Eddie Offord, genius or Bumbling Fool?
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Printed Date: November 27 2024 at 04:37
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Topic: Eddie Offord, genius or Bumbling Fool?
Posted By: AfanSpur
Subject: Eddie Offord, genius or Bumbling Fool?
Date Posted: May 26 2006 at 23:29
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Creater of the cool Yes sound of the 70's golden period ? Or did yes survive despite his bong smoking antics? ------------- There stands Olias to outward to build a ship Holding within all we hope to retain The frame will be so built to challenge the universe Clasped with the skins of the fish of the plain |
Replies:
Posted By: TOD KREMER
Date Posted: May 26 2006 at 23:42
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Are you sure these two sentances are mutually exclusive? Drugs probably don't make an Engineer any better, but they may have contributed to "happy accidents" in the studio. I'm sure much mixing experimentation was caused by herbal (and other) experimention (and with positive results).
We will never know how these Yes albums would have sounded without Eddie.
What do you mean by "antics"? ------------- Stand up to the blow that fate has struck upon you. Make the most of all you still have coming to you... |
Posted By: Teaflax
Date Posted: May 27 2006 at 01:00
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My old hair dresser's mom used to date Eddie. Seriously.
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Posted By: Masque
Date Posted: May 27 2006 at 01:09
well I have had some experience with mixing recordings while mixing something else and I can honestly say I am happy with the results. Theres a thing called learned behavior , see the thing is if you learn to do a task straight and get it down pat so its second nature everything works out OK when the herb gets added, its only when you are not that competent straight at doing it problems happen, I would say Eddie was very familiar with his task. Herb can alter perception in a positive way if used with some common sense. (I don`t smoke herb anymore BTW) but I have no problems if I find an artist or engineer I like is under the influence so long as the results of the project are good/great. I believe in Eddie`s case the results were great so whats the issue ?  |
Posted By: Teaflax
Date Posted: May 27 2006 at 01:25
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And Eddie did good work with 311 on their listenable first two albums,
which seem to have been recorded in a blue haze of weed smoke.
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Posted By: OT Räihälä
Date Posted: May 27 2006 at 04:12
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All that I can say is Eddie didn't obviously impose his thoughts too
much on Yes, because he engineered also other bands, like ELP, and they
don't sound the least same.
------------- http://soundcloud.com/osmotapioraihala/sets" rel="nofollow - Composer - Click to listen to my works! |
Posted By: el böthy
Date Posted: May 27 2006 at 13:09
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I wish Eddie would still produce or engerier Yes...they sounded so good in the ´70...but then Going for the one, which is still an amazing album...but it does sound "less" perfect...
------------- "You want me to play what, Robert?" 
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Posted By: Teaflax
Date Posted: May 27 2006 at 13:16
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Come to think of it, he did do a pretty good job on Pallas' The Sentinel, too. That albums is one of my guilty pleasures. I really don't think it's all that great, but man do I love listening to it. -------------
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Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: May 27 2006 at 18:01
| Offord engineered ELP's 'Pictures At An Exhibition' which says much in his favour.(he actually did the first 4 ELP albums up to Trilogy) |
Posted By: RoyalJelly
Date Posted: May 27 2006 at 21:08
| A ridiculous question, as Eddie Offord not only produced several of THE classic progressive rock albums of the 70s, he also produced John McLaughlin's classic jazz debut "Extrapolation". It sounds like the questioner is presuming a lot...first that Offord was under the influence, which is pure speculation, secondly, that being so necessarily impairs the ability to do it well. Phil Spector is widely considered one of the greatest producers in the history of rock, and look at where he ended up... |
Posted By: bamba
Date Posted: May 27 2006 at 21:24
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Eddie Offord not a genuis but surley he engineered some prog classic albums quite good ------------- Learning Flute [Amigo de Manticore y Memowakeman] (primo)[IMG]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2187/2437702285_fbb450500d_o.jpg |
Posted By: cobb
Date Posted: May 27 2006 at 22:24
| I think his work testifies to his ability... |
Posted By: pero
Date Posted: June 01 2006 at 07:18
| Eddie Offord and another Ediie, Kramer are IMO two best producers in prog and prog related music despite their sexual orientation and drugs. |
Posted By: Teaflax
Date Posted: June 01 2006 at 07:53
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Sexual orientation? How does that enter into it? What sexual proclivities or preferences could possibly affect your abilities as a producer?
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Posted By: pero
Date Posted: June 01 2006 at 08:07
None. That's what I'm trying to say.
Except if you want to produce only: Boy George, Simply red, Frenky goes to Hollywood, Milli Vanilli, or Freddie Mercury solo projects. OK?
