shortly after touring America in support of this album. Building on the
relationships he had established with the various members of Blind
Faith, Miller was soon involved in production duties on the recordings
Ginger Baker's Air Force and Delaney & Bonnie on Tour with Eric Clapton, both projects taking place in 1970.
In the summer and fall of 1970, Miller and the Rolling Stones were busy crafting the album Sticky Fingers.
This project would take Miller and the Stones out of Olympic Studio, as
the album was recorded largely using the Stones' mobile recording truck
at Mick Jagger's country estate, Stargroves. Sticky Fingers has a
more textured sound than the previous Stones albums Miller worked on.
Stargroves' wooden floors and high ceilings might have added a natural
ambiance to the recordings' overall sound. Among the tracks that feature
Miller's unique contributions are "Brown Sugar," "Moonlight Mile," and
especially "Can't You Hear Me Knocking." Like "Jumpin Jack Flash" and
"Honky Tonk Women," "Brown Sugar" is an instant Stones classic that
benefits from Miller's ability to integrate crisp layers of sound and
rhythm within the music. "Moonlight Mile" features layers of
instrumentation that provide a certain airy quality. In "Can't You Hear
Me Knocking," Miller's use of percussion establishes a funky soul groove
that helped the Stones enter new stylistic territory.
During this same period, Miller worked on Sailor's Delight, an
album by a new band called Sky. The band featured a young musician named
Doug Fieger, later to re-emerge with the Knack and the hit song "My
Sharona." In an interview at classicbands.com, Fieger describes his
experience with Jimmy Miller: "I grew up in Detroit, yeah. I had a band
called Sky, which I have a funny story about. I wrote a letter to the
producer of the Rolling Stones and Traffic and Blind Faith, a guy named
Jimmy Miller, when I was in high school. I said if you're ever in
Detroit, come and hear my band. He answered the letter and came to my
house and signed us. A week after I graduated from high school, he took
us to London and we recorded our first album. There aren't very many
producers around today of the caliber of Jimmy Miller, I'll tell you
that. That's how I got into show business. I was seventeen years old."
At the start of 1971, Miller was involved in the production of Refugee,
a blues- and gospel-influenced album by the Danish progressive rock
band the Savage Rose. By the spring of that year, the Rolling Stones had
been forced to live and work outside of England to avoid paying high
taxes. To record their next album, Exile on Main Street, the band
set up recording facilities in the basement of Nellcote, Keith
Richards' villa in the small French town of Villefranche-sur-Mer. Unlike
the pristine surroundings of London's Olympic Studio or the
natural-sounding environment of Stargroves, the basement of Nellcote
proved to be quite a challenge for Miller. In Inside Tracks, he sheds some light on the primitive conditions there: "For Exile,
we suddenly found ourselves in this concrete basement with very little
ventilation during a hot summer in the south of France. The sound was
really harsh, and no matter how hard we tried, no matter how many
different microphones we tried and no matter how many different
positions we tried, we could never get it right." Besides the acoustical
problems that Miller was dealing with, Keith Richards' growing
addiction to heroin and Mick Jagger's frequent absences while spending
time in Paris with his new wife, Bianca, added additional obstacles that
had to be worked around as the chaotic sessions dragged on for the
remainder of the summer. In retrospect, it's a testament to Miller's
production abilities that he was able to salvage the album under such
trying circumstances. In part, Miller pulled this off by using some
tracks that had been recorded previously: "Sweet Virginia," "Sweet Black
Angel," "Loving Cup," "Stop Breaking Down," and "Shine a Light" were
originally created during sessions for the Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers
albums. In November 1971, Miller and the band flew to Los Angeles to
conduct extensive overdub sessions and to mix the final version of the
album. Despite his professional and personal difficulties at the time,
Miller's deft production touch is apparent throughout the album. Once
again, many tracks are enhanced by his work as a percussionist. On
"Happy" and "Shine a Light," he handles the drum kit. At the end of
"Tumbling Dice," he reinforces the rhythmic breakdown to great effect.
Some sources claim that Miller's ongoing frustration with the recording situation during Exile
led to the beginning of his own narcotics addiction at this time. Other
forces may have been at work as well. In Robert Greenfield's Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones
(2006, Da Capo Press), a comprehensive description of the album's
making, Andy Johns, the engineer on the sessions, describes some of the
difficulties Miller was having with the band: "When they first started
working with him, he was a lot of help. Then after a year or two, they
kind of used Jimmy for what they wanted, and learned Jimmy's tricks, and
started shutting him out a bit. So by the time of Exile on Main Street,
they weren't listening to Jimmy very much, and it did him in. They
weren't really rude, but they would ignore him a lot more than he would
have liked."