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Teaflax wrote:Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: June 01 2006 at 08:12
Sorry, I don't understand your point. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: pero
Date Posted: June 01 2006 at 08:19
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What I meant was that the producer's sexual orientation shouldn't affect his work. This part "Except if you want to produce only: Boy George, Simply red, Franky goes to Hollywood, Milli Vanilli, or Freddie Mercury solo projects" is a joke.
You should understand one, because your posts content a lot of black humor.
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Posted By: Chicapah
Date Posted: June 01 2006 at 08:38
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If there was a hall of fame for producers Eddie Offord would already be in it. ------------- "Literature is well enough, as a time-passer, and for the improvement and general elevation and purification of mankind, but it has no practical value" - Mark Twain |
Posted By: The Wizard
Date Posted: June 01 2006 at 09:20
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His bong smoking antics added to Yes's psychedelic sound. As I have said before, I think of Yes as a very psychedelic symphonic rock band. Any from The Debut to Tormato is like some heavenly voyage to outer space. -------------  
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Posted By: Teaflax
Date Posted: June 01 2006 at 12:29
Except it's not what you're saying. If you say "despite", it implies that sexual orientation could possibly be a factor, but isn't in this particular case - almost as if it was an exception. If someone says, "She's a good guitarist, despite being a girl", it clearly implies that person thinks that being a girl would be an impediment to being a good guitarist - and pretty much proves the person a chauvinist. So tell me from there what your comment says about you, if - as the below suggests - you are implying that homosexuality should negatively affect production skills.
Second of all, why would whether you are gay or not affect whether you work well (or want to work with) acts that are gay? -------------
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Posted By: Phil
Date Posted: June 01 2006 at 12:45
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Posted By: S Lang
Date Posted: June 02 2006 at 06:52
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All I know that when I saw Eddie Offord's name on an LP at the Record Store, I knew that the album would please very much.
I didn't care about sexual preferences, dope and the rest, but music Period.
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Posted By: DrGoon
Date Posted: June 02 2006 at 22:04
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I don't think that Eddie Offord was the best choice of producer for Pallas' The Sentinel. Bob Ezrin would have been a better fit for Pallas' sound in the Euan Lowson days. I think Offord did more harm than good on that particular one. I can't deny that he made a fair few good records with Yes and ELP however, so he's into the history books as an important producer. I don't personally rate him up there with folks such as George Martin, Mike Stone, Alan Parsons, Phil Spector, Conrad Plank, Lee Scratch Perry, Steve Hillage, William Orbit or Steven Wilson. But he's good. :) |
Posted By: Nanook
Date Posted: June 04 2006 at 10:41
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I'm not sure how much difference a producer can make, but I do really enjoy the Yes albums Offord produced. Until this moment I was unaware of his sexual preference.
I guess that shows how unimportant it was to the music. Now the dope-smoking on the other hand...LOL |
Posted By: raindance
Date Posted: June 04 2006 at 11:27
Errrrr
 How can you compare modern production techniques with those used 30 years ago! I'm not so sure about Wilson being that good either! From what i've heard, Porcupine Tree could have done with some serious pasting & editing! A lot of their earlier stuff is all over the place! |
Posted By: salmacis
Date Posted: June 04 2006 at 11:51
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Have no idea why this thread has careered into a direction about 'sexual preferences' but there you go...I have the vinyl of 'The Sentinel' by Pallas and for my money, it sounds far, far better than the CD which messes up the original running order by adding bonus tracks in the middle of the album and doesn't carry the same power, imo. It made me re-evaluate Offord's production job on that.
His work on Yes' albums is peerless- I think that the production is as integral to the success of those albums as the stunning music is. However, he clearly lost something around 'Tormato' which is a bloody mess, frankly- it was around this time that Rick Wakeman claimed that Offord 'went to Mars', whatever that entails...and Chris Squire spoke of 'sound engineers that took an excursion
'. However, when he was compos mentis, so to speak, he was easily one of the best producers of the genre, imo. |
Posted By: Teaflax
Date Posted: June 04 2006 at 16:43
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Posted By: Teaflax
Date Posted: June 04 2006 at 16:45
As for The Sentinel, I much prefer the CD running order, because I always felt that those extra tracks were some of the stronger ones. -------------
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Posted By: DrGoon
Date Posted: June 04 2006 at 17:41
Well, you did snip out all his contemporaries that I mentioned, and I didn't compare production techniques, I listed people that for my ears are better producers, those I'd call geniuses of production. The question was "genius or bumbling fool". For my money - neither - he's a very good producer, but he doesn't demonstrate ground-breaking production ideas. Since Porcupine Tree have been around in one form or another since Steven Wilson was 16 years old, there's obviously been some learning along the way, and some early equipment limitations. It's not like he worked for EMI as a producer - he's self taught. However, he's a step ahead of his comtemporaries today, and is creating some pretty wonderful sounds, not only on PT recordings. |