By the end of the project, Jimmy Miller was, in Andy Johns' words,
"burnt out on the thing, and I didn't blame him." After his association
with the Rolling Stones ended, Miller frequently disowned Exile, saying, "I was never happy with the sound of that album, especially after Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers." In a 2003 interview, Mick Jagger said, "Exile...is not one of my favourite albums, although I think the record does have a particular feeling. When I listen to Exile
it has some of the worst mixes I've ever heard. I'd love to remix the
record, not just because of the vocals, but because generally I think it
sounds lousy. At the time, Jimmy Miller was not functioning properly."
There is a certain irony in all this. Decades after its release, Exile on Main Street
has achieved a legendary status. It is a complex album, filled with
dense, raw sounds that seem to literally capture the restless cultural
limbo of the early seventies.
Toward the end of '73, Miller embarked for Jamaica, where sessions for the next Stones album, Goats Head Soup, were underway. After the frenetic experience of making Exile on Main Street,
Miller and the band seemed to take a lackluster approach during the
sessions in Jamaica. Andy Johns, also the engineer on these sessions,
describes what was taking place: "Because of drug habits, those sessions
weren't quite as much fun. And there are a couple of examples on there
where just the basic tracks we kept weren't really up to standard.
People were accepting things perhaps that weren't up to standard because
they were a little higher than normal." Keith Richards, in a 1975
interview, portrays Miller as having reached the end of the line
creatively: "Jimmy Miller went in a lion and out a lamb. We wore him out
completely. He ended up carving swastikas onto the wooden console at
Island Studios." While Goats Head Soup seems anticlimactic after Exile on Main Street,
there is some fine production work here. The textured nuances of tracks
such as "Winter," "Angie," and "Coming Down Again," along with the hard
hitting "Star Star," indicate that, while Miller wasn't at the top of
his game here, he had not lost the ability to blend multilayered
instrumentation on tape to capture the groove.
In 1974, when the Stones gathered in Munich, Germany, to record It's Only Rock and Roll, Miller was not invited to participate. A golden era for both Miller and the band had quietly drawn to an end.
Jimmy Miller's post-Rolling Stones career has been subject to his being
written off as a drugged-out has-been who never produced any significant
music again. This is false. While his projects following his
involvement with the Stones did not have as much visibility and rock
& roll cachet as albums such as Exile on Main Street, he
worked as a producer until the end of his life. Following his tenure
with the Stones, he signed a lucrative production deal with the
ABC/Dunhill label and recorded with a wide variety of artists such as
Genya Ravan, Beck Bogert & Appice, Henry Gross, Bobby Whitlock,
Locomotive GT, and Joey Stec.
In the late seventies, Miller produced two excellent albums, Overkill and Bomber, for the heavy metal band Motorhead. In 1980, he worked on projects that covered two ends of a musical spectrum, producing New Hope for the Wretched, by the wild punk band the Plasmatics, and Billy Falcon,
the self-titled debut album by a New Jersey singer-songwriter. In the
late eighties, thanks to a production deal with his manager Joe
Viglione, Miller was heavily involved in producing Boston bands.
Especially notable is Miller's work on the song "Movin Up," on the 1992
Primal Scream album, Screamadelica. The sound of this track recalls the majesty of Let It Bleed
and is solid evidence that Miller still possessed the chops of a great
producer. In 1994, while producing sessions for a reissue of the 1975
Joey Stec album, Jimmy Miller passed away due to liver failure.
In recent years, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have been prone to
revising history regarding Miller's importance as a producer, often
belittling his contributions to what now stands as their band's finest
work. To understand Miller's contribution, one need only compare the
albums Jimmy Miller produced for the Stones with the albums the band has
made without him. While a handful of songs might aspire to the level of
quality that Miller brought to the proceedings, the Rolling Stones have
made an overwhelming amount of mediocre music since Jimmy Miller's
departure.
Concerning Miller's legacy, Greenfield may have said it best in his
book: "Although Jimmy Miller certainly deserves to be remembered as one
of the greatest rock producers who ever lived, virtually no one who
listens to his music now on various greatest hits compilations has any
idea who he was. Nameless and faceless, he has become just another name
on the back of a repackaged CD case. Perhaps that is the way he would
have wanted it. To be remembered for the music and nothing else."
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